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.

[crispystl]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

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.

Wait...do I need to download the Windows exe file first? Sorry I was thinking Rufus installed that on the flash drive, but it makes senses if I need to get it on my computer first and then Rufus pulls it form there?

[Fish]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

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.

Starting in Win10 20H2 and later they implemented Windows Defender to block that. I'm pretty sure you can boot into Safe Mode with Networking and still make it work probably. Or remove the drive and connect it to another machine. As long as there are no managed group policies to block it. Like any reasonable IT managed outfit would. We bitlocker all our mobile devices so that isn't an issue. Bitlocker can be a bitch though. Dumb users can trigger it just being dumb.