Even if your computer is not going through problems, it is a good practice to create Windows Recovery Drive and keep it in a secure place for future use.
Having a Recovery USB Drive 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 force the computer to boot up using the Recovery Drive and gain access to Advanced settings and troubleshooting tools as available in Windows operating System.
The good thing about Windows Recovery Drive is that it is not tied to a specific PC, it can be used to boot just about any Windows computer into Recovery Mode.
Create Recovery Drive in Windows 11/10
In order to create a Recovery Drive, you need to get hold of a USB Flash Drive that can hold atleast 16 GB of data.
Microsoft also recommends that you create Recovery Drive on a yearly basis, in order to keep up with the latest security and performance updates.
1. Create Windows Recovery Drive
Windows computers come pre-loaded with Recovery Drive App, which makes it really easy to Create Windows Recovery Drive on a USB Drive.
1. Type Recovery Drive in Windows Search box and click on Recovery Drive App or Recovery Drive System in the search results.
2. When prompted, enter your Admin Password. On the next screen, click on Next to start the process of creating a Windows Recovery Drive.
3. The program will run for a few minutes and you will be prompted to connect a USB Drive of at-least 2 GB, if you are not backing up System Files and 16 GB or more, if you are backing up System Files.
4. Select the USB Drive and click Next. On the confirmation warning pop-up, click on Create to start the process of creating Recovery Drive.
The time to Create Recovery Drive will be short, if you did not select the option to Backup System Files. If you are Backing up System Files, it can take 40 minutes or more to complete the process.
Once the process is completed, you will see a pop-up reading “The Recovery Drive is ready”. Click on Finish > Eject and remove the USB drive from your computer.
Make sure that you clearly Label the USB Device as Windows Recovery Drive and keep it in a safe place.
Problem Occurred While Creating Windows Recovery Drive
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.”
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 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.
How to Use Windows Recovery Drive
If your computer is going through problems and not booting up, plug USB Recovery Drive into the computer and press the Power button to start the computer.
This will take your computer into advanced recovery environment, which provides access to Startup Repair, System Restore and other built-in Recovery and Troubleshooting tools.
You can use any of the available tools as required to fix the problem on your computer.