Avast Free antivirus V24.12- unable to create rescue usb

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Unable to create rescue usb. The process starts and then fails with no reason given. Fails on multiple USB drives and both win10 and win11 systems. Using Avast Free Antivirus v24.12. Also fails on v24.3

2

Does downloading the .iso of Rescue Disk work (Create iso file option).?
Surprised you also had problem on v24.3, so suggest you try another USB stick.

3

I tried multiple usb drives and multiple systems. Didn’t try the .ISO because my system doesn’t have a disk writer/reader. Is there a way to write the .ISO to the USB? Will the USB boot if I just copy the .ISO to it?

In any case, this appears to be a recurring problem across multiple Avast versions. The previous instances seem to have been patched, but it looks like maybe the problem has returned.

4

You can burn ISO to the USB. Try download Rufus to do that.

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5

FYI. I was able to create a Rescue Disk USB and save the .iso from Avast 24.12.9725a (build 24.12.9725.762) yesterday without issue.

6

I’ll try reinstalling Avast and try again.

7

I tried using rufus. It created the boot USB. Strangely, it failed to boot on the Win11pro system that I created it on, but it worked on a different Win10pro system. I wonder if there is some Win11pro security feature blocking the boot and USB media create.

8

Uninstalling and reinstalling Avast didn’t fix the problem.

9

Problem resolved!

The AVAST USB media build and media boot are both being blocked by LENOVO Secure Boot. I needed to disable the Secure Boot in the Bios in order to boot to the rescue media, or even create the rescue media in the AVAST app.

It’s confusing because I was able to create some types of bootable media with Secure Boot enabled, using other apps. So I could build the AVAST rescue usb using RUFUS, with Secure Boot enabled, even though I couldn’t boot it, until I disabled Secure Boot. I was also able to create and boot from Windows recovery USB media, with Secure Boot enabled.

Apparently there is an API call to pause Secure Boot while an app is creating media that corrects this. (sounds like a security flaw) I think Rufus must just look like some sort of disk format/ file copy call, so it doesn’t trigger the security block.

In summary, LENOVO Secure Boot must be disabled to create AVAST Rescue media within the app or to boot from it. Secure Boot can then simply be Enabled again for normal use later.

(By the way, the LENOVO bios also has access security settings that can be set to restrict access to the bios.)

Thanks to Rocksteady and TurEK13 for your help.

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