When your computer encounters a serious problem that normal troubleshooting methods can’t fix, you can try installing a fresh copy of your macOS to resolve it. If you want to install the latest macOS version that was previously installed on your computer, just press Command + R when restarting your Mac to pull up the macOS Recovery dialog.
R Commander Mac OS X Installation Notes for Versions of R Before R 3.0.0. These installation notes are intended for Mac OS X users of versions of R prior to R 3.0.0. R version 3.0.0 comes with an X-Windows installation of Tcl/Tk, and it is thus unnecessary to install Tcl/Tk for X Windows in a separate step. The procedure for installing the R Commander under Mac OS X for versions of R prior to 3.0.0 is a bit complicated, so please read and follow these instructions carefully. These instructions and the associated files are intended for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), 10.6 (Snow Leopard), 10.7 (Lion), and 10.8 (Mountain Lion) systems.
But what happens when the Command + R shortcut doesn’t work? You can still access your macOS Recovery options, but it’s going to be a bit more complicated. This guide will teach you how to reinstall your macOS even if Mac Recovery Mode is not working on your MacBook.
But first, it is important to understand the reasons why the Command + R shortcut may not work.
Reasons Why Command R Is Not Working on Macbook
There are a few reasons why the Command + R combination may not work on your computer, such as:
- Age of your Mac – If you’re using a Mac that’s still running OS X Snow Leopard or older operating system, then your version doesn’t have Recovery Mode. This feature was introduced with the release of OS X Lion in 2011 to allow users to diagnose hardware features and troubleshoot common Mac problems on startup.
- macOS version – If your macOS version is older than Sierra, then the Recovery options you have may not be the same as those running newer versions.
- Faulty keyboard – It is possible that your letter keys are not working.
- Corrupted recovery partition – Your recovery partition may have been corrupted or deleted.
Before we discuss how to access your Recovery mode when Command + R is not working on Macbook, let’s first talk about what this mode is and its functions.
What Is MacBook Recovery Mode?
Not all Mac users know what the Recovery Mode is and what it is for. Many users don’t even know this feature exists. To put it simply, the Recovery Mode is a dedicated partition on your hard drive housing a recovery image and a copy of your macOS installer. This partition is completely independent from the other partitions on your disk that even if you wipe your hard drive clean, it would still be there.
The recovery partition is helpful in extreme cases where you might need to reinstall a fresh copy of your latest macOS or OS X. Even if you format your drive and start from scratch, this partition remains intact and you can still reinstall your macOS, restore from a Time Machine backup , or repair your disk via Recovery Mode.
The Recovery Mode makes troubleshooting a lot easier and faster because all you need to do is press two keys: Command + R. But before you proceed with the solutions below, make sure to back up all your important files and optimize your Mac using an app such as Tweakbit MacRepair.
How to Check if Your Mac’s Recovery Partition is Working
The first thing you need to rule out is whether you actually have a recovery partition and if it is working fine.
To boot into your Recovery Drive, follow these instructions:
- Shut down your Mac by clicking the Apple menu and choosing Shut Down.
- Once the computer is turned off, hold down Command + R, then press the Power button.
- Keep holding the Command + R keys until the Apple logo appears. Let go of the keys and wait for the startup process to complete. This may take longer than your usual boot up process, but don’t worry because it’s just loading items from your recovery partition.
- When you see the macOS Utilities window or OS X Utilities for older Macs, then it means your recovery partition is working.
R Commander For Mac
But if your Mac boots into the regular login window or just loads a blank screen, then you don’t have a recovery partition.
You can also use Terminal to verify if you have a recovery partition by following the steps below:
- Launch Terminal via Utilities folder or Spotlight search.
- Type in diskutil list. This will show you a list of all the volumes and partitions on your Mac.
Look for drive with Boot Recovery HD in its name because that’s your recovery partition. If you see it on the list but can’t boot into it for some reason, then the drive could be corrupted. If it’s not on the list, then the drive could have been deleted or you never had it in the first place.
Let’s look at some of the things you can do when Mac Recovery Mode is not working on MacBook.
Method 1: Use Internet Recovery to Reinstall macOS
If you have a corrupted or missing recovery partition, you can still reinstall your macOS or OS X via the Utilities tool. This feature is available for newer Macs, and it allows you to boot directly from an internet connection even without a recovery partition.
To use macOS Internet Recovery:
R Commander Machine Learning
- Shut down your Mac by clicking the Apple logo > Shut Down.
- Hold down the Command + Option/Alt-R keys, then press the Power button.
- Let go of the keys when you see the spinning globe and the message “Starting Internet Recovery. This may take a while.”
- A progress bar will appear after this message. Wait for it to complete and for the macOS Utilities window to appear.
- Click Reinstall macOS from the options that appear and follow the on-screen instructions.
Take note that Internet Recovery only works with networks using WEP and WPA security. If your network is using a different protocol, we suggest you connect to one that is compatible with the Internet Recovery feature because this method, by far, is the easiest way to reinstall your macOS.
Method 2: Create a USB macOS Bootable Installer
If you have no access to Internet Recovery, you can try creating a bootable macOS installer using a flash drive. You need one with at least 12GB in storage. If you’re using an existing flash drive, make sure to back up all the files in it because this process completely erases all the content of the USB.
The easiest way to create a USB macOS installer is via Terminal. But first, you need to locate the Install files for the macOS version you want to install. Go to your Applications folder and look for the installer files, or you can get them from your Mac App Store under the Purchased tab.
Once you have downloaded the installer, follow these steps to create your bootable drive:
- Connect your flash drive to your computer.
- Launch Disk Utility and select your flash drive. This should be listed under External in the sidebar .
