How to Create a Windows 8 Recovery Drive

This article explains how to create a Windows 8 Recovery Drive.

How to Create a Windows 8 Recovery Drive

One of the first things a new Windows 8 user should do is create a Recovery Drive. If you didn't and need one now, you can make one from any working copy of Windows 8, including from another computer. Here's how:

1. Open Control Panel and select System and Security. Windows includes a tool to create a Recovery Drive, and it's most easily accessible from Control Panel.

   You won't find this link if your Control Panel view is set to Large icons or Small icons. In your case, just select Recovery and then move on to Step 4.

2. Choose Action Center at the top.

3. Select Recovery, located at the bottom of the window.

4. Select Create a recovery drive.

   Select Yes if you're prompted with a User Account Control question about the Recovery Media Creator program.

5. Connect the flash drive that you plan on using as the Windows 8 Recovery Drive, assuming it's not already connected.

   An empty flash drive or one that you're okay with erasing, with at least 500 MB of capacity, will be required. Also, a Recovery Drive is the Windows 8 equivalent of a System Repair Disc from Windows 7. See Step 8 below if you're interested in creating a System Repair Disc for Windows 8.

   You should also disconnect any other external drives if only to avoid confusion in later steps.

6. Check the Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive checkbox if it's available.

   This option is usually available on computers that had Windows 8 preinstalled when purchased. If you installed Windows yourself, this option probably isn't available, which likely isn't an issue since you probably still have the original Windows disc, ISO image, or flash drive that you used when you installed it. Something to consider, if you do choose this option, is that you'll need a much larger flash drive than the recommended 500 MB+. A 16 GB or greater capacity drive will probably be more than enough, but you'll be told how much if your flash drive is too small.

7. Select Next, and wait while setup searches for drives available to be used as a Recovery Drive.

8. When one or more drives show up, choose the one that corresponds to the flash drive you want to use, and then select Next.

   If no flash drive is found, but you do have a disc drive, you'll see a Create a system repair disc with a CD or DVD instead link at the bottom of the window. Select that if you'd like to complete that process. (This process is also possible for Windows 7, but with a couple of additional steps. It's nearly the same as Windows 8.)

9. Select Create to begin the Recovery Drive creation process.

   Please take note of the warning on this screen: Everything on the drive will be deleted. If you have any personal files on this drive, make sure you've backed up the files.

10. Wait while Windows creates the Recovery Drive, which involves formatting and then copying the necessary files to it.

    This process could take anywhere from a few to several minutes.

11. Select Finish on the completion screen, which, if everything worked as expected, says The recovery drive is ready.

Label and Store the Recovery Drive

You're not done yet! The most important two steps are yet to come.

Label the flash drive. Something like Windows 8 Recovery Drive should make pretty obvious what this drive is for.

The last thing you want to do is toss an unlabeled flash drive in your drawer that has four other ones in there, too, which brings up a vital point: Store the flash drive somewhere safe. You'll need to know what you did with it when the time comes to use it!

What Is a Recovery Drive?

A Windows 8 Recovery Drive gives you access to Advanced Startup Options, a menu full of advanced repair and troubleshooting tools such as Command Prompt, System Restore, Refresh Your PC, Rest Your PC, Automatic Repair, and more.

With a Recovery Drive available, you can boot to the flash drive to access those tools if you can't start Windows 8 normally.