Windows 8.1: Create recovery drive

In order to save your system in an emergency, you should create a recovery drive in Windows 8.1. We'll show you how it's done.

Windows 8.1: Create recovery drive

1. Click the Windows icon at the bottom left of the screen to switch to the Start screen.
2. Now just type the word "recovery drive" into the blank, the search opens on the right. There, select the option "Create recovery drive".
3. A small window now opens. Activate the option "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive" and click "Next". If the option is not clickable, you do not have an OEM version of Windows and can only handle start-up problems with the USB stick, but cannot reset the entire PC.
4. Windows now calculates how much space is required. Then insert a USB stick whose memory is large enough. The memory required varies depending on the system. In some cases a 500 MB memory may be sufficient, in other cases 4 GB is required.
5. Attention: If you click on next, all content on the USB stick will be deleted. If there is still important data on it, you should first transfer it to the PC.
6. Then click the "Create" button, the USB stick will be formatted and the recovery drive will be created.
7. The process is completed with the "Finish" button. On some PCs, you can also select the "Erase Recovery Partition" option to free up space on the hard drive. We do not recommend this for security reasons.
8. Note: If you had installed Windows 8 first and then installed the upgrade to Windows 8.1, the recovery drive comes with Windows 8. The update to Windows 8.1 must be reinstalled in case of a reset.

We will show you how to restore Windows 8 without a CD in the next practical tip.