Is it possible to make a Windows 10 recovery USB drive?
Is it possible to create a Windows 10 recovery USB drive which is bootable? I thought I read somewhere that it needs to be an optical disk.
If that is the case, could I connect an external optical drive with the rescue/image DVD to the USB port of the computer, and reinstall the image?
-Thanks

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Yes, you can create a UsB recovery drive using the Windows 10 media creation tool supplied by Microsoft. It's all I ever use.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10/ is the main page... and the link to the tool on that page is
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What I am referring to is a bootable backup image of Windows 10 on a USB drive. With carbon copy cloner I can back up my MacBook to a USB drive. Then boot from the USB drive and restore the disk image. Can you do that with a Acronis?
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Bernard, no, you cannot create a bootable USB stick with Windows 10 - this is a Microsoft restriction in not permitting the OS to be booted from USB devices.
You can create an Acronis bootable USB Rescue Media stick and use that to restore your disk image of your Windows 10 OS drive from a backup drive, but this will be booting either a small Linux OS or using Windows PE for the booted environment from with to run the Acronis application.
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Steve is on the money. Windows does not support/allow booting Windows from USB (officially) unless you have an Enterprise license which gives you access to the Windows-2-Go installer. There are unofficial tools on the web that will do this as well, but they are in violation of the Windows license agreement.. plus Windows 10 licenses are activated based on the original hardware they were registered with (assuming an upgrade from a previous system during the free year, or the OEM license installed to the original PC... a boxed license should be transferable to other hardware.)
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Steve and Boobo,
Question: How would one go about creating a NEW FRESH Win 10 install using the media creation tool (I have the ISO burned to DVD) on a new disk.
PC currently runs Win10/64 upgraded from Win 8.1 pro. I have the box and license for the Win 8.1/64
My concern is what happens when the new Win10 install comes alive, online and connected to the internet... Will it verify that I am properly licensed by the fact that the PC ID/Hardware etc. is currently known and licensed with MSoft or will the install decide that it is licensed properly when I create a login that is known to MSoft ?
I'd like to exercise this creation tool ,create a test disk, use it on my currently licensed Win 10 hardware.... I was just not sure how the media creation tools deals with the license issue.
Appreciate your thoughts and experience.
Steve
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With Windows 10, as long as the hardware has registered the license with Microsoft before (shows activated), you're good to go. Might want to test on a new/blank disk to verify yourself first, but it works.
Basically, you boot the USB drive and don't run it from Windows. You will then install using the "custom" option which forces a fresh install (if you upgrade, ti tells you to boot into Windows and upgrade from there). When it gets to the license, just say you don't have one adn it will finish up. Upon booting into Windows, go to settings for license and have it check in and it should register automatically based on the hardware already having the license on file with Micosoft. If, for some reason it doesn't, you should be able to put the old license key from the OS you originally upgraded from (again, assuming you're using the same hardware) and that should trigger the activation.
What would get you is if you tried to do this on a new computer (say one you build yourself without a preinstalled OS). You would be able to use Windows 8.1 on it since it's a boxed version, but Windows 10 would not license on it since that hardware wouldn't have previously been registered with Windows as a system that was upgraded to windows 10 previously. It's all based on the hardware for verification now and not the license keys (except for boxed versions of Windows 10)
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Bobbo,
Thanks for your insight ! I am going to give this a whirl... I want one clean Win10 disk to test with.
I will be using the same PC that was registered with the Boxed Win 8.1 then upgraded to Win10.
I will slide out the OS and Data Disk, slide in one new ,clean, HDD before starting the process.
I'll boot to the Media Creation Disk, create a new W10 install and see what happens with the licensing.
The PC is one I put together and has been upgraded several times. It is straight up legal with proper docs and I have the keys.
If your interested, I'll let you know how this goes.
Steve
Perdido Beach, AL (Across the Bridge from Pensacola, FL, Hot and Humid on the Gulf Coast, We are looking forward to cooler , Drier Weather...)
We are all sick of this heat and humidity down here....
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Sounds like you have the right plan and I'm confident it will work. As long as the hardware registered Win 10 with Microsoft before, and you're installing the same version (home or pro) you're golden. It will activate when it's done. Never hurts to use a test drive (just in case though).
I visited Pensacola August-Sep many years ago (tech school was in Keesler and we made trips to Pensacola and New Orleans a couple of times since they weren't too far out). I thought San Antonio was muggy - you guys give them a run for the money. Fun area for sure, but I'll stick to West Coast dry heat. Funny thing is it's been in the 90's here, but heading to Tahoe and it's going to be getting into the 20's this weekend!
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Bobbo....
You were Absolutely Correct.
This method worked "Perfectly"
I pull out the OS disk, Inserted a test disk, booted with the media creation tool, destroyed the existing partition on the HDD, re-created a partition and let the program go to it...made my selections, said I had no key, later was asked to log in with my MS account if I had one, did that... everything is validated and online.... everything works, sound, mic, printer, internet connectivity, video driver was self updated (properly, I might add), even Cortana wants to talk... ha told her to be quiet and await my next demands..hehe..
So, now I have a good Win10Pro test disk that I can back up with TIH and save for that rainy test day.
I added a screen shot of the activation page...
Thank you for your suggestion and assistance...
Well, you have been here so you know what nasty humidity is like....
I spent time in San Diego for the Govt and sure loved that low humidity...
Be safe and have fun in Tahoe... Send us some of that cool weather. We are watching the tropical storm in the carribean...
BTW: All of us really appreciate you MVP's.... saved my rear several times !
Steve
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I'm a bit confused -- You say you cannot create a bootable USB stick with Windows 10. But that you can create an acronis bootable USB rescue media stick. That seems contrary to Microsoft's non-USB boot device policy.
Can you please briefly explain how I would restore an Acronis image of my Windows 10 laptop?
-Thanks
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Bernard, there is a large difference between a USB stick running the Acronis Rescue Media with its limited boot environment for the purpose of running a specific application for backup and recovery, and being able to boot into a full Microsoft Windows OS environment with all its capabilities.
Bernard wrote:Can you please briefly explain how I would restore an Acronis image of my Windows 10 laptop?
In brief, you would boot your computer using the Acronis Rescue Media (this can be on CD/DVD or USB stick) along with having your backup drive containing the Acronis backup image of your Windows 10 laptop disk drive.
From the Acronis boot environment, you would then use the Acronis application to select the backup drive and backup image to be restored, then select the target drive where the image should be restored to.
When all is selected then you would proceed with the recovery.
Please see KB document: 57982: Acronis True Image 2016: Restoring to a Drive with a Single Partition which gives a more comprehensive description of the recovery process.
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