Create a Recovery Drive
If you haven’t done so
yet, you need to create a recovery drive for your Windows 8 system.
Doing so now will save time and effort, not to mention grief, should
you encounter a problem with your Windows 8 installation. A Recovery
Drive will allow you to boot your system and easily access a number
of recovery and troubleshooting tools that you can use to revive an
ailing Windows 8 system.
Unlike its predecessor, Windows 8 allows you to create a Recovery
Drive using a USB flash drive, which provides you with new
capabilities, such as being able to backup an OEM recovery
partition. Of course, you can also create a Recovery Drive on an
optical disc - just like you did in Windows 7. While both procedures
end up with the exact same Recovery system, they are created from
separate user interfaces - the USB Flash drive is created from a new
user interface and the optical disc is created from the old System
Repair Disc user interface. Why Microsoft didn’t unify the process
under one roof, I don’t know.
How to create a Recovery Drive in Windows 8 using a USB flash drive. I’ll also show you how to create a Recovery Drive on an optical disc. Click Here to skip over USB
Caveat
Regardless of whether you are creating a Recovery Drive using a USB
flash drive or on an optical disc, it is important to remember that
a Recovery Drive is bit specific. In other words, if you
create a Recovery Drive in a 64-bit version of Windows 8, you can’t
use that drive to boot up and repair a 32-bit version of Windows 8.
Likewise, you can’t use a 32-bit Recovery Drive in a 64-bit system.
Using a USB Flash
Drive
To begin with, you need to know that the USB flash drive you choose
to use will become a dedicated Recovery Drive - you won’t be able to
use it for anything else. In its base configuration, the contents of
the Recovery Drive will require about 256MB of space. However, if
you choose to include the OEM recovery partition, you’ll need more
space. Thus, if you are creating a basic Recovery Drive, you can use
a 1GB USB flash drive. (If you have a smaller sized drive, from the
old days, you could use it as well.) If you are going to add OEM
recovery partition, you’ll want at least a 16GB USB flash drive.
To launch the USB flash drive version of the Recovery tool, use the
[Windows] + W keystroke to access the Search Settings page, type
Recovery Drive in the text box, and click Create a recovery
drive, as illustrated in Figure A. You’ll then encounter a
UAC, as shown in Figure B and will need to click Yes to
continue. As you can see in the UAC dialog box, the program name is
shown here as Recovery Media Creator.
Figure A
Accessing the Recovery
Drive tool from the Start screen is easy.
Figure B
When you launch the
Recovery Drive tool, you’ll encounter a UAC.
In a moment, you’ll see the first screen in the Recovery Drive
wizard, as shown in Figure C. If your computer came with an
OEM recovery partition, the Copy the recovery partition check box
will be enabled allowing you to include the contents of the recovery
partition on the recovery USB flash drive. (If you select this
option, you’ll need a sufficiently large capacity USB flash drive.)
To continue, click Next.
Figure C
If your computer came
with an OEM recovery partition, the Copy the recovery partition
check box will be enabled.
In the next screen of the Recovery Drive wizard, you’ll be prompted
to select your USB drive. If the drive isn’t already connected to
your system, you can insert it now. When you do, Windows 8 will
rescan the system and display your drive. Now, as you can see in
Figure D, since I am only creating a basic Recovery Drive, the
wizard informs me that the drive will only need to hold at least
256MB and that everything currently on the drive will be deleted.
Remember, this will become a dedicated Recovery Drive. Once you
select your USB flash drive, click Next.
Figure D
The USB flash drive
you choose to use will become a dedicated Recovery Drive.
In the next screen, as shown in Figure E, you are once again
warned that the contents of the drive will be deleted. To continue,
click the Create button.
Figure E
You are again warned
that everything on the drive will be deleted.
When you do, Windows 8 will format the drive and the begin copying
files to the drive, as shown in Figure F. If you are creating
a basic Recovery Disk, the process will just take a few minutes. If
you are including a recovery partition, go get yourself a cup of
coffee - it could take as long as an hour.
Figure F
If you are including a
recovery partition, the creation process can take up to an hour to
complete.
When the process is complete, Windows 8 will open the drive so that
you can see the contents, as shown in Figure G. You can then
close the Recovery Drive wizard by clicking the Finish button.
Figure G
When the process is
complete, you will see the contents of the drive in file Explorer.
If you included a recovery partition on the USB flash drive, when
the process is complete, you’ll be prompted to delete the recovery
partition from the hard disk to free up space, as shown in Figure
H. If you delete the recovery partition, you’ll then have to
use Disk Management to
extend your system partition
into the newly freed up space.
Figure H
If you included a
recovery partition on the USB flash drive, you’ll be prompted to
delete the recovery partition from the hard disk.
Keep in mind that, you should only delete the recovery partition if
you are really hard up for disk space. The reason that I say that is
that without the recovery partition on the hard disk, it is
imperative that you not loose or accidentally reformat your USB
Flash Disk as it now contains you only copy of the recovery
partition. On the flip side, you may want to create a System Image
that contains a copy of the recovery partition. I suppose that you
could create two USB Flash Disk Recovery disks that include the
recovery partition so that you have a backup of your recovery
partition.
If you want to use an optical disc to create a Recovery Drive,
you’ll launch the Windows 7 File Recovery tool and use the old
System Repair Disc interface. Keep in mind that while you will use
this legacy interface, you will indeed end up with the same Windows
8 Recovery system created with the new Recovery Drive wizard.
To launch the optical disc version of the Recovery tool, use the
[Windows] + W keystroke to access the Search Settings page, type
Windows 7 File in the text box, and click Windows 7 File
Recovery, as illustrated in Figure I.
Figure I
Accessing the Windows
7 File Recovery tool from the Start screen is easy.
Now, when you see the Windows 7 File Recovery user interface, select
the Create a system repair disc command on the left side of the
screen to launch the creation tool. This process is illustrated in
Figure J. To start the procedure, click the Create disc
button.
Figure J
You’ll launch the
Create a system repair disc procedure from the Windows 7 File
Recovery user interface.
You’ll then see the program begin the process of creating the disc.
This process is illustrated in Figure K.
Figure K
Creating a Recovery
Drive on an optical disc is a relatively quick procedure.
