Solved Windows recovery disk -- when no CD drive

[jimbo45]

Hi all
This must have been dealt with before but I couldn't find any reference to it in the Search.

If you have a Netbook with no DVD drive it's easy enough to create a Windows USB installation stick.

However you can't create a Windows recovery disk.

My question is can the standard Install "USB" stick be used to repair for example an installation that fails to boot.

IMO it SHOULD be OK but I'd like confirmation before messing around and repartitiioning my Netbook.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[SIW2]

Hi Jimbo,

The recovery options under "Repair My Computer" on the install media are identical to the recovery options on the recovery disc.

 

[DocBrown]

Can you create a recovery Disc if you connect an Ext DVD R/W USB drive to a netbook ?

I don't have any netbooks.

 

[karlsnooks]

Is a recovery disc the same as a System Repair Disc?

If so, then once can create a System Repair Disc if one has an external DVD/CD optical unit that has a USB interface.

 

[strollin]

While it may be true that an installation media contains the same Recovery Options as a System Repair disk, it takes a 4GB thumb drive to create a USB install drive. You can create a System Repair drive on a much smaller USB device, the smallest I have on-hand is a 1G thumb drive but it looks like a 256M thumb drive would be big enough as the System Repair thumb drive I created only has 174M of used space.

Unfortunately, I don't know how you can create the System Repair thumb drive without a CD drive but if you have access to one you can create the USB System Repair drive for future use.

Here's the steps I used to create one (slightly modified from instructions found here: Create Win 7 USB Thumb drive installer):

Requirements:

USB thumb drive at least 256M in size.
System Repair CD.
Win 7 install DVD.

Follow the first 7 steps of the USB thumb drive installer instructions but in step 8, remove your Win 7 install disk and put your System Repair CD in the drive and copy its contents to the thumb drive instead of the install files from the install DVD. Once the files have been copied you now have a USB thumb drive System Repair device.

I did this with a 32-bit System Repair disk but it should work fine with a 64-bit repair disk as well.

 

[SIW2]

You could manually make a system repair usb drive.

Take a look at a sysem recovery disc and it's pretty obvious how to do it using winre.wim and the boot files from your HD.

Easier still to copy the contents of the install media to the HD - then just delete everything from the sources folder except boot.wim.

 

[karlsnooks]

Interesting. I've never tried that approach, but that would certainly work.

Here's my spiel on putting the system repair disk on to a usb:
WIN 7 SYSTEM REPAIR DISC ON A BOOTABLE USB


Putting a Win 7 System Repair Disc on a bootable USB consists of three steps:
1. Create a System Repair Disc
2. Prepare a USB stick
3. Copy the System Repair Disc to the USB

Step 1. Create a System Repair Disc
START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button

Step 2. Prepare a USB stick
The stick is prepared by running CMD.EXE as an administrator (also known as an elevated command prompt) and then using DiskPart to prepare the USB stick.

Elevated command prompt = Run CMD.EXE as administrator
· WIN key
· Type CMD.EXE (do not hit Enter key)
· In the Programs list, Right-Click on CMD.EXE
· Click on Run as administrator
· YES button

Use DiskPart to prepare the USB Stick
· type DiskPart, Enter key
· type List disk, Enter key
note the numeral of the disk you want to clean
for example purposes, I’ll be using the numeral 2
· type Select disk 2, Enter key
· type Detail disk, Enter key
this info will let you know if you selected correctly
· type Clean ALL, Enter key
your entire disk is being overwritten with zeros.
This can take a considerable amount of time
· type Create Partition Primary, Enter key
This will create a primary partition
· type Format fs=ntfs, Enter key
This formats the partition using the ntfs format.
· type Assign, Enter key
This assigns the next available volume letter to the volume.
· type Active, Enter key
This marks the current partition as active. Verifies that partition is capable of being a bootable partition.
· type EXIT, Enter key
This exits the DiskPart program.
· type EXIT, Enter key
This exits the command shell.

Step 3. Copy the System Repair Disc to the USB stick
Insert the System Repair Disc in the CD/DVD drive.
Using Windows Explorer, copy the entire contents to the USB stick.


