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How can I fix this issue and create a Recovery Drive? The wizard has been stuck at this screen for 30+ minutes at the time of writing.

The recovery drive is stuck on, "Please wait."

learningexcel
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  • Should I backup first, then create a recovery drive? – learningexcel Jun 18 '22 at 09:45
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    If there is a problem with creating the recovery drive, abort it and use the Media Creation Tool to create instead the bootable Windows installation media, which is the same thing as it also includes all the Repair tools. Then check your Windows for problems. – harrymc Jun 18 '22 at 10:04
  • The most efficient means I've found to do this is @harrymc's suggestion (If wanting a smaller USB partition for WinRE, delete sources\install.<esd||wim> to bring the content down to <500MB), otherwise it can be done in an Admin terminal by following this answer's #6.2 to create a bootable flash drive [Y:] with DiskPart (skipping the last two commands [exit, RoboCopy]) → Mount the WinRE partition: lis vol sel vol # assign letter=Z exit → BcdBoot C:\Windows /s Y: /f ALL → Copy Z:\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim Y:\sources\boot.wim – JW0914 Jun 18 '22 at 12:16
  • (Cont'd...) General FYI: Windows configures a WinRE [Windows Recovery Environment] partition during installation which can be accessed several ways: once Windows fails to boot 2x in a row (can be forced by turning off machine once the BIOS/UEFI firmware hands off to the Windows bootloader) or via Settings → Update & Security → Recovery → Advanced Startup: Restart Now → Advanced → Troubelshoot → Command Prompt. If for use on other systems, you can build your own via Steps 1 - 4, & 6 in the prior linked answer or this answer – JW0914 Jun 18 '22 at 12:29
  • @learningexcel I've never used the GUI tool and don't know what it does on its backend, but if it only formats a partition like MakeWinPeMedia does and the USB drive is GPT, it'll need to be converted to MBR. Since Windows 10 added support for multi-partition GPT USB drives, Microsoft hasn't updated their bootable USB programming to remove setting the partition as active if GPT, as doing so will cause the DiskPart step to error out with an unsearchable error code [-2147024809]. – JW0914 Jun 18 '22 at 14:09

1 Answers1

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If creating recovery drive has finished by now, then all is well.

Otherwise, there is a problem either with the disk or with Windows, and you could abort the process. Ensure your backups are good before continuing.

For the disk, you could examine its SMART data or the Event Viewer. You could also try another disk.

If no problem was found, use the Media Creation Tool to create instead the bootable Windows installation media, which is the same thing as it also includes all the Repair tools. It might also serve if something goes wrong with the following steps.

Next test Windows integrity by running Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and then sfc /scannow, followed by chkdsk.

harrymc
  • 480,290
  • I've never used the GUI tool and don't know what it does on its backend, but if it only formats a partition like MakeWinPeMedia does and the USB drive is GPT, it'll need to be converted to MBR. Since Windows 10 added support for multi-partition GPT USB drives, Microsoft hasn't updated their bootable USB programming to remove setting the partition as active if GPT, as doing so will cause the DiskPart step to error out with an unsearchable error code [errorlevel -2147024809]. – JW0914 Jun 18 '22 at 14:07