Create a USB recovery drive in Windows 8.1/rt 8.1

Operation Steps:

To create a USB recovery drive

Applies to Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1

If your computer encounters problems, even if it has failed to start, the USB recovery drive can still help you troubleshoot and troubleshoot these problems.

Your computer may have been shipped with a recovery image to refresh or reset your computer. The recovery image is stored in a dedicated recovery partition on the computer, which is typically 3-6 GB. To save space on your computer, you can remove the recovery image from your computer and use the recovery drive instead. Windows 8.1 includes built-in tools to create a USB recovery drive. Windows will tell you to restore the partition size, and you need to have at least the same size as the U disk.

Warning

Creating a recovery drive erases everything that is stored on the U disk. Use an empty USB drive or make sure that you transfer all the important data from the U disk to another storage device before you use it to create a USB recovery driver.

Check to see if your computer has a recovery partition

Before you create a recovery drive, you should check to see if your computer has a recovery partition. If not, you can create a recovery partition and then create a recovery drive.

Check recovery partition

1. Swipe from the right edge of the screen to the middle and click "Search".

(If you use the mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, then move the pointer down, and then click Search.) ）

2. In the search box, type command, swipe down or right-click the command prompt, and then click or click Run as Administrator.

The system may require you to provide an administrator password or confirm your choice.

3. Enter Recimg/showcurrent, and then press ENTER.

If you see an error message that says "No active custom recovery image", you need to create a custom recovery image before you can create a recovery drive.

Create a recovery partition

You should create a recovery partition only if the partition is not currently restored on your computer.

1. Swipe from the right edge of the screen to the middle and click "Search".

(If you use the mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, then move the pointer down, and then click Search.) ）

2. In the search box, type command, swipe down or right-click the command prompt, and then click or click Run as Administrator.

The system may require you to provide an administrator password or confirm your choice.

3. To create a folder for your recovery partition, enter mkdir c:refreshimage, and then press ENTER.

4. To create an image in the folder you just created, enter Recimg-createimage c:refreshimage, and then press ENTER.

To create a USB recovery drive

1. Swipe from the right edge of the screen to the middle and click "Search".

(If you use the mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, and then move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.) ）

2. Enter "Restore Drive" in the search box, and then click or click "Create Recovery Drive".

The system may require you to provide an administrator password or confirm your choice.

3. After the drive recovery tool is turned on, make sure that the copy recovery partition from the computer to the recovery drive check box is selected, and then tap or click Next.

4. Insert the U disk into the space at least as large as the size of the screen displayed on the computer.

5. Click or click the USB drive you want to use to restore the drives, and then click or click Next.

6. Click or click "Create".

The recovery image and the necessary recovery tools will be copied to your USB drive, which takes a while, depending on your computer's performance and the size of the recovery image.

7. When this process is complete, do one of the following:

If you want to keep the recovery section on your computer, click or click Finish.

If you want to remove the recovery partition from your computer and free up disk space, click or click "Remove Recovery Partition". Then click or click "Delete". This frees up the disk space used to store the recovery image. When you are finished deleting, click or click Finish.

8. Remove U disk.

Attention

Now, this is your Windows 8.1 recovery drive, and if you are going to refresh or reset the computer, you will need to use the recovery drive. Please place the recovery drive in a secure location and never use it to store other files or data.