How to Make a Factory Recovery Partition in Windows 11/10/8/7

Making a Windows 11/10/8/7 recovery partition is an important procedure to restore the computer to its factory settings once your main Windows partition suffers from disasters. But do you actually know how to make it?

Delia

By Delia Updated on October 18, 2022

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Why need to make a recovery partition?

When your computer breaks down, you may be suggested to reinstall the Windows. This operation only gives you a brand new computer with preinstalled programs. You still need to spend time in reinstalling programs and settings you need. It’s troublesome and time-consuming.

In fact, you can choose to make a factory recovery partition in advance, which will contain a copy of your operating system and boot related files. It’s much easier to operate and saves you a lot of time. And it’s will retain your system as well as all the programs and settings installed on the computer.

What kind of backup software should you use?

For Windows 7/8/10/11 users, you can use Backup and Restore, which help you to backup system. However, this image is not bootable. You still need to create a bootable media to boot your computer.

Speaking of bootable recovery partition, you can take advantage of Recovery Drive in Windows 8/8.1/10/11. You just need to connect the recovery drive and set boot priority for it in the BIOS, then you can go to main page to restore your computer.

In addition, many computer manufacturers offer you a OneKey recovery software. It can also help you protect your system and it’s bootable. However, it can only be used to the specified computer. For example, you can only use Lenovo OneKey Recovery on the Lenovo computers. Sometimes, you will encounter the Lenovo F11 not working and other trouble.

For a beginner, these operations are still too complicated. When you encounter problems in this process, you will be at a loss. Thus, you’d better turn to a third-party backup software like AOMEI OneKey Recovery, which is easy to use. And it will add a boot menu in the system automatically after you create a recovery partition in Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7.

How to create a recovery partition easily with AOMEI OneKey Recovery

AOMEI OneKey Recovery is a safe and easy-to-use system recovery partition maker. It is designed to back up and restore your system, supporting:

  • All Windows PC operating systems, including Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP (all editions, 32 bit and 64 bit).
  • Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022 (including R2), WHS 2011, SBS 2003, 2008, 2011.
  • Computers of different brands, including HP, Lenovo, Asus, Dell, etc.

If you want to create a factory recovery partition, you need to backup the system at the first time you get the computer. Also, you can create a system backup later and it will restore to the state you backup. Download its demo program to have a try.

Download OKR Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP & Server
Secure Download

Step 1. Download, install and launch AOMEI OneKey Recovery. And then choose "OneKey System Backup".

OKR Backup

Step 2. There are two ways available for you to create a recovery partition.

  • Way A: Backup system to AOMEI OneKey Recovery Partition - system backup image file will be saved on system disk. It requires that system disk has enough free disk space to store it.

  • Way B: Backup system to other location - system backup image file can be saved to any other location, such as an internal secondary disk, an external hard drive, or a removable USB flash drive, etc.

Backup to

If you choose Way A, please follow the instruction below:

You need to select one of your existing partitions (here is C: drive) on system disk to divide some space (the size depends on how big your system partition is) for creating a factory recovery partition, which includes system backup image file and AOMEI OneKey Recovery bootable environment. After that, click "Start Backup" to continue.

Select Partition

Tips:

  • The partitions in grey cannot be selectable, since their unused space is not enough to make a recovery partition. The selected partition (C: partition) will be highlighted.

  • If there is already enough unallocated space on the system disk, the program will automatically select it to make a factory recovery partition.

  • The new factory recovery partition will be labeled with "*" to make it a hidden partition, thus preventing it from being damaged.

If you choose Way B, please follow the instruction below to backup system:

Click "Browse" to select a location to save the system image file. The program will automatically select an existing partition to save AOMEI OneKey Recovery bootable environment.

Browse

Click "Advanced", and then you can edit "File Name" and change the default location for AOMEI OneKey Recovery bootable environment. Then, click "Start Backup".

Backup to Other Location

Step 3. Wait patiently until the process is over. The process will take some minutes depending how much data on your system. Then, a pop-up window will appear on the screen and you just need to click "OK" -> "Finish".

Backup Progress

Tips:

  • As the pop-up window mentioned, you can click the setting icon on the toolbar to configure boot menu. It allows you to enable or disable the boot menu, hide or display the message, and change the residence time on the boot menu.

Boot Menu Setting

  • If you not only want to backup your system but your entire hard disk, specified partition, or individual files and folders, you can use the complete backup software - AOMEI Backupper. It supports backing up to external hard disk, USB flash drive, CD/DVD, shared Network or NAS. Then enable AOMEI Backuper recovery environment in Windows boot options menu. After that, you could restore data easily under AOMEI Backupper recovery environment.

How to recover system from boot failure

When your computer fails to boot because of system crash or operating system not found error, you can use the factory image you created to return things to normal. But the way of system recovery may vary considerably according to the disk partition styles of your system.

  • For most of computers whose system disk style is MBR, please press "F11" (default) or "A" on keyboard during the process of system startup. After that, your computer will be booted into Windows PE recovery environment.

Press A

  • For computers whose system disk style is GPT (EFI/UEFI boot), please choose "AOMEI OneKey Recovery" in the Windows boot menu. After a reboot, your computer will be booted into Windows PE recovery environment.

Windows Boot Menu

Step 1. After Windows PE recovery environment starts, AOMEI OneKey Recovery will automatically pop up. Click "Yes" to confirm that you need to restore the system. To restore your system when your computer can boot, just select "OneKey System Recovery".

One Key System Recovery

Step 2. There are two ways available for you to restore system. The way to restore depends on how you backed up the system.

If you selected Way A to backup system, please follow the instruction below to restore system:

The program will use the system backup image file in AOMEI OneKey Recovery partition to restore your system.

Restore from

Here are two choices for you to restore your system. Please choose one according to your situation.

  • One choice: There is no other disk in your computer. In such a case, you can only restore to the original location. Please click "Start Restore" if you confirm the changes.

Confirm Restore

  • The other choice: If you have other disk(s) in your computer and you don’t want to restore your system to its original location, please tick the checkbox before "Restore to other location". And then click "Next" to continue. You need to select a location, which can be an unallocated space or a partition (Note: If you select a partiton, the data on it will be overwritten). And then click "Start Restore".

Restore to Other Location

Select a Location

If you selected Way B to backup system, please follow the instruction below to restore system:

Click "Browse" to find the system backup image file. Click "Next" to continue.

Select a System Image

Here are two choices for you to restore your system. You can follow the steps of restoring system by using the image files in AOMEI OneKey Recovery Partition, because both ways of restoration are basically the same, except that the location of the image file is different.

Step 3. Now, you just need to wait patiently until the process is over. After all operations are completed, click "Finish".

Restore Progress

Final words

To make Lenovo/ HP/ Dell recovery partition bootable, you can consider AOMEI OneKey Recovery. It gives you two options, including backup system to AOMEI OneKey Recovery Partition, backup system to other location. If the drive has enough space, it’s recommended to use the first option, because it does not need extra storage device.

If you still do not create a recovery partition for Windows 7/8/10/11, you can download AOMEI OneKey Recovery and try it by yourself.

Delia
Delia · Editor
Delia owns extensive experience in writing technology-related blog posts, and has been a part of AOMEI since 2020 to provide expertise in data security and disaster recovery. She works with Windows operating systems, SQL databases, and virtualization platforms such as VMware and Hyper-V, specializing in troubleshooting and advising on data protection and migration.