Learn to use the Windows 10 Recovery Drive

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	TOP STORY Learn to use the Windows 10 Recovery Drive
	By Lincoln Spector Sooner or later, nearly every Windows user powers up the machine — and Windows simply refuses to start. Every current version of Windows lets you create and run a self-booting rescue disc, but Win10 takes that tool to a new level.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/learn-to-use-the-windows-10-recovery-drive/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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FYI, I built a recovery drive for my PC just the other day, and it insisted on a 16Gb flash drive as the minimum size. It took a good while to build it, too, as you indicate in the article. Had no issues or problems with it though; I tested that I could boot with it and access the various options. Very handy thing to have available!

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FYI, I built a recovery drive for my PC just the other day, and it insisted on a 16Gb flash drive as the minimum size. It took a good while to build it, too, as you indicate in the article. Had no issues or problems with it though; I tested that I could boot with it and access the various options. Very handy thing to have available!

My computer insisted on 16 G drive which I used, although empty drive showed 14.4 capacity. Download failed error–no explanation.

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My computer insisted on 16 G drive which I used, although empty drive showed 14.4 capacity. Download failed error–no explanation.

Had the same issue on a computer and had to go with a 32GB drive. I tried it with a 64GB drive [didn’t have the 32GB yet] and Windows formatted a 32GB partition on it formatted as FAT32. But there was the remainder of the 64GB unused and Disk Management couldn’t do anything with it, all commands were grayed out. After I got the 32GB drive and created the Recovery Drive I booted to a GPARTED LiveCD with the 64GB in the port and deleted the partition and created a new full <64GB partition formatted as FAT32, worked out just fine. Windows has an issue with 64GB partitions formatting as FAT32 but not as NTFS, but then my Mac OS X has issues with NTFS.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Do you need to make 1 for each computer? or can a recovery drive be used on any Windows 10 computer if it is the right version?

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The recovery drive is likely to incorporate local drivers, so one for each machine may be best.

cheers, Paul

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I wonder if creating a Windows 10 recovery drive means I can free up the space on the computer that is used by the manufacturers recovery system. Any inputs on this?
Thanks!

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I wonder if creating a Windows 10 recovery drive means I can free up the space on the computer that is used by the manufacturers recovery system. Any inputs on this?
Thanks!

Win 10 will use your recovery partition if it is large enough (about 2.8 GB) and you initiate the recovery agent properly (using reagentc). You can add a new recovery partition if an existing one is too small and Win 10 will reportedly use the last one on the drive.

I confirmed this on my own machine.

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When I tried to create a recovery drive in Windows 10 I get a message ‘We can’t create the recovery drive – A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive’ with no further information.

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When I tried to create a recovery drive in Windows 10 I get a message ‘We can’t create the recovery drive – A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive’ with no further information.

I got the same thing, with an 8GB (nominal) flash drive. However, formatted size is only 7.45GB. I suspect, as BWP states above, a 16GB drive will be necessary.

Edited to add: When I unchecked the option to copy system files, the program was quite willing to let me use the 8GB drive (or an external hard drive).

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I got the same thing, with an 8GB (nominal) flash drive. However, formatted size is only 7.45GB. I suspect, as BWP states above, a 16GB drive will be necessary.

Edited to add: When I unchecked the option to copy system files, the program was quite willing to let me use the 8GB drive (or an external hard drive).

Same problem using a 32GB USB drive. What’s the solution?

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16 GB was enough to create a recovery drive with the utilities, but not the system files (in my experience).

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When I tried to create a recovery drive in Windows 10 I get a message ‘We can’t create the recovery drive – A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive’ with no further information.

Me, too.

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I got the same message, using a 16 GB thumb drive. I thought that would be large enough to hold the system files, but apparently not. When I unclicked the option to include the system files, the recovery drive was created. The utilities installed on the thumb drive used only 224 MB. I would like to know how big a drive is required for the system files.

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I got the same message, using a 16 GB thumb drive. I thought that would be large enough to hold the system files, but apparently not. When I unclicked the option to include the system files, the recovery drive was created. The utilities installed on the thumb drive used only 224 MB. I would like to know how big a drive is required for the system files.

I’ve used a 32GB USB Thumb drive. I didn’t have one so used a 64GB and seems Win10 will format and use up to 32GB and the remainder is inaccessible, can’t use it so when my 32GB arrived and was used I booted to a GPARTED CD and deleted the everything on the 64GB and reformatted fully as FAT32.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Whenever one feels the need for more drive space it either means they need to go out
and purchase another larger primary drive, or get a second internal drive to move personal data on to in order to free up space.

