You have been great Froggie! I can't thank you enough for all your time. Well, I booted outside Windows to a command prompt and then opened Explorer++ file manager so I could get into the Recovery partition and I replaced the current WinRE.WIM file with an old one I had from 2020, then rebooted, seems fine, recovery works fine, etc. I have not tried the Hasleo emergency boot creation yet using download winpe components, but that is what I will do tonight. I think Hasleo is becoming exceptional for a "free" imaging solution. I see they have a latest build to unlock bitlocker encrypted drives from the boot media. The build is discussed in the forum and can be downloaded in this thread here: Hasleo Build 230911 This is a build they did as a feature under feature requests for a guy that asked them about it. They are extremely responsive it appears. Ok, I'll let you know how the boot media goes using download components... Thanks again!
@TheRollbackFrog Update: Created Hasleo emergency UFD using "Download WinPE components" option, created the UFD. Did a system backup, really fast. Tested the UFD and it booted no issues. So that tells me the problem is the WinRE file after the June update. I am glad to find that out. Actually I knew it would boot fine the moment I checked out the winpe.wim and saw it was from 12/06/2019. Thanks Froggie for the guidance!
Just a follow-up to some comments above. When building RESCUE media, what's most important in the needed PE structure is full support for the application being integrated into the rescue media. For something like Macrium REFLECT, it has capability to access network-based storage elements for its operations so it needs good Wi-Fi and network capability. A standard "vanilla" WinPE image usually doesn't contain all that capability (there are a vast amount of different wi-fi and LAN interfaces on Systems and MicroSloth can't supply all the needed drivers for these interfaces in a baseline WinPE). So, they try and provide the most common driver set that will make most components operational under a WinPE (a variety of HDD/SSD drivers and some basic network stuff). A WinRE is nothing more than a WinPE, modified by "the Sloth" to mimic as much of the resident System capability as possible (networks, disks, funny resident devices, etc.), along with some operating System recovery capability needed for support purposes. You can see, based on this, that an application needing the ability to BOOT into itself (for recovery purposes) finds the resident WinRE much more attractive to use for this implementation... there's a good chance it will have everything the app needs. Sure, it's a bit bigger than a standard WinPE but what the heck... 100-200mB more in size is no big deal for today's portable storage devices. That's why most apps needing a BOOTable operating environment tend to choose the System's resident WinRE to create it's recovery media. The other advantage in doing this is no large download of DATA (Windows pre-Installation Building Environment at 800mB-1gB) is required to build the WinPE. Hasleo Backup Suite currently has very little System requirement for doing its operations. It has no current network requirements for its imaging operations at all (it may in the future) but for now it just images resident storage elements on the System it's running on. Currently it's a great candidate for a plain WinPE baseline image. The other important element to WinPE baselines... each newer version (Win07, Win08/08.1, Win10 and even Win11) have more baseline capability (drivers, network capability, storage elements, etc.) than their previous counterpart. That's why the best one to really use would be the latest that actually runs on your System. It matters not that your LIVE OS may be Win07, the newest WinPE that can integrate the app in question, would really be the best environment. It's the app itself that insures the compatibility between OSes for imaging/restoration functions, not necessarily the OS its running under. The WinPE baseline OS just needs to be sure that it can run the app successfully, it doesn't need to necessarily be compatible with the LIVE OS your System runs under. I currently use Win10 based WinPEs to build almost all my rescue media I use for all my Systems from Win07 to Win11 (Win11 has just been a li'l too flakey for me to trust its WinPE just yet and Win10 has the richest support/driver set to date that I can really trust).
Fascinating! For Hasleo (HBS), can a rescue ISO it creates under Win10 be used in a Win7 machine as well?
Keep in mind, a base Hasleo WinPE will have used your System's WinRE to produce it. That WinRE should have all the baseline WinPE offerings as well as specifics for its resident System as well... that should be more than enough for Hasleo operability. As long as the target machine's base hardware isn't really wierd, it's worth a try. There may be some driver issues for really old hardware but it's definitely worth a try. So far, every Win07 machine that I've used a Win10-based WinPE on has worked just fine, BUT... YMMV
Just so you realize how far things can be used in reverse... if you look at storage device driver versions in use on your System, you'll find that they all use (regardless of how new they are) drivers dated in 2006, they're still using drivers that are 17-yrs old. That's on the devices themselves. You'll find the same thing in use for connection interfaces (SATA, most NvME, IDE, etc.). So basically, storage devices used on 17-yr old Systems should still be operative with a Win10-based WinPE. USB interfaces will be a bit different, especially USB3 stuff since it is a lot newer, but the basic System is still pretty old.
