What size USB flash drive do I need to store windows 10 recovery media

[bjcoug]

I have a older HP windows 10 desktop computer which so far has been working perfectly but all the recovery files are still inside of it. My brother bought a brand new HP win10, he only had it 4 days and a blizzard went through and we lost power several times while he was on line and it FRIED windows 10 on his system and now costing him $130 to have it restored.
I still have my recovery files in mine and I need to get them out before that fate happens to me. I bought a 32gig flash drive and logged on under safe mode to grabe all the HP recovery files that's  still inside my comuter for windows 10 recovery media. But when I went to go grab them it's telling me my 32gigs is not big enough. What size of flash drive do i need to grab "ALL" the recovery files for my HP 550-153W?

PS....I had the 32gig already plugged in when I logged in under safe mode. Should I waited and logged in first then  plugged it in? or do I simply need a bigger flash drive? I remember the screen that showed what types media i needed and im almost certain it said 16gigs or 4 dvd's or 2 of something else. well I got 32 gig's. why didnt HP support assistant see it? And yes my flash drive has been formatted to NTFS so it's ready to go.

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

Usually 32gb is sufficient on any machine. Start Windows normally then open HP Recovery Manager in Start menu programs. Don't insert the flash drive until after you have opened Recovery Manager.

Scroll down in the document here to read about making Recovery Media:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04758961

 Btw,your brother probably could have used Recovery Manager and the process here to restore Windows-unless he killed his drive and it is having to be replaced:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04758961#AbT5

[bjcoug]

Hi CherylG, thank you for replying.
Yeah I just did that. I went back to safe mode and typed in the recovery manager and the HP recovery tool to make the HP recovery media came up and then when it asked to insert my recovery media I plugged in the 32gig usb drive and it's still telling me it's unsuficent and to plug in another one. I don't understand why it's not acceping it.

PS....I just noticed this post is listed under notebook. I don't have a notebook it's a HP 550-153W Desktop computer. Is this thread in the wrong place?

[CherylG]

You're fine in the notebook section. Recovery Media creation is the same for laptops and desktops. I am really not sure why it is telling you that the 32gb is not sufficient. Does Recovery Manager tell you how much space you need? If it says 32gb it might be best to go with a 64gb. All of the space on a flash drive is not available just like all space on a hdd/ssd isn't available. A small amount is used for firmware-a 32gb drive will probably actually only have 28.9gb or perhaps a little more..

Have you looked at it in This PC to see what capacity it shows?

Try formatting it Fat32 to see if it makes a difference. 

[bjcoug]

hi and thanks cheryl.
I guess my problem was i was under safe mode which by the way doesnt work for this project. I didn't know I had to be connected to the internet to do it. I guess the HP recovery manager needed it. I tried it without safe mode and it worked fine. Hmmmmm learned  something new on that aspect.

And as far as my brothers machine I was on a windows 10 forum and I guess I could of used some files out of my HP to fixed his, I couldn't fully restore his of course but I guess I could of helped fixed his which I still not sure how to do that. Them guy's on the win10 forum were so rude I didn't bther going any further with them. But before I left there one of them told me about a free version of Macrium reflect (free) + external disks for disk image files. I need to learn how to use that.

Anyway, thanks for your help. oh one last thing. I assume if I have a problem and have to restore my system that all my drivers are included with the files I just copied from the HP recovery manger yes?

[CherylG]

@bjcoug

Yes, the Recovery Media will put everything back just like it came from the factory.

Macrium Reflect free is a very good tool. I use it myself. Here are 2 good guides on Macrium:

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7363/macrium-reflect-is-a-free-and-easy-to-use-backup-utility/

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-image-your-hard-drive-using-macrium-reflect

[bjcoug]

thanks so much for your help and understanding. them guy's on the other forum don't have much patience. I should of came here to start with since both computers are HP. And thank you for the how to link on that program. I'm going there now to start learning how to use it.

Thanks again, your the best! 🙂

[CherylG]

You're very welcome. Happy I could help. Sorry you had a bad experience on the other forum. I wish you had come here first too. We probably could have saved your brother the money by helping fix his. If not  he  has a 1 year warranty and HP probably would have sent a box to ship it to the repair center and fixed it free.

[bjcoug]

Yeah he called HP tech support and they said they wouldnt fix it without charging him over 300 because they said it was his fault. and the people who were supposed to fix it (HP  certified) did a half way job of doing it. Im not impressed with their work. They were supposed to restore it back to factory condition. The first time they patched windows up (putting a band aid on it as they called it) but it didnt work well because it had a virus in it to and they failed to address that problem. He had it about one day before I got on it and found it. Then a HP support assistant upgrade that was recently released came through and between the so called patch job, the virus and the upgrade, it crashed again a 2nd time. He got it back today (the 2nd time) and i told him I'd look at it while he's at work and it appears they  restored  his old files, virus included and I had to deal with it again a 2nd time, the same virus. I am not impressed with them. Their trying to say it's his falt of course but I noticed other programs that they restored that was half there and half missing.  Anyway, yeah I'll just come here from now on.

[CherylG]

If it is still not running well I would backup any important files he has-minus the virus of course 😂- and do another System Recovery. The link I posted in my earlier reply has the steps. No need to pay for something you can do yourself. I would also encouage him to get his Recovery Media made.