USB not recognized in Win11

Pen guin · 05-23-2026, 01:02 PM

I have a USB that has all my backups on it, (Rescuezilla). I was going to restore the latest backup from yesterday to my main PC. The problem is, for whatever reason, (file format, I'm sure) when I tried to boot off the USB, to get into Rescuezilla, Windows, would not recognize the USB. So, my only options are to format, and lose all of my backups...but here's the thing, If I do it through Windows, a quick format, under Capacity, it shows a miniscule 4kb (something like that. It's a 4GB Stick.

What do you think?

Soadyheid · 05-23-2026, 01:57 PM

Quote:

when I tried to boot off the USB, to get into Rescuezilla, Windows, would not recognize the USB.

You need to access the PC's Boot menu (F9 for HP, Via F12 for Dell.) then select your USB to boot from that. Windows has nothing to do with booting from your USB drive. If Windows boots, you're booting from your main drive NOT the USB drive.

Windows, as far as i know, isn't able to access EXT4 and similar file systems which is probably how your USB drive is formatted.

My

Play Bonny!

syg00 · 05-23-2026, 10:41 PM

Does Rescuezilla even create bootable backups ?. Never used it, but from the almost non-existent doco, looks like you should boot the original (Rescuezilla) image you downloaded. Do the restoring from that.

yancek · 05-24-2026, 07:23 AM

Rescuezilla is a GUI for clonezilla with some added features and should be written to a usb and booted to create backups. This and more explained at their site at the link below.

https://rescuezilla.com/

I also wonder about the relation of your comment about windows. As pointed out, windows does not recognize linux filesystems so if your rescuezilla has a linux filesystem, the only thing windows will do is offer to format (thus overwrite) the usb. I also don't understand why you booted windows?

If you have not resolved this problem, you could post more details on the situation.

Nirel Gurtesnten · 05-24-2026, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pen guin

I have a USB that has all my backups on it, (Rescuezilla). I was going to restore the latest backup from yesterday to my main PC. The problem is, for whatever reason, (file format, I'm sure) when I tried to boot off the USB, to get into Rescuezilla, Windows, would not recognize the USB. So, my only options are to format, and lose all of my backups

As written in post #2, basically, you do not need to boot into Windows.

You have a few options to boot.
First one is what post #2 mentioned, as you boot up your PC, start tapping boot menu key (this is manufacturer depended, but can be found online), this pulls up a list where you can directly select the USB.

Second option, which wasn't mentioned, is to go into BIOS/UEFI (same as before, the key is manufacturer depended, but it is usually F2) and changing boot order from there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pen guin

but here's the thing, If I do it through Windows, a quick format, under Capacity, it shows a miniscule 4kb (something like that. It's a 4GB Stick.

What do you think?

Regarding this part, the Rescuezilla most likely created a tiny (4kb) partition for the bootloader (which Windows can see), the rest is using a filesystem Windows doesn't recognize, because Windows File Explorer cannot see it, it only reports the size of that tiny boot partition.
There is no reason to format the drive.

Just a question though, how does a single 4GB USB stick holds the Rescuezilla tool + all your backups?

Pen guin · 05-25-2026, 07:54 AM

Yeah, good catch Nirel. That was an inaccurate statement. I point Rescuezilla to one of my external drives as the backup location.

But there is good news in all of this, and that is, as of yesterday, May 23, 2026, that was the day that I officially became "Window-less" (Ubuntu 26.04) That's what the Rescuezilla was for. Rescuezilla is Clonezilla, only with a graphical interface.

Thanks for all the help.

Pen guin