Fascinating discussion, thanks @TheRollbackFrog and @soccerfan Understood about older drivers also, I have seen often drivers going back to the Vista days of 2006 still used. I also have not yet used Win 11 PE as I also am not comfortable using it in that application. When I built the rescue media for Hasleo using the download winpe components, it really was not that large after it was all done. 300 something MB for the Hasleo winpe.wim file in its own directory, I think in the bin directory. Much smaller than the WinRE of course, but after install and creating the boot media, I think it added about 700MB total to my drive, that includes hasleo and their winpe.wim. I am going to create another emergency disk using the built in winre, which I know will work because I replaced the post June WinRE with the older 2020 version. But hasleo boot media after booting is really very base, just enough for the app to do its thing and you can also pull up a command prompt if necessary. Slick interface, easy to navigate the app, i think they are doing a decent job.
My Hasleo ISOs on Ventoy are ~512MB for Win10 and ~299MB for Win7. I guess the size will vary depending on the specific machine that is used.
It appears that way @soccerfan . I imagine based upon the machine and basic driver needs, that would influence what components get downloaded from MS for winpe. My machine is a Dell opitplex 9020 small form factor, older Intel HD 4600 graphics, Win 10 Pro. Runs great, but fairly basic machine. I think it is from 2017 time frame...I bought it refurbed machine was like new. I put a Adata SSD in it, it also has a second 500GB HDD. The SSD is 256GB, 4 partitions, and my OS C: is about 25GB. I updated last night to the latest Windows patch Tuesday update, then cleaned up and did a system backup with Hasleo. 2:11 seconds. Not bad for a total of about 26GB of data and the backup file was about 12GB in size, which is I think really good for the default "low compression". Thanks for sharing about your ISO size. I'm sure it is machine based, etc.
@TheRollbackFrog Just had to tell you, I did some software testing tonight and decided to revert to a hasleo backup I made after updating Windows 10 pro last night, you know the "patch" Tuesday Cumulative updates. So I did a "system backup" last night, so tonight I started the restore within windows, chose my system backup, chose "partition mode" and then the OS C partition to restore to original location. After a minute or two, it stated it had to reboot into Pre-OS mode, and I said yes. Hasleo did its magic, restored the OS C partition after about 2 - 3 minutes it said restore complete and I clicked finish and the system rebooted. I'm impressed. I started the restore purposely from within windows, as you have mentioned Hasleo would do a restart, etc., and do the restore using its own rescue WIM file to boot into and complete the restore. No emergency disk used. I was curious as to how the restore would go started from within windows using no rescue media. This is really a program that deserves some attention. You have been so helpful with all of your testing, and being able to start a restore from within windows is a real plus in my opinion, as long of course, that windows is not broken, then the rescue media would come in. Anyway, just wanting to post this, I have been using drive imaging programs for over 20 years...going back to the Powerquest days. This Hasleo program and its features are impressive and thank you for your thorough testing and working with the devs to make it even better, that helps us all decide to take the plunge to trust a new imaging program. Simple, fast and restore from within windows which I had not tried was just flawless, and this from a free program. Good job Hasleo! I appreciate you and others comments and discussions in this thread over the last several months. All very helpful as the program continues to evolve into a real contender.
For the most part Macrium has been considered the golden standard of backup programs, can we now consider Hasleo an equal?
Well "Golden Standard" might be a bit excessive, but it is a very good imaging environment. IMHO, Hasleo isn't quite there yet but is out of the gate in a very significant way. Of course it's much simpler than Macrium REFLECT... that makes it very attractive for many users that enjoy simple and not convoluted. In many ways, REFLECT may be made simple based on user requirements, but it does require an investment of time and knowledge in the application itself, and this is something many users don't like to invest in... they want something easy to use right out of the box (I don't blame them). Hasleo has just started "walking" (slowly) and is an excellent FREE implementation of an image/restoration environment. It already uses a fast CPU multi-core approach to imaging, many other imaging apps have not yet accomplished this (REFLECT has). This provides for fast imaging, especially if the target device for the image is also quite fast. It needs to improve its selective partition restoration to be a bit more competitive (it can do it, it just hasn't yet). A major feature missing here (and just about everywhere else except with REFLECT & Drive Image Backup and Restore, aka, IFW) is the ability to do DELTA or difference restorations... basically restoring only the differences between the image taken and the resident DATA on the partition being restored. Hardly any users ever mention this capability, but, to me anyway, it's very important. It provides for very speedy restore operations, which I'm sure are important to most users who want to get back running quickly. This might be the last major feature they need to develop to actually make HBS an easy REFLECT replacement. Of course, it may be the first feature added to the new PAID version whenever that decision is eventually made HBS basic scheduling is more than adequate (personally, I would like finer than 1-hr intervals), and it has a good event triggering mechanism selection as well... not much to be done in this area. It could use a bit more improvement in the image retention area (I am using Powershell and the CLI version <Command Line Interface> of HBS to do this at the moment). If what you see is all you really need, I would go for it... especially since REFLECT's FREE version is no longer available and will hit the support dust in 4mo. HBS is clearly an excellent FREE imaging/restoration solution, and currently their support has been "in the mix" to date.
Thanks Froggie, I have the paid version of reflect now but when they stop supporting it I will consider Hasleo.
