Hello there, I'm having some trouble getting my bootable USB stick to run on my laptop. I created the WinPE save on a HP Pavilion desktop and was able to boot from the USB stick from there. However, when I try to do the same thing on my laptop, it seems to load files (displays the message 'Windows is loading files' along with a progress bar) but when the loading is done, the screen goes blank, with a bit of colourful pixelation at the top of the screen for a few moments. On my desktop, the WinPE would load within seconds. On my laptop, nothing. I have changed all the necessary things within UEFI settings, have made the disk active using the command bar and have been scouring the internet since for any other possible fixes. The search terms 'blank screen macrium' brought me here, evidently. I'm not sure whether what I'm doing should actually work or not but I presume that a bootable media rescue is supposed to work on multiple systems. Both computers are 64bit. I have tried plugging the laptop into a HDMI screen, still displays nothing. Is there something I'm doing wrong here? Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me, it's much appreciated!
Hello, Robin A. Thank you for your input. I will try to create another UFD with the laptop. Where should I be looking for driver details within Macrium? Just to be sure we're on the same page, the OS I wish to back up is on my desktop, rather than my laptop. Am I going to create a UFD with the laptop purely as a test or does it not matter which machine I create the WinPE save on? Thanks
I created another UFD with the laptop and I went ahead and booted from it, which worked. All my drivers were supported, is this what you meant? However, now I can't boot the laptop. Do I need to create a matching UFD which corresponds to the OS it was created on?
have you ticked the box that enables uefi multiboot? if you have, i think you'll need a winpe with drivers for both computers, or make individual winpe recovery disks on each machine.
Thank you for chiming in, kronckew. I have made a new recovery disk on my desktop and made sure to click the 'enable multiboot' button. I was expecting the files to look different but from what I can tell, the drivers look idential, even in size. Perhaps when I made a recovery disk on my laptop, I should have formatted the disk first and that's why it won't boot? Unfortunately now, I can't create a new recovery disk on my laptop. The only problem the boot rescue was showing is a boot sector error, which wasn't resolved by making the relevant partition active using the command promt. If the media rescue creation tool does not overwrite then I may have my answer. But then, I don't understand why WinPE would boot and show just the one error. Perhaps there is another way to fix the boot sector? Could it be that, although identical in nature, the boot files were corrupt in the first disk I tried? Will let you know how the second disk fares this evening!
OK, so I tried the new disk and the laptop loads straight into Windows startup, rather than WinPE. However, it's been stuck on the Windows logo for a while now, I doubt it's actually loading. I have a feeling it would start if I could get into WinPE but I don't think I can do that from BIOS. There must be some difference with the first and second disks I made. Maybe I could swap some files and end up in WinPE without anything corrupt? Or is it a catch 22 - WinPE loads when the startup is broken? Thanks, getting closer
Another update: I have realised, the Wim file from my desktop attemps to boot Windows and the Wim file from my laptop boots into WinPE. When I run safe mode with the desktop Wim file the loading gets stuck on Windows/system32/drivers/disk.sys Does anyone know what this means? When I run the Wim file from the laptop, I'm unable to fix the boot sector error, does anyone have a solution for this? I ran out of ideas last night. My final attempt might be to try the imaging process again.
Nuobu, Just a few questions as I'm confused.... Can you boot the laptop into Windows? Do you have an image of the laptop OS?
Hello, Brian K Sorry for the confusion. I cannot boot the laptop into Windows. With one of my recovery disks, I can get into WinPE (Windows Pre-installation Enviroment, which is a feature of Macrium, nothing to do with the OS I had installed. With another recovery disk I can get it to start loading Windows, but it gets stuck before loading fully. As for the second question, I'm afraid I don't have an image of the laptop. The only image I have is of my desktop. I have access to a very similar Toshiba laptop, I can make an image of that if it would help? Thanks
Nuobu, Thanks. My concern is you can't boot your laptop into Windows. But you could before you started testing with the Macrium UFD created on the laptop. Strange. Do you still have that Macrium UFD? Does it still work? What do you see when you try to boot the laptop? (Have all USB devices disconnected from the laptop)
Sorry, I didn't explain properly, when I created the UFD with my laptop I then decided to restore my desktop image to my laptop hard drive. Since then, it won't boot. I have the UFD from the laptop saved, when I try to boot from it, I get into WinPE. Without this UFD inserted, the laptop won't boot at all. It says 'No bootable device - please restart system.'
You are adventurous. Doing a "different hardware" restore on a computer that wasn't backed up isn't recommended. Can some of the regular Macrium users help?
I know! Starting to regret my decision. Is Macrium backup generally meant for using on a single computer? I wanted to test my image and didn't feel confident enough to load it onto my desktop. Yes, any help would be amazing. Cheers
When you did that Desktop > Laptop restore, did you follow the ReDEPLOY instructions, and was it a whole disk restore?
Ah. No, I just used the restore funtion. Should I try a ReDEPLOY - is that available in the free version? It was a whole disk, I believe, two partitions, SYSTEM and OS. Thanks
Nope, redeploy is NOT available in the FREE version. That's the function that's needed when moving an image between different system hardware.
Are both systems UEFI? Which OS were on each computer? In the Desktop, Disk Management, how many partitions are present on HD0? What are their names. In the laptop, from the Macrium USB, how many partitions are present on HD0? What are their names.
Thank you for this information. I will upgrade to the paid version and utilise redeploy. Will I still be able to do that at this point?
The laptop is UEFI. How do I tell what the desktop uses? The desktop is running Win 7, the laptop was running Win 10. Pretty sure there are three partitions in total on the desktop; system, OS and recovery. Will have to check tomorrow if these partitions are present on HD0. The laptop now has the same partitions as the desktop. Before that, I'm not sure. Thanks again
It's likely the Desktop is a MBR/Legacy system. Have you tried changing the settings in the Laptop UEFI/BIOS to boot a Legacy OS. You will need to disable Secure Boot and Enable CSM. (Compatibility Support Module)
Win7 is very forgiving. I just restored a Macrium image to a different computer and didn't use redeploy. Win7 on the new computer loaded fine. Same result using IFL.
Brian's suggestion in post #21 makes the most sense. If you have trouble finding the CSM function in your BiOS, give us the laptop model # and we'll dig around a bit.
I changed the mode to CSM and almost had success. The laptop will now start up without the UFD inserted! Problem is, it flashes something blue on the screen which I can't read after the windows logo animation. When I boot with the UFD inserted, it takes me to WinPE but this time, the boot sector error is gone but it doesn't seem to fix the boot up. I tried to run the sfc /scannow command but there is a 'pending system repair.' Is there anything I can do at this point? I feel like it almost wants to boot. Thanks for the help, you two
It IS BOOTing now 'cept it's BOOTing with all your DESKTOP drivers in place, no needed laptop drivers... that's what happens when you use one system's image on another that isn't in the same system family. You can try the Windows REPAIR disk and see if it can correct some of the probs at least to the point of BOOTing somewhere... then you can start dealing with driver issues.