Are there any other way to restart to recovery HD

I tried to restart while keep pressing Command-R

However, my keyboard is not mac keyboard. There is windows-R. It works exactly like Command-R in all circumstances.

Well, I keep failing to get into recovery HD. I need that because I want to repair the main disk.

Error: This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the Command key and the R key until you see the Apple logo. When the OS X Utilities window appears, choose Disk Utility.

What should I do?

I have a flash disk. Can I turn that into recovery HD?

Solution 1:

Try this alternative way (explained at macworld.com):

1. Start you Mac while pressing the Option key (in your Windows keyboard press the Alt key) until the Startup Manager appears:

   

   One of the volumes will be called Recovery HD.

2. Select Recovery HD and then click the upward-pointing arrow below it to boot from Recovery HD.

3. After a brief delay, you’ll see the Mac OS X Utilities screen. Select Disk Utility to repair your disk:

Solution 2:

Note for other who come across this thread. To get into Internet Recovery Mode I used WINDOWS + ALT + R on my 2011 Mac Mini while powering back on. CONTROL + ALT + R did not work for me with a Windows Keyboard (USB).

Solution 3:

I tried this with a bluetooth windows keyboard and the ALT key on the left side of the space bar worked for me. I did not press any other key.

One more thing: it did not work when I did a soft restart; I had to power down, hold the ALT key, then power up the mini.

Solution 4:

For a mid 2011 Mac Mini using a bluetooth keyboard, what finally worked for me was the Windows-R key combo.