How to Create Windows Recovery Media and USB Recovery Disk for Your Dell Computer

Windows recovery drive helps reinstall Windows if your computer experiences a major issue such as a hardware failure. Windows updates to improve security and personal computer performance periodically, so we recommend you re-create the recovery drive annually. The recovery drive is not a system image and creating a recovery drive does not backup your personal files, settings, or applications.

Table of contents:

1. What you need
2. Create recovery media for your Dell computer
3. Use recovery media to factory reset your Dell computer

What you need

To create your recovery media, you need:

• Your Dell computer
• A USB drive that is 32 GB or larger.

Create recovery media for your Dell computer

To create the recovery media, follow these steps:

1. Click Start , then type "create recovery drive." Windows provides relevant results as you type.

2. Select Create a recovery drive.

3. At the User Access Control prompt, Select Yes to open the Recovery Drive wizard. Keep the check box next to Back up system files to the recovery drive checked, click Next.

4. Connect the USB flash drive to an available USB port, ensure that the drive selected is correct, then click Next.

   WARNING: This process deletes all data on the USB drive and may take two hours or more to complete. This process does not backup your personal files, settings, or programs.

Use Windows Recovery USB to Factory Reset Your Dell Computer

To use recovery media to reset your Dell computer to its factory state, see Dell KB article, How to Reinstall Windows 10 on your Dell computer.

• When files have finished copying to the drive, click Finish.
• Remove the drive and store in a safe location.

Recommended Articles

Here are some recommended articles related to this topic that might be of interest to you.

• How to Download and Use the Dell Operating System Recovery Image
• How to Download and Use the Dell Operating System Recovery Image in Ubuntu or Linux
• How to Create Windows Installation Media for Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 using the Media Creation Tool
• How to access the Windows Recovery Environment in Windows 10 and Windows 11
• How to Reinstall Windows 10 on your Dell computer
• Windows Product Key Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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