It is a recommended practice to Create Windows 10 Recovery drive (USB) and keep it handy for those times when your computer might run into problems and refuse to boot up from the hard drive. At such times you can use the recovery drive to get access to advanced settings and troubleshoot problems on your computer.
Steps to Create Windows 10 Recovery Drive
The option to create a recovery drive is somewhat hidden in Windows 10, unlike the older versions of Windows OS where you could readily access this facility from the Recovery Options section in the Control Panel. However, it is still easy to create a Windows 10 recovery drive by following these steps.
1. Type recovery drive in the search box
2. Click on Create a recovery drive
3. You may be asked to enter Admin Password and confirm your choice.
4. On the next screen, the Recovery drive tool will provide you the option to “back up system files to the recovery drive” – You may tick this option in case you also want to backup system files. Click on Next.
5. The program will run for a few minutes and you will see a screen asking you to connect a USB flash drive.
The screen will indicate the size of the USB drive required for this task. Generally, the system will indicate a USB drive capable of holding 512 MB capacity in case you have not ticked the option to save system files.
In case you have chosen to save system files, you will be needing a bigger USB drive of anywhere from 3 to 32 GB capacity. Connect the USB flash drive that is bigger than the suggested capacity to your computer.
6. On the next screen, identify and select the USB drive and click Next.
7. You may again see a warning that the contents of the disk will be deleted. Since, you are using an empty USB drive, click on Create to start the process.
The system will then begin the process to create Windows 10 recovery drive. The process will be short in case you are just creating a repair disk. Be prepared to wait for more than 30 minutes in case you have selected the option to backup system files to the recovery drive.
8. Once the process is complete you will see a screen saying “The Recovery Drive is ready”
9. Click on Finish to get out of this screen.
10. Eject or remove the USB drive.
That’s it you now have a Windows 10 USB Recovery Drive that can be used for troubleshooting problems on your computer.
The good thing about this recovery drive is that it is not tied to a specific PC. You can use this USB recovery drive on any computer running Windows 10 operating system.
Problem Occurred While Creating Recovery Drive Error
You may run into errors while trying to create a recovery drive. The program will run for a few minutes and you will see a screen saying “A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive.” Windows 10 may or may not provide the reason for this problem mostly it does not provide any reason or clue to resolve this problem.
If this happens, close all the files and folders on your computer and try again.
If you still get the error, do not select the option to backup system files. You should be able to create a Windows 10 repair drive without any problem when the option to back up system files is not selected.
It is really difficult to identify the reason for this error; the only option in this case is to just create a repair disk without backing up system files.
The repair disk 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.
Recovery Drive Using Media Creation Tool
Windows Media Creation Tool offers an easy way to create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive that also can be used as a Windows 10 recovery drive.
You can learn more about this at: How to Create Bootable Windows 10 USB Drive.
As mentioned above, it is really a good practice to keep a USB recovery drive handy. You can use the recovery drive to access advanced startup options in Windows 10, so that you can troubleshoot and restore your computer.