Create a recovery drive won't recognize flash drive

[palfguy]

I'm in the process of moving to an SSD and need to create a backup drive in order to repair the BIOS after transferring everything. However, when I try to create one - the create a recovery drive program won't recognize the flash drive I have connected as a flash drive.

I first tried with a SanDisk Cruzer which apparently had a quirk in that it shows up as a hard drive instead of removable flash drive. That seems to be well documented on forums all over the place and there is no fix.

So, I purchased a cheap 8 GB stick (no brand) and Windows (I'm running 8.1 x64) recognizes it as a removable disk. However, the create a backup utility still won't recognize it. I've found some random fixes that have worked for some (such as plugging it into a different USB port) but nothing has worked for me so far. I've tried doing it with the "copy the recovery partition" option both checked and unchecked.

If there's no solution to this wonderful "quirk" of Windows, then is there something else I can do to repair BIOS? Seems like there's not a fix to my problem out there...

EDIT
So as of right now, I tried using HPs recovery software which seems to do the same thing as copying over your entire recovery partition. That didn't work either. However..when I had both USB sticks plugged in the Windows supplied utility recognized the SanDisk Cruzer when I checked the "copy the partition" thing...so this might be solved.

 

[Clintlgm]

You might save yourself a lot of aggravation by down loading a free copy of Macrium Reflect, you can make a Disk Image that can be restored to any drive it will fit on. or just copy/clone to your SSD. just make sure your current drive doesn't have more data than will fit on the SSD, Reflect will adjust the C: partition size

The recovery USB needs to work they are not created equal if Reflect doesn't recognize it get another one that will. I can't help you with the other program you are using Reflect is known to work for everyone.

 

[alphanumeric]

SanDisk thumb drives have a bit set in their firmware that makes them show up as a "Fixed Disk" instead of "Removable Media". The Windows Recovery utility is looking for Removable Media and thus just ignores them. The Windows 7 DVD Download tool also ignores the SanDisk drives.

EDIT: Ops, I see now that you figured that all out, sorry. I was distracted and didn't read everything you posted.