Yes! Here’s how to do that on Windows: support.microsoft.com/en-US/…/recovery-drive. Note this only includes system files and a recovery environment and is not a backup of your data.

Good question. The recovery point is what is needed to recover your files, and that can be used from within the Windows Recovery environment that the USB will boot. However, you’ll likely need your Bitlocker key to get to them, since your hard drive is encrypted, so make sure you’ve got that backed up somewhere safe (and not on the same computer)! You can also leverage a cloud service like OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, etc to backup your documents, photos, and such as another safeguard, if the pricing for those services makes sense for you.

Most systems boot to the internal drive by default, but you can temporarily boot to something else. You’ll need to look it up for your manufacturer, but it’s pressing a key when the computer is starting up to get a boot menu. Lenovos are F12. Pretty sure Dell and HP are too. Some are F3. Plug the USB in, turn the computer on and hit that key, then pick the USB and voila!