How To Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc

A Windows 7 System Repair Disc gives you access to Windows 7's System Recovery Options, a powerful set of Microsoft created diagnostic and repair utilities.

The first thing a new Windows 7 user should do is create a System Repair Disc. With a System Repair Disc, you'll have access to Windows 7 diagnostic tools like Startup Repair, System Restore, System Image Recovery, Windows Memory Diagnostic, and Command Prompt.

Important: You'll need a disc burner to create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc. Unfortunately, a flash drive is not a supported bootable media in this case.

Tip: The following process works equally well to create a Windows 8 System Repair Disc but there's an alternative process that's probably a better option. See How To Create a Windows 8 Recovery Drive for details.

Follow these steps to create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc:

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: Creating a System Repair Disc in Windows 7 should only take around 5 minutes.

Here's How:

1. Click on Start -> All Programs -> Maintenance.
   Tip: An alternative is to execute recdisc from the Run box or a Command Prompt window. If you do that, you can skip to Step 3 below.
2. Click on the Create a System Repair Disc shortcut.
3. Choose your optical disc drive from the Drive: drop-down box.
4. Insert a blank disc in your optical drive.
   Note: An empty CD should be large enough for a System Repair Disc. I created a Windows 7 System Repair Disc on a new Windows 7 32-bit installation and it was only 145MB. If you only have a blank DVD or BD available, that's okay too of course.
5. Click the Create disc button.
   Windows 7 will now create the System Repair Disc on the blank disc you inserted in the previous step. No special disc burning software is required.
6. After the System Repair Disc creation is complete, Windows 7 displays a dialog box that you can close by clicking the Close button.
7. Click the OK button back on the original Create a system repair disc window that's now showing up on your screen.
8. Label the disc as "Windows 7 System Repair Disc" and keep it someplace safe.
   You can now boot from this disc to access System Recovery Options, the set of system recovery tools available for the Windows 7 operating system.