jebus197 Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Hi, does anyone know of any guide on how to make a Windows 7 32-Bit USB Recovery disk? Preferably I am looking for a guide that doesn't require me to have a Windows 7 recovery disk. Basically I am trying to make a USB disk that I can use to store all of my backups - and also have the bootable Windows 7 recovery disk files on it too, so that all I have to do, if and when my system fails, is plug the USB drive in, boot from it and select which backup image to restore. Also, does Windows Back up overwrite previous backups? This would be useful to prevent my recovery disk from becoming full, so that perhaps only the last one or two back-ups are kept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jebus197 Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 ? Neowin's unusually quiet today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dark Knight Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Here ya go mate! http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cacoe Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jebus197 Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/ Yeah, I don't want to make a bootable Windows 7 install disk, just a recovery disk. There is a way of doing it. I watched it on YouTube, but it all went a bit fast for me to follow. So I was hoping you guys might be able to point to a written guide. I suppose at a stretch I could use the USB download tool, as this would give me 2 options in case of a catastrophe. 1 A fresh reinstall and 2 restore from a backup. But there are guides around that let you just install the files needed to make a system repair disk on your usb drive. Also, what about the rest of what I asked. Will Windows just keep adding backups until the disk is full? This would seem dumb, as then I would have to regularly delete them to make enough space for new backups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simsie Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 I did this recently. Do you have the recovery ISO? If not you need it [quick google]. Format your USB as NTFS and then open an elevated CMD. diskpart list disk select disk [the number that is your USB stick] select partition 1 active exit exit Extract the ISO using something like 7-zip. Get an install disc/ISO and get the "bootsect.exe" from cd/boot/" and copy it to the boot folder of your extracted recovery ISO. In the elevated CMD use the cd command to go into the boot folder of the extracted recovery and type: bootsect /nt60 x: [where x is the drive letter of the USB] It'll then say something about successfully adding bootcode. Copy the contents of the extracted recovery to the root of the USB and boot it. Should work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jebus197 Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 You don't need the recovery ISO. cd c:\recovery dir /a:sh cd YOUR_GUID_DIRECTORY (only subdirectory in c:\recovery) dir /a:sh xcopy /h boot.sdi F:\boot echo F|xcopy /h Winre.wim F:\sources\boot.wim cd c:\windows\boot\ xcopy /h dvd\pcat\bcd F:\boot xcopy /h dvd\pcat\en-US\bootfix.bin F:\boot xcopy /h pcat\bootmgr F: attrib -r -s -h /s F:\* diskpart list disk select disk 1 list partition select partition 1 active list partition exit This assumes that the drive you want to boot from is F: If not then change it. Also Windows only keeps the last couple of backups. So quite a neat solution really. You have a bootable backup disk that you can use to do a full recovery in the even that things screw up badly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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