Starting your computer with a recovery drive can be a useful troubleshooting step if your computer is experiencing problems booting up normally. A recovery drive allows you to boot your computer into a recovery environment separate from the main operating system, enabling you to access system recovery tools and reset your PC.
What is a recovery drive?
A recovery drive is a bootable USB flash drive or other removable media that contains recovery software and tools. All Windows PCs come with a built-in recovery environment that can be accessed in the event of startup or system problems. Creating a recovery drive allows you to boot into this environment even if the main operating system won’t start.
The recovery environment includes a number of diagnostics and troubleshooting features such as:
- System Restore – Revert your PC back to an earlier state if recent system changes have caused issues.
- Startup Repair – Automatically diagnose and fix common boot issues.
- System Image Recovery – Restore your system from a system image backup.
- Command Prompt – Access advanced troubleshooting and recovery tools.
Having a recovery drive enables you to access these tools from outside your main operating system. This makes it useful for diagnosing and fixing booting problems or reverting your system after a malware infection or other damage.
How to create a recovery drive
Creating a recovery drive in Windows is straightforward.
- Insert a USB flash drive with at least 1GB of space into your PC. Anything stored on the drive will be deleted.
- Type ‘Create a recovery drive’ into the Windows search box and select the result.
- In the Recovery Drive window, make sure Back up system files to the recovery drive is checked and select Next.
- Select your flash drive then select Next > Create.
- Wait for the recovery drive to be created. This may take 10-20 minutes.
Once complete, you now have a bootable recovery drive that can be used to troubleshoot or repair your PC.
How to start your PC from the recovery drive
To boot your computer from the recovery drive:
- Connect the recovery drive to your PC.
- Restart your computer. As it is booting, press the boot menu hotkey, which is typically F12, Esc, or one of the F keys.
- Select your recovery drive from the boot menu.
- Select your language settings and other startup options if prompted.
- The recovery environment will load. From here you can access the various recovery tools to reset or troubleshoot your system.
If your computer still won’t boot even from the recovery drive, you may need to change the BIOS boot order to prioritize booting from USB. Consult your computer or motherboard manual for details.
Using the recovery environment
Once you’ve successfully booted from the recovery drive, you’ll be presented with a few options for how to proceed. The main options are:
- Continue to Windows 10 – Try booting into your main operating system.
- Troubleshoot – Access advanced recovery tools like System Restore, Startup Repair and command prompt.
- Turn off your PC – Shut down your computer.
If continuing to Windows doesn’t work, select Troubleshoot to bring up the full suite of recovery tools.
Using System Restore
If you think recent system changes like driver or software installations are preventing Windows from booting, System Restore can help revert your PC back to a working state.
- Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > System Restore.
- Choose a restore point prior to when you started having issues. Click Scan for affected programs to see what programs and drivers will be uninstalled during the restore.
- Select Next to begin reverting your system. Restart when prompted.
Using Startup Repair
The Startup Repair tool can automatically diagnose and fix common boot issues that are preventing Windows from loading properly:
- Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Repair.
- Startup Repair will run diagnostics and try to automatically repair any issues. This may take several minutes.
- Once complete, you can Restart to boot back into Windows.
Resetting your PC
If neither System Restore nor Startup Repair are able to get your PC booting again, you may need to perform a full factory reset. This will erase all your programs and files, but can fix even serious system issues.
- Select Troubleshoot > Reset this PC.
- Choose to Keep my files or Remove everything. Remove everything performs a full reset.
- Select Reset to initiate the reset process. Your PC will restart several times.
Using the Command Prompt
For advanced users, the recovery environment includes access to Command Prompt for running diagnostics tools and recovery commands:
- Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.
- A command prompt window will open, enabling you to run various commands like Bootrec, Sfc, Dir, Chkdsk etc.
- When finished, close the command prompt window and select Exit and continue to Windows 10 to reboot.
Summary
In summary, creating a recovery drive enables booting into a recovery environment to access various system recovery and troubleshooting tools when your main operating system won’t start. Options include restoring to a previous state via System Restore, using Startup Repair to fix boot issues, resetting your PC to factory conditions, or using command prompt tools.
By creating a recovery drive in advance, you ensure you’ll have access to these essential system recovery options if your computer experiences serious startup or system problems down the line, allowing you to try fixing the issues or resetting Windows entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the system requirements for creating a recovery drive?
To create a recovery drive, you need:
- A PC running Windows 10 or 8
- An 8GB or larger USB flash drive, or blank DVD (if your PC has an optical drive). The flash drive or DVD will be wiped during creation.
- The PC must have administrator privileges to create the recovery drive.
Can I create a recovery drive after my PC has already crashed?
Unfortunately no – the recovery drive must be made before your system crashes or fails to boot. Your Windows PC already has a built-in recovery environment, but you can’t access it without creating a recovery drive first. This is why it’s recommended to make one as a precautionary step.
How is a recovery drive different from a system image?
A system image is a complete snapshot copy of your entire hard drive contents including Windows, programs, settings and files. A recovery drive is much smaller and only contains the Windows recovery environment tools, not your entire system data. You can optionally create a system image for full backup purposes in addition to the recovery drive.
Can I restore individual files from a recovery drive?
No, a recovery drive only contains the system recovery tools, not your actual files or user data. To restore your files from backup you would need a full system image or separate file backup through methods like File History.
What happens to my files if I reset my PC using the recovery drive?
If you choose the “Remove everything” reset option, all of your personal files and programs will be erased from the PC. However, you can choose the “Keep my files” option to reset your system while preserving your data.
Conclusion
Creating a recovery drive before you experience system issues provides an essential insurance policy, enabling you to boot into the Windows recovery environment to diagnose and fix problems even when your main OS won’t start properly. It provides access to powerful system recovery and troubleshooting tools that could potentially fix your PC and get you up and running again.
Following the steps to create a recovery drive takes just a few minutes, while having one in the event of an emergency can potentially save you hours of headache and frustration. With the ability to restore your system to a previous state, reset Windows entirely or access advanced boot utilities, a recovery drive is one of the most vital tools for recovering from critical system issues.