Creating a System Repair Disk on a USB Flash Drive

Although it takes a bit of time to create a system repair disk, having one will more than pay for itself should you ever find yourself with an unbootable system. Having the original Windows installation disk can serve the same purpose, but many systems do not come with the installation disk. It is therefore recommended that you create your own repair disk, and you may find it more convenient to have this image on a USB drive.

Creating a system repair image on a USB drive is a two-step process. First, you need to create the image on a physical disk. Then you need to get that image onto a dedicated USB drive. To accomplish these steps, follow the process described below.

1. Go to Start | Control Panel and click the Backup Your Computer link. Windows displays the Backup and Restore portion of the Control Panel.
2. Click the "Create a system repair disc" option at the left side of the screen. Windows prompts you to insert a blank, unformatted CD or DVD into the appropriate drive on your system. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Create a System Repair Disc dialog box.

3. Insert the desired disc and then click the Create Disc button. Windows starts creating the repair disc, as requested. During the creation process, Windows keeps you informed as to what is happening. After several minutes you'll be informed that the disc is done and that you should label it. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. Your System Repair Disc is Completed.

4. Click the Close button to dismiss the dialog box that appeared at the end of step 3.
5. Click the OK button to dismiss the dialog box that appeared at the end of step 2.
6. Remove your newly created disk from the drive, label it, and store it in a safe place.

Now that you have a system repair disc, you need to copy the information on the disc to a USB flash drive. Insert a blank USB drive into the computer. Get to a command prompt window and type "diskpart" (without the quotes) and press Enter. This invokes the DiskPart utility. Type "list disk" (again, without the quotes) and press Enter. DiskPart will list the disks it detects. (See Figure 3.)

Figure 3. DiskPart's listing of the available disks.

I know by looking down the "Size" column that my USB drive is Disk 2. (If you're not sure, unplug your USB drive, and do another "list disk" to see which disk disappeared. Then plug it back in, do a third "list disk", and note the disk number of your USB disk.) Select the USB drive by typing the following:

DISKPART> select disk 2

If your USB drive is different than on my system, make sure you supply the correct disk number for your USB drive. Type the following commands:

DISKPART> clean
DISKPART> create partition primary
DISKPART> select partition 1
DISKPART> active
DISKPART> format fs=NTFS
DISKPART> assign
DISKPART> exit

The last thing to do is to now copy the three items (two folders and one file) from your system repair disc (the CD or DVD you created) to your USB drive. You now have a system repair USB drive.

 This tip (12645) applies to Windows 7.