What is the difference in between Windows recovery USB vs Windows bootable USB

Hello, I’m Virginia, I have 20 years of expertise in fixing my own & friends’ PC problems.

Sorry to hear you’re experiencing problems. May I ask which Windows 10 build are you running - 2004, 20H2, 21H1 or 21H2?

There isn’t much difference imo, Windows installation media/Windows boot media will allow you to run troubleshooting, roll back updates & restore from a Windows image. Windows recovery USB (created using the Windows backup feature) should allow you to restore from an image & will allow you to install/reinstall Windows.

https://www.tenforums.com/general-support/12952...

If you’re looking to choose one I would create the Windows installation media on USB which does everything.

If you’re looking to create a system backup then I wouldn’t use Windows own backup feature as this is being removed.

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products).

Please do not download any repair tool which may be offered by this site other than the ones I mention/recommend.

Thoroughly research any product which is mentioned here before you decide to download and install it.

People here use those terms to mean so many different things. However ...

A bootable USB flash drive is a USB flash drive that has its own operating system. Usually this is a special version of Windows called Windows PE, but it can also be some version of Linux. You would use a bootable USB flash drive when you either can't boot from your computer's own hard drive, or you don't want to boot from your computer's own hard drive.

A recovery USB flash drive is a type of bootable USB flash drive that you use when you can't boot from your computer's own hard drive. The recovery drive has software that will try to fix your computer or, failing that, will try to reinstall Windows on your computer. Recovery USB flash drives are old technology that aren't much used now, as I will explain shortly.

A bootable USB flash drive from an antivirus application is an example of a bootable flash drive that you would use when you don't want to boot from your computer's own hard drive. It has special software to remove malware from your computer. Another example is a bootable USB flash drive from a disk partitioning application, which has software for repartitioning your hard drive.

Yet another example of a bootable USB flash drive that you would use when you don't want to boot from your computer's own hard drive is the flash drive from a backup program. You would use this when you want to restore a backup. This has replaced the recovery drive of the past because why would you want to spend time trying to troubleshoot and repair your computer, if that even works, when in just a matter of minutes you can send your computer back in time to when everything was working well?

Another cool example of a bootable USB flash drive is known as a live Linux distro. This is a version of Linux that runs completely in RAM - no hard drive involved. In addition to being able to run Linux, you would use this when you need to copy files from a damaged hard drive to an external hard drive. You can also use this to retrieve files from a computer where you don't have the password, if you're doing it legally.

1. Do you suggest I should make image backup daily?

Yes - certainly yes. Every day is not too often. Since restoring a backup sends your computer back in time, the more recent your backup is, the less farther back in time you go.

And why not backup every day, when it happens automatically?

2. If I am working on computer is it OK, in the background I could run image backup software or should I do that when computer is Idle?

The image backup software runs while you continue to work, without interfering with your work. Most of the time you won't even realize it's running.

Image backup software is not difficult, but it's not simple either. You will need to take some time to learn how to use it, but that's okay. The reward is worth the effort. Most image backup applications come with detailed instructions and explanations to help you.

Also, image backup software includes very many useful features but in the beginning, you'll only be using a handful of its capabilities. That's okay, over time you can gradually learn about the other things it can do.

... do you think one should have bootable USB flash drive in advance before something happened to computer?

An image is what you should have in case something happens to your computer.

An image is a backup of your computer. It's an identical copy of your hard drive compressed into a single, very large file.

Fortunately, there are many excellent, consumer-friendly image backup applications. Some are free, others are paid. An image backup application comes with instructions for making a bootable USB flash drive that has a copy of the application. You use this to restore a backup.

When you restore a backup, your computer travels back in time to the moment when the backup was made. There is nothing that you need to repair, reinstall or restore. It takes just minutes to restore a backup, and then you can go back to work as if nothing happened.

You can find professional reviews of image backup software on the internet. Here's one from ZDNet. The application that I use is Macrium Reflect.

That's great. When you have backups, you have confidence!

I store my USB flash drives in a flash drive carrying case, like this: