If you’re locked out and unable to access your administrator account on your Windows 10 PC and when you try to reset the admin password you receive the error message “This feature requires removable media“, then this post is intended to help you. In this post, we will provide the solution that you can try to effectively resolve this issue.

When you encounter this issue, you’ll receive the following error message;

No Drive. This feature requires removable media, such as a USB flash drive. Please connect a USB flash drive, and then try again.

This feature requires removable media

The reset password requires that you previously (recommended after you complete your Windows 10 device set up) created a password reset drive first (like a USB drive) as a backup. This way, only someone with that drive (which you should lock up or keep hidden) could get into your computer.

Since you never created a password reset drive, then you cannot use this feature.

Nevertheless, since you’re faced with the This feature requires removable media, such as a USB flash drive issue, you can try either of our recommended solutions presented below to resolve the issue.

Use the inbuilt Administrator account to reset your password
Create a new Administrator account

Let’s take a look at the description of the process involved concerning each of the listed solutions.

1] Use the inbuilt Administrator account to reset your password

To use the inbuilt Administrator account to reset your password, do the following:

Boot into Safe Mode.

Now that you are in Safe Mode, you can use the inbuilt Administrator account to perform any necessary recovery. The inbuilt Administrator account should not be used for any other purpose, or it won’t be available in situations like this when you need it.

At the login screen, click the arrow icon and select the Administrator account.
On the desktop environment, press Windows key + R, to invoke the Run dialog.
In the Run dialog box, type control and hit Enter to open Control Panel.
In Control Panel, locate and select the User Accounts option.
In the User Accounts window, select Manage another account.
In the Manage another account window, select your administrator account.
In the next window that opens, click the Change the password link.
In the Change Administrator’s password window, type in the desired password in the New password field, input the same password in the Confirm new password field.
Click the Change password button.
Restart the PC into normal mode.

On boot, see if you can log in with your administrator account with the new password. Else, continue with the next solution if the This feature requires removable media issue persists.

2] Create a new Administrator account

You can try this solution if Solution 1] above didn’t work for you for some reason or the other, most especially if your administrator account that is locked out is corrupted.

This solution requires you to log in to Windows 10 with the default/inbuilt administrator account, then delete the corrupt account and create a new Administrator account.

Here’s how:

Boot into the Recovery Environment (WinRE) on Windows 10.
In the Windows Recovery Environment, on the Choose an option screen, click Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt.
In the CMD prompt, type the command below and hit Enter.

net user administrator /active:yes

Next, type exit and hit Enter.
Reboot your PC.

On boot, log in (does not have a password) with the default/inbuilt administrator account. Once you’re successfully logged on, navigate to the Accounts page, and create a new user account.

Next, open Control Panel, locate, and select the User Accounts option.
In the User Accounts window, select Manage another account.
In the Manage another account window, select your corrupted administrator account.
Click the Delete the account link.

Now, you can proceed to disable the inbuilt administrator account.

Here’s how:

Press Windows key + R to invoke the Run dialog.
In the Run dialog box, type cmd and then press CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER to open Command Prompt in admin/elevated mode.
In the command prompt window, type the command below and hit Enter.

net user administrator /active:no

Afterward, you can exit the command prompt and restart your Windows 10 device.

Once the system restarts, you can now log in with the newly created user account.

That’s it! The solutions presented in this post should help you resolve the This feature requires removable media, such as a USB flash drive issue on Windows 10.