How to Create a Windows 11 Recovery Drive and Introduction to Recovery Features
Windows 11 recovery drive can be created with Windows tool recovery drive. The repair function can be repaired by automatic repair, command prompt, deletion of update program, initialization of PC, etc. even if Windows 11 does not start. In addition, the recovery drive can be reused on a PC other than the one on which it was created. This page introduces how to create a recovery drive and the types of recovery.
Depending on your computer environment, you can create a recovery drive with a capacity of “16GB”, but a USB memory with a capacity of ” 32GB ” or more is recommended. If you create a recovery drive (Windows 11 boot media) with only the recovery function, you can create it with a capacity of “1 GB” or less. However, the initialization function cannot be used.
All files and data on the USB memory will be deleted when you create a recovery drive. If you have data you need, save it elsewhere.
Create a recovery drive
1. Connect the USB memory to the computer first.
- Confirm that the computer recognizes the USB memory.
- Formatting is automatically executed during operation, but it is recommended to format manually first in order to check whether there is any problem with the USB memory.
- To format, right-click the connected USB memory displayed in Explorer, click “Format” in the menu, and click Start.
2. Run Recovery Drive Creation Tool
Click “All apps” on the Start menu and click “Windows Tools” in the list to open the Windows Tools folder, then double-click “Recovery drive”.
If “User Account Control” appears, click “Yes”.
3. Setting up the recovery drive to create
When the recovery drive creation screen appears, select “Back up system files to the recovery drive” according to your purpose and click “Next”. This selection operation selects whether to back up the PC system and drivers and enable the initialization function. Please refer to the following for the contents.
- Select: Create a system backup on the recovery drive. When a problem occurs in the PC that created the recovery drive, the PC can be initialized with the recovery function “Recover from the drive” by backing up the system. You can also use it on other PCs, but if the original system configuration is different, problems will occur, so please do not use the initialization function. Creating a recovery drive takes a long time.
- Deselect: If you want to create a boot drive for Windows 11 and reuse the recovery drive on other PCs, this is the one. The recovery function can perform basic repairs, but the PC initialization function cannot be used. Recovery drive creation time is fast.
4. Prepare to create a recovery drive
“Please wait” is displayed, so wait as it is. It may take some time depending on the PC environment.
5. Select USB flash drive
When “Select USB Flash Drive” is displayed, confirm that the desired USB memory is selected and click the “Next” button.
6. Create Recovery Drive
A note will appear saying “All data on the drive will be deleted…”. If there is no problem, click the “Create” button to create the recovery drive.
“Creating a recovery drive” is displayed, and creation is performed in the following order. If you choose to back up your system, it will take quite a while.
- Formatting the drive
- Copying utility
- system copy
7. Completion of creating recovery drive
When it says “Recovery drive is ready”, click the “Finish” button.
You have now created a recovery drive. After creating the recovery drive, let’s try to see if the recovery drive can be booted without any problems so that you can not boot in production.
Creation of recovery drive fails
If you cannot create a recovery drive, please refer to the following.
- Remove unnecessary peripherals other than the keyboard and mouse connected to the PC and the recovery drive USB memory.
- If the creation fails, remove the USB memory once, reconnect it and format it. Once the format is complete, create a recovery drive again.
- If you still can’t create a recovery drive, there may be a problem with your USB memory, so create it with another USB memory.
- If there is no problem with the USB memory, there may be a problem with Windows itself. Check and repair system files and create a recovery drive again.
Introducing the Repair Features Possible with a Recovery Drive
Boot recovery drive
Connect the USB memory of the created recovery drive and boot the computer with the USB memory “recovery drive”.
Startup may take some time. If you feel stuck at the logo screen, just wait.
To boot the computer from the computer’s boot recovery drive using a USB memory, turn on the computer and immediately press “Delete”, “F2”, “F12”, “F9”, and “F8” to display the BIOS (UEFI) setting screen . to set the boot order. It differs depending on the manufacturer and model, such as directly selecting the boot device by keyboard operation. Please read the manual for details.Once the recovery drive has booted, select Keyboard Layout and you will be presented with an options screen, from which you can select the Repair function.
Recover from drive
This function is not displayed and cannot be used unless “System Backup” is selected when creating a recovery drive. “Recover from Drive” initializes Windows 11 with the system backup created on the recovery drive. “Recover from drive” allows you to initialize Windows 11 with the following contents.
- When initializing from the recovery drive, added files and user accounts will be deleted.
- Initialize by deleting the files in the usual way. Files and data deleted by this initialization are not completely deleted, so you may be able to restore them with a restore app.
- Completely clean and initialize the drive. Initialization takes a lot of time, but even if you use an application to restore deleted files, you can make it difficult to restore files.
Device usage
This function can be started by specifying a device such as a recovery disk or installation media connected to the computer. Click to display available devices and select them.
The Repair function from here is a function available in the “Troubleshoot” selection.
Startup repair
Restoration takes a long time, so if you think that the restoration has stopped halfway and force quit, the worst case scenario is that the system will break down and you will not be able to restore it, so be careful.
You can launch “Command Prompt”. You can restore the system, image, etc. by executing the command. An example system repair command runs as follows:
- sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:¥ /offwindir=D:¥windows
- Dism /image:D:￥ /cleanup-image /scanhealth
- Dism /image:D:￥ /cleanup-image /restorehealth
For more information, please refer to “Repair System with Command Prompt of Repair Function” in the following page.
System restore
You can restore Windows 11 to the state of the specified date and time. The restore operation is the same even from the recovery drive.
This feature is not available unless System Restore is enabled and you have a system restore point (backup).
If it’s not enabled, you’ll see “No restore points have been created on your computer’s system drive…”.
This feature is not available unless you have created an image of your backup.
Quality Updates If you experience problems installing updates such as monthly updates or emergency updates, such as functional improvements or bugs, you can delete the updates. Feature update version updates can be reverted to previous versions. However, it can only be executed within 10 days after the update.
UEFI firmware settings
The BIOS (UEFI) firmware (motherboard settings) can be called in the settings for Windows to boot. After restarting, you can call up the UEFI (BIOS) setting screen and change the settings.