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Walkthrough: Create a Windows RE Recovery Media

This walkthrough describes how to create a recovery media using Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and Windows PE. In the event of a system failure, you can boot the computer with this recovery media and attempt to fix the system.


To complete this walkthrough, you will need the following:

  • A Windows RE image.
  • A technician computer that provides all the tools and source files. For more information, see Building a Technician Computer.
  • Blank media, for example, a USB flash drive (UFD) or CD-ROM. In this example, the storage size must be 256 megabytes (MB) or bigger, depending on how many additional applications you include in your Windows RE image.

Step 1: Create a Windows RE Image

If you have a Windows RE image, skip to Step 2, otherwise, create a Windows RE image as described in Walkthrough: Create a Windows RE Image.

Step 2: Create a bootable media

In this step, you create a bootable Windows PE media and replace the default boot image with your custom Windows RE image.

  1. Select one of the methods for creating a bootable media.
  2. Following the walkthrough instructions with one addition: Prior to copying or burning the image to media, replace the Windows PE boot image (ISO\Boot.wim) with your Windows RE image. For example,
    copy c:\winre_x86\winre.wim c:\ISO\sources\boot.wim
    You must rename your Windows RE image to Boot.wim, otherwise the image will not boot.

See Also

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