Macrium Reflect

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Stigg, Nov 23, 2013.

  1. jimminy

    jimminy Registered Member

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    Sorry, perhaps I'm waay behind the times. I kept track of the new updates and bug fixes for a few weeks, until I realized it would be quite some time before a stable release would happen.

    I noticed quite a few update fixes/patches that only applied to the new dark mode operation, and they seemed deeper than I expected from a simple display/GUI problem. That is some very complex software I guess.

    Unfortunately, I did not keep a journal, so I can't cite all the beta updates made for each dark bug.

    It did surprise me that there were some serious problems that only affected dark display mode.

    I am 100% confident macrium will continue to ride herd on the dark mode. They probably focus on it very keenly.

    For now, if I crave dark mode, I'll simply don a pair of welding googles :)
     
  2. Peter 123

    Peter 123 Registered Member

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    Just to be sure: You (and Osaban) refer to the following screen, I assume:

    MA.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2021
  3. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    That's what I'm talking about yes. And that Macrium Reflect System Recovery option does NOT cause a "Boot from USB" event. But maybe Osaban modified his BCD through some other means?
     
  4. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Ah ok, yes if you're referring to Dark Mode issues discovered during the beta, then that's another matter. But a) that is not relevant to any Reflect users except those who were invited and agreed to test beta software knowing full well that it was beta software, and b) that is of course why we have betas. But since V8's production release, I believe only one glitch related to Dark Mode has been discovered -- even though V8 is now being used by a much larger population. That glitch was also minor, and I believe it's already fixed.

    And yes, apparently it is somewhat difficult to hook Windows to get it to draw its normal UI elements in a way that is both completely different and still accurate. According to a Macrium developer I exchanged posts with during the viBoot 8 beta, which happened prior to the Reflect V8 beta and was the first appearance of Dark Mode, the APIs that Microsoft uses for its own Dark theme are not documented or supported for use by third-party developers.
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2021
  5. Peter 123

    Peter 123 Registered Member

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    Thanks.

    Perhaps it is more simple: Maybe when seeing the recovery environment, Osaban thought it comes from the connected USB drive whereas in reality it comes from
    I assume the appearance of the recovery environment is in both cases the same. (?)
     
  6. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Yes it looks the same because the Rescue environment used by that menu option loads from the exact same WIM file that gets copied onto "external" Rescue Media when you build it. So yes, confusion about exactly what location a PC was booting from is a possibility here. The easy to test would be for Osaban to disconnect the Rescue flash drive and try whatever option in Windows Boot Manager he believes is causing the system to boot from USB. If that option still works, then the system isn't booting from USB.
     
  7. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

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    You are right again what I thought was the rescue media from a USB plugged in, was actually the rescue media file located on the C drive... That means one can access this rescue media even if Windows does not boot. My original question remains, how can I activate the USB rescue media without changing the boot sequence in the BIOS, although I can live with it as if I that ever were necessary, it wouldn't be such a hassle.
     
  8. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

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    I've just tried without the USB plugged in, and yes the recovery environment is created which means it is definitely the rescue media file in C.
     
  9. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Well then MY original question remains: What is your exact PC or motherboard model? :)
     
  10. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

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    My laptop is a Samsung series 7 CHRONOS model NT770Z5E-S78 bought in 2013. Some data:
    BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. P07ABU.147.140421.SH, 4/21/2014
    BIOS Mode UEFI
    BaseBoard Manufacturer SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    BaseBoard Product NT770Z5E-S78
    BaseBoard Version SEC_SW_REVISION_1234567890ABCD

    I remember at the time of purchase, the instructions manual was emphasizing that for any recovery to work, the fast boot tab in the BIOS had to be disabled.

    One of the problems affecting this computer has been the then ongoing feud between Samsung and Microsoft on the availability of new drivers as the operating systems were upgraded from Win 8 to Win 8.1 and then to Win 10 in 2015.

    As the machine is old now, MS has completely taken over the management of drivers and all dedicated keys by Samsung don’t have the original function they were meant to have in Windows 8.
     
  11. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Some quick research suggests that if you have Fast Boot already set to Disabled, you should be able to invoke a one-time boot menu by pressing F10 at startup. I'd suggest that you start from full shutdown, press the Power button, and then immediately begin tapping the F10 button repeatedly.
     
  12. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

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    Yes indeed it works! Furthermore it does even with fast boot enabled. This will make it quick to check the functionality of USB rescue media after updates. I even plugged in an SSD with MR images after entering the USB rescue media, and it was instantly acknowledged by the system... All is well, thank you so much for your expertise and time...
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2021
  13. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    ^ Excellent, glad I could help. :)
     
  14. faircot

    faircot Registered Member

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    I'm running v8.5963 on Win10 and although Reflect backs up, and restores fine from the Win startup screen I'm finding that I can't mount an image from Windows Explorer as I could with previous versions. I'm getting messages about network resources unavailable and reinstallation needed but I can mount an existing image from within MR by right clicking on the individual backup there. I've tried reinstalling - but no difference.
    Is this an issue with my system or has the facility been removed?
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2021
  15. wssw

    wssw Registered Member

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    I tried Reflect HE 64bit v7.3.5925 on my laptop without issue and was able to create a rescue USB stick and also a boot menu (using win RE).

