Try unplugging and replugging the usb drive during the part where you pick what drive you want to make as a recovery drive
Trying to create a recovery file onto a USB but recovery program does not find USB stick
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Nige Platt
30
Reputation points
I am trying to create a Recovery Drive onto a clean, formatted, 68GB USB stick that Windows 11 can clearly see in File Explorer, but Recovery fails to find it.
I have tried all of the USB ports on my Dell Tower with 3 different USB sticks to no avail. The only option Recovery gives me is to cancel.
Any ideas as to what is causing this please ?
Regards Nigel
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Recovery and backup
Answer accepted by question author
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JC 7,280 Reputation points Independent Advisor2025-12-08T19:38:14.7533333+00:00 -
JC 7,280 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-12-08T17:45:34.83+00:00 Hello,
When you're formatting the usb sticks try changing the file systems, there should be fat32 and ntfs available, it might be the wrong one which is why the recovery creator isn't detecting them.
Hope this helps,
JC
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Nige Platt 30 Reputation points
2025-12-08T17:50:07.66+00:00 Thanks JC, I'll give it a go
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JC 7,280 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-12-08T17:54:50.93+00:00 Let me know how it goes
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Nige Platt 30 Reputation points
2025-12-08T17:58:33.7166667+00:00 No good JC, I tried NTFS this time and Recovery didn't find it
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Nige Platt 30 Reputation points
2025-12-09T10:11:10.2933333+00:00 Hi JC, I have tried to insert the USB stick at several different times during the Recovery and every time I do, I get a File explorer Window open to show the USB drive is there but all Recovery does is carry on working, the bar moving across the screen for several minutes and then tells me to insert a USB stick. The NEXT box is never available, just the CANCEL one. It never gets as far as giving me an option to choose a drive.
Regards Nigel
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JC 7,280 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-12-09T14:00:11.2+00:00 Try having the usb stick plugged in from the start, restart the computer with the USB stick already plugged in and try again
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Nige Platt 30 Reputation points
2025-12-09T14:13:34.7133333+00:00 Thanks JC, I really do appreciate your efforts and suggestions, I've tried every way of inserting and rebooting the USB stick and nothing works. I've checked all Microsoft updates are done and they are except for the 25H2 which insist's I have a bad driver somewhere when I don't ! I've run also ran a Dell updater program as well to double check all drivers and then tried every variation of inserting the USB and it's not having it
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JC 7,280 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-12-09T14:20:08.55+00:00 It could be an issue with the windows install itself, recently I've seen many bugs regarding the latest version of windows 11, the one last thing i can recommend would be to simply make a boot drive with the USB, while it's not a complete recovery drive it can act as a repair tool if the OS has problems down the line.
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Nige Platt 30 Reputation points
2025-12-09T14:26:53.7066667+00:00 Thanks, I'm thinking that looks like the only option apart from going to Apple ! Microsoft seem to be making it very hard to stay with them at the moment.
Once again, thanks for your time , Nigel.
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JC 7,280 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-12-09T14:39:36.3633333+00:00 You could also go the linux route (it's free), it's what I did (ironic i know, coming from a microsoft forums guy)
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