ACER Recovery to create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive.

cmcohan · January 2016

I used ACER Recovery from my Aspire E5-511-C7X7 to create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive. The USB I used was a 1 terabyte external hard drive.
When the process finished, the drive shows up as 32 gigabyte, with 18 gigs used.
What's happened to the rest of the storage?

cmcohan · January 2016

It's a WD (Western Digital) Eleemnts 1 Terabyte drive

JackE · January 2016

What mfr/model is the external drive?

Jack E/NJ

cmcohan · January 2016

It's a WD (Western Digital) Eleemnts 1 Terabyte drive

cmcohan · January 2016

Elements - correct spelling!

JordanB · January 2016

Try using a USB flash drive like the one in the link below. Sometimes you can find a 32 GB USB flash thumb drive on sale at Best Buy for 6 or 7 dollars. Don't use your 1 TB drive as a recovery drive.

After you create a recovery drive on your 32 GB USB flash thumb drive, then put it an envelope and label it.....and then put it in a safe place. You can't add more to it.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Frustration-Free-Packaging-SDCZ36-032G-AFFP/dp/B007JR532M

cmcohan · January 2016

Thanks, Jordan. What I need to do now is, I believe, create an ISO image to get all the programs, data, etc. onto a new 1 terabyte drive on a regular basis. The 2 drives together provide protection.

JordanB · January 2016

http://pureinfotech.com/2013/10/24/schedule-windows-81-system-image-backup/

http://www.windowscentral.com/how-make-full-backup-windows-pc

http://www.howtogeek.com/220986/how-to-use-all-of-windows-10%E2%80%99s-backup-and-recovery-tools/

looseleaf · January 2016

You will find that the drive was formatted FAT32 which only allows for a maximum size of 32GB.

You should however be able to create a partition for the unused space:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2569580/make-partitions-windows.html

JordanB · January 2016

Good point about the 1 TB drive being FAT32.

I would just go ahead and wipe the 1 TB drive with diskpart clean and start over with a GPT partition style and format NTFS.

The link below works for both SSDs and HDDs and will completely wipe the drive so you can start over and use your 1 TB drive for image and other things.

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/The-Cru/Reset-your-SSD-to-factory-settings-Windows-DiskPart/ba-p/162503

Captain_WD · January 2016

Hey there cmcohan, Happy New Year!

Here some useful info on the FAT32 file system: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=y9GoLa

As looseleaf pointed out, it is limited to 32GB sized partitions. It also cannot support files larger than 4GB. FAT32 performs slower compared to NTFS and HFS+, but it can be read and written on by both PCs and Macs.

You can simply navigate to Disk Management and delete the partitions there and reformat the drive as desired. I'd recommend backing up any files that you don't want to lose first. Here's how to get to Disk Management: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=SIbciU

If you are looking for a tool to completely wipe your drive, I can recommend WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic as it can fill your drive with zeros and thus completely reset it to its factory state. Here's a link to the tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=XxmUy0

I hope this comes in handy Smiley Happy Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions!

Captain_WD.

cmcohan · January 2016

Thanks, ACER Community, for your great help. I have used Disk Manager to create a partition from the unallocated 899 gigabtyes of my WD drive left over by ACER Recovery Boot Disc creation. I will buy a 32 gig thumb drive for the Windows 10 Recovery disc.

Cheers,

Colman