How big should USB Stick be to create restore

[tcr333]

How big should the USB Pendrive be to create a recovery media, Is 32GB enough?

Also on the Recovery Software it states that recovery media can only be created once. Just to confirm this means you can only create the media once but use it multiple times if need be?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

Yes, 32 GB is large enough and should not exceed that size.  The recovery manager software should provide instructions including what size flash drive you should use.

Yes, it means that you get one chance to create recovery media, but the USB recovery drive can be used multiple times to reinstall Windows 10.

Also, you can always clean install W10 at any time by using the Microsoft W10 media creation tool at the link below.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

The tool will allow you to create a bootable W10 USB installation flash drive, or save an ISO file that you can burn to a DVD using your DVD burning program's burn ISO file option.

The tool will also work with the W10 product key in your PC's BIOS and activate once you are connected to the internet.

After W10 installs, you can install the drivers and available software from your PC's support page.

[tcr333]

Excellent thanks Paul.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[tcr333]

Hi,

I've just added a 250gb WD SSD to my laptop and I've created the USB recovery stick.

I've booted to the USB stick but it's no very clear what to do to install/ recover my OS onto the SSD.

How is this done? I'm not bothered about losing any data as all I have installed is firefox and steam and all my data for those apps can be redonwloaded

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I have never used W10 HP recovery media created by the recovery manager software, so I don't know what you need to do.

I have only done clean installs of W10 using the media creation tool.

The only suggestion I can offer would be to see if any of the info at the link below is of help to you.

http://hp.dezide.com/ts/start.jsp?guide=HPSystemRecovery.net&as=true&SFS=sdoc&section=ccweb&language...

[tcr333]

Does the windows media tool give the option of which drive to install to?

I can't belive something as simple as reinstalling to another drive isn't available in the options.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I looked at the specs for your model notebook and the specs state that it originally came with a 7,200 RPM drive.

If you added a M.2 SSD in addition to the hard drive, I have no idea how that kind of setup works.

On some model notebooks, the M.2 SSD can only be used as a storage drive, on some it can be used as either.

Since I assume the USB recovery drive you created only wants to install on the mechanical hard drive, I would have to assume that since that was how your notebook was originally configured, that it will only install on the 7,200 RPM hard drive.

If you had replaced the 7,200 RPM drive with a conventional SATA III SSD, then the recovery USB you created probably would have worked just fine.

I guess you can try the Media Creation Tool and see if it lets you install W10 on the SSD you installed.

If it doesn't, then I don't know what to tell you.

That is not my area of expertise.

@Huffer can you share your knowledge here?

If you prefer, you can reply to tcr333's post at the link below and start your own discussion...

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/How-do-I-install-fresh-on-my-SS...

[tcr333]

I've just order 16gb pen drive to install windows on. Will 16gb be enough? And do I need my serial number for either the creation or during the install?

And finally Paul assuming the tool works and I can choose which drive to install on am I better formatting the 7200rpm drive first?

Thnaks, Tim

[tcr333]

By the way here is a image of my current system in disk managment if this is any help :-