Unable to create Windows 10 Recovery Drive

Question

Windows 10 has a built-in app that allows you to create a Recovery Drive on a USB flash drive. My Dell laptop shipped with Windows 10 and, of course, has undergone several version updates of Windows 10. It has been my habit to create a recovery drive after every version update. The last time I created a recovery drive (which I still have) was in January 2022 after updating from Windows 10 version 21H1 to version 21H2. Now that Windows 10 version 22H2 (the only version update released in 2022) is out, I decided to create a new recovery drive before updating, just in case. It did not work. These two screens show the entire process, and the second one contains the only error messages I receive.

I thought it might be a bug introduced in 21H2, so I went ahead and upgraded to 22H2, but the result is the same.

Has anyone experienced this problem, and if so, how was it resolved?

Saltgrass · Answer

The message might mean you have a situation with your Recovery Tools.  Run the command below in an admin command prompt and copy and paste the results.

fcsnc · Answer

I'm sorry, but I don't see the command you reference.

Saltgrass · Answer

Sorry, the command is, reagentc /info If it shows as enabled, it is OK.  If it shows as disabled, run both commands below and recheck. reagentc /disable reagentc /enable

ieee488 · Answer

a free software for imaging your hard drive   https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree?mo

fcsnc · Answer

I have used Acronis True Image for years. However, I am no longer recommending that product because it has moved to a combination backup/antivirus/antimalware service that must be licensed annually and you can no longer buy a perpetual license. I have Acronis True Image 2020 (perpetual license), but will not be upgrading to any future Acronis products.

I have looked at Macrium and it is a great product. On my next computer I will definitely be looking at Macrium as an imaging solution.

fcsnc · Answer

Thank you, Saltgrass. You were correct, I had issues with the recovery partition(s) on my boot drive. I have no idea what caused these issues. I spent hours and hours on Google, Microsoft, and various message boards looking for a solution, involving various invocations of reagentc and diskpart, among others. I finally resolved the issue and have my recovery partition fixed! I can now invoke the repair options with restart, and I can create a recovery drive on Windows 10 version 22H2!

If anyone is interested in the solution I finally used, I would be happy to go into the gritty details, but now I'm back to normal as seen in the image below.

Thank you Saltgrass for responding to my issue. By the way, prior to solving this issue, attempting to run reagentc with any parameter simply returned an error.

kbecdm · Answer

@fcsnc​ Hi fcsnc, it appears I am having the same 22H2 Create Recovery Drive problem as you, and have tried reagentc and diskpart 'fixes' that don't work. My Recovery drive will format, have utilities copied to it, but then I get the dreaded 'Can't Create Recovery drive' error message. Can you please share with me the nitty gritty fix you found? Many thanks in advance.

Wibbus · Answer

@fcsnc​ I too would like the nitty gritty details.

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Unable to create Windows 10 Recovery Drive

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