Learn how to recover Windows 10 from a USB drive step by step to fix issues with your operating system quickly and easily.
How to Recover Windows 10 from USB
Almost every Windows 10 user has at least once encountered the inability to start a PC or laptop due to problems with the OS. Recovery via a special flash drive will help fix the situation. We will talk about it in this article.
Initial stage of Windows recovery
All users need to have direct access to a bootable Windows on a flash drive. This is important in cases where the system fails and cannot be revived by other means.
The bootable flash drive must contain Windows of the same bit depth as the one installed on the PC. If you are unsure which version is installed on the computer, put several versions of the operating system (x32 and x64 bit) on the external drive.
f you haven’t made such a bootable flash drive in advance, you can buy it inexpensively on any marketplace. The cost will not exceed 500 rubles. As soon as the drive is available, let’s get to work:
- Connect the flash drive to the PC;
- When you turn on the system, go to BIOS and launch the BOOT menu. To launch it, you need to press a specific auxiliary button. It will be indicated at the very bottom of the initial screen. Example: <F12>: Boot Menu;
- After going to the menu, you need to select an external drive and boot from it. If you cannot boot through the mentioned menu, you will have to act in a different way. When turning on, go to BIOS, find the BOOT column, and increase the priority of the flash drive to the first place. Then you need to click on save changes and exit the system. The device will reboot and the computer will boot from the flash drive;
- If there are two types of operating systems on the drive, you need to select the one that is already installed on the PC;
- On the initial screen, click “Next”;
- At the bottom left we find the item “System Restore”, click on it;
- On the next screen, select the “Troubleshooting” section.
Next, a screen will open where we select the option “Boot Recovery”. The option automatically diagnoses the system, finds faults and fixes them, and then loads new components from the bootable flash drive. All you need to do is specify the bit depth of the system and just wait.
If the problem is not solved after rebooting, then we act according to the following scenarios.
Restore point and rollback updates
Most often, the system crashes due to incorrectly installed updates. It is enough to turn off the computer prematurely and a breakdown will occur. To fix it, you will need to roll back the system to an earlier state.
To do this, repeat all the steps as in the previous case, reaching the screen with the section “Troubleshooting”. Click on it, this time select another item – “System Restore”.
The system will automatically suggest the most suitable restore point, but it is better to choose another one here. You need to choose the one that was created earlier than all others. After choosing, click “Next” and wait for the reboot. The process can take up to 20-30 minutes, as the system scans and restores drive C.
System Image Recovery
An option for those who have taken care of this in advance. If the image is missing, it is necessary to create it for such cases.
Here is the minimum algorithm of actions. You need to get to the screen with the section “Troubleshooting” again, select it, and then click on the window “System image recovery”. The option is one of the reliable, as it will return the same version of the OS that was installed.
Removing update
As mentioned earlier, updates can cause system failure. But it is not only interruption of the upgrade process that leads to trouble. For example, a “broken” file arrived or the innovation is incompatible with your device. In such a situation, you can do the following – delete the latest updates.
Windows has a special folder where old images are stored for such cases. When you delete updates, the system will automatically download them and launch the outdated version of the OS.
As before, we repeat all the steps, reach the screen we need, and in the next window, select the item “Delete updates”. There are two options to choose from. First, try “Delete the latest fix”. If after rebooting the situation remains unchanged, then click on the second item – “Delete the latest component update”.