Recovery Drive (hard drive, Windows, pc, USB)

[PawleysDude]

When I bought a new Windows 10 PC last year, I created a recovery drive and an image backup. I periodically create a new image backup, but I have never replaced the recovery drive. Is it beneficial or necessary to also create a new recovery drive, in order to capture system updates, or is the original recovery drive good "forever". Thanks for any comments.

[OpanaPointer]

You need to find out exactly what your recovery drive does before you can answer that question. If it starts the computer from "factory fresh", then no. But if it keeps track of changes you may want to update it regularly.

[thelopez2]

With USB drives being so cheap, I keep an image offline incase the hard drive fails, get a virus, etc.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by thelopez2

With USB drives being so cheap, I keep an image offline incase the hard drive fails, get a virus, etc.

Me, too. Just just one image, either. I keep the last couple, and I make copies on separate drives.

[PawleysDude]

Thanks for the comments. I'm creating a system image every couple months onto an external drive. I think I'm ok on that piece.

My question relates to what Windows help files referred to as a recovery drive. I can't find the link right now, but it indicated that Windows would need to boot up in order to be able to use the system image created by the system image utility. If Windows won't boot, a separate recovery drive could be used to boot up, then restore files from the system image. I created a USB recovery drive per their instructions, in addition to the system image. My question is whether I need to periodically create a new recovery drive or not.

Edit: I still can't find the Windows 10 help file, but here is a pcworld.com article that originally led me to go searching. It talks primarily about creating the system image, but it also refers to the possible need for a separate recovery drive to boot up the system.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/30117...f-need-be.html