Macrium Reflect 6 - Recovery USB Question(s)

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Randle McMurphy, Jul 8, 2015.

  1. Randle McMurphy

    Randle McMurphy Registered Member

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    All, I am trialing Macrium Reflect 6 and have a questions about the use of a recovery USB created using Macrium Reflect.

    I can't post this in the Macrium forum because you have to be a paying customer first. Since this is a trial, I was hoping someone with Macrium experience here might be able to help. I went through the Macrium Rescue Media Wizard and let the wizard walk me through creating a recovery USB flash drive which seemed to have been created with no errors. To test the recovery USB I then tried changed my boot priority to what I see as option USB 2.0, pushing that to #1. However, when I turn on the machine, go into the boot menu and select that USB 2.0 (with the flash drive inserted), I get a message something like "operating system missing". I've tried this several times, but get the same message. I can see content on the flash drive, but honestly do not know if something is missing or not.

    Obviously this is user error and ignorance on my part as, while I have always religiously created file and folder backups using a variety of different software, I have never made a recovery disk.

    Could someone guide me through the steps to boot from a recovery USB so I can identify the gap in my procedure?

    Thank you.

    Ralph.
     
  2. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Ralph,

    Instead of changing the Boot Priority, enter the Boot Menu. If this isn't in your BIOS you might have to use Esc, F8 or F12 depending on your computer. The Boot Menu will probably show two entries for the UFD. UEFI Macrium and Macrium. Try UEFI first.
     
  3. Randle McMurphy

    Randle McMurphy Registered Member

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    Brian, when I enter Boot Menu I get these choices just as they are typed:

    ATAPI CD0 (my DVD Drive)
    ATA HDD0 (my Hitachi HDD, i.e. C drive)
    PCI Lan (assuming network card)
    - USB HDD
    - (USB 2.0)

    Not sure why the dashes are in front of the USB entries, or why USB 2.0 is indented under -USB HDD.

    When I choose USB, the screen goes black and I get the "Missing Operating System" message in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

    Any thoughts?

    Ralph.
     
  4. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Ralph, which OS are you running?

    What happens with selecting - (USB 2.0)?
     
  5. Randle McMurphy

    Randle McMurphy Registered Member

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    Windows 7 SP1. Screen goes black and I get the "Missing Operating System" message in the upper left hand corner of the screen".
     
  6. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    OK. Not a UEFI system. Try making a CD instead. A CD is fine as you don't need a DVD.

    There must be something wrong with the UFD or how your computer boots a UFD. A CD should work.
     
  7. Randle McMurphy

    Randle McMurphy Registered Member

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    Great suggestion, however, my internal burner quit working about two years ago and I have had no reason to replace it as I never had the need to read or burn a CD or DVD since it quit working. I'm not looking to buy one either just for a disaster recovery tool. What is the UFD?
     
  8. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Hello Randle,

    Before you burn a CD. Try this:

    Connect your usb flash drive to your PC and check and see if it is formatted correctly and the required Macrium files are on it. If they are on it then perhaps the only thing missing is to set the drive "active".

    Open a command prompt by typing cmd in the search bar in Windows 7 start menu and then follow these steps:

    DiskPart
    Select Disk n (where n is your usb drive. Be careful and select the correct number from the list displayed)
    Select partition 1
    Active
    Exit


    See this link for more details. I know it says v4 but the process works for v6 as well
     
  9. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    UFD is USB flash drive.

    Try Raza0007's suggestion. Missing Operating System can be caused by a non Active partition.
     
  10. Randle McMurphy

    Randle McMurphy Registered Member

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    Raza, was able to run DiskPart but when I type in Select Disk d (which is the drive in explorer the USB flash drive is in, it simply states The disk you specified is not valid. Even tried to select c drive, still says its not valid. Must not be my day.
     
  11. Randle McMurphy

    Randle McMurphy Registered Member

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    when I do list disk it shows disk 0 at 465 gb which has to be my C drive and disk 1 at 14 gb which has to be my flash drive. I'll select disk 1
     
  12. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Ralph, in DiskPart type

    list disk

    This will show you what number you need. You need a number and not a letter.

    Edit... we posted together.
     
