Can't create Recovery Drive

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  1. snifferpro
    Posts : 53
    Win 10 Pro
       New #1

    Can't create Recovery Drive


    Win 10 is running fine, but I wanted to create a Recovery Drive just in case.

    In the search bar I typed "RecoveryDrive.exe" and pressed enter.
    UAC popped up and I replied.
    The first recovery screen popped up.
    I accepted defaults on screen and selected Next.
    Next screen said "Recorvery drive could not be created".
    No error message and no further info. Could only click finish.

    Screenshots are attached showing the first screen and the second notification of failure.

    Any suggestions or solutions appreciated.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Can't create Recovery Drive-first-screen.png   Can't create Recovery Drive-failure-screen.png  
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  3. Cliff S
    Posts : 27,181
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       New #2

    Go to this tutorial: How to Create a USB Recovery Drive in Windows 10
    And read all the way through. You will see this note:

    NoteBack up system files to the recovery drive will require that the USB flash drive is large (at least 8-16 GB) enough for this.

    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.
    But read through just the same:)
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  4. snifferpro
    Posts : 53
    Win 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    The flash drive I was using is 32gb.
    If you don't put the system files on the recovery drive, all you get is the troubleshooting menus
    when you boot to the flash.
    I'd like to copy all the systems files as a precaution.
    The lack of any error message or troubleshooting scenarios for recovery drive creation is troubling.
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  6. Cliff S
    Posts : 27,181
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       New #4

    snifferpro said:
    The flash drive I was using is 32gb.
    If you don't put the system files on the recovery drive, all you get is the troubleshooting menus
    when you boot to the flash.
    I'd like to copy all the systems files as a precaution.
    The lack of any error message or troubleshooting scenarios for recovery drive creation is troubling.
    That's all a recovery drive really does is create an UEFI environment to access your system outside of windows(offline) Then you need to create a custom recovery image. See: How to Create a Recovery Image used to Reset Windows 10
    and you use the recovery drive to access this.

    But I think you would be best served using a system image program like Macrium Reflect
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  7. DavidY
    Posts : 1,524
    Windows 10 Pro (32-bit) 16299.15
       New #5

    `
    Cliff S said:
    That's all a recovery drive really does is create an UEFI environment to access your system outside of windows(offline) Then you need to create a custom recovery image.
    It's different in Windows 10 - if the option to copy System Files works, it lets you completely reinstall Windows on a bare drive from the Recovery Drive. It's quite a nice feature when it works.

    Snifferpro, I've found that sometimes if I retry a couple of times, the Recovery Drive creation may fail at first then work the second or third time, so it might be worth trying again.
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  8. Cliff S
    Posts : 27,181
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       New #6

    DavidY said:
    `It's different in Windows 10 - if the option to copy System Files works, it lets you completely reinstall Windows on a bare drive from the Recovery Drive. It's quite a nice feature when it works.

    Snifferpro, I've found that sometimes if I retry a couple of times, the Recovery Drive creation may fail at first then work the second or third time, so it might be worth trying again.
    Thanks for taking over David, I've only used Win7's recovery drive to re-image and in Win8 it was Macrium & WinPE, the same in Win10. I guess you can tell I don't care much for "recovery tools" except my last good image. or the very first made after a clean install for testing purposes. Thanks again:)
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  9. big10
    Posts : 51
    window 10
       New #7

    I have created a Windows 10 bootable .iso disk, is it same as the recovery drive mentioned above?
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  10. Cliff S
    Posts : 27,181
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       New #8

    big10 said:
    I have created a Windows 10 bootable .iso disk, is it same as the recovery drive mentioned above?
    See this at Microsoft: Recovery options in Windows 10
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  12. DavidY
    Posts : 1,524
    Windows 10 Pro (32-bit) 16299.15
       New #9

    big10 said:
    I have created a Windows 10 bootable .iso disk, is it same as the recovery drive mentioned above?
    Not quite, although you can do many of the same things with it.
    A recovery drive seems to include some specific info from the machine it was created, so
    • when I created a recovery drive from a touchscreen tablet, the touchscreen drivers were on there.
    • when I tried a recovery drive created on another machine, it would boot up on my tablet but the touchscreen didn't work
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  13. DavidY
    Posts : 1,524
    Windows 10 Pro (32-bit) 16299.15
       New #10

    Cliff S said:
    See this at Microsoft: Recovery options in Windows 10
    That's a handy page to know about! :)
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