Windows 8 USB Recovery Drive
Nov 30, 2013
My first look at Windows 8. I got a new notebook with Windows 8, no optical drive and no recovery partition. I created the recovery file on the hard drive.The file is around 13 GB. Windows wants a USB flash drive of 16 GB capacity to make a recovery drive.
I give it a 16 GB flash drive and Windows insists on formatting it to FAT32. A 13+ GB file won't write to a FAT32 drive so the operation fails in the end leaving 228 MB of data on the flash drive. What's up with this?
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Jun 20, 2014
If you have a recovery drive - that includes the recovery partition - made on one computer, but have a toshiba laptop with a bad drive (but the recovery partition is ok), can you replace/copy the partition on the recovery drive with the recovery partition from the bad laptop HD?
My friend's laptop would not boot, and would not factory recover, reset, or refresh. I tried to clone the hard drive before I started messing with the disc. It would not clone, but I was able to copy the recovery partition to a USB drive.
He never make recovery discs, so could not re-install, but I can borrow the recovery drive that my aunt made for her laptop.
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May 24, 2014
I'm in the process of moving to an SSD and need to create a backup drive in order to repair the BIOS after transferring everything. However, when I try to create one - the create a recovery drive program won't recognize the flash drive I have connected as a flash drive.
I first tried with a SanDisk Cruzer which apparently had a quirk in that it shows up as a hard drive instead of removable flash drive. That seems to be well documented on forums all over the place and there is no fix.
So, I purchased a cheap 8 GB stick (no brand) and Windows (I'm running 8.1 x64) recognizes it as a removable disk. However, the create a backup utility still won't recognize it. I've found some random fixes that have worked for some (such as plugging it into a different USB port) but nothing has worked for me so far. I've tried doing it with the "copy the recovery partition" option both checked and unchecked.
If there's no solution to this wonderful "quirk" of Windows, then is there something else I can do to repair BIOS? Seems like there's not a fix to my problem out there...
EDIT So as of right now, I tried using HPs recovery software which seems to do the same thing as copying over your entire recovery partition. That didn't work either. However..when I had both USB sticks plugged in the Windows supplied utility recognized the SanDisk Cruzer when I checked the "copy the partition" thing
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Apr 26, 2014
Windows 8.1
pc bought in 2013 with windows 8 bundled (so no installation DVDs, no activation key communicated).
upgraded to windows 8.1 in 2013.
I made a recovery USB (system image) on 1st April 2014.
If I need to boot on this USB, my PC will be again exactly as it was on 1st April 2014?
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Jul 16, 2014
I just purchased an Asus R510CC notebook with windows 8 and I bought a SSD drive to replace the current one.
I used Recovery Drive in Windows to create an USB boot drive with the recovery partition on it. I then installed the SSD and booted from the USB. When I get to the option to reset my computer I encounter an error with the following message: "Unable to reset PC. A required drive partition is missing". I already did a bit of research and BIOS tweaking but I can't install Windows onto my SSD.
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Mar 16, 2013
I need a recovery drive for windows 8 so that I can boot into advance settings via USB. I can't get my computer to start up anymore past the desktop screen, unfortunately that's where it just freezes on me.
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Jan 26, 2013
I just bought Asus UX31A-R4005H (with Windows 8). Unfortunately Asus doesn't provide any application to restore Windows 8 back to factory conditions. So i need to recovery whole hard drive partitions back to factory settings.
Firstly i need to create a set of OEM factory recovery discs/usb flash.
1. I'm planning to create a system recovery drive (usb flash) with Windows 8 but i wonder if this usb flash will recover whole hdd back to factory conditions? If yes is it enough to use Windows 8 "create a recovery drive" option?
2. How could i create an original OEM factory recovery usb flash with 3rd party application?
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Jun 7, 2014
I have created a Windows 8 Recovery Drive from another machine. I have inserted it into the defective machine and have changed the BIOS to make the USB the first boot device. The machine just goes to a black screen and nothing happens.
