How big usb flash drive do I need to create a system recovery from Windows 10?

[gnurr]

How big usb flash drive do I need to create a system recovery from Windows 10?

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

gnurr

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

There's really no way to accurately guess that in advance, with one reason being that there are options available when you do that.  One option only creates a minimal recovery drive with what's needed to repair the OS.  Another option creates an image this is able to fully restore the OS and its partition.  So, the size can range from 4GB to the size of the OS partition.

Myself, I have found build-in recovery functions to be unreliable, especially those from MS.  So instead, I use a third-party imaging/restoring solution known as Macrium Reflect.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR)
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition.  This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 10 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.  Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry.  This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

Good Luck

I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor do I represent, HP.
========================================================================
If you feel my suggestions helped you, please click the Thumbs-Up symbol to say thanks!

If they helped resolve your issue, please click "Accept As Solution" to help others find similar information.