Windows 10: Clone Entire Drive to an External USB Drive to use a Catastrophic Recovery Drive?

I need to have a clone of my ENTIRE SYSTEM on an external drive that I can use to:


RECOVER MY ENTIRE SYSTEM... if my hard drive dies for whatever reason or melts or is stolen. IF someone breaks into my house and steals my entire computer along with my TV and sofa. I want to build a new computer, boot from my backup that was hidden off site, and copy that entire disc image onto my new drive. not spend hours or days rebuilding a main drive with the thousands of files and setups that have accumulated over the last 10 years.


OH YEAH... did I mention my computer is TEN YEARS OLD?


The other reason I need to do this is because it's time to build a new computer before my old drive, mobo, or something else dies. and I would like to just quickly clone back from the external drive to the new drive.. again, and not spend hours or days transferring files, setting stuff up, etc.


HOW... can I do this? NOTE THE QUESTION.... Please don't tell me the reasons I can't do it.... because there has to be a way. Right?


I have 3 other windows computers in the house.

:)

 

Creating a Recovery Drive on USB flash Drive

Hi,

Since it didn't work using a USB, we suggest that you try to create a Recovery Drive on an external hard drive and check if it will work. Some times using higher storage device like external hard drive can help in utilizing the files.

Keep us posted.

 

help. USB drive isn't assigned a drive letter.

Any usb flash drive I plug into my computer isn't assigned a drive letter. The physical drive shows in the "safely remove hardware" but it doesnt show up in disk management. I have tried to populate the volume thru the safely remove hardware properties window and it does pop up in the list but it doesn't stay there. This isn't a format or assign a letter problem. It's more complicated then that. Maybe one of the services needed for usb drive management was disabled? Suggestions needed. btw external usb harddrives work fine.

 

Recovery Drive for Windows 10 Doesn't Recognize USB Drive

When I try to create a Recovery Drive in Windows 10, Windows doesn't recognize the flash drive.

I'm following the instructions to create a Recovery Drive listed here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/create-a-recovery-drive

• 
  From the taskbar, search for Create a recovery drive and then select it. You might be asked to enter an admin password or confirm your choice. (I was asked to confirm my choice, and I clicked "Yes".)
  
• 
  When the tool opens, make sure Back up system files to the recovery drive is selected and then select
  Next.
  
• 
  (Secret Step) Wait a minute or so for the "Please Wait" screen to finish thinking
  
• 
  Connect a USB drive to your PC, select it ...
  

The issue is that when I connect a USB drive to the PC, it doesn't appear on the "Connect a USB flash drive" screen as a drive that can be selected, and the "Next" button is grayed out.

However, when I look in File Explorer, I can see the USB drive plugged into the computer. Selecting Properties shows that Windows considers its Type to be "Removable Disk". (Sounds right to me.)

I'm not getting any error messages.

My environment:

A brand new Toshiba Sattelite C55-C5241 laptop with Windows 10 Home. It's never had anything other than Windows 10 on it - unless they upgraded it at the factory.

A brand new ativa 8GB USB flash drive. Note that the packaging for the USB drive does not include Windows 10 in the System Requirements, but seriously?

What I've tried:

• Plugging the flash drive into all three USB ports (USB 2, USB 2, and USB 3)
• Reformatting the flash drive with FAT32
• Restarting the computer with the flash drive plugged in
• Turning off Real-Time Scanning in McAffee

I've seen a few threads with this issue in Windows 8, but none of the potential solutions in those threads have worked for me. So here I am asking the same question, but for Windows 10.

Does anyone have any suggestions for resolving this issue?

Thank you.