After making recovery backup, asks to format that drive!

After making a recovery backup to an external hard drive, when I click finished a message pops up saying that the recovery drive cannot be used until it is formatted.

This, of course, would remove anything on it.

It warns me that, though the external drive is 200 Gigabytes, and the recovery will take about 16 Gig, and it does remove what was on the drive,

I don't mind that, but do not understand the formatting message after pressing finished.

I have tried formatting the drive and then making a recovery backup to it, but I still get the formatting message after pressing finish.

Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Peter.

Accepted answers

All comments

Wingcowyn

Forgot to say that it is an Acer Aspire ES1-571.

Thanks,

Peter.

IronFly

HDD must be NTFS formatted to work as recovery backup and normally the message will appear just before the backup will start.

JordanB

Are you talking about a USB factory default recovery drive like in the video below???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfKn87nk0F4

I use a USB flash drive like the ones in link below. After I create a recovery drive, I put it an envelope and label it, and put it in a desk drawer so I don't accidentally mess it up.

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Flash-Cruzer-Glide-SDCZ60-016G-B35/dp/B007YX9O9O/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_lp_t_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Y1E2JA72626VN3SPPYGB

Edit: If you're not talking about USB factory default recovery drive, but instead are talking about a system repair disc, then you don't need to create a system repair disc as long as you have a vanilla USB Windows 10 installation media. The vanilla Windows 10 USB installation media also works as a system repair disc.

doughjohn

Hi

As said above, a Windows 10 iso expanded onto a DVD or USB stick will do the job.

You could of course use a 16Gb USB stick to make a recovery medium (I got 2 x 8gb DVD's).

So perhaps make the external drive have 2 or more partitions, 16 gig for recovery and 180 encrypted for data etc.

If in doubt please ask, although the answer above mine is extremely comprehensive and will cover all you need to know or do.

Wingcowyn

Thanks IronFly,

The drive used was as far as I know formatted for use, it was a Seagate. Do not understand why it proceeds to back up and asks to be formatted after this. On looking at its contents it seems to have had files transferred to it.

Peter.

Wingcowyn

Thanks JordanB,

i am talking about a factory default recovery drive as shown in the video. As I have said, it seems to transfer files to the recovery drive, but then tells me it must be re formatted before it can be used.

I think that I will look for some DVD's or another, Drive and have another go, but I thought that this Seagate one, though it is quite large, should have done fine.

What is the difference between a system repair disc and a factory default recovery?

Also, and sorry to be such a pest, but what do you mean by Vanilla USB Windows 10 installation media?

Thanks,

Peter.

Wingcowyn

Hi, doughjohn,

I am somewhat of a novice at this, and would not like to attempt partitioning a drive, but will try DVD's ora smaller USB stick and let everyone know if it worked.

Thanks,

Peter.

doughjohn

Hi

Just to give a little context.

I have a HP lappy and my good lady wife has an Acer lappy.

In my bag I have a DVD of the standard/vanilla Windows 10 operating system that I downloaded a few weeks ago and created to a DVD. From the MS website.

So when I break things I just use the DVD for either laptop and then goto the HP or Acer help area and re-install any missing drivers. Of course I do have a 4Gb USB stick as well with the Windows 10 download on.

I do have the HP recovery disks (2 x 8Gb), but the single source, DVD or USB at 4Gb, is adequate to get me up and running.

Novice? No as you are willing to try and learn and resolve issues,

Adventurer.

JordanB

Thanks for clarifying that you're talking about a USB factory default recovery drive like in the Acer video.

You should use a USB flash drive to create a USB factory default recovery drive.

I use a USB flash drive like the example below....either 16 GB or 32 GB. You can find them at Best Buy or Walmart or Office Depot or online at Amazon etc...

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Flash-Cruzer-Glide-SDCZ60-016G-B35/dp/B007YX9O9O/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_lp_t_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Y1E2JA72626VN3SPPYGB

I would strongly encourage you to use a USB flash drive instead of DVDs when you create a USB factory default recovery drive.

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I don't want to confuse you with "system repair disc" and "vanilla Windows 10 USB" as that is something totally different and outside the scope of your original question and problem. And they're not necessary. However, there's lots of info about them on the internet.

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Most people just keep their files backed up on a regular basis and make sure you have your USB factory default recovery drive. If you do that, you'll be in pretty good shape if, for example, you got a bad virus or your HDD failed.