Repair Windows 10, 11: Create Repair Boot USB Drive

User case: Can I boot Windows 10 from USB repair?

The answer is YES, you can boot Windows 10 from a repair boot USB drive and repair your computer with corresponding recovery tools, such as bootrec commands. 

The benefit of creating Windows 10 repair boot USB drive

A Windows 10 repair boot USB refers to a bootable recovery drive made with USB. If you've created it before system crashes, you can fix issues, reset Windows even when the computer fails to boot. And if you can't repair the system successfully, the bootable recovery drive also offers you an opportunity to reinstall Windows 10.  

In the following article, I will introduce how to make a recovery USB and how to use it to repair system.

Note: If you have no USB around, only CD/DVD, you can choose to create Windows 10 system repair disc.

Create Windows 10 Repair Disk for Another Computer

To make a Windows 10 repair USB for another computer, or you fail to create recovery disk, turn to the professional bootable drive creator. More »

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Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

How to create Windows 10/11 boot repair disk

It is a wise choice to create Windows 10 repair USB drive in case of system problems. Here are the detailed steps:

Step 1. Connect a USB drive to your working computer and make sure it can be detected.

Note: Any data on the USB drive will be overwritten during the operation, please backup anything important first.

Step 2. In the search box, type "recovery drive" and choose "Create a recovery drive."

Step 3. In the small pop-up window, check the option "Back up system files to the recovery drive" and click "Next."

Step 4. Select a USB flash drive and click "Next."

Step 5. Click "Create" to start the operation.

Note: Sometimes, you will find Windows 10 bootable USB not working, click the given link before and fix the error.

How to repair Windows 10/11 from USB drive

If you need to repair system using boot repair USB drive when your operating system fails to boot, you can insert the repair USB drive to your computer and enter BIOS to make your computer boot from the bootable disk firstly. Then, when the recovery screen appears, go to "Troubleshoot" > "Advanced options" > "Startup Repair."

If Startup Repair can’t solve the problem, you can go to "Command Prompt" under "Advanced options" to repair Windows 10.

• In the command prompt window, if you need to repair damaged system files, type "sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows" and hit "Enter" key.

Note: Replace d: with the drive letter of the partition that contains your Windows installation.

• If you need to rebuild BCD settings, you can run the following commands:

💡Windows 10/11 repair boot USB drive, is that enough?

As described above, the bootable Windows 10/11 repair drive helps to fix boot issues, restore or reinstall Windows OS. But it cannot be used to start other computers. Sometimes you are even unable to create a recovery USB disk.

In this case, you can consider using another free backup software. AOMEI Backupper Standard is a good example.

AOMEI Backupper

Free Bootable Drive Creator

• Create repair USB for other PCs - It allows you to create Windows 10/11 repair USB for another PC. Thus, you can use it on the current PC and another PC with different versions of Windows, including Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.
• Flexible backup - Apart from creating a system image backup, you can also backup disks, partitions, or selected files/folders.
• Auto backup - It allows you to perform automatic backup with different schedules including Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc.

Download Freeware
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

100% Secure

When your PC fails to start, you can boot it from the bootable USB drive and perform system restore in WinPE. Download and install the freeware to have a try.

How to create a bootable USB drive for Windows 11/10/8/7

Before creating bootable media:

• Insert a USB drive to a working computer running Windows and ensure that it can be detected.

• If you don’t want to lose data on the USB drive, you can make a backup before operation.

• Create a system image and save it to a safe location in case of recovery needs.

Step 1. In the main interface, click “Create Bootable Media” under “Tools” tab.

Step 2. Select the type of bootable media. "WinPE" is recommended for more complete functions and easier operation. And the created disc is compatible with both legacy/MBR and UEFI/GPT. 

Step 3. Select a bootable media among three options (here USB Boot Device is chosen) and click “Next” to execute the operation.

When the process completes, click on “Finish” button.

How to boot from Windows 10/11 repair tool USB

With the created bootable USB drive and system image, you can fix the computer when it fails to access Windows.  Here's the approach:

1. Insert the bootable USB drive to the computer that needs to restore system.

2. Press certain key while starting computer to enter BIOS.

3. Select the USB drive as the first boot option.

4. Access the main interface of AOMEI Backupper to restore system.

Tips:

• A bootable USB drive created by AOMEI works on any computer running the same or lower versions of Windows.
• If you want to restore a system image to another computer with dissimilar hardware, you may upgrade to the Professional edition and use the Universal Restore feature.
• In the Professional edition, you could go to Tools > Recovery Environment to enable the boot option of AOMEI Backupper recovery environment. Thus you can perform backup/restore operation when system crashes even without a boot repair USB drive.

FAQs about creating Windows 10 repair bootable USB

#1. Can I use any USB drive for creating a Windows 10 repair boot USB?

Yes, you can use most USB drives with sufficient capacity (at least 8GB). Ensure there's no critical data on the drive, as the process will format it.

#2. How do I boot from a Windows 10 repair USB?

Insert the repair boot USB into the computer, restart it, and access the boot menu or BIOS/UEFI settings. Select the USB drive as the boot device to launch the repair options.

#3. Can I use a repair boot USB on multiple computers?

Yes, you can use a Windows 10 repair boot USB on multiple computers. However, keep in mind that repair options may vary depending on the specific system and issues.

#4. Can I use a Windows 10 installation DVD instead of a USB for repair purposes?

Yes, you can use a Windows 10 installation DVD for repair purposes, but creating a repair boot USB is more convenient and often recommended for devices without an optical drive.

#5. How often should I create a new Windows 10 repair boot USB?

It's a good practice to create a new repair boot USB when you install major Windows updates or make significant changes to your system. This ensures that you have the latest tools and files.

Verdict

If your computer becomes unbootable, it is nice to fix the issue using Windows 10 repair boot USB. And it is effective and simple to restore system using bootable media created by AOMEI Backupper. All in all, it is wise to backup system in advance so that you can restore system if necessary.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Technician. With the inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed to deploy/restore system image file on server-side computer to multiple client-side computers over network.