Windows 10: Windows 10 recovery, no system back up image or usb install

I installed a new SSD to my PC but didn’t create a system image back up because I read that a fresh windows 10 install would be possible without it. It seems like that was a mistake. I put my old m2 ssd in an external enclosure, I have tried to remove my old drive to create a system image back up or even clone my old drive to the new one but one of the screws tightening it has become stripped and I cannot remove it from the enclosure . The data on the old, now external hard drive is still there. Do I have any options to recover my windows 10 installation? Not sure where my product key is, was

:)

 

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

 

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.

 

Installing Drivers in Recovery M4 SSD

I can't seem to figure out how to install drivers so that can copy my system image to new laptop hard drive. I went as far as to install a new inactivated windows 7 onto the hard drive so I know it works, but when I point recovery at C:\Windows\system32\drivers\disk.sys, I got an error something along the lines of "not relevant to system hardware" (or something like that I forget the exact wording).

I can list the drive in diskpart, and I made sure it is not excluded for copying the image, but after 3 days of fiddling, I still can't get it to work. Where is the driver that I need for recovery to be able to install an image to the new hard drive? I checked crucial website, but they don't seem to list drivers for M4. I assume that since I was able to install a fresh inactivated Windows 7 from a startup disk that the driver I need would be somewhere in that system so maybe I'm just pointing recovery at the wrong file?