I have the same issue. Brand new Dell G15. Brand new 32GB flash. Formatted to FAT32. Scanned, and found no errors. Create program does not recognize it in either port. (Windows updates up-to-date).
Thoughts? (other than "Windows is ****"?)
I have the same issue. Brand new Dell G15. Brand new 32GB flash. Formatted to FAT32. Scanned, and found no errors. Create program does not recognize it in either port. (Windows updates up-to-date).
Thoughts? (other than "Windows is ****"?)
I have the same problem with my laptop Dell XPS 15, the usb flash is recognized by it, but not when creating the recovery drive.
Videos
I am trying to create a recovery drive for a brand new Dell computer running Windows 11 and keep getting this error with different flash drives: "Connect a USB flash drive. The drive must be able to hold at least 32 GB, and everything on the drive will be deleted."
https://pixeldrain.com/u/ieqvdiHE
i've tried formatting the drive exFat, and NTFS, neither work.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Al
I dusted off an old laptop I bought secondhand and did a reset as I had no password for the existing account. I got a sandisk 64gb USB (USB 3.0 but backwards compatible with USB 2.0) as a recovery drive
Problems:
For some reason windows does not detect the USB drive I set up for recovery and I see no obvious way to force it to sense it (I have put it in every port)
I get a THREaD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER error on restart
I am working with no admin account or any account
Safe mode does not work
Did I brick my computer?
With all due respect to you, recovery drives are legacy technology. The better way is to make images of your hard drive.
A recovery drive will provide you with troubleshooting options that you can try. That could take a long time to work through, and after all that you may not be any better off than you were when you started. A recovery drive will also allow you to reinstall Windows on your computer. You'll have to go through all the steps to install and setup Windows, then you'll have to update Windows and reinstall your software and test everything to make sure it's working right.
On the other hand, an image is an exact copy of your hard drive, compressed into a single, large file. When you restore an image, your computer goes back in time to the moment the image was made. Time travel that really works.
It's quick and easy to make images every day (once you've learned how) and it takes minutes to restore an image, and you have nothing to troubleshoot, reconfigure, reinstall or update. Windows doesn't include a supported app for making images. You'll have to get a commercial app. I use Macrium Reflect, but there are plenty of other image apps.
It's not my place to tell you what you should do, only to explain. However, once I learned how to make images and restore them (which I've needed to do on several occasions) I never bothered with recovery drives again.
@Chien Sage
Thanks Chien Sage for the taking the time to reply. I'm at the age of being legacy technology myself too. I decided to update my exisitng recovery drives because I bought a new laptop last week 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD, that crashed on its 1st day while I was installing windows 11 updates to bring it up to date BEFORE I had created a recvovery drive. Windows wouldn't start, automatic repair didn't work, bitlocker didn't fix the problem, so I had to reinstall windows from the web,send the laptop back and then get a replacement machine, reinstall all my apps software, transfer MS Office Pro licence to the new machine, reinstall data from my obsolete machine I was updating from, so I am freshly reminded of the effort required. MY PC is PC1, the one that is OK, PC2 is my wife's machine and I sort of feel obliged to fix it.
I take your point about image copies, but know very little about it, the best software and procedures to use etc. If I can't find an easy solution to Win 11 creating a recovery drive, to work, then I guess I will do the research to explore that option. Any pointers or further information from anybody for a novice about image copies would be appreciated.
Thanks again Chien
I also have the same issue, my flashdrive is 128gb.
I get to the point where I tick the box to include system files and Next is greyed out.
Why wont Recovery see the flashdrive when file explorer does?
I already tried a 32gb flashdrive which didn't work so I have bought a bigger one with the same result !
I am running Windows 11 Business.
Debbie J
Hello JancuxUK,
Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community and I'll be glad to assist you today.
Could you let me know the total storage capacity of your USB drive?
To back up system files to a recovery drive, the USB flash drive needs to have at least 32 to 64 GB of space.
Let us know how it goes.
If you have any questions, please let me know and I will be happy to help you further.
Best regards,
Gunasekar N
Hi Ron,
Thank you for using Microsoft products and making community posts.
I understands the importance of resolving this issue, Don’t worry I will be helping you with this following steps.
- Check USB Formatting
- Open File Explorer, right-click your USB drive, and select Format.
- Choose FAT32 as the file system and click Start.
- Some users found that formatting the USB drive manually helped Windows recognize it.
- Try Different USB Ports
- Some users reported that certain USB ports don’t work for recovery drive creation.
- Try plugging the USB into a different port (especially USB 2.0 instead of USB 3.0).
- Disable "Back Up System Files" Option
- When creating the recovery drive, uncheck the option "Back up system files to the recovery drive".
- Some users found that this setting prevents Windows from detecting the USB.
- Update USB Drivers
- Open Device Manager (Press Windows + X, then select Device Manager).
- Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, right-click each USB device, and select Update driver.
- Use Windows Media Creation Tool Instead
- If Recovery Drive still doesn’t work, try using the Windows Media Creation Tool to create a bootable USB.
- Download it from Download Windows 11
Please feel free to let me know how it goes.
Chan G
Microsoft Community Moderator
It works if you disable the system files backup. Thatis no good. I have found that this has been a problem for several years. I am very disappointed as I was forced to buy a new system inorder to go to windows 11 and have upgrades.
As the title suggests, I can't seem to use the recovery software to create a recovery drive.
I've tried formatting the flash drive, tried using different ports, etc to no avail.
File explorer opens the flash drive fine and I can use it there but not with the recovery software. Any solutions please?
My current Windows 11 version is KB5034123. Windows RE status was enabled. I guess I'm wondering why you suggested going through several steps when this is a known problem. Why didn't you just tell me that Recovery Media Creator doesn't work. Since this problem has been known for a very long time including in Windows 10, why doesn't Microsoft fix it?
I've found if you turn off Microsoft Defender Virus protection and other Virus protectors that I can make Recovery FlashDrive.
I've gone through this procedure several times. I formatted a new 32GB flash drive, and it shows "empty" in explorer.
Steps 1 and 2 seem to complete ok. Then it starts backing up files (progress bar repeats) without my clicking "Next".
Then it says to connect a usb drive, has to be 32gb, everything will be deleted.
I put the flash drive in the USB slot for step 3 and it starts running without clicking "Next" (progress bar repeats).
When it finishes (I guess), I don't get a chance to click "next" or "create". It goes back to "connect a usb flash drive". This happens whether the flash drive is inserted before I start or after.
What's happening? How can I get this done?