How to Create Windows 7 Recovery USB Drive | 2 Easy Ways

Need to create Windows 7 recovery USB

If you encountered with serious events like system crashes during using Windows 7 computer, you can use system repair disc to fix these problems or reinstall system. Thus, it is reasonable to create a system repair disc via Windows Backup and Restore utility at first. But in this method, the media can only be CD or DVD. Obviously, this way is not suitable for users without CD/DVD. 

At this point, you can create Windows 7 recovery USB drive. If you don’t have created recovery USB before your system running into problems, you can make a recovery USB drive from another computer.

Create Windows 7 recovery USB drive from ISO

Before starting creating recovery USB via ISO, make sure that the following things are at your hand: ISO image file, USB drive and Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. Then, have a closer look at how to create Windows 7 recovery USB drive.

Step 1. Plug your USB flash drive and run Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool, click “Browse” button to choose your source file. Then, click “Next".

Step 2. Choose USB device as your media type.

Step 3. Insert your USB drive to the working computer and select it. Then, click “Begin copying”. When the whole process finishes, you can get a recovery USB drive.

PS: Your USB will be formatted during this process. It is recommended to backup important files on it.

Alternative way to create Windows 7 recovery USB drive

It’s not hard to create a Windows 7 repair USB drive from ISO. However, this drive can’t be used for Windows versions that are different from the Windows version of the Windows ISO file. In other words, a Windows 7 recovery USB cannot be used to repair a computer running Windows 10 and a recovery USB from Windows 7 64bit is unable to repair Windows 7 32bit operating system.

To boot any version of Windows 11/10/8/7, you can turn to third party software like AOMEI Backupper Standard to create bootable media with USB drive. Apart from creating bootable media, AOMEI Backupper can:
◉ Backup and restore Windows system, disks, partitions, or specific files.
◉ You are allowed to save backup images on a local disk, external hard drive, network share, or cloud service, etc.
◉ It offers you various schedule modes including Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Event triggers and USB plug in to make a backup.

If your system is unable to boot, you can boot your computer from created bootable device and restore system to normal status using system backup file. Have a look at how it works.

Step 1. Connect USB drive to your working computer and make sure that it can be detected by the operating system. Download AOMEI Backupper Standard.

Step 2. Install and launch it. In the main interface, go to “Tools” > “Create Bootable Media”.

Step 3. Choose one between two bootable disc types. (Here Windows PE based bootable media is selected). Linux based bootable media allows you to apply basic functions like of AOMEI Backupper; Windows PE based bootable media allows you to access all functions.

Step 4. Select a bootable media among three options. Here choose "USB Boot Device". Then click “Next” to perform this operation. When the progress reaches 100%, click the “Finish” button.

Besides, you could enable AOMEI Backupper recovery environment in Windows boot options menu like this: Tools > Recovery Environment, and enable it, then you could boot from AOMEI Backupper recovery environment to restore data if system failed to boot.

Boot from Windows 7 recovery USB drive

After creating bootable USB drive successfully, you may want to know how to boot computer from it. 

Firstly, you need to insert the USB drive to the computer that you need to restore system.

Secondly, Press certain key to enter BIOS while booting computer (For different computer models, the key can be different. In general, Del key for desktops and F2 for laptops. If you don’t know which key to press, you can refer to the PC’s manual or website). 

Finally, choose the USB device and press “Enter” key to boot form the bootable USB drive. Then,  you’ll enter the main interface of AOMEI Backupper. Here you can restore system.

Conclusion

It is possible that your system stuck in troubles. To protect your Windows 7 computer, it is a good idea to create Windows 7 recovery USB drive. If you own computers run different Windows systems, you can choose to create bootable media via free backup software AOMEI Backupper. Just create one Windows 7 boot USB drive and it can be applied to Windows 7/8/10/11 computer. 

AOMEI Backupper also allows you to backup disk, partition and file. If you don’t want to make a backup, it is also available to clone disk or system using AOMEI Backupper. All in all, it is a great backup and restore software to protect your data and system security.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Technician. With the inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed to deploy/restore system image file on server-side computer to multiple client-side computers over network.