Page 862 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

Before you click the first Next button in the Recovery Drive

wizard, note the checkbox called “Back up system files to the
recovery drive.” If that’s turned on, then your flash drive will be
able to reinstall a copy of Windows on your machine—a great
safety net. (If you turn this box off, then your flash drive will

contain troubleshooting tools only; you’ll have to figure out some
other way to reinstall Windows, if it comes to that.)

Be sure that “Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the

recovery drive” is selected.

2. Hit Next. Insert a USB flash drive into your computer.

The message on the screen tells you how much space the flash
drive needs—and that the flash drive is about to be erased.

3. Select the USB drive’s name; hit Next; hit Create.

Windows copies the recovery image and recovery tools to your
flash drive. It takes awhile. At the end, you can choose Finish (to

keep your PC’s recovery partition) or “Delete the recovery
partition from your PC” to free up the disk space.

Using Your Recovery Drive

Should trouble ever strike, you can start up the computer from that flash

drive, even if (especially if) it can’t start up normally on its own.

Note

Truth is, if your PC is having a problem, your first thought should be to use one of the reset
options at this point (Figure 15-6); the recovery process will be faster and more convenient.
Proceed with your recovery drive only if the Reset thing doesn’t help get your PC going again.

Turn on the computer with the flash drive inserted. The “Choose an option”
screen (Figure 15-7) appears. (Welcome to the Recovery Environment;
hope you enjoy your stay.)