What is causing the We can’t create a recovery drive on this PC error
We investigated this error message by looking at various user reports. Based on what we gathered, there are several common scenarios that will trigger this behavior. Here’s a list with potential culprits that might be responsible for the issue: If you’re struggling to resolve this particular issue, this article will provide you with a list of verified troubleshooting guides. Below you have a collection of methods that other users in a similar situation have followed to resolve the error message permanently. To make sure you don’t dive into unnecessary operations, follow the methods below in order – they are ordered by efficiency and severity.
Method 1: Recreating the recovery environment via CMD
Most users encountering this issue have managed to resolve the issue by using an elevated Command Prompt window to restore the recovery environment. Here’s a quick guide on how to do this: If you’re still encountering the issue, move down to the next method below.
Method 2: Recovering the winre.wip file
Some users encountering the same issue have managed to resolve the issue after discovering that the winre.wim file was missing from their computer. This is one of the most common reasons why Windows users receive the We can’t create a recovery drive on this PC error. It’s fairly uncommon for the winre.wim file to get lost, but it’s known to happen if the user deploys a deep cleanup scan with several 3rd party tools or after the user tries to clone the system on another drive. If you’re suspecting that the winre.wim file might be missing, there are two different methods that you can follow in order to get it back in place. We will cover both approaches down below. Please follow whichever guide seems more convenable to your current situation and setup.
Option One: Fetching a copy of winre.wim from a different Windows system
For this method to work, you’ll need to have access to a different Windows system that has a healthy winre.wim file. Keep in mind that it needs to match the Windows version of the affected machine. If this scenario is applicable to you, follow the steps below to retrieve the healthy winre.wim file:
Option 2: Copying the winre.wim file from the installation media
Another approach that you can follow in order to retrieve the winre.wim file is to insert the installation media of your active OS and mount the install.wim. You will be able to copy the winre.wim file from there and then paste it inside the C:\ windows\ system32 \ recovery. Note: This method is only confirmed to work with Windows 8.1. Here’s a quick guide on how to do this: If this method was not successful, move down to the next method below.
Method 3: Regain the lost recovery partition information
If you’re positive that your hard drive contains a recovery partition, there’s one procedure that several users have followed in order to regain the lost recovery information. But keep in mind that if you have no recovery partition at all, this procedure will not work for you. Here’s what you have to do to recover the lost recovery partition information: If this method was not successful or you don’t have a recovery environment configured on your machine, move down to the next method below.
Method 4: Clone your computer and save it to a USB HDD
If you’ve come this far without a result, just know you can actually use a third party solution to create the 3rd party equivalent of a Windows-created recovery drive. Several users encountering the same issue were able to create a 3rd party recovery drive by using Macrium Reflect (FREE) or a similar software. If you decide to use Macrium Reflect, follow this guide (here) to create a backup of your computer – the equivalent of a recovery drive.
Method 5: Perform a clean install or repair install
If you’ve come this far without a result, it’s very likely that your current system configuration isn’t constructed to create a recovery media. This typically occurs if the user has previously upgraded to Windows 10 from an older Windows version. If you’re in the same situation, the only fix (other than following Method 3) is to perform a clean install. A clean install will re-initiate all Windows components including the Windows recovery environment. You can follow this guide (here) for steps on performing a clean install.
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