Very good points @TheRollbackFrog In regards to Macrium and Terabyte products, they are definitely advanced and their delta restoration is excellent I think. That would be something of great value if Hasleo can add that feature. I think in its current state, Hasleo while still young, appears to do its job well, at least for me, and a pretty good feature list for "free" when compared to other free offerings. I still use Macrium, only the rescue media to make and restore images, and I have an older version of IFL (Image for Linux) that was always solid for cold imaging of Windows. I was always one of those that thought cold imaging was safer and that is how I did my backups for many years. I am changing my mind after going through Hasleo and using it lately. Hasleo does a good job with the basic needs for most folks, backup and restore in an efficient manner. Hopefully they will implement a better partition restore feature, no special modes necessary, but it works if those modes are respected. It is just a bit awkward to only be able to choose one partition at a time to restore, I hope they improve that feature, overall I am pretty happy with it and would recommend it to someone looking for a capable free imaging program. If Hasleo keeps up with their development, their future looks pretty solid. Thank you TRF as always, appreciate you taking the time to help.
HOT imaging was never really a big risk once MicroSloth developed their Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). All current LIVE imaging products that use VSS as their mechanism for freezing the Windows FileSystem prior to imaging work quite well. Many of those products were late in doing that and originally used their own FileSystem freezing methods... which always exposed those FileSystems to "anomalies" when restorations were performed (I won't get into details). These days I can't think of any imaging solution that doesn't avail itself of VSS. Of course, VSS itself has had some minor glitches along the way... but never as potentially devastating as early FileSystem freezers were. VSS has become a fairly stable feature. Of course, COLD imaging just might be considered a l'il bit safer ... but nowhere near as convenient.
I do remember some programs "other" methods of freezing the file system...not real good stories if I recall. Sometimes those applications that offer "propietary" means to accomplish something do not always work or are more complicated than necessary in some software, especially trying to mimic something like VSS. VSS has become pretty stable I think, and I do see cold imaging advantage would be to avoid potential VSS issues, but it sure is convenient to image within the OS. The reboot to restore feature in Hasleo, I find that a very attractive feature personally. It went very smooth for me and fast without adding a boot menu, etc.
Thanks @Jim1cor13 , I was gonna mention that capability. As you know, a BOOT menu item IS NOT required to perform this function... the BOOT menu item is just used for your convenience, if needed. A LIVE restore (the ones you do) just sets up a 1-time pre-BOOT operation (doesn't use the BOOTmgr or the BCD BOOT menu) which uses their created WIM file to BOOT into (the same WIM used in their BOOT menu and their Emergency Disk (rescue media). This way they don't have to mess with the BOOTmgr/BCD. This pre-BOOT environment is the same that has been used in the past by BOOT time defrag applications... the whole OS isn't available at that point but enough is available to get the Hasleo WIM running (the rest comes with the WIM itself). It's a fairly clean method and doesn't need to do much cleaning up after itself.
I too have the problem @Jim1cor13 mentioned on one of my Win 11 systems. No probs on another Win 11 system. In my case, after entering Hasleo WinPE, it stops at the Windows logo with a spinning circle. I'll also try downloading the WinPE components. @TheRollbackFrog, do I need to delete the default WinPE, or will downloading WinPE components and creating a new one replace the default? @Jim1cor13, Hasleo is super reliable, from my experience. I replaced other imaging programs with Hasleo on our systems because of its reliability and usability.
@khanyash - I believe you should delete the current ISO built by Hasleo (in its BIN folder) to be able to have the download option available. The "Add driver" WINDOW (which is where the download option is) won't even be offered to you unless the above mentioned ISO is removed.
If you're using the BOOT menu entry you should REMOVE the entry in the Main Hasleo UI through the "Tools/Remove BOOT Entry function, then if there's any residual Hasleo leftovers in the C:\boot folder (usually a GUID named WIM and SDI entry), delete those. Then download and re-create your ISO/WIM, followed by a "Tools/Add BOOT Entry function. That way everything should be based on the newly created WIM from the download. If there's a WinPE.iso in Hasleo's Bin folder, the BOOT entry will use that to create it's own GUID.wim/sdi files for the C:\boot folder (BOOT menu entry). If there isn't, it will use the resident WinRE.wim unless you ask for the download files during the add driver window. Best to clean up as follows... 1. Remove BOOT entry if enabled. 2. Delete C:\"GUID".wim/sdi files. 3. Delete WinPE ISO file in the Hasleo BIN folder. 4. When creating the new Emergency Disk, check the DOWNLOAD box in the add driver window. When finished creating your Emergency disk, you will now have a new WinPE.iso file in the Hasleo BIN folder, based on the WinPE files just downloaded rather than the resident WinRE System image. 4. Re-add your BOOT menu item, but in the add driver window, do not select the download option. Hasleo will then use the BIN resident WinPE.iso to create the C:\boot entries required for the BOOT menu. All should be in sync at this point.