You now have a bootable System Repair Disc on a USB stick.

======================================
=========================================

 

[jimbo45]

Interesting. I've never tried that approach, but that would certainly work.

Here's my spiel on putting the system repair disk on to a usb:
WIN 7 SYSTEM REPAIR DISC ON A BOOTABLE USB


Putting a Win 7 System Repair Disc on a bootable USB consists of three steps:
1. Create a System Repair Disc
2. Prepare a USB stick
3. Copy the System Repair Disc to the USB

Step 1. Create a System Repair Disc
START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button

Step 2. Prepare a USB stick
The stick is prepared by running CMD.EXE as an administrator (also known as an elevated command prompt) and then using DiskPart to prepare the USB stick.

Elevated command prompt = Run CMD.EXE as administrator
· WIN key
· Type CMD.EXE (do not hit Enter key)
· In the Programs list, Right-Click on CMD.EXE
· Click on Run as administrator
· YES button

Use DiskPart to prepare the USB Stick
· type DiskPart, Enter key
· type List disk, Enter key
note the numeral of the disk you want to clean
for example purposes, I’ll be using the numeral 2
· type Select disk 2, Enter key
· type Detail disk, Enter key
this info will let you know if you selected correctly
· type Clean ALL, Enter key
your entire disk is being overwritten with zeros.
This can take a considerable amount of time
· type Create Partition Primary, Enter key
This will create a primary partition
· type Format fs=ntfs, Enter key
This formats the partition using the ntfs format.
· type Assign, Enter key
This assigns the next available volume letter to the volume.
· type Active, Enter key
This marks the current partition as active. Verifies that partition is capable of being a bootable partition.
· type EXIT, Enter key
This exits the DiskPart program.
· type EXIT, Enter key
This exits the command shell.

Step 3. Copy the System Repair Disc to the USB stick
Insert the System Repair Disc in the CD/DVD drive.
Using Windows Explorer, copy the entire contents to the USB stick.


You now have a bootable System Repair Disc on a USB stick.

======================================
=========================================

Hi there
very commendable -- thanks but this will FAIL at step 1 since when you try and create a system repair disk on your Netbook you'll get a message "NO DVD writer detected."

The main point I was trying to get across here is what to do IF YOU DON'T have any DVD writing capability.

Now I DO have other computers with DVD / CD writers but NONE of them are running W7 Pro 32 bit so I'm afraid creating a repair disc on another system and then building the USB drive won't work.

However being able to repair from the standard install disk is fine -- I've got enough USB sticks lying around anyway.

These days even a 16GB USB stick doesn't cost more than a few dollars -- I don't want to mess around with external USB DVD drives.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[karlsnooks]

Understandable. I also have a netbook. I also bought an external dvd/cd. They are really quite economical and affordable. There are too many instances where I found I needed to be able to read/write a cd/dvd even in the marvelous days of usb sticks. Sure makes ripping a cd easier with an optical drive.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I actually got round the problem by installing the W7 Pro 32 bit on to a Virtual Machineon another system which DOES have a CD / DVD drive. and then created a recovery disk that way.

It only took around 15 mins to create a base 32 bit Win 7 PRO VM. I didn't even need to install any applications or even activate W7.

Thanks as after I had the recovery disk the USB stick works fine.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[karlsnooks]

Interesting approach. I've got 32 bit here and think I'll install 64 bit into a virtual machine and make a 64 bit repair disc. But that's for tomorrow as too much else to do today.

I need the 64 bit machine when explaining to those with 64 bit machines.

 

[jimbo45]

Interesting approach. I've got 32 bit here and think I'll install 64 bit into a virtual machine and make a 64 bit repair disc. But that's for tomorrow as too much else to do today.

I need the 64 bit machine when explaining to those with 64 bit machines.

Hi there
remember also that so long as "Virtualisation" is enabled in the BIOS you CAN run a 64 Bit guest VM on a 32 bit Host Windows 7 system -- at least with vmware you can.

A lot of people don't actually know this but IT DOES WORK.

