General notes on Windows recovery media

[Maurice Naggar]

I would recommend, as a best safety practice &  as a measure of general help, for any Windows 10 machine owner ( or even if your machine were on windows 8.1  or even 7) to make and keep safe a Windows "recovery drive"   or a USB-stick with the Windows Media Creation tool .   Those can be a lifesaver in an event when / if  Windows normal mode is not working out.

These are in the way of "special-help-tools"  that provide other ways to help on Windows.   I am listing below a couple of article links

See Option One  in    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2376-create-bootable-usb-flash-drive-install-windows-10-a.html

The USB made with the Media Creation tool is useful to get machine into special Windows Recovery Environment.   

( Just as one example, its possible to use the Recovery Environment's  Command prompt to Restore windows from a pre-existing Restore Point).

It is always a good  to have  & is has more  general  options than the "recovery drive".

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To make a Recovery drive media   see   https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026852/windows-create-a-recovery-drive

Basically a Recovery Drive (a.k.a., USB Recovery Drive) is made from the Windows currently installed on your computer

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Also, make system Backup media.

Backup is your best friend.  Keep backups of your system on a regular basis to offline storage & keep those safe. 

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/136226-backup-software/

Edited July 19, 2020 by AdvancedSetup
corrected font issue

[Maurice Naggar]

I have 2 other general suggestions about Windows 10.  The first is to have the machine be able to have the means visually to see advanced start options.

The second is to turn off the standard auto-reboot if the system hits a system error condition.

Press   Windows Key + X  on keyboard and pick Command Prompt ( Admin )

There are 2 command lines listed below.  COPY & Paste into the Command-window ( or type verbatim each command line)  

& after each, press Enter key on keyboard.

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes

 

wmic recoveros set AutoReboot = False

Close the Command window after you are all done.

 

The result from the first command would be seen just before the operating system is about to be started.   and would allow the use of the F8 function key so that you can select your choice of startup.

(a)  After initial PC startup / BIOS POST has completed, your machine shows

 

      Pressing ENTER-key or after the timeout elapses,  regular Windows 10 would be started.

      Pressing F8 function key on keyboard would get the machine to proceed to a choice of advanced Startup choices  like below.

 

(  B   )

 

also see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

 

NOTE:   

Changing boot menu timeout

By default the boot menu (boot manager) screen is displayed for 30 seconds before continuing with the normal boot. You can change this timeout period with the following command.   For example here set to 10 seconds.

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} timeout 10

Additional NOTE:

For some computers, you can tap F11 key on the keyboard as soon as the computer powers on, and this can help you access Advanced Options menu in Windows 10.

NOTE: Samples above for (a) is on a single Operating system machine.   Dual or multiple OS boot setups are slightly different on initial screen.

 

NOTE:  The second command line at the top is to turn off Windows's default reboot on a system abort.
Too often the auto-restart will simply just result in a loop condition.
When there is a Windows STOP condition ( aka BSOD) jot down the STOP code description at the very bottom.  The goal is to document the Stop code verbiage / description.
Then power off PC.   wait around one minute.  Do a cold restart  ( power back on).

Edited July 19, 2020 by AdvancedSetup
corrected font issue and updated image

[Maurice Naggar]

This link is to an article that lists several ways to get to the advanced startup options from within a working Windows 10 system, as well as a few using recovery media.
https://www.minitool.com/news/advanced-options-windows-10-009.html