How to Boot Into OS X Recovery Mode Using Parallels Desktop for Mac

Parallels Desktop is a handy way to run a copy of Windows, or a virtual copy of OS X on your Mac without requiring constant rebooting to access each operating system. As a business and productivity tool, it’s quite indispensable – it’s made testing OS X Mavericks much easier for members of Apple’s Mac Developer Program, and allows consultants, support professionals, and anyone else who feels so inclined to quickly reference Windows, a Linux distro, or some other operating system without leaving the comfort of their Mac login.

When running a copy of OS X using Parallels, however, it appears at first glance that the software prevents you from using one of the significant features of the OS – the Recovery partition! Fortunately, you needn’t worry about such things any longer – Parallels has got your back, and has posted a handy tutorial describing exactly how to boot into Recovery Mode using Parallels.

Here’s how it’s done (amended from Parallels’ original support article):

1. Start Parallels Desktop but do not start your Virtual Machine
2. Go to Window menu -> Virtual machines List
3. Right-click on your OS X Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Hardware -> Boot Order
4. Mark “Select boot device on startup” check-box and close Configuration editor.

5. Start your OS X Virtual Machine, click inside Virtual machine window and press Esc
6. Press the number corresponding to Hard Disk in the menu

7. Press any key on the next screen with a progress bar (in some cases, Parallels will automatically boot to the recovery mode selection screen, making this step and the prior step unnecessary)

8. Parallels now brings you to a selection screen where you can either choose to boot directly into OS X, or into Recovery Mode. To do the latter, select “Recovery HD” using your keyboard, and press Enter.

That’s all there is to it! Once you complete the above steps, you should boot directly into Recovery Mode, as pictured above. Enjoy!

For more helpful tips for your Apple devices, check out our full collection of tutorials by visiting our How-To category!