Windows 10: USB system recovery creation started failing

Hi, I'm getting errors: "We can't create a recovery drive" and "Some required files are missing"


It might have to do with me enabling VM technology on the BIOS, or with the fact I was so annoyed by one perhaps automatic windows update that wouldn't let the computer shutdown as usual (I had no notice windows would try to update the system or something like that).

To me it was a very usual computer turn off day, but then it hung, I thought it was cause of some open Notepad file I hadn't saved, so I just hit the power button to shut down.


It's possible it's the latter, but since that day I interrupted one, another automatic windows update has run successfully.


Thoughts?

:)

 

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.

 

Create a recovery drive fails

I have tried everything suggested here. I have searched other forums and read literally hundreds of comments the same as mine.

Creating a recovery USB drive seems impossible on my system if I use the 'copy system files' option. There is never an error message to research, just a single sentence saying the creation failed.

 

How to reformat USB Recovery Drive

Part of the commands and results were missing from the image.

Open adminstrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
diskpart
list disk
select disk #
(replace # with the disk number for the flash drive)
attributes disk clear readonly
exit


If the above steps work then you are set.
If the above steps fail then view this link for additional troubleshooting steps:
How to Format Read-only USB Drive Successfully?