Macrium Reflect Free Rescue Media Questions

Topic

New Reply

I am preparing to create a new Macrium Reflect Free rescue media USB for my new laptop, and had a few questions that I hope someone can answer.

First – do I need to create a separate rescue USB for each computer on that computer, or can I use the same on on two different computers if both are running Win 10 1909?

I am not sure which of the creation options I should choose. Here’s a screenshot of the choices. Should I choose the first – Windows Boot Menu – if I want to create a bootable USB rescue stick? Or should I just choose the USB option with add boot menu selected?

My reason for confusion, is that I initially tried doing this with a 16 gb USB drive and somehow ended up with two “drives” created on that thumb drive – called D and E.

I was confused about it since after I chose the first option, I tried to also choose the USB option and it said that “another programs” was using the thumb drive, so I wasn’t confident that it worked. So – at that point I tried to erase the thumb drive to start over, and ended up with a large hidden partition, and only about 1 gb usable space.

Yet – in the Macrium interface, it is listing the thumb drive as 14.59 GB – which would be correct.

Here’s what the two “drives” look like:

“Drive D” –

“Drive E” –

So – once I know which option to choose, can I reuse that same thumb drive – will it overwrite and “correct” my error so that I can then use that thumb drive? Or should I start with a new one?

And if it can’t just be overwritten, is there a way to restore it to full capacity so that it is usable?

I am especially interested in being able to do that, since after I ran into these issues, I grabbed a new thumb drive and tried the Rescue USB again, only to realize that I had mistakenly used a 64 gb thumb drive – so if there isn’t a way to restore that, is it then a useless drive?

Here’s how that 64 gb drive looks now. Is it bootable now? I believe I just chose the USB drive option when I created that one, and can it be restored if I put the rescue media on a smaller drive?

Sort of a convoluted question – and two things to consider – but I appreciate help on both the right choice for the Rescue USB creation option, and the way to restore or reuse the thumb drive.

Thanks for the help! Thought I had this all figured out, but the old Rescue USB that I had created a while back didn’t work to allow me to restore Macrium when I ran into a lot of issues in the set-up of this laptop – luckily I did manage to get it to restart and could run Macrium and get it restored.

 

 

 

Reply | Quote

Replies

LHiggins wrote:

I am preparing to create a new Macrium Reflect Free rescue media USB for my new laptop, and had a few questions that I hope someone can answer. First – do I need to create a separate rescue USB for each computer on that computer, or can I use the same on on two different computers if both are running Win 10 1909? I am not sure which of the creation options I should choose. Here’s a screenshot of the choices. Should I choose the first – Windows Boot Menu – if I want to create a bootable USB rescue stick? Or should I just choose the USB option with add boot menu selected?

You want to add Macrium’s Rescue Media to the Windows Boot Menu on each computer. For example, some people have both Windows and Linux installed on their computer. When they boot their computer, a Boot Menu is shown which allows them to choose which operating system to start. Similarly Macrium gives you the option to add Macrium’s Rescue Media to the Windows Boot Menu. This allows you to plug in your backup drive, boot your computer, and then choose to start Macrium’s recovery process instead of starting Windows.

Next, you do want create USB thumb drives Rescue Media for each computer. Each USB will contain the correct drivers for the hardware in each computer. You will need the USB thumb drive to recover if your laptop’s hard drive was totally messed up by malware, if you install a new and larger hard drive into your laptop, or if the laptop’s internal hard drive failed (hardware failure) and had to be replaced.

Macrium does erase whatever is on the USB thumb drive when it turns the USB thumb drive into a USB Macrium Rescue Media drive.

2 users thanked author for this post.

LHiggins, KP

Reply | Quote

FYI: When creating USB rescue media with Reflect it is possible to use one USB on multiple machines. I do it all the time. Now if you have a crazy gamer setup this could be a problem. I have all Dells and one USB stick works on all the machines. What it will not have is the drivers for the network cards, but you’re not backing up over a network anyway I hope! It also will not have graphic card drivers but the default driver works on all my Dells both desktop and laptop. I’ve also never had a problem with the default USB drivers. Of course, as always YMMV! SO TEST!

HTH 😎

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

2 users thanked author for this post.

LHiggins, GoneToPlaid

Reply | Quote

@Retired Geek / @GoneToPlaid … What is the relevance of this note I saved (below) about making the USB have a Master Boot Record (MBR) using Diskpart? Does the Macrium Rescue builder do this “for” the USB as one process — or Is this Preliminary Diskpart exercise (steps shown in url) required first? You’d think she’d have mentioned that the app does this, but didn’t.

http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Preparing+a+USB+stick+for+Windows+PE
Preparing a USB stick for Windows PE
• Created by Sarah Pineger, last modified by Macrium Software on May 21, 2015
To use a USB stick as a boot device, Windows requires a Master Boot Record (MBR) however some USB sticks are shipped without one and with just a single partition. The USB stick, therefore, needs formatting but the standard Windows format option does not prepare the disk correctly as it does not create a master boot record. You therefore need to prepare the USB stick using other tools, for example, Windows diskpart.

W10 Pro 22H2 / Hm-Stdnt Ofce '16 C2R / Macrium Pd vX / GP=2 + FtrU=Semi-Annual + Feature Defer = 1 + QU = 0

1 user thanked author for this post.

LHiggins

Reply | Quote

There is no need to do anything apart from plug the USB in and click on the Macrium menu items.

cheers, Paul

2 users thanked author for this post.

CraigS26, LHiggins

Reply | Quote

Thanks everyone! The link to the Macrium knowledge base site is very helpful!

