Windows 10: USB recovery boot drive won't boot

I wasn't sure which forum to put this into. I created a backup image on a usb hard drive. I wanted to be able to restore it using a usb recovery thumb drive. I used the create usb recovery tool and created the recovery flash drive. When I try to boot from the flash drive I get an error saying that the boot configuration data is missing or contains errors. I can boot up the laptop using the current windows install so it isn't referring to the hard drive. I have tried several usb drives and get the same message on each. Here is a screenshot of the message.

:)

 

Installing Windows 10 on a new hard drive

The USB recovery drive was made with the old hard drive. When installing the new drive, the computer can only boot from the USB recovery drive. It appears to have started in EFI mode.

The system image made off the old hard drive onto an external hard drive is available to see by the USB recovery drive but the Recovery drive says image was made on a BIOS firmware and this computer is using EFI.

I made no changes to the BIOS. I want to recover all my files and partitions.

Why does the old drive boot in BIOS legacy and make images in BIOS but the same old drive made a recovery drive that boots in EFI.

 

windows 10 crash x: drive

I'm trying to help a friend on this as well. No boot disk, no boot thumb drive, system restore won't work; system recovery won't work.

Suggestions?

 

Hi, did you want to create a system recovery disk\device?

What sort of backup image have you actually created, and how?

Is this what you did or sthg else?



Thanks.. just not clear where you started from, as a 'backup image' could refer to a variety of disk imaging programs, or sthg created by Windows.

 

Yes. That is how I created the recovery usb drive. The backup image was createdby going to the settings in the start menu and selecting update and security and then backup. That created a backup image on my usb hard drive. I wanted the usb recovery so that I could boot from it and then start the restore.

 

Hang on, I think you are confusing things..

The usb recovery drive only does a bare bones re-installation ie it puts pc back to factory condition.
If this is not booting, something has gone wrong with this, but this is not a disaster as you can download Windows 10 anyway.


A Restore drive is completely different and enables to restore a backup image.
You have to create this from the Backup and Restore menus.

 

"The backup image was createdby going to the settings in the start menu and selecting update and security and then backup."
That's this one (not bootable)



Not the one I showed above.

 

Sorry guys. I think I should have posted more clearly. lets leave the backup image on the usb hard drive out of the picture. I want create a recovery thumb drive so that I can do a barebones installation. So I was trying to use the Recovery Media Creator in windows to do this. It creates the thumb drive with no errors at all. But when I try to boot from it is when I get the error that I posted. Hopefully this clears up what I was trying to do. Sorry I muddied the issue a little before.

 

Once I created a Recovery flash drive as you mentioned. It did not work either.
After that, I gave that up and from then on I rely exclusively on System Image Backup to restore my system and I had used that several times to restore a messy system I created.
I am not here to promote the built-in System Image Backup, nor am I here to discuss how wonderful some 3rd party programs are.
I am here just to share with you what I did and used under the circumstances.

 

If you want to do a clean install you (typically) need a Windows installation medium
Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 Forums

This may be what you want to do:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums


I wondered if you had this in mind:
If you want to transfer your existing installation to another PC using a backup image, tools like Aomei Backupper, Macrium Reflect etc [sorry davidhk *Biggrin] (not sure about the free version) allow you to create an image of what you have, 'restore to dissimilar hardware' i.e. without the drivers to the new PC- so when you boot, hopefully the appropriate drivers are installed.

 

I will just download the iso create an install stick. I was using the other method as it is supposed to keep your system files such as drivers but I think the other way will be easier.

 

You can export your drivers in case you need them.

http://woshub.com/how-to-export-driv...indows-8-1-u1/

 

Use Windows built in DISM command. Open Admin Command Prompt. Copy and paste the lines below and run. It will save all the drivers to a folder: C:\Drivers
md c:\Drivers
Dism /Online /Export-Driver /Destination:C:\Drivers
@echo Done

 

Thanks everybody for the info and the help.