  13. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Thanks Brian K,

    Randle, I missed a command to display the disks.

    DiskPart
    list disk
    Select Disk n
    Select partition 1
    Active
    Exit


    Edit: Let us know if it worked.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2015
  14. Randle McMurphy

    Randle McMurphy Registered Member

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    OMG you guys are rock stars. Making it active did the trick! Thank you so much! I was able to boot up Windows PE and Macrium and mount the external HDD and see the full system image I created earlier today (and browse same). I suppose that is all the testing of the recovery USB I can really do, short of restoring?

    But if I did restore, I suppose all 3 partitions on that image would restore, the NTFS Active SYSTEM_DRV, the Windows7_OS (C:) NTFS Primary, and the Lenovo_Recovery (Q:) NTFS Primary? Is that a correct assumption? And after a restore, either to the same HDD or a new one (if the current HDD failed) I would not have to use the USB to boot from any longer? All gets put back in place and is transparent to the end-user?

    So I have so much to learn about creating images and restoring them, my journey has just begun. Thanks for your patience.
     
  15. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Randle, You are welcome.

    You can choose to restore all the partitions or just one partition. It depends on you. If you have to restore just one partition, select it from the "source partition" and then either hit "copy partition" or select the corresponding partition from the "destination disk".

    And you will need to boot from the usb flash drive every time you need to access the Macrium recovery environment to restore your system, so keep it safe. After the system is restored then you do not need the usb flash drive and you can boot into your PC normally.
     
  16. Randle McMurphy

    Randle McMurphy Registered Member

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    Thank you, Raza. I have lots of questions still, but I will not be the guy who asks without RTFM first. So I will RTFM and then, if you don't mind, return and ask clarifying questions for what I do not understand. My assumption is I will be able to post questions in the actual Macrium forum once if I decide to purchase the software, so as not to bother you here.

    Thanks again guys, you made my evening!
     
  17. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Raza0007,

    Good call with the Active partition fix.
     
  18. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    ^ Thank you. I was glad to help.
     
  19. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Randle, you can ask questions here anytime. Nobody will mind or get bothered. There is usually somebody here to answer at any time of the day. Brian K practically lives here.
     
  20. BacklundDB2

    BacklundDB2 Registered Member

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    Thanks for the advice about "active" and DiskPart.
    It solved my problem with "missing operating system" for the rescue USB created for Macrium 6 and Win 19
    Peter
     
  21. pling_man

    pling_man Registered Member

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    Please post questions here. It is no bother and everyone learns from each other.

    I have noticed that shops sometimes sell USB keys without an active partition. Knowing that you can use DISKPART to do this is a useful skill.
     
  22. pling_man

    pling_man Registered Member

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    Did I miss a Windows update or 9 ? :)
     
  23. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I suspect win 10. Win 19 is what I call a fat finger trick.:)

    @randle Don't hesitate asking questions here. That is the purpose of our being here.
     
  24. rjf9146

    rjf9146 Registered Member

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    Is anyone still watching this thread? Many months later, I myself have just successfully created a Macrium rescue bootable USB drive in preparation for updating my Windows 7 computer to Windows 10. I jumped through a few hoops to create the disk including using diskpart to reconfigure the USB drive. Macrium recommends testing the boot drive to make sure it works, but it is not apparent to me how to do that. I made a screen shot of the drive's contents, but I am unable to paste it into this post. So, the files listed are:

    Four folders: boot, Drivers efi and sources
    other files listed:
    sources
    bootmgr
    bootmgr.efi
    PEVersion
    Version
    X64

    I am guessing when I think that perhaps the Boot folder would be a good place to start. Is so, those folders are:
    bcs
    bcdedit.exe
    boot.sdi
    efisys.bin
    efisys_noprompt.bin
    efisys_prompt.bin
    effsboot.com
    reflect.cfg

    I looked in the Drivers folder, but there is nothing there that seems like something to click, but as you can tell, I'm somewhat naive regarding this process!

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you would like for me to post this as a new thread, I'm happy to do so.

    Thanks very much!

    Rhonda
     
  25. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Rhonda

    When they say test it, what they are saying is you should see if you can boot to it. You should be able to boot it up and run Macrium from it.

    Pete
     
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