It is a recommended practice to Create Windows 10 Recovery drive (USB), as it can help you gain access to your computer, if it is going through problems and refusing to boot up from the hard drive.
At such times, you can boot your computer from the Recovery Drive and gain access to Advanced Settings and troubleshooting tools, as available on your Windows 10 computer.
Steps to Create Windows 10 Recovery Drive
For reasons best known to Microsoft, the option to Create Recovery Drive is not easily available, both in Settings and the Control Panel.
However, it is still easy to create Recovery Drive in Windows 10 by following the steps below.
1. Type Recovery drive in the search box and click on Create a recovery drive option in the search results.
2. If prompted, enter your Admin Password.
3. On the next screen, click on Next to start the process of creating a Windows 10 Recovery Drive.
Optional: You can Backup System Files to Recovery Drive by checking Back up system files to recovery drive option (requires USB Drive with 4 to 32 GB capacity).
4. The program will run for a few minutes and you will be prompted to connect a USB Flash Drive.
Generally, the system will indicate a USB Drive capable of holding 512 MB capacity, if the option to save System Files is not selected.
If you selected the option to save System Files, the minimum storage requirements for the USB Drive can range from 4 to 32 GB or more.
5. On the next screen, select the USB Drive and click Next.
6. On the confirmation warning pop-up, click on Create to start the process.
The time to Create Recovery Drive will be short, if you did not select the option to Backup System Files.
Be prepared to wait for more than 40 minutes, if you selected the option to backup system files and create a Recovery Drive.
7. Once the process is completed, you will see a pop-up reading “The Recovery Drive is ready”
8. Click on Finish > Eject and remove the USB drive from your computer.
Make sure that you clearly label the USB Device as Windows 10 Recovery Drive and keep it in a safe place.
The good thing about Recovery Drive is that it is not tied to a specific PC. You can use this Recovery Drive to recover any Windows 10 computer.
Problem Occurred While Creating Recovery Drive Error
Sometimes, you may find the Recovery Drive creating process running for a few minutes and coming up with an error message reading “A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive.”
Depending on the case, Windows 10 may or may not provide any reason for this problem (mostly it does not provide any reason or clue to resolve this problem).
If this happens, close all the files, folders, browser tabs on your computer and try again. If you still get this error, uncheck Back up System Files to Recovery Drive option and try again.
In general, you should be able to create Windows 10 Repair Drive without any problem when the option to back up system files is not selected.
Note: Plain Recovery Drive without System Files is good enough for troubleshooting problems on your computer, but you won’t be able to Reinstall Windows with this repair disk.
Create Recovery Drive Using Media Creation Tool
Windows Media Creation Tool offers an easy way to create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive, which can also be used as Windows 10 recovery drive.
You can learn more about this and create a Bootable Windows 10 USB Drive by using steps as provided in this guide: How to Create Bootable Windows 10 USB Drive.
Both Windows Recovery Drive and Bootable Windows 10 USB Drive can be used to troubleshoot problems on your computer.