How to check the integrity of a Recovery drive

Hi Narasimha,
I am Sumit, an Independent Advisor and a 3 year Windows Insider MVP here to help.

The best way to check the integrity is to try to boot from the drive :)

The Recovery drive can offer you to boot to the recovery environment, from where you can try to fix Windows booting. A recovery drive is different from an Installation media. From the Win RE, you can:
1. Run Startup Repair.
2. Uninstall the last updates.
3. Run a disk check etc
4. Reset the PC.

TLDR, it does not contain applications.

A Recovery drive created using Windows can be used for different PCs of different OEMs, that is not a problem.

In my opinion, a recovery drive becomes useless if #1-#4 does not work for some reason. I recommend creating an Installation media that serves as a recovery drive and can be used to reinstall Windows. You can install OEM apps later.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2376-create...

(To access the recovery environment, click Repair your computer).

I hope that makes sense and helps you.

Thank you Sumit for a ultra quick response.

I was able to check the integrity by booting my laptop using the recovery drive.

As per advice, I will create Installation media as well. I see two factors for deciding Recovery drive vs Installation media. First factor is, whether the approach works always. Second factor is, what data it backs up.

You said Recovery drive become useless if #1-# 4 does not work. What could be possible reason?

Coming to the second factor, I would like to understand what data is backed up. I could segregate data as

1) OS+drivers

2) Pre-installed applications (by Windows and OEM)

3) User installed application

4) User data (stored in C:\users folder).

5) Application setting (App data)

I think Installation media contains only #1 data as it perform fresh/clean OS installation. Is this understanding correct?

What data does Recovery drive back up?

Please clarify.

Thanks, response as requested.
#1 and #3: SR fails when the problem is way bigger, for example, a misbehaving driver or a large number of corrupted system files.

#2: If the folder containing the previous update is removed(windows.old).

#4: The Reset Image is corrupt.

For a Recovery drive, a small part of the OS is put in the drive, which can help you in recovery options.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/12415/...

Yes, for an Installation Media, OS Setup which contains drivers is put.

Neither Recovery drive nor IM covers users and appdata.

What you are looking for can be achieved through a system Image. A system Image backup is an exact copy of the OS running at that time. If the PC fails to boot, one can easily restore the exact copy, including App Data, Settings etc etc within minutes. I personally use Macrium Reflect for that which is without a doubt, one of the best in the industry.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/61026-backu...

The catch is, you need to update the Image at least once an year.

Hope that makes sense and helps.

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