Create Recovery Media Does Not See My USB Drive

[Nuspieds]

Hi,

I've tried several USB flash drives and the Create Recovery Media utility NEVER sees/recognizes my drive!

It always stays stuck on the "Connect a USB drive" screen. Yes, my drive is more than 8GB and yes it is formatted FAT32. All that I have tried have had the >8GB capacity required. The latest I am trying is the SanDisk Cruzer Switch 16GB and the same result.

What's important to note is that the Windows OS itself recognizes the drives no problem; that is, I can see and use them without any issues in File Explorer, etc. Only the Create Recovery Media utility never recognizes them. When I insert the drive, you can see the animation of the progress bar, but then after a few seconds it stops and stays on that "Connect a USB Drive" screen with the Next button disabled.

Has anyone else experienced this or have any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Cowboy]

What program are you using to attempt Recovery Media creation?

 

[Nuspieds]

I'm using the one I've seen as per the tutorial (search for "recovery" in Settings, then double-click on "create recovery").

 

[simmons777]

I had the same problem with my desktop, something about how the usb drive was being recognized or rather how it wasn't being recognized by windows. It didn't appear to be recognized as removable media. I bought a relatively inexpensive Wintec Filemate and that one worked but my Sandisks didn't. For my surface I used an SD sard.

 

[ArnoldC]

This is what I am using-

 

[Nuspieds]

I have that USB drive as well, but it is the 4GB version. Still, it does the same thing when I insert it (progress bar animates, but it still stays stuck on the Connect USB drive screen).

All in all, I have tried Lexar, Patriot, and SanDisk Cruzer Switch and all have yielded the same results. I am definitely convinced that it is a Surface issue because the Windows OS recognizes and uses them without any issues whatsoever; only that Surface Create Recovery Drive utility has an issue.

Anyway, though I'd like to get to the bottom of the issue, I'm not going to waste too much energy on it because I use Acronis to take disk images and I am able to boot with an Acronis Boot USB in the event I ever need to recover my system.

 

[Cowboy]

I have that USB drive as well, but it is the 4GB version. Still, it does the same thing when I insert it (progress bar animates, but it still stays stuck on the Connect USB drive screen).

All in all, I have tried Lexar, Patriot, and SanDisk Cruzer Switch and all have yielded the same results. I am definitely convinced that it is a Surface issue because the Windows OS recognizes and uses them without any issues whatsoever; only that Surface Create Recovery Drive utility has an issue.

Anyway, though I'd like to get to the bottom of the issue, I'm not going to waste too much energy on it because I use Acronis to take disk images and I am able to boot with an Acronis Boot USB in the event I ever need to recover my system.

Yes, that's the way to go as long as you have the Linux version of the recovery media. If you haven't already done so it is a good idea to boot from the recovery media now, just to prove it will work.

 

[Nuspieds]

Yes, that's the way to go as long as you have the Linux version of the recovery media. If you haven't already done so it is a good idea to boot from the recovery media now, just to prove it will work.

Immediately after making them, it's the first thing I do.
I always make sure that my restore process works; otherwise, the backups are totally useless.

 

[BunLengthHotDog]

Do you have any sort of Virtual CD program installed? I had Virtual Clone drive installed and Create Restore simply would not see the USB drive even though it was visible in My Computer. Try removing the virtual CD program if you have one installed...worked fine after for me.