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- HP Community
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- Desktop Operating Systems and Recovery
- USB repair / recovery stick

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10-28-2016 01:30 AM
I'd like to make a USB system recovery/repair disk.
They seem to be faster than the CDs, and more reliable (less easily damaged).
I haven't gotten it working yet. I've got a working recovery CD,
and I've tried various recipes to make the USB disk. I can get the
USB stick to boot, but as soon as you check the the language option
in the booted recovery system, a window pops up that says this
recovery disk is not for the version of Windows you are trying
to repair.
Has anyone been more successful with this and know what
the right preparation method is?
Thanks, ==mwh
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Accepted Solutions
10-28-2016 08:51 AM
You can do this easily in two steps using two free programs -- RUFUS and ImgBurn.
Using ImgBurn, you create an ISO file from the disk you created.
Then, using RUFUS, you create a bootable USB stick from the ISO file you created.
Instructions are here: https://rufus.akeo.ie/
I use these apps all the time, so I know they are safe.
Good Luck
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
10-28-2016 08:51 AM
You can do this easily in two steps using two free programs -- RUFUS and ImgBurn.
Using ImgBurn, you create an ISO file from the disk you created.
Then, using RUFUS, you create a bootable USB stick from the ISO file you created.
Instructions are here: https://rufus.akeo.ie/
I use these apps all the time, so I know they are safe.
Good Luck
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
10-28-2016 03:59 PM
This was one of the recipes I tried, but it didn't work before.
I would get the popup after booting the USB: This system repair disk is not for this version of windows,
or words to that effect.
There's one more thing I had to do - I had to disconnect the 2 HDDs on SATA ports 1 & 2
(the current boot disk is on SATA port 4).
I think that the reason for the error is that these 2 HDDs do not have a version of Windows
on them. The ordering of the boot disks seems inflexible in this BIOS - you can change the
first choice, but the list of disks are kept in a circular list apparently, so you cannot change
the fundamental ordering. My hypothesis is that the recovery process knows what it
was booted from, & then knows (somehow) the boot order. It won't look at itself for a Windows
system, that's positive, but it then chooses the next thing on the HDD group boot list.
In my case, that's the non bootable HDDs.
The reason the system recovery CD works is that it is in a different group & I have it set to a higher
priority, and I have the HDD list set so that the boot disk is the 1st choice in the HDD group.
I can't prove some of this but it seems repeatable for me.
Good to have this usb stick - I can keep it hanging on the shelf, & it boots & runs very fast compared to the
CD. But I have to take off the panels & unplug drives, can't reorder flexibly.