Unable to create a recovery drive with a 32GB or 64GB USB drive

Question

I am trying to make a recovery drive using the built-in Recovery Drive app. When Recovery Drive asks me to connect a USB flash drive of at least 32GB, I tried connecting both a 32GB USB drive and a 64GB USB drive. However, the 'Next' button remains grayed out and I can’t continue.

Answer 1

The built-in Recovery Drive feature in Windows uses the FAT32 file system to format the recovery drive. Unfortunately, it has a limitation that prevents it from creating drive partitions greater than 32 GB.

While this limitation wasn’t an issue in the past for creating recovery drives, some of the most recent custom installations from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) include AI models, which take up a lot of space. We’re now seeing OEM customization folders approaching or exceeding this 32 GB limit.

If your OEM’s customization folder approaches this 32 GB limit, the Recovery Drive app knows it can’t create a partition large enough for this folder, so it won’t continue. However, it does not present an error message when this happens. It simply leaves the “Next” box grayed out.

This is a known issue in Windows. While Microsoft is investigating changing the design for Recovery Drive to get rid of the 32GB limitation, there is currently no timeline for when this might be implemented. Until then, you won’t be able to use the built-in Recovery Drive app to create a recovery drive for your device. We recommend you contact your manufacturer for possible recovery drive options.