Remember however the limitation is that your 32 bit HOST system will only see a Max of 4GB RAM so your 64 Bit Virtual machines will probably have to have a max of 1 GB.

But this is still fine for creating install and recovery discs for W7 x-64.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[karlsnooks]

Will first try SIW's suggestion for creating.

 

[karlsnooks]

I also have found UltraIso, the trial version which is free, to be quite easy to use.

 

[jimbo45]

I also have found UltraIso, the trial version which is free, to be quite easy to use.

Hi there
We've drifted a bit -- there's NO problem creating a Windows INSTALL disk on a USB -- the problem is AFTERWARDS to create a RECOVERY DISK on the machine that DOESN'T have a DVD device.

I couldn't use another machine since all my other machines are running either Ultimate or Enterprise W7 64 Bit while the Netbook is running 32 bit W7 PRO.

Creating a 32 bit W7 PRO virtual machine and making a conventional recovery disk worked fine -- this was transferred to a bootable USB stick -- does the job just fine.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[gregrocker]

A Recovery Disk is a CD not a DVD.

The link and methods I provided (twice) require no OD to be on the computer at all.

Download the Repair ISO and write it to stick using any of methods given.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there (gregrocker)
DVD / CD was used here "Interchangeably" as I was referring to the lack of the actual hardware to write to either a DVD or a CD.

While your tutorial is fine -- I'm not sure that downloading this type of file is strictly legal in accordance with the EULA for Windows -- although MS as of yet haven't requested that the download files be removed from the site.

I appreciate the tutorial but since I have Vmware -- I've solved the problem using the basic Windows discs (or ISO's) that I'm licensed for using the Virtual machine method above.

Your method is 100% fine if you don't mind downloading these repair ISO's.

Each to their own on that one.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[gregrocker]

Glad you got it sorted, Jimbo.

That tutorial linking the Win7 Repair CD download is written by our very own Administrator Brink.

It is posted several times every day and has helped hundreds if not thousands recover unbootable Win7.

 

[dallasspiritual]

Great technique!!!!!

Interesting. I've never tried that approach, but that would certainly work.

Here's my spiel on putting the system repair disk on to a usb:
WIN 7 SYSTEM REPAIR DISC ON A BOOTABLE USB


Putting a Win 7 System Repair Disc on a bootable USB consists of three steps:
1. Create a System Repair Disc
2. Prepare a USB stick
3. Copy the System Repair Disc to the USB

Step 1. Create a System Repair Disc
START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button

Step 2. Prepare a USB stick
The stick is prepared by running CMD.EXE as an administrator (also known as an elevated command prompt) and then using DiskPart to prepare the USB stick.

Elevated command prompt = Run CMD.EXE as administrator
· WIN key
· Type CMD.EXE (do not hit Enter key)
· In the Programs list, Right-Click on CMD.EXE
· Click on Run as administrator
· YES button

Use DiskPart to prepare the USB Stick
· type DiskPart, Enter key
· type List disk, Enter key
note the numeral of the disk you want to clean
for example purposes, I’ll be using the numeral 2
· type Select disk 2, Enter key
· type Detail disk, Enter key
this info will let you know if you selected correctly
· type Clean ALL, Enter key
your entire disk is being overwritten with zeros.
This can take a considerable amount of time
· type Create Partition Primary, Enter key
This will create a primary partition
· type Format fs=ntfs, Enter key
This formats the partition using the ntfs format.
· type Assign, Enter key
This assigns the next available volume letter to the volume.
· type Active, Enter key
This marks the current partition as active. Verifies that partition is capable of being a bootable partition.
· type EXIT, Enter key
This exits the DiskPart program.
· type EXIT, Enter key
This exits the command shell.

Step 3. Copy the System Repair Disc to the USB stick
Insert the System Repair Disc in the CD/DVD drive.
Using Windows Explorer, copy the entire contents to the USB stick.


You now have a bootable System Repair Disc on a USB stick.

======================================
=========================================

This was an ABSOLUTE life save for me because all of my DVD or CD drives were broke or useless. And I was no where near any shape to get to a store to buy a new one, so THANK YOU for saving the day!
Again - Neat Technique! Very impressed!!!!!