Years ago, when we started to see PC manufacturers including a recovery partition on new systems instead of shipping the recovery discs, we thought it was a thing of saving cost more than being practical, as including a hidden partition with the recovery image takes a chunk of the disk space in the main hard drive. However, today hard drives come with a lot of space and seeing that most Windows devices do not include a DVD-drive, having a dedicated recovery partition can be very valuable to recover quickly without the need of having to install drivers and programs, and you don’t have to keep track of physical discs. Up until now, creating a dedicated recovery partition was not an easy task, but now there are tools such as AOMEI OneKey Recovery software that makes the process very simple. OneKey Recovery is a piece of software that anyone can download for free to create a dedicated recovery partition for your custom installation of Windows. The software is compatible with all major versions of Microsoft’s operating system including Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. The software is really easy to use and makes the process a child’s play. However, it’s always a good idea to create a full backup of your system in case something goes wrong. Follow the steps below to create your own dedicated recovery partition for Windows 10.
Create a dedicated Windows 10 recovery partition
The process will take a while depending on the amount of data in your computer, after the backup completes, you’ll be notified with a message on the screen.
Keep this in mind
By default, OneKey Recovery adds an entry to the Windows boot menu, which can be a little distracting to see. The good news is that the software includes various settings to change this behavior. Launch the utility and go to the settings page (click the gear icon on the top-right corner) and choose the best option suited for you. The “Enable the boot menu” adds an invisible entry that allows you to simply press “A” to enter into recovery mode when the device is starting up. You can also choose to show the “Press A for AOMEI OneKey Recovery” message. The default is “Enter into AOMEI OneKey Recovery” to the Windows boot manager, which shows a menu at boot. It’s best if you create a recovery partition immediately after the clean installation of Windows. This way you will avoid backing up viruses, malware, or other issues that may cause problems later on. Also try to carry out this task without backing up your personal data, having movies, music, photos, and other documents will make the recovery partition even larger and it will take longer to recover later.
Recovery
Recovering your Windows installation using the recovery image will depend on the settings you have configured. For example, if you left all the defaults settings, simply reboot your computer and at boot choose “Enter into AOMEI OneKey Recovery” to enter into the recovery mode and just follow the easy on-screen directions. Or you can launch the utility, click OneKey System Recovery (see image on step 2), and follow the on-screen instructions. Remember that AOMEI OneKey Recovery works on all major versions of Windows, as such this how-to guide should work on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, too. All content on this site is provided with no warranties, express or implied. Use any information at your own risk. Always backup of your device and files before making any changes. Privacy policy info.
