Windows 11 recovery drive

The Windows Recovery Disc is a tool to return your computer to a working state in case of serious problems on the device. With this tool, the user will be able to access the WinPE recovery environment or reset the system to its original state.

Microsoft, the developer of the operating system, encourages users to create a Windows 11 Recovery Drive, just like they did in other previous versions of the OS. This operation is recommended to be carried out every year in order to re-create the system recovery disk, instead of the existing one.

Microsoft explains this by the fact that the Windows operating system is constantly updated, as a result of which the security and performance of the computer is improved. Therefore, the user needs to have an up-to-date recovery tool.

What is a System Recovery Disc

For various reasons, an unpleasant situation may arise on the computer when the Windows operating system stops loading. This can happen due to hardware failure, due to the effects of viruses or incorrect actions of the user himself.

Corrupted system files prevent your computer from booting. To correct the situation, you need to access the recovery environment – Windows PE, with which you can solve many problems that arise:

• Restoring Windows 11 from a restore point.
• Boot recovery.
• Restoring a system image from a backup.
• Return the computer to its original state.
• Use other tools to solve problems.

If the computer does not start, you need to boot from external media – a USB flash drive, on which you first need to create a Windows 11 recovery disk. After booting to a PC, you will have access to the recovery functions of the operating system to troubleshoot existing problems.

With a recovery disc, you can reset Windows 11 to its original state when it was installed on your computer, or, in a better situation, fix problems without reinstalling the system.

The Windows recovery disc includes updates and system settings without personal data.

If there is no recovery disk, you can use an alternative option: system recovery from the Windows 11 installation disk (bootable flash drive).

Some laptop manufacturers offer to create their own recovery disk. In the event of a system failure, a proprietary recovery disk can restore the original state of the system using data from a specially created hidden “Recovery” partition on the computer’s hard drive. This is another way to solve problems on a PC.

Create a Windows 11 recovery drive

The first gentle thing to do is to create a Windows recovery disc. With an external bootable USB drive, you will be given the option to enter the Recovery Environment to try to resolve any issues that may arise.

Otherwise, if the computer stops booting, you will have to reinstall Windows 11 yourself or take the help of a specialist.

Go through several consecutive steps:

1. Connect an empty flash drive to your computer’s USB port.

According to Microsoft, you’ll need a USB drive of at least 16 GB. All data will be deleted from it, so copy the necessary information from there in advance, if any.

2. Press the “Win” + “R” keys.
3. In the Run dialog box, type “recoverydrive”.
4. Click on the “OK” button.
5. On the Desktop in the Recovery Media Creator application, the Create Recovery Media window opens. By default, the option “Back up system files to a recovery drive” is enabled. Click on the “Next” button.

If this feature is enabled, the user will be able to reinstall the system directly from the recovery disk, in addition to using the WinRE recovery environment tools. If you uncheck this option, then only the recovery utilities will remain on the disk without the system files needed to reset Windows to factory settings.

6. The computer takes some time to scan the system.
7. The Select USB Flash Drive window will display the available drives. The drive must hold at least 16 GB of data, and all information on it will be deleted. Click on the “Next” button to proceed to the next step.
8. In the Create Recovery Drive window, you are once again warned about the loss of data on the USB flash drive. Click on the “Create” button.
9. Sequential operations are performed on the computer: preparing the disk, formatting the disk, copying utilities, copying the system.
10. After a while, the “Recovery Disk Ready” window will open, in which you need to click on the “Finish” button.

The creation of a Windows 11 recovery disk on a USB flash drive is completed. You now have a spare recovery disk. In case of serious problems on the computer, you can boot from an external boot drive to perform the necessary work to restore the system.

How to use the Windows 11 recovery disc

If the Windows 11 operating system has stopped loading, you will not be able to use the built-in system tools to restore it. To solve the problem, you must use the previously created bootable media.

Do the following:

1. Connect the USB drive containing the recovery disc to your computer.
2. Turn on the computer, and then enter the Boot Menu or UEFI to select the USB flash drive as the boot object.

3. A window will open on the screen where you need to select a keyboard layout.
4. In the “Select an action” window, click on the appropriate button to start one or another action:

• Disk recovery.
• Proceed.
• Use device.
• Troubleshooting.
• Turn off computer.

The Restore from Disk feature is designed to automatically reinstall Windows 11 and has two options for cleaning the system drive:

• Just delete my files – use this option if you don’t want to leave your computer.
• Clean Disk Completely – Use this option if you are disposing of your computer. This will take several hours.

In the first case, the system disk will be formatted and Windows 11 will be installed on it. Personal data will be deleted.

In the second option, the data is securely erased before the subsequent installation of Windows 11. Personal data and programs will be deleted, the PC will return to the pre-sale state with “factory” settings. Of course, such an operation takes a very long time.

In most cases, it is recommended to use the “Troubleshooting” function, with which you can solve most problems.

The following tools will become available to you:

• Startup Repair – Troubleshoot Windows boot failure.
• Command Line – advanced troubleshooting using the command line.
• Remove Updates – Removes recently installed updates or patches from Windows.
• UEFI Firmware Settings – Enter the computer’s BIOS to change settings.
• System Restore – Restore Windows using a restore point.
• System Image Recovery – Restore Windows using a previously created system image backup.

Perform the necessary operations by selecting the appropriate option depending on the cause of the problem with this PC.

Using a Windows 11 installation flash drive to restore

Users do not always have a specially created system recovery disk available. Serious problems, unfortunately, happen, and you can not start Windows 11.

In this case, you can use a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 11. The Windows installation image includes the tool we need – the WinRE recovery environment.

Do the following:

1. Connect the bootable USB drive containing the Windows 11 image to your computer.
2. After turning on the PC, enter the Boot Menu (Boot menu) to select the USB flash drive as a boot device.
3. In the first window of the Windows Setup program, click on the “Next” button.
4. In the next window, click on the “System Restore” button located in the lower left corner.
5. In the “Select action” window that opens, click on the “Troubleshooting” button.
6. In the Advanced Options window, use the Windows RE recovery environment tools.

Unlike a recovery drive, you can’t reset your system to its original state using a bootable Windows 11 flash drive, but you can perform a “clean” installation of the operating system from this USB drive.

Article Conclusions

To prevent possible problems on the computer from taking the user by surprise, it is recommended that you create a Windows recovery disc. This is a boot disk with operating system files that you can use to enter the options for system recovery tools to solve problems that arise. Instead of a recovery disk, you can use a bootable Windows 11 USB flash drive.