1 of 9 4/17/2015 7:19 AM

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1 1 of 9 4/17/2015 7:19 AM MENU Site search is available on home page By Margus Saluste, Last modified: Windows 8 and 8.1 allow creating a bootable Recovery Drive - USB disk that boots right into Recovery Environment (aka Limited Diagnostic Mode), allowing to repair startup, file system and other problems, running System Restore and Refreshing or Resetting your PC. The drive or media cannot be used to install Windows. It is very similar to Windows 7's System Repair Disc. Recovery Drive (the USB version) or System Repair Disc (the CD/DVD version, only available in Windows 8) is meant for those who do not have a bootable Windows 8/8.1 DVD - this is a common case as there is no DVD bundled with computers that have Windows 8 or 8.1 preinstalled (the OEM versions of Windows). It is strongly recommended to create the drive or disc before getting into trouble - if you cannot start Windows 8 or 8.1, you might be out of luck in repairing your PC. Please bear in mind that a 32-bit (x86) Recovery Drive can only be used to fix 32-bit Windows 8/8.1 editions and a 64-bit (x64) Recovery Drive works with 64-bit Windows 8/8.1 editions only. A good thing is that you can repair any edition of Windows 8/8.1 with this disc, as long as it is meant for the same hardware architecture (32-bit or 64-bit). And last, but not least - do not try to use Windows 8.1 Recovery Drive for repairing Windows 8, and vice versa! Remember that you cannot use Refresh or Reset Your PC features if Windows is installed on a drive with GPT (not MBR) partition table until you force "UEFI only" boot setting in BIOS/EFI. Windows 8 and 8.1 will not detect GPT partition alignment correctly if BIOS booting is enabled. First, make sure you have a blank CD/DVD (only in Windows 8) or a USB drive with at least 256 MB (megabytes) of total disk space. Many OEM computers have heavily customized recovery partitions that might require up to 32 gigabytes of disk space on Recovery Drive. CD or DVD in Windows 8 must really mean blank, because the program is not capable of overwriting rewritable media. You can blank a CD or DVD by opening Computer (keyboard shortcut WINDOWS KEY+E ), right-clicking a CD/DVD writer in the list and selecting Erase this disc. USB drive can be a simple pen drive (stick) or a USB hard drive. Please note that this drive will be formatted and you will lose all files on it. Do make a backup copy of your important files first! After creating the Recovery Drive, you must test that your PC is actually able to boot from it. Some older USB sticks do not support booting at all. Also, remember to check your computer's boot order to verify that booting from USB devices is enabled and listed before hard drive booting. If your computer has both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 or newer ports, connect Recovery Drive to an older USB 2.0 port - this resolves many boot problems. To create the drive, open Settings Search with keyboard shortcut WINDOWS KEY+W and type "recovery" into Search box. Click Create a recovery drive.

2 2 of 9 4/17/2015 7:19 AM As expected, User Account Control pops up. Click Yes to verify that you know what you're doing. Create a recovery drive window opens. First, tick the Copy contents from the recovery partition to the recovery drive check box. Then connect a USB drive, wait about 10 seconds and click Next. If you cannot enable the Copy contents from the recovery partition to the recovery drive option while creating a Recovery Drive in Windows 8 or 8.1, you need to copy Windows install.wim file on a hard drive or SSD. Please note that this will raise Recovery Drive space requirements from the default 256 megabytes to about 4 gigabytes. In case Recovery Drive creation completely fails with the "We can't create a recovery drive on this PC. Some required files are missing." error, the winre.wim file or System Reserved partition is missing. See the Restore Windows RE in Windows tutorial on how to resolve this problem.

3 3 of 9 4/17/2015 7:19 AM Click the correct drive letter in the Select the USB flash drive window. Then click Next. Windows will then warn you that all contents of the selected drive will be deleted. To continue, click Create.

4 4 of 9 4/17/2015 7:19 AM The drive formatting and file copying process might take several minutes, depending on the speed of your USB drive. After the drive is ready, click Finish. Now test that your device is really able to boot from the Recovery Drive: some older USB drives do not support booting. If this is the case, create Recovery Drive on a newer stick and re-test. If your computer has both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 or newer ports, connect Recovery Drive to an older USB 2.0 port - this resolves many boot problems. If you prefer to create a bootable CD or DVD System Repair Disc (possible in Windows 8 only), open Settings Search with keyboard shortcut WINDOWS KEY+W, type recovery and click Windows 7 File Recovery (yes, that actually is named Windows 7 File Recovery). If you cannot find the item, open Command Prompt (use WINDOWS KEY+X shortcut), type sdclt.exe and press ENTER key to launch the program. In the left side of Windows 7 File Recovery window, click Create a system repair disc.

