220-1102 Question 38
Single answerRecovery partitionA technician is preparing several Windows 11 laptops for remote employees. One laptop has a failing internal SSD and will be replaced with a new blank drive. The technician wants the user to be able to use the built-in Windows recovery tools in the future without needing external installation media. Which action should the technician take BEFORE replacing the original drive?
- A
Clone the original drive, including all partitions, to the new SSD
- B
Copy the C: drive contents to a USB flash drive and restore them to the new SSD after installation
- C
Run System Restore and create a restore point before removing the original drive
- D
Disable BitLocker and reinstall Windows from a network share after replacing the drive
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is to clone the original drive, including all partitions, before replacing it. In Windows 10 and Windows 11, recovery features such as the Windows Recovery Environment are commonly stored in a dedicated recovery partition. If a technician replaces a drive with a blank SSD and wants to maintain built-in recovery options without needing external media, preserving that partition structure is the most practical approach. Microsoft documents WinRE as part of the Windows recovery infrastructure, and in real-world support scenarios, technicians commonly use full-disk cloning when replacing a drive to retain bootability and recovery functionality. File-level copies and restore points do not preserve hidden system and recovery partitions, so they are not sufficient for this requirement.
- A. Correct.
Correct. On modern Windows systems, the built-in recovery environment is typically stored in a dedicated recovery partition on the internal drive. Cloning the original drive, including all partitions, preserves the EFI/System partitions, Windows partition, and the recovery partition so the system can continue to boot into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) on the replacement SSD. This is the best choice when the goal is to retain built-in recovery functionality without relying on external media.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Simply copying the C: drive contents does not preserve the full disk structure required for boot and recovery. Recovery partitions, EFI System Partitions, and hidden metadata are not retained by a basic file copy. A candidate might choose this option because it sounds like a backup, but it would not reliably preserve the built-in recovery tools.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. System Restore creates restore points for system files and settings within Windows, but it does not back up or recreate the recovery partition on a new blank drive. This distractor targets the common misconception that restore points can fully recover a system after hardware replacement.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Disabling BitLocker may be useful before some storage maintenance tasks, but reinstalling Windows from a network share does not, by itself, address the requirement to preserve the existing built-in recovery setup from the old drive. A fresh installation may create a new recovery partition depending on the deployment method, but this option does not ensure the original recovery configuration is retained and does not meet the stated goal as directly as cloning.