Repairo Support
Your Repairo drive is a computer, not a file.
You don't open it in Windows. You start your computer from it. That one difference is what trips almost everybody up — and it takes about two minutes to get right.
Reading this on your phone because your computer won't start? Good — that's exactly how this page is meant to be used.
Read this first
Nearly every “it doesn't work” message we receive is the same thing: the drive was plugged into a computer that was already running Windows. Nothing useful happens that way, and nothing is broken. Here's the difference.
This will not work
- Plugging the drive in while Windows is running
- Opening the drive in File Explorer and double-clicking files
- Looking for an app to install
- Expecting a window to pop up on its own
The drive contains a complete operating system. Windows can't run it while Windows itself is running.
This is what works
- Shut the computer all the way down
- Plug the drive in while the computer is off
- Press power, then tap your boot menu key over and over
- Pick the USB drive from the list that appears
This is called booting from USB. It works even when Windows is broken, missing, or locked.
Seeing a message like “Please insert the password reset disk”?
That message comes from Windows, which means your computer started normally and did not start from the Repairo drive. It is not an error with your drive. Shut the computer down completely and follow the five steps below.
How to start your computer from the Repairo drive
Works the same way for every Repairo drive we sell. Do these in order.
26-second demonstration, no sound needed. The written steps below say the same thing.
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Turn the computer completely off
Not sleep. Not restart-and-hope. A full shutdown.
The trap almost nobody knows about
Windows has a feature called Fast Startup. When you click “Shut down,” it doesn't truly shut down — it hibernates, and your computer skips the boot menu entirely on the next start. If your boot key seems to do nothing, this is usually why. Fix: use Restart instead of Shut down, or hold the Shift key while you click Shut down.
Can't get into Windows at all? Hold the physical power button for about 10 seconds until the computer goes silent. That's a full shutdown too.
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Plug the Repairo drive in — while the computer is off
Which port you choose actually matters on older machines:
- Desktop: use a port on the back of the tower, plugged straight into the computer.
- Laptop: any port directly on the laptop body.
- Avoid USB hubs, docking stations, monitor ports and keyboard ports. Many of these aren't active until Windows loads.
- If the computer is more than about eight years old, prefer a black USB port over a blue one.
Push it in firmly. On most computers a light on the drive will blink later, once it starts reading.
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Press power, then tap your boot menu key immediately — and keep tapping
Start tapping the key the instant you press the power button. Don't wait for anything to appear on screen. Tap it about once per second, ten or fifteen times.
The most common key by a wide margin is F12.
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Choose the USB drive from the menu
A plain, simple menu appears — usually white or grey text on a black or blue background. Use the arrow keys to highlight your drive and press Enter. Your mouse will not work here.
The Repairo drive rarely says “Repairo.” Look for something like:
- UEFI: Generic USB Drive
- Generic Flash Disk
- USB HDD or USB Storage Device
- The name of the flash drive's manufacturer — SanDisk, Kingston, Netac, Verbatim and so on
If you see two entries for the same drive
Pick the one that starts with UEFI.
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Wait. It is loading an entire operating system.
Expect one to five minutes, sometimes longer on an older computer. You may see a black screen, scrolling text, a spinning dot, or a logo. All of that is normal.
Do not turn the computer off during this step
A black screen for two minutes is not a freeze. Give it five full minutes before you decide something is wrong.
When it finishes you'll see a desktop with the Repairo logo and your tool ready to go.
Got “Verification Failed” or “Security Violation”? That's normal. Here's the 30-second fix.
Modern computers have a feature called Secure Boot that blocks anything it doesn't already recognise. You just need to tell it once that the Repairo drive is allowed. You are not changing anything permanent about your computer.
- Press Enter or OK to clear the message.
- Choose Enroll key from disk.
- Choose VTOYEFI.
- Choose ENROLL_THIS_KEY_IN_MOK_MANAGER.cer.
- Choose Continue, then Yes, then Reboot.
Start from step 1 above again. It boots normally from now on. More detail, including how to turn Secure Boot off →
Find your boot menu key
Type the brand of your computer — the name on the lid, the screen bezel, or the sticker on the case. If you built the computer yourself, use your motherboard brand instead.
For example: Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, Acer, ThinkPad, Surface
Prefer the full printed chart?
Every brand on one page. Handy if you want to print it or open it on your phone while you work on the computer.
It booted. Now pick your drive.
Find the name printed on your USB stick and open its guide for what to click next.
Unlock Pro
Removes a forgotten Windows sign-in password so you can get back into your own computer. Your files stay where they are.
Open the Unlock Pro guide
Disk Wiper Pro
Permanently erases everything on a drive before you sell, donate or recycle the computer. Nothing can be recovered afterwards.
Open the Disk Wiper Pro guide
4-in-1 Computer Repair Toolkit
Install or reinstall Windows, and run repair, recovery and diagnostic tools from one drive.
Open the 4-in-1 guide
21-in-1 Linux USB
Try or install 21 different Linux systems — Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora and more — from a single drive.
Open the 21-in-1 guideYour drive doesn't look like the picture?
That's fine. We use whichever flash drive body our supplier has in stock, so the shape and colour vary. The capacity, speed and contents are identical. Go by the name printed on the drive, not its shape.
Nothing happened, or you're stuck?
Almost every problem is one of about a dozen things, and nearly all of them are fixed in under five minutes. It is very rarely a faulty drive — every one is tested before it ships.