Windows 11 Restore Issue

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Fish

That page is 10 yrs old. While that capability still technically exists, those instructions won't work for Win10/11 without additional steps. Because Windows Defender in Win10/11 now blocks that. You can likely still make it work with Win10/11, but you'd have to do some Safe Mode stuff to make it work.

An easier solution would likely be to use Rufus to create a bootable USB Windows installer flash drive. All you need is a USB flash drive that's at least 8GB or greater. The Rufus app will reformat the USB drive, download your choice of Windows 8/10/11 automatically, and make the USB drive bootable.



You then insert the USB drive into the system, and boot up tapping the F12 key. Select boot from USB device. Which will launch the normal Windows installer.

That allows the hard drive to be completely separate from the Windows installer, so you'll have no issues reformatting and reinstalling.

Interesting. I just used that hack like three months ago.

Admittedly, I don't use Windows myself. I just support my family members so I really only deal with it when something blows up.