What is a recovery USB?

Recovery USB (a USB version of system repair disc in Windows) contains several tools that can be used to troubleshoot the unbootable computer or restore your computer to factory settings.

In Windows, the recovery USB created by buillt-in tool cannot be used on different version of computer. That’s to say, you cannot use a Windows 8 32-bit recovery drive to repair Windows 10 32-bit. Also, you cannot use a Windows 8 32-bit recovery drive to troubleshoot Windows 8 64-bit.

In addition, you still can use an installation disk as a repair disk. But the one comes along with your computer is a CD/DVD disc. Thus, if you want to reinstall windows 10 without CD/DVD, you need to download installation media tool from Microsoft and create Windows 10 recovery USB yourself. 

Well then, how to use recovery drive in Windows 10 to get computer back? You could use recovery drive or installation disc to boot computer and then restore it using Windows 10 recovery tools. Also, if your computer has a serious error or you want to keep all your personal files and programs, you could try free backup software AOMEI Backupper Standard to make up for these shortcomings. Four methods are below, please check them and start your restoration.

Method 1: Recover Windows 10 from a recovery drive

Here you will create a recovery drive in Windows 10 with built-in tool – Recovery Drive, and then learn how to use recovery drive in Windows 10 to completely reinstall Winodws 10. Please prepare a USB drive with 16GB at least, otherwise this operation may fail because of insufficient disk space and throw you an error message, saying, “we can’t create the recovery drive”. Learn more below.

Step 1. Connect the USB drive to your computer, and make sure it can be detected. Then, type Create a recovery drive in the search box and select it from the top result. 

Step 2. Check the  back up system files to the recovery drive option and hit Next. If not, you will not see Reset this PC and Recover from a drive in the system recovery environment.

Step 3. Select USB flash drive and hit Next.

Step 4. Click Create to start Windows 10 recovery usb creation.

Step 5. Boot from Windows 10 repair disk. In the initial page, select keyboard layout and other prepference. 

Step 6. Select Troubleshoot and Recover from a drive. 

Step 7. Select Just remove my files or Clean the drive fully.

Step 8. Click Recover to recover from a drive.  It will take a while to finish and your PC will restart. After that, you just need to set up your Windows 10 with the on-screen instructions.

Method 2: Reinstall Windows 10 without losing data

Here you will use the built-in recovery drive to recover Windows 10 with “System Restore” in the Advanced options, and It will keep all your files at the point you make a system restore point. 

Step 1. Create Windows 10 recovery USB with steps mentioned in Method 1, and then boot from it. 

Step 2. Then, access the Troubleshoot page and select Advanced options > System Restore in order.

Step 3. In the Restore system files and settings, click Next.

Step 4. Select a restore point and click Next.

Step 5. Confirm the info and click Finish to recover Windows 10.

Method 3: Reinstall Windows 10 but keep files

Here you will use “System Restore” option as well, but the recovery drive is an installation disc or USB. This can be a great choice if you don’t create Windows 10 recovery USB drive with the built-in recovery drive, it will keep your files as well.

Step 1. Download Windows 10 Media Creation tool from Microsoft and run it with administrator priority. Click Accept to agree the license terms.

Step 2. In the “What do you want to do?” page, select Create installation media for another PC and click Next.

Step 3. Select language, edition and architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) for Windows 10. Then, select USB flash drive (at least 8GB required) as the bootable media and click Next to create Windows 10 reinstall USB.

Step 4. Connect the installation disk to your computer and boot from it. Then, select language and other preference.

Step 5. Click Repair your computer at the lower left corner. Immediately afterwards, Select Troubleshoot and Advanced options.

Step 6. Select System Restore and follow on-screen instructions to start Windows 10 reinstall.

Method 4: Restore Windows 10 image from USB drive 

The built-in Windows 10 recovery tools do help to some extent, but they may remove all your files or the previously installed programs. Is there any safe way to restore Windows 10 from USB drive without deleting files and programs? Fortunately, you could use free backup software AOMEI Backupper Standard to make up for this. With it, you can make a Windows 10 boot disk to start unbootable computer and create Windows 10 system image for disaster recovery.  

To create a backup image, you need to click the download button to install AOMEI Backupper Standard, then select Backup >System Backup > destination path to save system, and finally click Start Backup to move on. If your computer currently is running smoothly without any obstacle, it’s suggested to schedule backup system, so the newly changed files and installed apps will be included in this image.

To create boot disk Windows 10, click Tools > Create Bootable Media, then select bootable disc type > PE boot mode > bootable media (here is USB Boot Device) and click Next to start the process. When the proces is complete, click Finish to exit. Then, you can see the Windows 10 system repair USB on your drive. 

Step 1. Connect bootable media and USB drive with system image backup to your computer. And then restart your computer, press F2 or other specific key you see on the initial screen, change boot order to the Windows 10 repair disk, at last save changes and boot your computer. 

Step 2. Wait for the loading to complete, and then you will see the interface of AOMEI Backupper Standard. At this time, click Restore > Select Image File to find and select your system image to be restored. 

Step 3. Tick Restore this system backup and click Next.

Step 4. Select the destination path to save Windows 10 image and click Next.

Step 5. Then, click Start Restore to reinstall Windows 10 from a system image. When the progress reaches 100%, click Finish to exit.