When you failed to create Windows 10 recovery disk, the best solution is to download the recovery drive ISO and burn it to your USB drive or CD. Since Microsoft’s official site does not provide such a thing for downloading, I have created it on my own.
Free feel to download and use it. Let me know if it does not work.
If your system disk is GPT, download this recovery disk ISO UEFI.
If your system disk is MBR, Download this Recovery disk ISO for Legacy.
If you only want the WinRe file, I have also uploaded it to Google Drive and shared it with you.
Of course, you may not want to download and use something that’s from an unofficial site. I completely understand. That’s why I will show you what to do when you get the error “We can’t create the recovery drive”.
Check your USB drive
If your Windows 10 is unable to create a recovery drive, the first thing you should check is whether your USB drive is well-connected and can be recognized by Windows.
If your USB drive is not formatted as FAT32, format it as NTFS. If you use Disk Management or DiskPart to delete the drive, it would be even better.
Enable Windows Recovery Environment
If you are certain the USB drive is not the problem, then the most likely cause to this problem is that Windows recovery environment is disabled. You can run command “reagentc /info” in an alleviated command prompt to check it.
With Windows RE disabled, you cannot even boot into recovery environment. To reenable it, just type “reagentc /enable”.
Get WinRE file
If this also fails, it means the Recovery environment is missing or corrupted. You can try the steps below to export WinRE file from the installation file.
Step 1. Create a Recovery folder under the root directory of C: drive if it is not already there. Then create a folder named WindowsRE under the Recovery folder. The recovery folder is hidden by default. You can search “show hidden files” from the search box to open File Explorer Options. From there, check the option Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and uncheck the option Hide protected operating system files(Recommended).
Step 2. Within this step to step 4, you will create a Winre.win file. If you have that file backed up, you can just skip to step 5. Open the installation ISO. If you do not have one, you can download it from Microsoft. In Windows 10, you can double-click to mount it as a virtual drive.
Step 3. In the Source folder, locate the file Install.wim. Copy the Install.wim file’s location path.
Step 4. In an elevated command prompt, type the following:
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:[the install.wim file path you just copied] /index:2 /mountdir:[a location path to save the mounted file]
so the command should be like this: dism /mount-wim /wimfile:”F:\windows 10 ISO\sources\install.wim” /index:2 /mountdir:D:\mount_image_file\
Step 5. From the location you entered at the end of the command, find the Winre.wim file and copy it to C:\Recovery\WindowsRe.
Step 6. Then type command “Reagentc /setreimage /path C:\Recovery\WindowsRE”(without quotes)
Step 7. Type “Reagentc /enable” and press Enter.
After that, you should be able to create a recovery drive in Windows 10 successfully.
Only fails when including system files
If you can create a recovery drive without including system files, but when you check the option Back up system files to the recovery drive, it is still unable to create a recovery disk, then try the following.
- Copy the install.wim file from the Windows 10 installation file to a folder on your hard drive. Say it D:\Windows-OS-image.
2.Open an elevated command prompt, and type: Reagentc /setosimage /path D:\Windows-OS-image /index 1
After that, you should be able to include the system files in the recovery drive, so you can use the recovery drive to reset Windows 10 without requiring anything on your hard drive.
As you see, it may take many steps to fix this problem when you cannot create a recovery disk in Windows 10. If you are determined, you surely can fix it as I have. Also, feel free to download the recovery drive ISO if needed.
The /setosimage parameter is no longer part of the Windows 10 Reagentc command set. Instead, according to what I’ve been reading, it uses winsxs and not install.wim. I know there has been a problem with that file, and problems with disk clean-up showing a Windows Update file of 3.99 Tb (which I had). When I ran Disk Clean-up it got stuck, and had to be killed off. I’ve run all the diagnostics on the disk looking for suspect files, directory entries etc, but all is apparently well. And still the ****** recovery disk app fails when the backup system files options is ticked. Am now truly stuck!