Ok, this is absolutely frustrating, and I'm really worried about making a third attempt at this. Once bitten twice shy indeed.
So, I finally decided to go ahead and create a Windows Recovery as my computer continues telling me to do, and opted to use USB to create it. Bought a pair of usb drives, both 16gb, one for the backup and one for class.
When I get to create the recovery, everything seems to work as normal, the computer recognizes my usb removeable disk, (and yes, it is a flash drive and not an external hard drive), and I click "Create". Smooth sailing until the darn thing goes to creating it. I agree with the warning that formatting the drive will delete everything on it. As the recovery creation is "Initializing" it lasts about 10 seconds and says "An Error has Occurred" at the bottom. No details, no sending of an error report. No report to say what's wrong.
Here's the kicker, when I go to try again, the computer informs me there is no removeable disk. I go to my files and when I click on the drive for the removeable disk, it tells me to insert a removeable disk. No other computer recognizes my usb as a flash drive anymore.
So, out $35, two useless, previously perfectly good flash drives, and really nervous about trying it again. I don't want to back it up to DVD's as it's about impossible to keep them safe in my house. Any ideas as to what is going on? Am I just stuck with not having the option?
Thanks in advance.