It’s seldom a good idea to fiddle with the manufacturer’s recovery partition, unless…
You make and keep an image of the entire drive.
Know exactly what you’re doing and what the consequences are.
You have a rock solid backup regimen in place.
Or the manufacturer’s recovery partition is a leftover from a previous operating system
that is “known not needed” anymore.

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Clint, thanks for the response, and my question was not as complete as it should have been.

My situation is that I have updated a couple of laptops to Windows 10, but left the recovery partition from the former OS (W7 and W8.1). I got them all up and running to my satisfaction, so there is no going back anymore and I wondered if I would actually need or indeed be able to use the old OS recovery partitions if I make some W10 recovery drives.

If I understand you correctly, I could free up the space and pin my hopes on the W10 recovery drives (and yes, backups and all that have to be done too, I know and do…)

Thanks!

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What can you do if an older system doesn’t support booting from a USB drive, only a CD or DVD drive?

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What can you do if an older system doesn’t support booting from a USB drive, only a CD or DVD drive?

You must have a really old system if it won’t boot from USB! In this case you are stuck because there are no DVDs with that capacity.

cheers, Paul

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I cannot get the recovery to work on my Surface Pro 3. Win10 works beautifully on it, btw.

When I attempted the UEFI advise from Fred Langa’s Dec 11 2014 Top Story, as your article recommended, the UEFI screen would not allow me to enable boot from the flash drive (64gb) on which I created the recovery drive. Also, although I couldn’t change it, the selection line said SSB only. Perhaps the Dec 2014 article needs updating for Win 10 and not Win 8?

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I cannot get the recovery to work on my Surface Pro 3. Win10 works beautifully on it, btw.

You should be able to boot directly from the USB by holding the Volume Down button while pushing the power button. Hold the VolDn until the Surface logo appears then release.

Hope this works for you because it fails on mine with the message “Boot configuration data for PC is missing…” IOW, it sees the brand newly created USB recovery drive (which I created with no errors on a 16GB drive) but says it isn’t any good.

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I got them all up and running to my satisfaction, so there is no going back anymore and I wondered if I would actually need or indeed be able to use the old OS recovery partitions if I make some W10 recovery drives.

Probably not, because they would be of the previous OS.

You should also check to see that the upgrade and partition removal doesn’t void your laptop’s warranty.
Also, considering the nature of Windows 10 lack of product key in this instance, it would be advisable to
create a recovery thumb drive for each laptop.

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I also have tried in vain to create a recovery drive. At first I received a message that a drive could not be created because “files were missing.” I searched on the net and learned how to correct that problem. I tried again and got a simple message that “there was a problem.” I was using a 8-gig thumb drive. I un-ticked the box for saving system files and it was willing to proceed and said I would need a 512-meg thumb drive. This led me to believe that there is an extremely large number of system files so I re-ticked the box and inserted a 16-gig drive. It still would not let me proceed unless I un-ticked the system files box. So I tried a 32-gig drive and got the same results. I am beginning to get the idea that there is a basic fault here that some installations will just not permit system files to be included in the recovery drive. I did a lot of research at the Microsoft site and other places and found that there are no definitive answers for the problem. I did find, though, that there are numerous others like myself who do have the problem. I believe that Microsoft is aware of the problem and either does not care or is looking into the problem and just not telling us anything about it. If there is information available about this glitch I would sure appreciate learning where I can find it.

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I have exactly the same problem – “there was a problem” creating recovery drive. reagentc shows everything fine, all necessary images are in place.

Anyone seen a solution yet?

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Wasn’t there a much longer version of this article posted before? One with a lot more details? And a link to working with BIOS?

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And a link to working with BIOS?

There may have been another thread. Are you talking about the BIOS on a Surface or in general?

If it’s the Surface Pro then it’s more properly called the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) now but you can generally find what you need to know by searching on BIOS. You access the UEFI on a Surface Pro by holding the Volume Up while booting.

Here is another important tip, if you are attempting to boot a Surface Pro from a USB stick, remove any SD card from the card reader first. If you don’t then it’s going to try and boot from the SD card and fail – that’s what was happening to me.

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I was looking forward to creating a recovery disk, but I got the ‘files are missing’ message and couldn’t find the solution elgercee reported. Instead I followed the advice from another post and created an installation disk on the USB drive per the instruction at the following link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install?ocid=ms_wol_win10 I hope it will serve the same purpose if I ever need it.

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I followed up on that and was able to create an installation disc from that site.

The question remains: Can this type of disc be used as a recovery disc, or is it only good for a completely new install of Win 10??

