Is there a way to make a recovery USB just in case shit happens? Will it still work without a recovery moment?

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Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Patnou@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

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A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

all comps are set up to read the c: drive

That’s not true. You can choose wich storage device to boot from.

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- DomeGuy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  More pedantic:
  
  C: is just how windows refers to its boot partition. You can have a PC boot from one of several partitions on your fastest internal drive, a different internal drive, a local external drive, an optical disk or USB device, or even a seperate network location.
  
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  - A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    True. C: is not a computer thing, it’s a Windows thing. And it’s not a “drive”, it’s a partition.
    
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hydrashok@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
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!
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- GoatSynagogue@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  You can get your bit locker key from your Microsoft account online on any other device btw.
  
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bryndos@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
There's a boot key press combination to interrupt normal start up and select an alternative boot medium. Usually things like f12, f1, del, or esc, mashed at the right time after power-on.

For locked down devices like modern smartphones and probably games consoles etc, it's a lot more involved, and it may be next to impossible to boot a different OS, but there's often a combo to get at least into a factory reset boot menu.

Edit:
lookinto 'system-rescue-cd' or 'knoppix' which are pretty useful USBs to have around lots of tools to try to mount and recover disks and move data . 'clonezilla' can also be useful to create a disk image before you try any risky steps.

Beware Modern windows likes to encrypt which might impede those tools.
I've seen cases where the user doesn't know (claims to never have been told!) the decryption key.
In those cases recovery may be hard/complex in some scenarios.

But a proper backup system (3-2-1 , fairly often) for important data is a far better way to prepare for "shit". And "the cloud is not a complete backup system" is not a bad a general rule.

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Nollij@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The answer really depends on your needs and use cases, as well as your risk profile.

The simplest option is to schedule regular backups to a USB (preferably rotating drives, following the 3-2-1 rule). If “shit happens”, you would restore that backup using the same software. You may have difficulties restoring to different hardware. Acronis and Macrium are simple solutions here, or Clonezilla if you prefer free or offline backups.

If you want a way to boot to a diagnostic tool, and recover from there, there are countless options. From a live Linux distro, UBCD, WinRE, Media Creation Tool, the options abound. You may or may not be able to recover any data, or your existing system. It really depends on your definition of “shit happens”, and what you need it to do.

I suspect that your real goal is to move your existing Windows install (and all associated data) to a USB drive, and boot from that. Windows to Go was exactly that, but was discontinued. There are some hobby projects to do the same. This is (usually) a really bad idea. USB drives are much slower and less reliable, and create extra points of failure. It also keeps almost all of the other risks of the internal drive. You’re better off using option #1 above.

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