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Apr 4, 2014
how do I boot a recovery drive usb on start up in windows 8 .1
How do I boot a recovery drive usb on start up in windows 8 .1 like I can do in win 7 with a repair disk DVD? I
followed the instructions and I cannot bring up the usb disk.
I have had problems with win 8.1 to the point that I got in but was frozen and had to start over. F2 does not work.
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Nov 21, 2013
I recently bought a Dell Windows 8 desktop. I upgraded the desktop to Windows 8.1. I want to create a recovery drive using a DVD rather than a flash drive. (I understand Microsoft wants you to create recovery onto a flash drive rather than a DVD. Not sure why.)
I found several places on the net which discuss just how create recover onto a DVD. They suggest that I do a search on "Windows 7 file" and this will display an option to click on "Windows 7 File Recovery" ... and that will lead me through the steps to create my recovery onto a DVD.
Problem is "Windows 7 File" is not found. How do I get this onto my Windows 8.1 system?
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Dec 5, 2013
if you've made a recovery image backup of Windows 8.1, can you use a Windows 8 recovery USB drive to restore it, or do you need to make a specific Windows 8.1 one?
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Aug 3, 2014
I have a Dell 15r and a Recovery Media for Windows 8 in DVD.
I would like to be able to install Windows 8 (UEFI) from an USB drive. I've already tried the usual methods (Microsoft and also some 3rd party tools to create an USB-bootable media), but I got different kind of errors. It seems the image is not compatible with these methods.
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Jan 31, 2014
Under control panel there is an application entitled "Recovery". I wanted to create a recovery drive on my USB memory stick. I did, and then tried to reboot from it just to see if it would work in case I needed it. It wouldn't boot.
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Oct 10, 2013
I wish to purchase a new laptop that has Windows 8 OEM pre-installed on a 256GB SSD and a recovery partition. I would like to move the recovery partition to an USB drive using the feature available in Windows 8 and create another partition on the SSD for a different OS (linux). I have several questions:
1. Is there any difference between a recovery USB and the recovery partition on the SSD?
2. [Answered] If I completely wipe the original Windows 8 installation can I restore my system using the USB drive?
3. [Answered] During recovery, can I chose on what partition I want to install Windows 8 or create a new partition for it (similarly to a fresh install) or is the whole thing done automatically? I want to know if the recovery process wipes the whole SSD or only the Windows partition and if my other partitions will be left intact (I can live with it overriding the bootloader).
4. If I shrink the Windows 8 partition, can I still perform the recovery? (assuming that I have enough space for the installation).
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Jul 16, 2014
My Acer Aspire A7600U-UR24 came with windows 8. I made a recovery drive by choosing "create recovery drive" in windows 8. After making the drive i installed windows 8.1 from DVD. Some time later I tried to restore it back to factory with my recovery usb. Every time I try I get "windows cannot find a system image on this computer" even though my flash drive is plugged in. I tried booting from the drive, doesn't seem to work. Not sure if my windows 8.1 version not being activated has anything to do with it (I installed 8.1 on 2 computers from the same dvd didn't realize i couldn't do that) . but I think I should still be able to boot from the drive.
I was thinking if the problem is my flash drive, can I somehow transfer the system image from one flash drive to another?
Here's the screens: at this point there should be an option for windows 8 but there's not.
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Oct 27, 2013
I purchased a Lenovo laptop with Windows 8 Pro preinstalled. It came with 500 GB HDD. I changed the DVD Rom with SSD/HDD tray to use for additional drive. I put an SSD in there and installed Windows 8 on it using a USB Recovery Drive, which I don't have anymore. So my current setup looks like this:
After upgrading to Windows 8.1, the license of some software I'm using got messed up and I couldn't manage fixing it, so the only option I've got left is to reinstall/reset Windows. But since the Recovery partition is on another drive, when I go about creating a Recovery Drive, the option "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive" is greyed out. I've got stuff on my HDD, which I can't currently backup so I don't wan't to format that drive. I'm perfectly fine with formatting the SSD, that's what I want.
