Recovery Drive failure upon creation

patriceltic · 17 Dec 2018

This morning I formatted a new 16GB Verbatim usb drive. Proceeded to make recovery drive. About 90% finished and it stops with the message problem occurred creating recovery drive. Nothing else so don't know what happened. About the 90% mark a msg came up that Dell had updates to install. Would that have interfered with the process. NOthing got installed from Dell but don't know what effect the msg may have had. Not sure what to do now. Looked at the contents - EFI, reagent and sources on drive. Any thoughts??

Samuria · 17 Dec 2018

Retry if update took all CPU it could have done it

patriceltic · 17 Dec 2018

I re-formatted and tried again. Still fails.

dalchina · 17 Dec 2018

Hi, you might want to try checking your system disk.

1. First check your disk(s):
Download and run Hard Disk Sentinel (trial) (includes SSDs)
(This gives exceptionally good text comments)
Post a screenshot of its GUI using the Insert Image icon above your post.
If all disks are reported as good, continue.

2. Now check your file system:

From an admin command or powershell prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 | Tutorials
or
How to read Event Viewer log for Chkdsk in Windows 10 [Tip] | dotTech

3. If ok, from an admin command or Powershell prompt run
SFC /SCANNOW

patriceltic · 17 Dec 2018

That sounds like a possible but I am also reading on the Dell forum that some people think a 32gb drive is needed, that the 16 is insufficient. I have no problem purchasing one. Thanks for the info.

If your post is suspecting corrupt files, this system is only about one month old and hasn't been far from safety of neighborhood. I'll let you know if 32 works. Thanks.

zbook · 17 Dec 2018

See this link regarding size:
What Microsoft won't tell you about your Windows 10 recovery drive size | PCWorld

dalchina · 17 Dec 2018

More: see (5) under 'Here's How':

5. Check or Uncheck the Back up system files to the recovery drive box for what you want to do, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)

Note
Back up system files to the recovery drive will require that the USB flash drive is large (at least 32-64 GB) enough for this.

If you chose not to back up system files when you created your recovery drive, Reset this PC and Recover from a drive won't be available in advanced startup -> Troubleshoot.

Some people are getting a We can't create the recovery drive - A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive error message with Back up system files to the recovery drive checked.

If you have this issue, then leaving Back up system files to the recovery drive unchecked should allow it to successfully create a recovery drive.

Create Recovery Drive in Windows 10 | Tutorials

As an experiment you could try it with a 'big enough' external HDD if you have on spare, I suppose..

patriceltic · 18 Dec 2018

If you have this issue, then leaving Back up system files to the recovery drive unchecked should allow it to successfully create a recovery drive.

So Dalchina - what gets backed up? Windows? I am also going to do a Macrium backup on a 160GB drive but they need a large usb (64 possible) to create the rescue drive so I'm back to sq1 with that. If I can create a windows install on my measly 16gb usb, then I'll be covered -- I think.

Thank you.

...and why isn't Dell telling consumers the details of this backup biz. Hmmmm. Very annoying.

dalchina · 18 Dec 2018

I have Macrium R bootable on a 2Gb drive.

Depending on what you're imaging, reckon about 50-60% of your used Windows space for the base image (MR has an option to back up Windows which selects all relevant partitions), + perhaps 10% of that (?) for each incremental image thereafter. MR can automatically manage the number of incremental images kept, letting you estimate (roughly) the space required.

You can then also image any other partitions or disks of course.

As for Windows recovery drive- good question. EFI and recovery and system partitions? I've never used it.

zbook · 18 Dec 2018

This is an additional option:
Factory recovery - Create a Custom Recovery Partition | Tutorials