- Click Erase.
- Once the drive has been erased, you’ll see that the name of the drive has been changed to Untitled.
- Launch Terminal and copy the following command, depending on the version you want to reinstall:
- Mojave: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/USB –nointeraction –downloadassets
- High Sierra: sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume –applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app
- Sierra: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume –applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app
- El Capitan: sudo /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume –applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app
- Yosemite: sudo /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume –applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app
- Mavericks: sudo /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume –applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app
- Type in your admin password. Next, type in Y and hit Return .
This will erase your hard drive first, and then convert your USB into a bootable installer. Wait for the process to finish, and then use your new bootable installer to reinstall your macOS using the steps below:
- Shut down your Mac while your USB installer is connected.
- Hold down the Option/Alt keys, then press the Power key.
- You’ll see your startup device list with the USB drive highlighted in yellow.
- Choose your bootable drive and hit Return.
- Choose Disk Utility and select your main hard drive.
- Click Erase, then give your drive a name.
- Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) under Format and GUID Partition Map under Scheme.
- Click Erase > Done.
- Go to Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.
- Hit the Install macOS button, then click Continue.
- Follow the installation instructions.
The whole installation process can take around 30 minutes to one hour , so make sure that you have enough battery or your Mac is plugged in to avoid interruptions.
Summary
R Commander Mac Tutorial
You can use any of the above methods to reinstall your macOS even without a Recovery partition. However, if your computer is running Snow Leopard or older, you need to install the operating system using the original discs that shipped with your Mac (if you still have them), or purchase them from Apple for $19.99.
If you’re running into errors and your system is suspiciously slow, your computer needs some maintenance work. Download Outbyte PC Repair for Windows, Outbyte Antivirus for Windows, or Outbyte MacRepair for macOS to resolve common computer performance issues. Fix computer troubles by downloading the compatible tool for your device.
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R is an incredibly powerful open source program for statistics and graphics. It can run on pretty much any computer and has a very active and friendly support community online. Graphics created by R are extremely extensible and are used in high level publications like the New York Times (as explained by this former NYT infographic designer).
RStudio is an integrated development environment (IDE) for R. It’s basically a nice front-end for R, giving you a console, a scripting window, a graphics window, and an R workspace, among other options.
R Commander is a basic graphical user interface (GUI) for R. It provides a series of menus that allow you to run lots of statistic tests and create graphics without typing a line of code. More advanced features of R aren’t accessible through R Commander, but you can use it for the majority of your statistics. (Lots of people (like me) use R Commander as a crutch for a few months before they get the hang of the R language. As intimidating as it might be to constantly type stuff at the console, it really is a lot faster.)
However, as is the case with lots of free and open source software, it can be a little tricky to install all of these different programs and get them to work nicely together. The simple instructions below explain how to get everything working right.
Install R, RStudio, and R Commander in Windows
- Download R from http://cran.us.r-project.org/ (click on “Download R for Windows” > “base” > “Download R 2.x.x for Windows”)
- Install R. Leave all default settings in the installation options.
- Download RStudio from http://rstudio.org/download/desktop and install it. Leave all default settings in the installation options.
- Open RStudio.
- Go to the “Packages” tab and click on “Install Packages”. The first time you’ll do this you’ll be prompted to choose a CRAN mirror. R will download all necessary files from the server you select here. Choose the location closest to you (probably “USA CA 1” or “USA CA 2”, which are housed at UC Berkeley and UCLA, respectively).
- Start typing “Rcmdr” until you see it appear in a list. Select the first option (or finish typing Rcmdr), ensure that “Install dependencies” is checked, and click “Install”.
- Wait while all the parts of the R Commander package are installed.
- If you get permission errors while installing packages, close R Studio and reopen it with administrator privileges.
Install R, RStudio, and R Commander in Mac OS X
- Download R from http://cran.us.r-project.org/ (click on “Download R for Mac OS X” > “R-2.x.x.pkg (latest version)”)
- Install R.
- Download RStudio from http://rstudio.org/download/desktop.
- Install RStudio by dragging the application icon to your Applications folder.
- Download Tcl/Tk from http://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/tools/ (click on
tcltk-8.x.x-x11.dmg
; OS X needs this to run R Commander.) - Install Tcl/Tk.
- Go to your Applications folder and find a folder named Utilities. Verify that you have a program named “X11” there. If not, go to http://xquartz.macosforge.org/ and download and install the latest version of XQuartz.
- Open RStudio.
- Go to the “Packages” tab and click on “Install Packages”. The first time you’ll do this you’ll be prompted to choose a CRAN mirror. R will download all necessary files from the server you select here. Choose the location closest to you (probably “USA CA 1” or “USA CA 2”, which are housed at UC Berkeley and UCLA, respectively).
- Start typing “Rcmdr” until you see it appear in a list. Select the first option (or finish typing Rcmdr), ensure that “Install dependencies” is checked, and click “Install”.
- Wait while all the parts of the R Commander package are installed.
Open R Commander in Windows and OS X
Once you’ve installed R Commander, you won’t have to go through all those steps again! Running R Commander from this point on is simple—follow the instructions below.
If you decide to stop using R Commander and just stick with R, all you ever need to do is open RStudio—even simpler!
- Open R Studio
- In the console, type
windows()
if using Windows,quartz()
if using Mac OS X. (This tells R Commander to output all graphs to a new window). If you don’t do this, R Commander graphs will be output to the graphics window in RStudio. - Go to the “Packages” tab, scroll down to “Rcmdr,” and check the box to load the plugin. (Alternatively, type
library(Rcmdr)
at the console.)