Creating a Windows 7 recovery USB flash drive

Hello again
I thought it was about time to finally create some method of being able to reinstall Windows 7 Starter in case I'm not able to do it via hitting the repair key upon start up (I think I read somewhere that I have to press F8). Anyways, I went out and bought this 32GB usb flash drive and I was wondering if this would be a better/more convenient way to go versus creating a physical recovery disk.

I haven't opened it up yet so if creating a disk is more reliable or more appropriate, it wouldn't be a problem to return it.

And if anyone has ever had to do this before (I'm completely new to this) any kind of advice is always appreciated. Thank you!

 

I may try to help you but I am not sure about USB flash. I know that you can use it but not sure that my advices which I can get from 1 article will fit to such type of storage

 

Ton247 answer is Yes create the USB no the DVD version, F9 is the key for recovery. this thread may also explain if you want to backup the entire recovery partition to USB - (This is what I would do)
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...E&id=20100429010016296&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
Great Point JamsesD- What I posted earlier and removed will only do a base win 7 start install asus bloatware.

 

OH! I thought he wanted to backup his Windows on USB drive and then restore it if HDD fails because he bought 32GB flash drive instead of 8GB. But if all he need is bootable USB flash with Windows then really all he need is that USB Tool and Win7 iso

 

So I'm having trouble formatting my USB flash drive to NTFS. It won't let me backup a system image unless this thing is formatted. Anyone know how to do this?

*Edit* Nevermind, found a guide on Google...sorry

*Edit* Okay, so now I'm really confused. When I hit F9 on bootup, there is no option to backup recovery files, all it says is it gives me an option to boot Windows 7 or run Windows Memory Diagnostics. When I hit F8, it gives me a list to run in Safe Mode, normally, etc. etc. There was an option to run the repair tools, but all it gave me was a list of restoring my laptop to an earlier session with system restore (I'm trying to backup the recovery files in case my HDD fails).

Someone also advised I could go to Control Panel>System and Security>Backup and Restore. But when I click on Create a System Image, it won't let me back up on my USB flash drive (simply says "The drive is not a valid backup location".

I'm a little pissed because it looks like I'm going to have to buy an external cd/dvd player that can write recovery disks for me. Any other help would be awesome

 

give me an hour. I will check that article soon and write as I hope what you need.

EDIT: Question #1 You want to back up only OS without applications or all OS drive C?

Anyway tru too use Nero Back it up if it's free

 

I just want a way to reinstall windows+drivers in case my HDD fails. A few years ago I bought a Dell laptop and they included a Vista 64-bit reinstallation disk which was awesome. But since this netbook doesn't have a cd drive, ASUS mentions that you can make a reinstallation/recoery "disk" from a USB drive, but so far I haven't found the right method of going about doing this (the instructions included in the manual are either wrong for this model or I'm doing something wrong)

*Edit*
So I pulled out my dusty 500GB external HDD and wondered if it could work and what do you know, it accepts it (via the Control Panel>System and Security>Backup and Restore method). I'm saving a system image of my C drive as I'm typing this. Have no idea if I'll be able to reinstall Windows this way but it saves me a few bucks.