    I then downloaded and installed v8.0.5963 HE 64bit over 7.3.5925 to test the new version but I cannot create ANY rescue media. Reflect reports that it is 'missing XML definitions for the PE components'. I have tried using win PE10 and RE 2004 but get the same 'missing xml definitions' message. I have now uninstalled v8 and reinstalled v7.3.5925 and was able to create the rescue media again - so it appears to be a Reflect v8 rather than a windows issue

    With v7 installed and working, I then removed the boot menu then uninstalled v7 completely, deleted the c:\boot folder and the macrium folder in programdata before installing v8 again but I still couldn't create rescue media or the boot menu - got the same 'missing xml definitions' error message

    I also found the reflectdlfull for v7 works fine, but reflect for v8 reports corrupted options list. I don't know if this is a separate issue or related to the above. As the v8 download agent was reported as corrupted, I used the v7 download agent to download PE10 to try that PE option with v8 but as I mentioned above this didn't work either as an alternative to win RE in v8.

    Has anyone come across this issue or know how I can resolve it? Thanks.
     
  16. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Are the backups in question actually located on a network share? I don't think any functionality around mounting images has been removed, and I wouldn't expect the network location to make a difference especially if you can still mount them in Reflect, but just wondering. If I right-click an image backup in Windows Explorer and select Explore Image (or just double-click the image file to begin with), I get the expected UAC prompt and then the dialog box where I can choose which partitions to mount, what drive letters to use, etc.

    Any third-party anti-virus running on your system? There was a recent thread on the Macrium forums about BitDefender interfering with Rescue Media builds such that they appeared to complete but were unusable because BitDefender had prevented some files from being included in the build, even though it was fine on V7. And as is typical with third-party AV, it didn't throw any warnings or give any indication that it was interfering with anything, which of course always makes it more exciting to troubleshoot issues it causes. :rolleyes: That seems to have been resolved with a BitDefender update, but maybe something similar is happening here?
     
  17. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    See the second paragraph of my post above about Rescue Media builds. I also remember reading reports of AV causing problems with the Reflect agent and/or the installer it attempted to download -- not specifically with V8 or even especially recently, but they've happened.
     
  18. camelia

    camelia Registered Member

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    Ok tested and working :p

    Windows Dark mode is a joke, if you want to feel the real experience of dark mode only in macOS

    Question:

    I click on the button you can see in the screenshot is there another way to start restoring?

    Thanks
    Camelia

    MRrestore.jpg
     
  19. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    I think that’s the only way to start a restore. Or maybe you can right-click the backup and click Restore there. Do you need a different way? Also, that’s a photo, not a screenshot. But if you want to make an actual screenshot in Rescue, click the camera icon in the taskbar. The file you get will be smaller and easier to read than a photo. ;)
     
  20. aldist

    aldist Registered Member

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    For a long time I learned how to take WinPE screenshots not of the entire screen, but of a selected region or window with saving in png or jpg.
    sshot-1.png
     
  21. faircot

    faircot Registered Member

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    Thanks, jphugnan. The scenario you've set out is just what I've been used to before v8. I'm backing up to a USB drive mapped as G: and I can access this at bootup and via Reflect itself. This has worked flawlessly. However, although I can see the drive and open other files in Windows Explorer (and Directory Opus) right clicking a backup throws up a series of error dialogues ranging from "feature you're trying to use on network resource moved or unavailable, "wait while Windows configures MR", "this file does not have an app associated with it". My security setup is simple and is as my sig. I've disabled the progs but no difference.

    I've tried an in-place reinstall but I'm reluctant to do a fresh reinstall for a relatively minor issue.
     
  22. aldist

    aldist Registered Member

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    It looks like your context menu integration is broken. Check the registry for these hives
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Reflect.mrimg\shell\browse (this is menu item "Explore Image")
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Reflect.mrimg\shell\restore (this is menu item "Restore")
    You can delete the "browse" and "restore" keys (folders), and apply one or two registry files (x64):
    ==================================================
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Reflect.mrimg\shell\browse]
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Reflect.mrimg\shell\browse\command]
    @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Macrium\\Reflect\\ReflectBin.exe\" /b \"%1\""
    "command"=hex(7):56,00,7a,00,21,00,50,00,62,00,73,00,77,00,57,00,24,00,39,00,\
    4e,00,24,00,68,00,78,00,70,00,58,00,59,00,72,00,53,00,73,00,52,00,65,00,66,\
    00,6c,00,65,00,63,00,74,00,3e,00,4b,00,28,00,6a,00,37,00,3d,00,65,00,4e,00,\
    73,00,4c,00,41,00,79,00,2c,00,2d,00,71,00,62,00,34,00,28,00,67,00,59,00,4c,\
    00,20,00,2f,00,62,00,20,00,22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,00,00,00,00
    ==================================================
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Reflect.mrimg\shell\restore]
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Reflect.mrimg\shell\restore\command]
    @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Macrium\\Reflect\\ReflectBin.exe\" /r \"%1\""
    "command"=hex(7):56,00,7a,00,21,00,50,00,62,00,73,00,77,00,57,00,24,00,39,00,\
    4e,00,24,00,68,00,78,00,70,00,58,00,59,00,72,00,53,00,73,00,52,00,65,00,66,\
    00,6c,00,65,00,63,00,74,00,3e,00,4b,00,28,00,6a,00,37,00,3d,00,65,00,4e,00,\
    73,00,4c,00,41,00,79,00,2c,00,2d,00,71,00,62,00,34,00,28,00,67,00,59,00,4c,\
    00,20,00,2f,00,72,00,20,00,22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,00,00,00,00
    ==================================================
    Before that, you can create a backup of your this current registry keys.
     
  23. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Crop it later? Even MS Paint can manage that.
     
  24. faircot

    faircot Registered Member

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    Well something's broken! I replaced the two reg entries you posted (although the old ones looked identical) and rebooted.
    That didn't solve the issue I have. Namely, if I right click or double click on a definition file I get two popups. Firstly "Wait while Windows configures MR", followed by "Fatal error during installation".

    I appreciate your posting about this.
     
  25. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Try fully uninstalling Reflect. You can choose to preserve your settings, definition files, schedules, logs, etc.
     
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