How can I reinstall/reset my Windows? The only option I see is to install Windows on the Hard Drive (by doing a backup and formatting it first), and then create a usb recovery drive and reinstall again on the SSD, but that's a lot of hassle and I'd need to find an external hard drive for the backup.
I intentionally left the Hard Drive in the original bay (as Disk 0) because of the better protection against falling compared to the added bay in place of the DVD drive.
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Jan 15, 2013
just upgraded to 8 from XP. I have a recovery drive for XP. Can I reformat this recovery drive so I can use it to install & recover Windows 8 instead if I have a problem in the future?
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May 15, 2014
When I bought my new Asus laptop, lady told me I should buy a 32 gb stick to back up o/s, as M/S no longer supply a recovery disk. I started the sequence.
control panel--recovery--create a recovery drive--then got a bit scared .....
I went through it with MS but after booting up, I inserted stick, r/c, properties, stick was empty???
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Mar 2, 2014
A month ago or so I made a copy of the recovery partition using the Windows option to create recovery unit, and when it finished I chose the option to delete recovery partition from the internal hard drive.
A new 25 GB hard drive appeared, everything was fine.
Now I would like to sell this laptop but I don't know how to put the recovery partition back in its place or if it's even possible.
I know the backup it's complete because the data size t's the same and when i tried it, the restore was from the scratch, even with the sony wizard before the windows configuration.
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Dec 6, 2013
Will there be issues if I try to create a Windows 8.1 USB Recovery Drive on a USB Flash Drive larger than 32GB? The Create a Recovery Drive actually formats the USB drive in FAT32 and makes it bootable. I plan to purchase a 64GB USB flash drive. Will the Recovery Drive Creator repartition the USB Flash Drive as a 32GB FAT32 partition? I tried the same on an external USB hard drive and it repartitioned the external hard drive as a 32GB FAT32 partition.
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Aug 7, 2013
I am creating a Windows 8 recovery drive on a new 16GB flash drive (The only option with my new refurbished Gateway NE56R49u Laptop). The process has been running approximately 5 hours now with the green progress bar being only 1/32 inch from complete for approximately 4 hours. Should I click the "cancel" tab and/or the "red X" to close the program? If I do, will I be able to start the process again? This just seems like an extremely long time to complete such a small portion (1/32 inch on the progress bar) of the process.
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Jul 16, 2014
My Acer Aspire A7600U-UR24 came with windows 8. I made a recovery drive by choosing "create recovery drive" in windows 8. After making the drive i installed windows 8.1 from DVD. Some time later I tried to restore it back to factory with my recovery usb. Every time I try I get "windows cannot find a system image on this computer" even though my flash drive is plugged in. I tried booting from the drive, doesn't seem to work. Not sure if my windows 8.1 version not being activated has anything to do with it (I installed 8.1 on 2 computers from the same dvd didn't realize i couldn't do that) . but I think I should still be able to boot from the drive.I was thinking if the problem is my flash drive, can I somehow transfer the system image from one flash drive to another?
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Feb 5, 2014
so one of my computers entered a boot loop and I'm pretty sure the only way to fix it is using a recovery drive. Only problem is the only other windows 8 PC in the house doesnt let me create it. I go through the steps outlined in this thread: Recovery Drive - Create with USB Flash Drive in Windows 8 but i get stuck on step 6. When I insert a USB drive the create recovery drive setup doesnt seem to recognize it. It just refreshes (which shows that it detects a usb being inserted) but nothing shows up. Oddly enough, I can access the usb drive through my computer and copying/moving etc files still works. How can I make it so it appears?
