Macrium Reflect Free 7 Rescue Usb

[Mac29]

So I've created a usb twice now using the 7 free download and can't for the life of me understand why you would want something that cannot boot a system w/o an OS. Isn't that what the PE part of the install on your usb is for?

Trying to "reimag"e on one HDD from another HDD w/has the image. I would think this is similar enough to a system with a fresh HDD that has no OS (like when the old one died). But no, any of the options I've used from Other Tasks>'create rescue media' in the & free version does not boot when usb is the 1st Bios option.

Really disappointed. I admit I don't fully understand the diff's between the various WIM environments but I would think more than one would boot a system that has no OS to rescue. Macrium site says that rescue media install a fully working MR application. Creating rescue media is only a couple of buttons.

What could be going wrong? System (older phenom, 4GB of DDR3 on a GA-MA790XT-UD4P) boots to other thumbdrives so something hasn't installed correctly AFAICT.


Thanks in advance for any input,

Mac

 

[corkyg]

One consideration - in my experience, rescue media is primarily for the purpose of cloning so that the normal OS (i.e., Windows) is not involved. (Years ago, that could result in sharing violations at times.) The Rescue Media uses a Linux OS variant. It can also restore saved images by access of other drives, internal and external. I've never used Macrium, only Acronis TI, but the principle is the same.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Macrium uses WinPE, and gives you the option of using the Win10-equivalent (default) or Win7-equivalent (sometimes useful for restoring Win7 OS systems).

It should be fully bootable, a standalone OS, that boots into Macrium, but can also run Windows .exe files off of the flash drive. Unless they've changed something?

I'm guessing that you just didn't set it up properly, or somehow the image files are corrupted? It should make a bootable WinPE (7 or 10) USB drive. At least, mine does.

I would look into the boot options, both when making the bootable USB, as well as in BIOS, as to whether you use CSM or UEFI boot, and MBR versus GPT/UEFI partitions, etc. Something is hosed in your system.

Maybe the USB stick creator is defaulting to a UEFI boot config, but your system is old enough that it doesn't support booting UEFI? In that case, you need to set it up to boot "Legacy".

 

[Mac29]

Yeah this is strange. I can use the same thumbdrive to do other things like W10 install, etc. and it'll boot right up. Well, burned a W7 PE CD and one for W10 so problem 'solved'.

Now I'm dealing with the observation the MR does not allow me to 'reimage" to any drive other than the one the image was saved on. Odd. I'm hoping I can copy the image file elsewhere as a solution.

Thanks VirtualLarry & corkyg.

 

[corkyg]

That is good to know. OTOH, TI rescue media can be used on any machine as long as it was created by a legit installed copy.

 

[Mac29]

Well a few parting thoughts:
1. the no boot from usb might have been due to formatting, this link
https://www.tenforums.com/backup-restore/28084-macrium-reflect-rescue-usb-problem-2.html talks about it, but I can't imagine that flashdrive being formatted to Fat32. Eh, burned 2 CDs and problem solved.

2. My main problem was, after you choose an image, once you click some options the light blue band on image listing disappears (98%) but then Restore "icon" is also missing. Even after backing out for a 2nd go I missed it. Finally restored to the HDD I wanted to...

3. Lots of nuggets from that forum re: MR but I needed a video to show me what I missed. Not to rain on anyone's parade but I've done exhaustive research on BU software (previously) and think I'll stick w/MR for full and differential.

After reading on tenforums however I'm leaning towards directly copying my Data partition(s) as a BU. To multiple HDDs and Blu-ray.

What I'd really like to utilize is Rollback Rx home but it seems to have 'issues' and I don't want to complicate my system. However, these W10 updates definitely are a turn off.

The main thing I'm worried about, besides those, are how I'll be using my main OS and HDD, W10, for gaming as well. Used to run that off a diff HDD. If any downloads are screwy I'll only be able to "go back" to my most recent differential. Unless Windows' Shadow copy or whatever, OR a Restore Point can save me.

Whelp, finally get to build my Data partition.

Thanks for all the feedback.