How to add external USB drive drivers to bootable USB stick or after booted in Repair Mode

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I successfully created my HP Recovery DVD about 8 months ago using a USB DVD drive (using the HP utility that requires a dual-layer DVD and only lets you create one DVD).

I then created an .ISO file from the DVD and then burned a bootable USB memory stick from it. Works like a champ, accept when I boot from it, then choose the Repair option, it doesn't find the system image/backups that I do regularly on an external USB drive (a 2 TB Western Digital, My Passport, drive).

I'm assuming after booting from the USB stick that the external USB drive is not recognized and that's why it's not finding the backup I have on it. So is there a way to add driver to some file on the bootable USB stick so the drivers for the external USB drive are loaded when I boot from the USB stick? If not, there is a "Load Drivers" option after I boot from the bootable USB memory stick. Is there a relatively straight forward way to use the "Load Drivers" option to load the drivers for the external USB drive that has my backups on it?

Thanks much!

[WAWood]

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This is one of the reasons I don't trust built-in backup/recovery solutions -- as when you need them, they let you down.

I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
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 15 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.

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Thanks much!

Sounds worth a try. Quick question, when Macrium Reflect backs up the C: partition, does it backup all use (I.E.-not free) space? Just looking and I do have a heap of data on C: that is under my login/user name.

[WAWood]

@Skip- 

good question ...

You actually have choices with MR.  The default does data compression as it only backs up the used portions of the partitions -- and that takes a lot less space.  You can also select a backup that does ALL the tracks, used and blank -- but it takes the entire space of the drive and a LOT longer.

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Apologies for all the questions but I am a measure 3 times, cut once kind of guy.

Yea, I definitely would not back up free-space.

C: has 215Gb of used space so sounds like this method would take a 64 Gig USB memory stick each time I do a backup? Is that about accurate?

Also the option mentioned of adding a Recovery Boot Menu entry that would allow me then to boot into WinRE recognize my current external USB drive that has the Windows backup on it and then recover from the Windows backup on the external USB drive? If so, It's worth chewing up a 64 Gig, or larger, USB memory stick whenever I add key drivers (like for new external USB drives) to the OS.

Thanks much!

[WAWood]

@Skip- 

Sorry I did not respond earlier ...

As to the space, the MR compression is usually around 50%, so with 215GB used space, the backup will be around 110GB or so.

The drivers are loaded into the USB stick you make in MR, not into the backup.  So, they would not be copied onto a USB stick you use to store the backup.  Also, that backup stick would not be bootable, so it would do no good to have the drivers on it.

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@WAWood

No problem on not responding earlier. I kinda figured the MR backup would be that big.

My plan, hopefully, is to continue to use Windows Backup to an external USB Drive (I'm also using XCOPY in a script to backup regularly to a different USB Drive. But that just captures files, not state). So the question about how to load file from a bootable USB drive is in reference to a Windows7 recovery drive (I made a recovery DVD first, then made an .ISO file from it then made the bootable Windows7 recovery memory stick).

With that in mind, my perfect & preferred solution would be to edit whatever file I need to edit on the Windows7 USB Recovery memory stick to have the drivers for the external USB drive where I do my windows backup load when I boot from the USB stick.

Thanks much!