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Enjoyed your article. After I created my recovery drive, I revisited this whole issue of how to set up a safe boot from the Cmd Prompt on the recovery drive. I was looking at the TenForums link on using a command something like BCDEDIT /set {current} safeboot network. And yes, that only works if you are in the Cmd Prompt within Windows. But if you check the Boot Loader (type BCDEDIT) from the Cmd Prompt of the Recovery Disk, you will see {default} instead of {current}. So I tried BCDEDIT /set {default} safeboot network and rebooted and it came up in safe mode as requested. So now I have a better way to get to Safe Mode if I need to. I did the BCDEDIT /deletevalue {current} safeboot at that point because I was in Windows and that got me back to normal mode on reboot. This worked on Windows 8.1 and 10.

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I have updated my computer from Win7 to Win10 and trying to create a Recovery Drive. I have gone through the Control Panel to Create Recovery Drive, but when I attempt to start the process I get the message: ‘We can’t create a recovery drive on this PC. Some required files are missing.’ What files are missing and where can I get them and install them?

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Many here prefer 3rd party backup / recovery programs because they are more flexible than the MS one. Using one of these will give you a backup whilst you fix whatever isn’t right in Windows. http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//148152-What-s-the-best-free-backup-program

To check the Windows system files, open a Command Prompt as Admin by right clicking on the Start/Flag in the bottom left corner.
Type: sfc /scannow
Let us know the result.

cheers, Paul

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Many here prefer 3rd party backup / recovery programs because they are more flexible than the MS one. Using one of these will give you a backup whilst you fix whatever isn’t right in Windows. http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//148152-What-s-the-best-free-backup-program

To check the Windows system files, open a Command Prompt as Admin by right clicking on the Start/Flag in the bottom left corner.
Type: sfc /scannow
Let us know the result.

cheers, Paul

Thanks for your reply. I ran the system scan and no problems were found. I’m using AOMEI Backupper which should meet the need to reinstall Win10 as well as all apps and data.

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I have had this issue since I installed Win 10. I too am only able to make a recovery drive by unchecking the box to copy system files. I use a 16GB flash drive and tried more than one.

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Purchased three flash drives to create recovery drives on our three devices. I noticed the usb drives are formatted Fat32. I was wondering if I should reformat them to NTFS, but after seeing all the problems people are having creating their drives, should I even bother or could this be part of the problem?

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Fat32 is safest bet.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Fat32 is safest bet.

Right, just let Windows do its thing and when finished set it aside, don’t use it for anything else even though tempted to do so. I get the paper key tags to mark mine with, locally the Ace Hardware store carries them.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Fat32 is safest bet.

Actually, I was wondering if any of the recovery files were larger than 4 gb, causing some of those failures. Fat32 has a limit to file size.

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Actually, I was wondering if any of the recovery files were larger than 4 gb, causing some of those failures. Fat32 has a limit to file size.

Right, NTFS is required for storing a single file size of 4GB or larger and FAT32 can hold files that are 1 Byte smaller than 4GB.

The drives I’ve created all were automatically formatted/reformatted as FAT32 by Win10, hence the warning that any data on them would be deleted. Since the installation .iso file is only between 2GB and 3GB, maybe 3.5GB, and the install DVD only holds about 4.2GB I doubt there would be any 4GB files in them, not everything compresses as well as plain text files.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Thanks for the clarification. Will try creating them now.

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You’re welcome.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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I’ve tried to create a USB Recovery disk – but it says it runs into a problem and can’t create the disk – long before I even get to the chance to select a USB drive.

Any suggestions?

Learn to use the Windows 10 Recovery Drive

By Lincoln Spector Sooner or later, nearly every Windows user powers up the machine — and Windows simply refuses to start. Every current version of Windows lets you create and run a self-booting rescue disc, but Win10 takes that tool to a new level.

---

The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/learn-to-use-the-windows-10-recovery-drive/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.

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I can not get past the error message “A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive” when the include back up system files to recovery drive is checked. This happens regardless if I have my USB drive plugged in or not. Has anyone discovered a fix for this problem?

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You may not have sufficient spare disk capacity. How much do you have free?

cheers, Paul

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You may not have sufficient spare disk capacity. How much do you have free?

cheers, Paul

Paul, I have 550gb free on the HD and have an 8gb USB drive.

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Try a 16GB USB, we have reports of 8 not being enough.

cheers, Paul

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Try a 16GB USB, we have reports of 8 not being enough.

cheers, Paul

Will do. Thanks.

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FYI, I bought and tried a 16GB USB and it still failed.

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You can use it for either refresh or reinstall.
See figure 3 in the original article.

cheers, Paul

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Then I would try one of the free 3rd party programs.

cheers, Paul

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