A few clarifications on Windows Recovery tools - Recovery Drive & Installation Media Creation tool

For Windows recovery there are two primary means that are provided. They are

1. Windows Recovery Drive (C:\Windows\System32\RecoveryDrive.exe)
2. Windows Installation media creation tool.

For both of these it is suggested to use a usb flash/thumb drive. I have a USB SSD drive, inside of an external enclosure/caddy. Size of this drive is about 128 GB. It is not a memory stick rather a proper ssd inside an enclosure. I am planning to partition this drive into 2 partitions, i.e. E:\ drive having 64 GB capacity and F:\ drive approx 64 GB in size. Can I use E:\ drive for the Windows Recovery drive while F:\ drive for Windows Installation media, using the media creation tool? So E:\ drive will have the Windows image created by Windows Recovery Driver. And F:\ drive will have the windows image created by a Windows installation media. Will this setup work in times of emergency and when I want to recover from a crash? In other words, I would like to use a single big SSD drive instead of two usb flash/thumb drives. Are there any pitfalls that I should be careful of in this setup?

Secondly will my Windows product and activation key be stored in both the cases? i.e. using Windows Recovery Drive as well as Windows Installation media creation tool? I have purchased my laptop from a vendor and it came pre installed with Windows 11.

Thirdly for all the other 3rd party vendor drivers, like from Nvidia, Intel, Realtek, etc. can I create a folder like say 3rdPartyDrivers and then put all the drivers and driver setup in it? This folder will be present inside both the partitions, i.e. E:\ and F:\. Will this cause any issue?

You do not need fast drives for either of those purposes and, IMO I would not use an external ssd for either of them. With flash drives being so cheap and ssd storage increasing in price, the storage can be put to better use in other ways; as a backup drive to store system images (assuming it's large enough for how much data you have on your system drive. 128 gb would store 2 images for MOST people.), a place for storage of files you don't use often (which makes an image of your system drive smaller) or even a drive that stays connected all the time for personal files. You can relocate your personal folders onto it.

Last time I checked a Windows 11 iso will fit on an 8gb drive so why would you want to tie up 128 gb of storage for that. I mean, just how often do you think you will have to use recovery or clean install windows.

Besides, if you have a good bootable iso, that's all one needs to get into WinRE. You do not need both. If you have a working recovery partition on your system drive, rarely is it necessary to use bootable media at all to get into recovery. Just hold the shift key down during boot to get into WINRE.

But that's just me.

Well there are only two ways to create an image in windows, Windows Recovery Drive and Windows Installation media creation tool (i.e. MCT). Is there some other way to create system images apart from these two? I have heard of rescuezilla and clonezilla but not anything else.

Also Windows Recovery Drive now seeks out a usb memory stick which has 32 gb. Please see the screenshot given below for more details.

Transcendence72 said:

Well there are only two ways to create an image in windows, Windows Recovery Drive and Windows Installation media creation tool (i.e. MCT). Is there some other way to create system images apart from these two? I have heard of rescuezilla and clonezilla but not anything else.

Also Windows Recovery Drive now seeks out a usb memory stick which has 32 gb. Please see the screenshot given below for more details.
View attachment 160050

Click to expand...

There are loads of quality imaging tools e.g. Macrium Reflect, Aomei Backupper, Hasleo Backup Suite, Easus Backup to name a few.

Some even have some beginner guidelines on this forum - just search for them

Transcendence72 said:

Can I use E:\ drive for the Windows Recovery drive while F:\ drive for Windows Installation media, using the media creation tool?

Click to expand...

Both those tools need to be bootable so cannot be put on the same storage device unless you also put on one of those multi-boot utilities [which you could search for in the forum if you wanted].

Transcendence72 said:

will my Windows product and activation key be stored in both the cases?

Click to expand...

Your activation is stored on MS servers not on any device of yours.

Transcendence72 said:

can I create a folder like say 3rdPartyDrivers and then put all the drivers and driver setup in it?

Click to expand...

Yes.
I do that in addition to making the driver backups that I wrote about in one of your other threads about Recovery drives.
I store them all on my backup disks.
I could copy them to my installation USB or to a Recovery drive if I wanted to make better use of the spare space on those USBs.


Denis

Try3 said:

Both those tools need to be bootable so cannot be put on the same storage device unless you also put on one of those multi-boot utilities [which you could search for in the forum if you wanted].

Click to expand...

Thanks @Try3/Denis your answer helped and clarified aspects that I was not aware off. I did not know that Windows Recover Drive and MCT both require the disk to be boot-able. Which obviously cannot happen on a single disk divided into two or more partitions. There can only be a single boot partition or a boot manager/loader to control this. And for recovery scenarios it is obviously not good to have such boot managers/loaders in the middle. I had put a similar question to the Windows Q&A forum and the AI had responded erroneously that yes I can put both of them on a single drive which is partitioned.

cereberus said:

There are loads of quality imaging tools e.g. Macrium Reflect, Aomei Backupper, Hasleo Backup Suite, Easus Backup to name a few.

Some even have some beginner guidelines on this forum - just search for them

Click to expand...

