Installation and Upgrade Create Recovery Drive in Windows 11

Sammy888 · Apr 11, 2023

Can we use this method to create a new partition on C which doesn't have a Recovery partition. But at the same time, not wipe the contents of C drive?

Brink · Apr 11, 2023

Sammy888 said:
Can we use this method to create a new partition on C which doesn't have a Recovery partition. But at the same time, not wipe the contents of C drive?

Hello mate,

Unfortunately no. This can only be used to create a recovery drive on a USB drive instead.

You should be able to do a repair install below to have a recovery partition created (if space is available), and not lose anything.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

Snugglebugs · Apr 17, 2024

My new Win 11 upgrade crashed before I had time to create a recovery drive! Luckily Update installed a Repair Install and eventually (3 hours) everything came back earleir today. Since then I have been trying to create the RD using a 32G USB drive but after a while it fails with a message that it couldn't complete. I have double checked the device and it has been forametted and checked OK. Both times!
One suggestion is to disable virus protection. I have Defender (I guess) and Malwarebytes and I can't see how to disable both at once. Now what do I do?

Brink · Apr 17, 2024

Snugglebugs said:
My new Win 11 upgrade crashed before I had time to create a recovery drive! Luckily Update installed a Repair Install and eventually (3 hours) everything came back earleir today. Since then I have been trying to create the RD using a 32G USB drive but after a while it fails with a message that it couldn't complete. I have double checked the device and it has been forametted and checked OK. Both times!
One suggestion is to disable virus protection. I have Defender (I guess) and Malwarebytes and I can't see how to disable both at once. Now what do I do?

Hello,

Sometimes when you have Back up system files to the recovery drive checked, it could take more than 32GB of space.

Snugglebugs · Apr 18, 2024

Brink - I used to get emails telling me there has been a reply in Tenforum. Not this one though! Where is the switch for that?

z3r010 · Apr 18, 2024

Snugglebugs said:
Brink - I used to get emails telling me there has been a reply in Tenforum. Not this one though! Where is the switch for that?

It's here - https://www.elevenforum.com/account/preferences

I've changed it to receive email for reply for you.

Snugglebugs · Apr 18, 2024

z3r010 said:
It's here - https://www.elevenforum.com/account/preferences

I've changed it to receive email for reply for you.

Thanks - not so obvious as Ten! I see I am now described as Well-known Member. Reminds me of Spike Milligan who always called himself "the well-known tipping error" He would be even more amused now as all the search engines insist on spelling it 'typing'

Snugglebugs · Apr 18, 2024

Brink said:
Hello,

Sometimes when you have Back up system files to the recovery drive checked, it could take more than 32GB of space.

The instructions state that 32GB is necessary and that is the biggest memory stick I have. I have looked at the one I used and after the failed attempt it now has 4.04 GB stored on it in 3 folders plus 3 files, leaving 24.8 GB free.
I did not attempt to create the recovery drive on my external Seagate Backup Plus USB Drive as the instructions state that ALL files will first be deleted on the drive chosen.

PS The first memory drum I ever saw had 1kB and the largest hard disc drive I first bought was 10MB - rather different now!

Snugglebugs · Apr 18, 2024

Snugglebugs said:
The instructions state that 32GB is necessary and that is the biggest memory stick I have. I have looked at the one I used and after the failed attempt it now has 4.04 GB stored on it in 3 folders plus 3 files, leaving 24.8 GB free.
I did not attempt to create the recovery drive on my external Seagate Backup Plus USB Drive as the instructions state that ALL files will first be deleted on the drive chosen.

I have now used AOMEI Backupper to create a removable disc and that worked fine. You can see how few files and space it needed and I didn't get any error messages. See screenshot below.

SIW2 · Apr 18, 2024

That will start backupper as the shel
if you want the microsoft system recovery options, open cmd prompt and type
x:\sources\recovery\recenv.exe

OR

add a menu to your backupper \sources\boot.wim

easily done with this

add-to-wimv2.zip

Snugglebugs · Apr 18, 2024

SIW2 said:
That will start backupper as the shel
if you want the microsoft system recovery options, open cmd prompt and type
x:\sources\recovery\recenv.exe

OR

add a menu to your backupper \sources\boot.wim

easily done with this add-to-wimv2.zip

There is another way available in AOMEI which I now realise is more or less what you are suggesting. 3 Free Ways to Create Windows 10, 11 Recovery Disk or USB The Troubleshoot section. I'll try that as well.

SIW2 · Apr 18, 2024

I now realise is more or less what you are suggesting.

I doubt it.

You have already made your aomei backuper recovery media.

By using the little thing I posted it will boot to a menu allowing these choices.

As you dont have macrium, part assist or diskgenius in your boot.wim those particular buttons wont do anything

SIW2 · Apr 18, 2024

Run as admin on the .cmd file. It will ask you to browse to the wim and will do the adjustments automatically.

because writing to usb stick is usually slow, it may be quicker to copy boot.wim from the sources folder of the usb stick onto your disk, e.g. c:\boot.wim

browse to c:\boot.wim

then when it has been adjusted ( which should take only a few seconds) copy it back to usb sources folder replacing the original boot.wim

.

Snugglebugs · Apr 18, 2024

SIW2 said:
I doubt it.

By using the little thing I posted it will boot to a menu allowing these choices.

You are probably right to doubt that my computer education of 70 years ago can cope with your explanatory attempts, but I will struggle on to the bitter end. Hopefully in a few days.

Tony