Windows 10: Recovery USB---what else do I need? Win 10

Running Windows 10. Almost had a disaster last night. Blue screen indicating something like, "your pc ran into a problem and needs to restart." NTFS filesystem. Then got this over and over along with "Preparing automatic Repair". "Start up Repair" (didn't work). I couldn't get my Recovery USB to do much of anything and think I have discovered that when I made it, I didn't do it properly. Long story short, I finally was able to find a place to enter a DOS command that repaired it so I could boot back into Windows 10. Can't remember exactly what it was but found it researching the problem with my laptop. CHKDSK something.
Now, all the above happened while I was trying to do the opposite. I was trying to install a Seagate backup drive to prevent these kinds of issues. I couldn't get the Seagate program for backup to run. It would stall out while starting to backup. Same issue with the built in backup program that Windows 10 has. The problem started when I then ran System Mechanic in hopes of resolving the issue not letting me run the backup programs and when the Dell XPS desktop rebooted, I got the blue screen with the error. Needless to say, I really don't want this happening again. I have figured out how to make the Recovery USB and while doing that, I saw something about making a system restore cd. Is that something that I need to do or is that built into the recovery usb? Also, is there a backup program that is easy to use for someone that isn't very good with understanding backups? Thanks for any help.

:)

 

Windows 10 recovery USB - which size???

Not even that. What creating a recovery drive does (if you select 'include system files') is to construct the files required to clean install Windows. If this is made on an OEM install these file will include the OEM custom apps and drivers - effectively a 'factory reset' drive. It is extracting an install image from your existing system files that takes the time.

The steps in making a recovery drive are shown in this tutorial...

Create Recovery Drive in Windows 10 | Tutorials

• first you choose whether or not to include system files (step 5 in tutorial)
• next the recovery drive files are constructed (this can take a long time if you include system files)
• only after that is complete will you be asked which usb to use (step 6 in tutorial). At this point you will be told how large a usb you need.

Without system files 512 Mb is sufficient. Including system files it will be just over 4GB.

At which step did you get the error? If you were not asked which usb to use then it was the construction of the system files that failed, nothing to do with what usb you had.

 

Windows 10 USB boot

Hi there, am not a windows 10 expert. I have a pc in the bedroom on windows 10, I messed up the bootloader trying to fix the xp on that system.

System wont boot, trying to repair via win 10 usb installer.

Downloaded the media creation tool to install windows 10 installer on usb stick. Not compatible with a host of usb sticks I have. Tried the usb sticks that others use, but I think they use rufus; as the media creation tool by win 10 does not detect the usb stick.

So quick question, the win10 machine i am trying to repair the bootloader is a win7 upgraded to win10.
If i were to use the usb win10 installer to "repair installation" does the version of the iso downloaded via the media creation tool matter?

There is three options:
Windows 10
Windows 10 Home
Windows 10 N

Also is there a step by step instead of using rufus as I want to try an alternative method of creating a usb win 10 installer. Preferably with more compatibility.

System is a asus sabertooth 990 (r2?) with AMD phenom X 6.

Also is there any other software I can load onto the usb that can repair the bootloader easily?
That would be the ideal alternative. Thanks

 

Win 10 recovery USB

Hi Alec,

A recovery drive can help you troubleshoot and resolve issues with your PC, even if it won’t start. To create one, all you need is a USB 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.
• When the tool opens, make sure Back up system files to the recovery drive is selected and then select
  Next.
• Connect a USB drive to your PC, select it, and then select Next
  > Create. A lot of files need to be copied to the recovery drive, so this might take a while.
• When it’s done, you might see a Delete the recovery partition from your PC
  link on the final screen. If you want to free up drive space on your PC, select the link and then select
  Delete. If not, select
  Finish.

Let us know if the steps above worked for you.