Last Updated on April 12, 2026
If you have been using Windows as your computer’s operating system, then you know that it has the potential to be problematic and also stop working altogether. You have most likely come across an issue where your computer wouldn’t boot or keep freezing or even rebooting itself.
When this happens, you can try some of the Windows repair or recovery options to see if it can fix the problem. But if it can’t, then you may be stuck reinstalling Windows itself. If you want to be prepared for this potential problem, you may want to think about creating a recovery drive. In this article, we will be showing you how to reinstall Windows using the Windows Recovery Drive feature.
If Windows is still up and running, you can go to the Windows settings app and then to System > Recovery and see the options you have there. If you are lucky, you can try one of these to see if it can fix your computer for you.
If you cannot get into Windows, then you can use the recover drive option to either fix your current Windows installation or reinstall it if nothing else works. The key here is to make the recover drive BEFORE you have problems, otherwise you will not be able to make one after you have problems.
To create the recovery drive, simply type recovery drive in the Windows taskbar search box to open the tool. You will then need to choose a flash drive to store the recovery files on. Just be sure it’s large enough to hold everything. The recovery drive wizard will tell you how much space is required. It is possible to use a secondary hard drive if you have one installed as another option. After you have selected your drive, click the Next button to continue.
You will then be told that everything on the drive will be deleted so be sure there is nothing on it that you need.
The process to create the recovery drive will take quite a bit of time to complete.
Once it is ready, simply click on the Finish button to complete the process.
The image below shows the typical files and folders that you will see on your recovery drive.
You will then need to configure your computer to boot from the recovery drive if you need to use it.
Once you boot your computer to the recovery drive, you will first need to choose your keyboard layout.
Once you are in the recovery section, you will see that you have some of the same options that you see when doing a recovery process by using one of the other methods. You can try to repair your Windows installation using one of these methods before doing the reinstallation to see if you can avoid having to do so.
If you can’t fix your computer, then you can click on the Recover from a drive button to start the Windows reinstall process.
You will then have the option to remove your files or fully clean the drive. If you are just fixing your computer for yourself then you can use the first option.
You will then be notified that all the personal files, accounts and programs will be removed from your computer. If you do not have a backup of your personal files, you can either take the drive out first and put it in another computer to backup your data or even boot to a live Linux CD or flash drive to recover your files.
Once you click on the Recover button, the installation process will begin and will work the exact same way as it does when installing Windows from the installation media.
If you are not sure how to complete the Windows installation, refer to the video at the top of this article.
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