I do have a few questions – and probably need to reread all of the info, too. I am still confused about the boot option and being sure I can boot from the USB. I had one that I had created for Win 7 a while back and don’t remember there being this question, and it did work to restore my Win 7 laptops several times. This with Win 10 seems different.

So – which options would I choose if I want to be sure that I can boot from the USB – add the boot option to the USB or not?

And if I make a mistake – as I already have – how can I get that USB back to its original state so that I can start again?

Sorry to be confused – probably making more if it than is needed – LOL!

Thanks again for the help!

Reply | Quote

You always want the USB to be bootable.

If you make a mistake, start again assuming the USB is empty. Macrium will sort it out for you.

cheers, Paul

1 user thanked author for this post.

LHiggins

Reply | Quote

Hope this helps you.

• I can confirm RetiredGeek’s statement regarding using one USB rescue media on multiple machines.  Myself, I use one rescue media for 2 Dell Win10 and 1 Linux [xubuntu 20.4] for imaging and restoring; it definitely works.  All my systems are refurbished and uses MBR.  The default or generic drivers should work on most systems.  To verify, boot into media on any machine and verify that reflect see your saved image.  You may also explore the image for further verification.
• You can “reset” the thumb drives by doing a quick format. .  I believe reflect will reformat the thumb drives before creating the usb rescue media.  Personally, I have not used the “USB option”.  However, my experience with other imaging applications does format first.
• To create rescue media, choose one option only, use USB or iso; with iso you will need another application such as rufus to create bootable usb. [see below]

Regarding options:

Win Boot Menu – this option creates a menu allowing you to boot into Windows by default or boot into the rescue menu.  Reflect saves the rescue media on your machine.  Hence, you can boot into the rescue media without using your USB media. With this option, you can save your image off-line; it’s usually faster depending on the size of your drive.  Personally, I choose to have this option on only one  of my machines; also, I do both on-line and off-line for saving image.

Removable USB:

I believe reflect will create a bootable rescue for you with the drivers for your current system.  This is the option you should use because you don’t have to burn the iso to usb.

ISO:

This option creates an iso file in C:  This is the file you need to burn using rufus or in my case I use Yummy.  I prefer this option because I use 1 thumb drive for various tools/softwares.  The disadvantage of  this option is additional software is needed.

Quick Summary:

Think of each option as a single event, choose “Removable USB” to create rescue thumb drive.  Afterwards, choose boot menu option if you want the option to choose win or rescue upon booting into system.  You can select to delete boot menu also at anytime.

2 users thanked author for this post.

CraigS26, LHiggins

Reply | Quote

Thanks so much for the very detailed answer! That is just what I was wanting to know. So, it sounds like I’ll choose the USB option, since I want to be able to boot when the system is not working, and that seems to be the best choice.

Also good to know that I can use the same USB for several systems.

As to testing it – once I create the USB, would I then try to reboot the computer and choose the USB as the boot choice – if it booted correctly, then is it all done correctly? I guess I also need to find out which key to use to get to the boot menu. On my Lenovo it is F12 – not sure about the HP and the Dell.

Thanks again for the help!

Reply | Quote

Yes, you want to verify that you can boot from the rescue media.

On Dells it’s usually F12. On HPs I think it’s ESC to get to the boot menu.

1 user thanked author for this post.

LHiggins

Reply | Quote

Booting successfully into macrium on the system is a necessary condition; also, I usually check to see that macrium shows me the saved images on the external drive.  Honestly, it’s good enough for me.  My experience with Dell is F12 for temporary boot.  Looks like HP is Esc or F10, see link below.

http://www.boot-disk.com/quest_bootmenu.htm

FYI .. The rescue media size requirement is minimal.  You could put it on a 4Gb thumb drive.

 

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

LHiggins

Reply | Quote

I installed Macrium Reflect ver 7.2 some time ago but did not select add to boot menu.

Can this be done after the fact from within Macrium?

Thank you

Reply | Quote

anonymous wrote:

Can this be done after the fact from within Macrium?

I think that this is an option within Other Tasks > Create Rescue Media

I find a boot menu preferable to trying to remember whether it is Esc or F12 or whatever else to interrupt the boot process.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

Reply | Quote

can you create a recovery drive using a usb thumb drive but have your backup images on a portable (usb) hard drive, insert both, boot from the thumb drive but chose the recovery image from the portable hard drive?

Reply | Quote

egp002 wrote:

can you create a recovery drive using a usb thumb drive but have your backup images on a portable (usb) hard drive, insert both, boot from the thumb drive but chose the recovery image from the portable hard drive?

That’s the way I usually do it. Works great!

Either a portable HDD or a secondary internal HDD, is the best place to store your images. Get one large enough to at least store several copies of the image.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

Reply | Quote

So never having used Win 11, I was very fearful of all the extra disk and boot security. I was very worried whether this recovery disk and using two devices would work, expecting a lot of troubleshooting without any help.

Installed, no hiccups, nice interface, and worked perfectly (tested)!

Thanks Woody and amazed how fast a response I got!

Reply | Quote

Adding Macrium to the boot menu is fine until the disk goes pear shaped and you can’t boot from it. For the rare occasion you need to restore from scratch, USB boot is fine.

cheers, Paul

1 user thanked author for this post.

JohnW

Reply | Quote

Hi

New to ‘Image’ & ‘Clone’; I installed Macrium Reflect Free, on an old, slow, legacy laptop. It took 3 hours to complete the ‘image’ task; equally, 3 hours to accomplish a ‘clone’ activity.
Question ? Is 3 hours typical. I guess it takes 3 hours to reload the machine ?
So, what turn around time can be expected from a top of the shop machine, fast ?
Cheers ! C.

Reply | Quote