Best Time to Make a Windows 10 Recovery Drive? - Comments Page 2

I HAVE seen Bob reply to a single message several times, but it WAS a blue moon, and only when the answer was 'simple' -- less than perhaps a hundred words (five hundred is generally counted as a standard 12 point TNR double spaced page with the one-inch margins).

I have JUST gotten a win-10 (Home - sigh I HATE home editions!) - so haven't tried this yet - but know I'll have to, plus make an 'image' of my drive before I even begin to mess with it - the older I get the safer I have to be since when I don't do this stuff all the time, I forget how to do it - and that way lays madness.

I DO trust that Bob will re-think this, and post a revised version in the near future. He's not one to let his readers hang in limbo for long. But first he has to get THIS version out of his mind before he begins again, or he'll be stuck in the (this) paradigm and find it VERY hard to break-out in MY experience teaching, it takes awhile for that to happen for students and teaches - me included.

SOLUTION when you find your WIN-ID Number, (a lot of free software will show it to you (at least in XP-->7) copy it and mail it to yourself. I SUSPECT that if you go to the MS sight, it reads the Win-IDN from the computer you are using, not the one you are trying to get the ID number from).

Belarc (free home) worked on my Win-7pro. In fact Bob recommended it YEARS ago saying to print it out because it has ALL the data that any Tech would find VERY handy in figuring out what's going 'wrong' with you computer. I taped it to the inside base of my machine. Just in Case. I'd forgotten I even had that sitting there. But it's a good place for any tech to start work from if it is ever needed.

To Rod Zook

Mounting an iso file means double click the image (.iso) It is then assigned a drive letter and you can treat it like an external drive and you can access the content. That should work in win 10. Not sure about older systems. I remember before I needed a separate tool to do that.

Cheers

Rien

The powershell cmd worked perfect. Thanks

To Rod Zook,
Thank you for pointing out that it was a helpful article until that paragraph about the recovery partition and ISO. Gibberish is right!!

I, too, would like an explanation of the cryptic "Some required files are missing" notice. That effectively shut down my effort to build a recovery drive. Notice that there is a separate link to ask questions from the comments box many are asking questions in.

Curiously when I use the powershell method I get the original OEM key (Win8.1) only, but I have since upgraded to Win 10 20H2. Belarc Advisor gives me both the old 8.1 and new 20H2 product keys.

PS. to last post - rather than using a Recovery Disc I've found having a solid backup routine to be a better solution. Restoring the system drive (C:) from a good backup has saved my bacon several times (I split off and keep my data on a separate partition).
btw I use Macrium Reflect (free version) works great

As Leon reminds. Keep it simple. Back up, back up, back up. Be a hero.