Windows 10: Bootable disk? Recovery disk? What do I need?

I have Win 10 64bit. I was told that I need to create a bootable disk on a USB by someone in our local store. When I asked him how many GB's he said in the 20's. I did not buy it, but much later went back and a different guy said 28GB but I should get larger just in case.

Doing a search, I cannot see what would take up 20+GB's. For a bootable I see that it would take 8GB. What would they be talking about?

Do I also need a Recovery disk?

I am not sure what I should be doing...

:)

 

Create recovery media. Says missing files? What do I do??

Hi ronniewilliams, you can reinstall Windows 10 at any time and it will not cost you anything !

Since you previously had Windows 10 installed and activated on that PC during the installation process skip the steps which ask for a product key and select the option 'I am Reinstalling Windows 10 on this PC', and activation will not be an issue, your PC will
have a digital entitlement stored on the Microsoft Activation Servers

Make sure you install the same Edition of Windows 10 (Home, Pro . . . etc.) you previously had installed to avoid Activation issues

Click this link:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-downlo...

to download the Media Creation Tool (Click on Download Tool Now), with that you can download the latest Windows 10 ISO (Select Create Installation Media for Another PC), you can create a bootable USB flash drive (min 8GB) using that tool

Then, Boot your PC from the Installation Media you just created (change Boot Order in your BIOS) to begin installing Windows 10

If you have problems booting from a boot disc, you may have UEFI BIOS:

Insert the Bootable Installation Media, then go into your BIOS and make the following changes:

1. Disable Secure Boot

2. Enable Legacy Boot

3. If Available enable CSM

4. If Required enable USB Boot

5. Move the device with the bootable disc to the top of the boot order

6. Save BIOS changes, restart your System and it should boot from the Installation Media

 

Bootable Partition Recovery

Eeshwar,

That covers how to set up a dual boot configuration in the first place. I was doing all that easy stuff over 15 years ago. I need to know how recover an existing dual boot configuration that got broken by re-installing Windows. There is "boot configuration
data" that is modified using BCDEDIT. I need to what information BCDEDIT needs for my Windows 7 partition and how to enter it. If you could route this to a second tier engineer, that would be awesome.

I have expensive software installed in that partition, and I need to run it so that I can release the activation and install the software elsewhere.

 

Hi.
One of our members has developed a custom recovery media, which you can find here:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

It would fit on a 2GB stick.

If you want the W10 operating system (for future installation or DISM procedures) it would fit on an 8Gb stick.

If you're talking about creating bootable recovery media from an OEM using their pre-installed software, it could be slightly larger, but should still fit on an 8GB stick.

Images of your entire hard drive should be kept on an external hard drive.

Hope that helps.

 

I believe you are looking to make a Windows OEM Recovery Drive...
Control Panel > Recovery > Create a Recovery Drive

You can test the size of USB needed by inserting any USB - if not larger enough - it will tell you the needed size...
For the Price of USB's - I would just opt for a 32GB USB - as that is the Max Size Supported By UEFI Removable Media ..

 

I upgraded from Win 7 to the free Win 10.

In your opinion, what are all of the things that are necessary for me to do ?

 

This is what I do for my systems, it requires an 8 GB USB flash drive.

Make a bootable USB flash drive with the Media Creation Tool:
Windows 10

Replace the boot.wim file on the Windows 10 USB flash drive with the boot.wim file from Kyhi's recovery drive (read the quote in the middle of this OP):
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Export the drivers for the computer by doing the following:
1. Create a folder on the Windows 10 USB flash drive. You can name it anything, let's use Drivers for an example.
2. Right click on the start icon, select Command Prompt (Admin).
3. In the command prompt window run:
DISM.exe /Online /Export-Driver /Destination:E:\Drivers

The path in red will be to the folder you created on the USB flash drive.

4. Make sure your computer can boot from the flash drive.

You now have the tools to fix just about whatever would go wrong with your computer and you have the ability to re-install Windows from scratch and have any drivers available that might be unique to your computer.

 

Navy LCDR, I have to spend some time with this. It is beyond my comfort zone, but I will do it. I know you say it is all I need, but just in case I mess up, can I do both the OEM Recovery Drive and what you have suggested all on the same USB drive?
Also, I am assuming I should not use this USB drive for anything else. Is that correct?

Lastly, are any of the suggested known also as 'Create a system repair disk' which is what I am used to?

 

You cannot do the OEM recovery drive and the Windows installation/Kyhi recovery drive on the same USB flash drive. They have to be on two separate flash drives.

You can also use the USB flash drive for regular file storage. You just can't use the same USB flash drive for two separate operations that require it to be bootable. Both the OEM recovery drive and the Windows 10 installation/Kyhi recovery drive require booting from the USB flash drive, so they cannot both be on the same one.

Both the OEM recovery drive and the Windows 10 installation/Kyhi recovery drive are system repair disks.

 

Okay, I understand now. Thank you so much.

 

To the OP. Also remember to back up your data just in case.

 

I forgot to get back to you. All went well except I forgot to test booting from the flash drive. Could you please give me the steps to do this? I am worried that I might make a mess of things, which would not be the first time!

 

First make sure you shut down Windows 10 completely. To do that, you hold down the shift key when you click on shutdown from the power icon on the start menu.

Insert the flash drive.

Press the power button.

At the first sign of life/computer logo there will be a key to press to enter the bios boot menu. It might be ESC, F2, F12, DEL, INS, some other function key. It depends upon your computer/motherboard. Press the right key and you should get a list of boot devices including the HDD, USB, DVD....

Select the USB and see if you get the menu the USB flash drive boots into. Kyhi's recovery drive will boot into Windows desktop. Once it all settles down at whatever menu you get, then you can hold the power key to turn off the computer and remove the flash drive to reboot normally.

 

Sorry this too so long.
After I clicked Esc, I chose the option HP Recovery. It took me to HP Recovery Manager wizard. Should I click continue or shutdown?

 

If you are trying to verify you can boot from your recovery media, then you need to get out of that HP program.

What you want is to press the appropriate key to get your one-time boot menu, so you can select to boot from the USB drive. It may be F2 on HP systems, I am not sure.