Windows 10: Can't Boot from Win 10 Rescue Disk

Using Win10 Pro 64-bit. Have not updated to the Anniversy version yet. PC is an HP desktop which was updated from Win 7 Pro to Win 10 Pro (many months ago). It has UEFI firmware but not Secure Boot.

I use Backup & Restore (Win 7 version) for my backups and to create System images on an external hard disk. Seems to work fine. I recently used that app to create a bootable Rescue disk on a CD. Seemed to create just fine and I can open it an see the files on it.

However, my attempt to test booting from it failed. I got into the BIOS BOOT options and selected the CD drive. The system immediately restarted and tried to boot from the CD. However, it claimed that the disk was not bootable. And then it tried over and over without success. I had to force a power off by holding down the power button. Powering on resulted in a normal system restart.

I've read a bunch of descriptions of how to boot from a rescue disk with Win 10. So far none of them has been accurate as to how to enter the BIOS and how to select the boot options on my system. However, they got me close enough that I did get to select the CD for booting.

I'm wondering a couple things:
1. Should I use the windows built-in facility to generate a rescue disk (rather than the backup & restore app)?
2. Is it easier to boot from a USB thumb drive rather than a CD?

-- Larry

:)

 

WIN 10 Recovery

Ricky,

Understood.

If Macrium Reflect requires you to make a boot disk / rescue disk / bootable-disk-with-another-name-I-can't-guess-at then you could test it by booting it from it to see if it causes the same problem symptoms.

Best of luck,

Denis

 

Can't Make Win 10 Recovery Drive for brand new HP Laptop bought from MicroSoft Store "Signature PC"

Can't find answers to my question. I upgraded to win 10 from 8.1. When I had 8.1 I made a 32 GB stick recovery disk. Now that I have upgraded to 10, my question is should I erase the drive and make another recovery disk onto it or what? Will it have enough
space on it? I know 8.1 you could only make one rescue/recovery disk. Can you point me to the best way to make a new recovery , emergency disk for my new win 10 please? Thank you.

 

Hi, as an experiment to convince yourself about booting from a CD/DVD and to gain a useful tool, try burning this iso to a CD/DVD:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Creating a bootable CD/DVD simply requires burning an appropriate iso to it.

Creating a bootable USB drive from the same iso requires a program such as Rufus.

People here find Windows Backup and Restore (Windows 7) somewhat unreliable and basic.
Macrium Reflect (free) has been found more reliable and is updated and supported.
There are other 3rd party programs that do similar things, some with a simpler GUI, but some of these have been found problematical in some circumstances.

 

You can make a recovery Flash drive from the same utility you made the images. It will want to transfer the system files if you leave that checked and will take at least an 8 GB and maybe 16 GB, depending on your system.

I don't remember if it does DVDs but are you using the UEFI configuration for your system?

I don't use Rufus to make bootable Flash Drives, it can be done from just an Administrative command prompt and then just copy over the files from the mounted .iso file.

 

dalchina, I downloaded the x64 version of the file but it is 925MB which is too large for a CD. Maybe I need a DVD disk? Or can I use the x86 version on my 64bit system?

I downloaded the latest version of memtest86 and burned the iso to a CD. That setup is claimed to boot with either UEFI or legacy CD. In fact, I could boot from both! So, if I get a proper CD or DVD burned I think I will be able to boot it.

-- Larry

PS: It was a several hour research and testing process to learn how to burn an ISO to make a bootable a CD. Following the instructions (written in several places) did not work. More research led me to the solution: The file association for ISO files has to be File Explorer. Otherwise you don't get the correct menu items - you get the stuff to burn individual files to the CD. Not useful for my purposes.

 

I think you've mislead yourself.
With an iso intended to burn to a disk that is intended to create a bootable medium it's as simple as this:
1. Insert empty disk
2. Right click your iso
3. Click Burn disc image

It's that easy. There's nothing new about this in Win10 except the easy option of the context menu entry- burning iso's to disk has been the same for many years. However, if you've changed your iso association from explorer, then that context menu won't be available, so you can use your favourite CD/DVD burner program, or reassociate iso's.