5 5 of 9 4/17/2015 7:19 AM Create a system repair disc window opens. Select the correct drive and click Create disc. If you did not insert a CD or DVD, you will see the "System repair disc could not be created, There is no media in the device (0xC0AA0202)" error dialog. Click OK, insert a blank writable disc and the process will automatically start. In case the inserted CD or DVD is not blank, you will see the following error dialog. Click OK. Then open Windows Explorer (keyboard shortcut WINDOWS KEY+E ). Right-click your CD or DVD writer and select Erase this disc. In the Ready to erase disc window, activate the Close this wizard after the disc is erased option and click Next.

6 6 of 9 4/17/2015 7:19 AM Creating the System Repair Disc might take several minutes. After the process is complete, label the disc as instructed and click Close. You can then safely close all open Create a system repair disc and Recovery Drive windows. Here's the list of files that a typical Windows 8 Recovery Drive or System Repair Disc contains. Yes, the CD/DVD and USB contents are identical. To see the sources\boot.wim file in File Explorer, you might have to disable the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) option temporarily. See the Change folder views and options in Windows article for instructions. bootmgr bootmgr.efi boot\bcd boot\boot.sdi boot\fonts\chs_boot.ttf boot\fonts\cht_boot.ttf boot\fonts\jpn_boot.ttf boot\fonts\kor_boot.ttf boot\fonts\malgun_boot.ttf boot\fonts\malgunn_boot.ttf boot\fonts\meiryo_boot.ttf boot\fonts\meiryon_boot.ttf boot\fonts\msjh_boot.ttf boot\fonts\msjhn_boot.ttf boot\fonts\msyh_boot.ttf boot\fonts\msyhn_boot.ttf boot\fonts\segmono_boot.ttf boot\fonts\segoe_slboot.ttf boot\fonts\segoen_slboot.ttf boot\fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf boot\resources\bootres.dll efi\boot\bootx64.efi efi\microsoft\boot\bcd efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\chs_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\cht_boot.ttf

7 7 of 9 4/17/2015 7:19 AM efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\jpn_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\kor_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\malgun_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\malgunn_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\meiryo_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\meiryon_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msjh_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msjhn_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msyh_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msyhn_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\segmono_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\segoe_slboot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\segoen_slboot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf efi\microsoft\boot\resources\bootres.dll sources\boot.wim Next: User management in Windows Previous: Create a System Repair Disc in Windows 7 Comment rules: Please keep your comments short and make sure they relate to the current page content. Include error details (exact error message and code), if available. Please do not promote other products. Repeat offenders will be banned. If some comment helped you solve a trouble, please leave a reply about it.

8 8 of 9 4/17/2015 7:19 AM Prophet The Latest Thinking on Customer Experience: Download ebook Motif Investing Sign-up Today to Discover Your Investing DNA One Kings Lane A Stylish Removable Wall Treatment, Watch Now The Nature Conservancy Oceans Are Down For The Count Internet Explorer 11 Troubleshooting Repair your computer in Windows Vista or 7 Microsoft EMET Secunia PSI 84 Comments 1 Mark Turner Images Hi Margus, thanks for a good article. I was a good boy (on this occasion) and made a recovery drive on to USB the day I bought my Surface Pro 3. Recently though, I upgraded to the WIndows 10 Preview to give it a run and provide some feedback. However I had continual issues with high CPU utilisation and frequent "not-responding" moments. This was a bit much for a high use machine so I went to reinstall 8 from scratch with a vanilla install. I started this from within windows and all seemed to be going fine, it undid the bitlocker and rebooted but then crashed. Now I cannot boot from USB at all. I've tried to boot off the recovery USB I made when I first got the Surface, and you can see that it is accessing the drive (LED flashing) but then I either get Recovery. Your PC/Device nneds to be repaired. Unexpected error has occurred. Code 0xc or EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD 0xc000000f Boot config data for PC is missing or contains errors It doesn't seem to be able to boot off the USB. Says that it's missing media. If I plug in the ethernet to the dock it tries to boot off the network but I don't have anything setup for that so that obviously fails as well. Any thoughts please? Thanks Mod Hi Mark! I guess your Surface Pro is in fast boot mode and therefore does not even try booting from USB (the LED flashes only during device detection). To work around this, turn off your Surface and follow these steps: 1: Attach a bootable USB device to the USB port. 2: Press and hold the volume-down button. 3: Press and release the power button. 4: When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down button. Now your Surface should boot from USB. You cannot usually install an older version of Windows over a newer one. I suggest creating a bootable Windows 8 USB (see for instructions if you do not have one) and reinstalling from this device. Mark Turner Images Thanks mate. That's exactly what I was doing with the power/volume down combo but it just wasn't working. Took it in to the retailer (JB Hifi) and after checking it out, they replaced the unit. I think I'll wait a while before moving to Win 10. :)

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