I've got a USB dongle that's a recovery drive.
If I break it, in it goes, 10 minutes later = fresh install
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Thu 7 May 2009, 15:03, archived)

I tried to do that
but the laptop was a little old (and had had some minor sofa kickings)
i never did find a way to make the usb stick a boot disk
( chuff monkey I AM him, Thu 7 May 2009, 15:08, archived)