Mac OS recovery and bootcamp Windows 10

Question

Background: MacBook pro 2014 running windows 10 from boot camp installation, initially from a Mac OS. The SSD was the formatted into two partitions, one Windows and one Mac OS. The Mac OS partition is recently completely formatted, leaving the computer with the windows drive and an empty partition. No sign of Mac OS is left.

Now I want the Mac partition back, but still use boot camp with windows 10 on it. I don't have any installation media left.

Question: Is it possible to somehow reinstall Mac OS from scratch using some sort of Internet recovery option?

If yes, will I be able to choose the empty partition to install Mac OS on, and keep the windows partition intact? I.e no need to reinstall Windows.

If I can recover the Mac OS but not chose drive to install on, will Windows 10 recognize my hardware after reinstalling it using bootcamp? Since It doesn't use license keys to do that anymore. I do not want to buy a new Windows 10 license.

Answer 1

If you boot the machine & hold Cmd ⌘ R right after the chimes, then if it still contains a recovery partition it will boot to that, from which you can restore a working OS.

It will prefer to install over the old Mac partition & in fact will refuse to install over the Windows partition without first reformatting, so your Boot Camp ought to be safe. The presence of a Boot Camp Windows install is not directly related to having a working Mac OS on there.

If it doesn't contain a recovery partition, then it will automatically go into Internet Recovery mode from which you can reinstall the OS that originally shipped with the Mac; which you can afterwards update to the latest.
Make sure you use a connection that doesn't use any kind of portal to access. Wired ethernet or your regular home WiFI is best.

For further details see Apple KB : About macOS Recovery