Windows 10: Create Recovery Drive in Windows 10

How to: Create Recovery Drive in Windows 10

How to Create a Bootable USB Recovery Drive in Windows 10



Information If you run into problems with your PC, a USB recovery drive can help you troubleshoot and fix those problems, even if Windows won't start.

A reset Windows 10 from the recovery drive.

When users create USB recovery media using the Create a recovery drive utility, the resulting media always contain a bootable copy of Windows RE. This gives users access to troubleshooting and recovery tools when booting from recovery media.

Users can optionally back up files required to perform bare metal recovery. When the option is selected, the following are copied onto the USB recovery media as well:

• Windows Component Store
• Installed drivers
• Backup of preinstalled Windows apps
• Provisioning packages containing preinstalled customizations (under C:\Recovery\Customizations)
• Push-button Reset configuration XML and scripts (under C:\Recovery\OEM)

This tutorial will show you how to create a bootable USB recovery drive that boots to advanced startup options used to help troubleshoot and recover your Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to create a recovery drive.



Note A created 32-bit USB recovery drive can only be created in a 32-bit Windows 10 and used to repair a 32-bit Windows 10.

A created 64-bit USB recovery drive can only be created in a 64-bit Windows 10 and used to repair a 64-bit Windows 10.


If you have Windows booted in Safe Mode, then you will not be able to create a recovery drive.


EXAMPLE: Booting from Recovery Drive to Advanced Startup







(If you checked the Back up system files to the recovery drive box)






Here's How:

1. Do step 2 or step 3 below for how you would like to open Recovery Media Creator.

2. Open your Start menu, type RecoveryDrive.exe in the search box, press Enter, and go to step 4 below.

3. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Recovery icon. Click/tap on the Create a recovery drive link, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)



4. If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

5. Check or Uncheck the Back up system files to the recovery drive box for what you want to do, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)


Note Back up system files to the recovery drive will require that the USB flash drive is large (at least 32-64 GB) enough for this.

If you chose not to back up system files when you created your recovery drive, Reset this PC and Recover from a drive won't be available in advanced startup -> Troubleshoot.


Some people are getting a We can't create the recovery drive - A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive error message with Back up system files to the recovery drive checked.

If you have this issue, then leaving Back up system files to the recovery drive unchecked should allow it to successfully create a recovery drive.





6. Select the USB flash drive (ex: "E:\ (USB)" ) you want to make a recovery drive, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)


Note If the USB flash drive you want to use is not listed, then connect is now.





7. When ready to start, click/tap on Create. (see screenshot below)



Warning Creating a recovery drive will erase anything already stored on your USB flash drive. Use an empty USB flash drive or make sure to transfer any important data from your USB flash drive to another storage device before using it to create a USB recovery drive.





8. The USB recovery drive will now be created. (see screenshots below)



9. When finished, click/tap on Finish. (see screenshot below)



10. Remove the USB flash drive. This is now your Windows 10 recovery drive.



That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to 'Recover from a drive' to Reset Windows 10
• How to Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10
• How to Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10
• Create Custom Provisioning Package used to Reset Windows 10 or Create Recovery Drive
• How to Boot from a USB Drive in Windows 10
• How to Create a System Repair Disc in Windows 10
• Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable PE Rescue Disk
• How to Enable or Disable Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) in Windows 10

:)

 

windows 10 pro repair drive

On any computer running Windows 10, use:

Create Recovery Drive in Windows 10
to create a recovery drive.

 

Cannot create recovery drive in Windows 10

10.2.2016

No information :

Creating a recovery drive

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

This point to the beginning of the forums.

 

Hey Wolfgang,

Yep, it was the same as 8.1 other than not able to include a copy of the recovery partition yet. *Smile

 

Maybe even better - because it does not require a recovery image (oem partition)

 

Hmm, using Build 10162 (installed from Official ISO) I find that:

• On physical hardware, it crashes out saying it can't create the drive. The USB has some files written to it but not enough.
• On a VM, I never get to stage 6 - the progress bar thing just keeps cycling forever at the Please Wait screen.

If I don't check the option to backup system files, it seems to work OK (certainly in the VM, can't remember if I tried that on the physical machine), but obviously it isn't saving the whole setup.




Is it just me? Have I done something dumb...? That's more likely on the physical machine, but on the VM I've not done much with it except install some utilities (VLC/Firefox/7Zip/Adobe Reader) and Office 2016 Preview, although I did SysPrep it to save the image.

 

Hey David,

I'm seeing the same in build 10166.

 

Thanks for checking Shawn,
There's some comfort in knowing it's not just me. *Wink

 

OK I've been doing some more testing with 10240, with more success.

On a physical machine (with Office 2016) it failed twice, but when I went into the Feedback app and tried to Reproduce the error, it didn't crash third time. (It knew it was being watched *Wink ). However this one didn't save the apps I think (see below).

On a virtual machine which has only a few apps installed, it created the Recovery Drive OK. Even better, when I tried to restore it to a completely blank virtual machine, it worked too. (The only 'gotcha' was that a VM of 28GB was deemed too small, but it worked when I increased to 32GB).

The interesting bit is this - it restored the apps I'd installed back on to the recovered machine. I'd installed Firefox and Adobe Reader and a couple of others and these came back. Clearly the option to save a Recovery Drive is trying to save my customised apps, and with some success.

Now it's possible it did this because I earlier tried to save the apps into a Provisioning Package when I set up the VM,
(using scanstate from the USMT) and hadn't done this on the physical machine.

So as kyhi says, it has the potential to be even better than the old Windows 8.1 version which I'm pretty sure didn't do this?

 

Hopefully, it'll work fully in the next build.

 

I have not tested on x64 - but had no issue creating recovery drive and (after figuring out the msdn provisioning guide is bogas) a provisioning package on x86

 

Great Tutorial Shawn.
I also like the fact that they still give the option to create a System Repair Disc too. I skipped Windows 8 so I'm not sure, but wasn't the Repair Disc option removed from 8.1?

 

Hello Brds,

Yep, the "System Repair Disc" option was removed in 8.1 in favor of just the "Recovery Drive". I would assume that it was because it's harder to boot from a DVD with a UEFI system than USB.

 

I'm upgrading the computers in my house and was wondering if I need to create a recovery drive for each individual machine or if it's enough if I create one recovery USB stick and this will work for all machines?

 

Hello nuk3meister, and welcome to Ten Forums.

If they are all the same versions (32/64-bit) and editions, then you can use the same recovery drive on all of them. *Smile