@cereberus there was a post by @pewa a few months ago which had indicated that Macrium Reflect could not rescue his system. He had to fall back on Windows Installation Media Creation Tools(MCT) to get things working. Also there was another post that the free edition of Macrium Reflect is being discontinued. And finally I am working under the assumption that the 2 recovery tools provided by Microsoft, i.e. Recovery Drive and Windows Installation Media creation tool (i.e. MCT) ought to be enough. Please do let me know if the assumption is correct or not.

Transcendence72 said:

the 2 recovery tools provided by Microsoft, i.e. Recovery Drive and Windows Installation Media creation tool (i.e. MCT) ought to be enough

Click to expand...

No, system images are much, much better.
If you have a system image then you can expect to be able to recover from any OS corruption inside twenty minutes.
In general, system imaging utilities have a validation capability that checks the image when it has been made so that you can be confident that it is not defective.
I think I had one system image that failed to be restored. It was about a decade ago. I had to resort to restoring the system image I had made the previous week.

Try3 said:

My first line of defence is the combination of a system image with the imaging utility's boot disk together with file backups of my data drives.
After that, I'd fall back on
- an installation USB, and
- copies of the [MSUpdateCatalog] latest Windows Cumulative update & latest .Net cumulative update, and
- my driver backups, and
- file backups of my data drives.

Click to expand...

I use a free, limited capability version of Acronis True Image. Some people dislike Acronis but I have no problems with it.
There are many system imaging utilities.
I think @Ghot keeps a list of them.


Denis

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Welcome to ElevenForum.

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Further to my comments about system images

I only have the OS & installed applications on my C:\ drive [and some bits & pieces that Windows like to make in that drive as well].
I put my own files in separate drives.
- In some cases, that's a separate disk.
- On some laptops, I have to partition off a section of its single disk for my own files.

I make system images of the OS-applications drive & simple file backup copies of my own files.
So each system image is less than 40GB, takes less than twenty minutes to make & less than twenty minutes to restore.


Denis

Try3 said:

No, system images are much, much better.
If you have a system image then you can expect to be able to recover from any OS corruption inside twenty minutes.
In general, system imaging utilities have a validation capability that checks the image when it has been made so that you can be confident that it is not defective.
I think I had one system image that failed to be restored. It was about a decade ago. I had to resort to restoring the system image I had made the previous week.



I use a free, limited capability version of Acronis True Image. Some people dislike Acronis but I have no problems with it.
There are many system imaging utilities.
I think @Ghot keeps a list of them.


Denis

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Click to expand...

Thanks @Try3 / Denis. I will have a look at creating system images. Typical windows setup has a single drive, which has the system/os files, user data and user configuration files (i.e. %APPDATA% and %USERPROFILE%\AppData). If we create a system image it will create an image of the full/entire partition, including user data and user configuration files. There is no way to restrict it to just create a OS related image only.
Do you have experience on using RescueZilla and/or Clonezilla for creating system images? Would it be possible for you to please share them?

@Ghot would it be possible for you to please share the list or give the link to the forum post that has the list of imaging utilities? Are there any tutorials too?

Transcendence72 said:

user configuration files

Click to expand...

That's what I should have written above instead of bits & pieces. Sounds much posher.

Transcendence72 said:

experience

Click to expand...

Apart from a single experiment with Macrium, I have only used Acronis True image during the last fifteen-ish years.
There are often heated 'discussions' about the relative merits of different system imaging utilities.


Denis

Transcendence72 said:

@Ghot would it be possible for you to please share the list

Click to expand...

Found it.
Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper and Hasleo Backup Suite guides - ElevenForum


Denis

Transcendence72 said:

Well there are only two ways to create an image in windows, Windows Recovery Drive and Windows Installation media creation tool

Click to expand...

Wrong. A system image is nowhere close to either of those tools.

Images are usually created using 3rd party imaging apps designed for the purpose and the images are usually stored on external media. (some people image to the cloud, but no one I know)

A system image is a complete, point-in-time snapshot of your entire computer drive, capturing the operating system, settings, installed programs, and all user files, allowing for a full restoration to that exact state in case of a major failure, crash, or malware attack, effectively acting as a comprehensive disaster recovery tool. .

This is why most of us here make regular images of our systems, both system drive and data drive if we have multiple drives.
In whichever imaging app one uses, you create bootable usb rescue drive for that app.(requires nothing more than a very small usb drive)

You boot from the application's boot media to restore the image offline. I just did this today for my husband's PC. He managed to pick up some malware. It was faster to restore an image than to troubleshoot. I recoved everything on his system drive in 6 minutes....minus the malware.
Here's a comparison co-pilot made.

Transcendence72 said:

would it be possible for you to please share the list or give the link to the forum post that has the list of imaging utilities? Are there any tutorials too?

Click to expand...

If you have a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and an image backup doesn't help, you can try use a usb live rescue disk (running on a single usb stick or multi-boot installer like Ventoy). Sometimes, your BIOS setting is so messed up, even an MCT doesn't work.

Personally, I use Active@Boot Disk and it works for me.