Now if you want to prepare a bootable flash drive, you need a freeware program such as Rufus. That's not that difficult either.

Yes, use a DVD - it does seem Kyhi's tutorial refers to a CD. While some things will run fine - x86 or x64- you may run into some inconsistency if you use the x86 version on an x64 installation.

 

dalchina, Somehow my file association for iso was not File Explorer. That's why I was having trouble until I fixed it.

I will get a DVD. And I will check out Macrium Reflect.

Win 10 has a built in rescue disk burning facility but it is the same one that Win 7 Backup & Restore links to. No help there.

-- Larry

 

If you have Nero (as I do) or some other Burning Program installed it will usually associate .iso with itself and perhaps other extensions too like .img etc . But in that case a double left click on the .iso should start the Default Program and Burn the ISO (once options are selected), you don't have to do anything special as Dalchina said to make it Bootable.

With Win10 you no longer need Rufus to make USB Drives Bootable in a lot of cases , you can Format the Drive FAT32 , mount the ISO Image , (RC>Mount) and simply copy all the files to the USB Drive from the mounted Image.

Couple of caveats.....

- if booting MBR vs UEFI you may also need to set the USB Drive "active" so it will boot ( use Disk Management or MTPW)
- If you right click a .iso and you don't have the Mount option , then use Open With>File Explorer and Win10 with mount the .iso , it will look like a CD/DVD in File Explorer , and you can simply right click and "eject it like a CD when you have copied the files to the USB.

KB

 

Kbird, I formatted a USB Drive and copied all the files from the Win 10 Rescue CD to the USB Drive. I could then boot from the USB Drive. I didn't set the drive "active". My system has UEFI.
After booting from the USB Drive, I selected the function to restore the system from a system image. It found the system image on my external backup disk and was willing to use it. I was just testing so I didn't do that but now I know I can. It's still a mystery why I can't boot the rescue CD. Oh well.......

-- Larry

 

Did you check the system bios for Secure Boot and Fastboot options ? (turn off if so) , those can cause issues on Laptops , but it wouldn't surprise me if HP,Dell etc have similar on their Desktop's too.

KB

 

Setting boot priority for an optical disk is a different setting to the flash drive.

However yours is an HP machine, and this says there's nothing to do in the BIOS for these:
HP PCs - Configuring the Boot Order in the System BIOS | HP® Customer Support
That said, it's worth checking.

Also I've found this:
These options have to be changed if you want to boot from an external device like an USB stick or a bootable CD-media. Please change the option "Secure Boot" to "disabled" and the "UEFI Boot" to "CSM Boot" in order to allow the system to boot from external devices.

(I've not had to do the second - it just works).

That would imply if you can boot from a flash drive, you should be able to from a DVD.

 

The CD may not be UEFI enabled, while the USB is , if made like I said above , so you maybe correct about the CSM (legacy) setting , my Bios has it enabled by Default but perhaps HP's don't ?

A Windows 10 MCT created Bootdisk is UEFI I believe so it should work


KB.

 

Yes.. sorry, I should have said it works for my UEFI enabled CDs/DVDs - not for older ones that aren't.

 

Kbird, This system does not have Secure Boot because it was a Win 7 system upgraded to Win 10. I have no idea about FastBoot.
However, today I successfully booted the Rescue CD that Backup & Restore (Windows 7) created. And the rescue stuff was there and working. I'm going to test doing that again.

dalchina, I am not trying to change the boot order. I'm selecting a boot device to be used one time. This PC does not have Secure Boot. I have not changed UEFI Boot to CSM Boot. However, as noted above, I have booted from the Rescue CD today and will test doing so again.

Hopefully I'm actually making progress.

-- Larry