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Dec 10, 2013
When I received my desktop with Windows 8, I went through the Set-Up steps....one of which was to create a Recovery Drive on D: (I also created a Windows 8 Recovery flash drive at that time)
Is this where the "factory settings" live and should be left alone? Or is it like a "backup" that I should be periodically updating? Could I get data from it? I have since upgraded to 8.1...so would the D: drive include that if I ever needed to use this drive? Should I create new/updated flash drive?
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Aug 1, 2014
I have an Asus T300LA Transformer with Windows 8.1. My keyboard stopped working so wanted to use the recovery utility, but when I get there it says my hard drive is locked and to unlock it. How do I do that?
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Nov 3, 2013
When I first got this PC, I made the Recovery DVDs as instructed. Now, I want to make a Recovery Flash Drive, but HP only allows creation of one Recovery item. Is there a way to create a Recovery flash drive after I've already made DVDs?
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Jun 3, 2014
I have a 64GB flash drive I just bought to make a recovery for my laptop. I made the recovery partition just fine but its taking up 32gb when only using 21.5GB of space leaving over 10gb not usable. I am trying to shrink the partition to 24GB but it wont let me. Look at the attached screenshot.
Another question is my primary 1tb drive has a few extra 450MB partitions. What are they for?
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May 29, 2014
I pay a used laptop Sony Vaio SVF 143100c from china , they install windows 8 Enterbrise and no other software or drivers
when I check I found a recovery volume on the hard disk I assign this volume and copy all the recovery content to external Hard disk, size is 18 GB
and the product key is valid for Win 8 RTM CoreCountrySpecific OEMM,
I don't have a Recovery Media disk or usb to return to Factory condition, how to create a recovery disk to access tis image and re install tis laptop to Factory condition
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Aug 13, 2014
After refreshing my windows 8, i noticed that my second drive i.e recovery disk (D: winretools) is no longer visible in my computer. My laptop model is Dell inspiron 15R
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Aug 21, 2013
I have Samsung Laptop with Windows 8 installed. I have 2 partitions 200 GB and the rest whole drive as C drive which after recovery drive amounts to be around 700 GB. Yesterday, I tried Samsung Recovery to get a factory image of C drive. Firstly recovery failed twice and then the third attempt worked almost fine. Recovery said boot file was corrupted and it recovered. But when I opened my computer I had two drives, 60 GB and 200GB. The rest of the space wasnt there. I checked in disc management, Partitions map said C drive had 700 GB. But in the description it shows only 60 GB. The other partition 200 GB is intact. I tried doing samsung recovery again and again but the problem persists.
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Jan 27, 2013
I have a brand new system with an OEM version of Windows 8 installed (Core not Pro)
ASUS CM 6870
2 TB HD
16 TB RAM
ASUS P8H77-M Pro Motherboard
The new system works well but I have also purchased an OCZ Vector 256GB SSD and intend to install it as my primary hard drive.
ASUS didn't and will not supply a recovery disk.
ASUS provides an activation key for a downloadable version of Acronis True image. I tried that but their version is not compatible with Windows 8. I managed to get a newer version but it didn't recognize that the SSD was installed.
Next, I used Win 8 to make a recovery drive USB drive thinking that I would be able to do a clean install of Win with it. I had the 2TB HD disconnected and the SSD installed but the recovery drive refused to install Win 8. I either got the message "The drive where windows is installed is locked. Unlock and try again." or "The drive is too small to format" (the wording on the last may not be exact)
I was able to "find" a Windows 8 ISO file. I burned it to a DVD and was able to install Win 8 but it was not a UEFI installation. There were only 2 SSD HD partitions: 1. System Reserved - 350 MB NTFS. 2. 238.13 GB NTFS Healthy.
I then deleted these volumes and followed the UEFI installation instructions in the thread:
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with
Windows installed but it was not a UEFI installation. I got the same partitions as above. At step 6, I only saw the 2 partitions. I tried this process twice with the same results.
The USB stick was prepared using the instructions in this thread:
UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows
I think that the USB drive should have had 4 partitions on it but it only has one:
7.47 GB FAT32 Healthy.
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