Did you try using Macrium to create a recovery iso to your hard disk, then use the Rufus utility to install it as bootable on the USB stick? Make sure you choose the uefi option if you are using an UEFI boot system on your system disk. The Rufus website has some basic usage instructions.
Thank you, I just tried it and it didn't work. Could there be something wrong with my computer? Need something like fixboot or fixmbr? What I don't understand is, I have the one that works that I made in the past. (winpe 10 on Kingston 1GB drive) Sometime in the past Windows update borked my CD/DVD drive. Before I realized this I tried to run my rescue disc on it. It didn't really even begin to spin the disk, so I don't think that did anything. But the first time I tried to make a new rescue usb with Macrium it would not download the files, so I ended up uninstalling and re-installing ver 7.3 and that part worked after that? But I'm thinking that shouldn't have anything to do with my computer not booting from these disks.
I would turn off SECURE BOOT in the BiOS and try any of your failed UFDs... just to see if they BOOT. There's some setting in your BiOS that you're just not seeing. FixBOOT or FixMBR have nothing to do with BiOS BOOTing of other devices other than your OS configured HDD/SSD. RUFUS should have easily prepared a UFD for your ISO installation on it... it should have BOOTed.
If Secure Boot is ever the reason something won't boot, you will see a message very clearly stating that. Secure Boot simply verifies that the bootloader is properly signed by a trusted authority. It would not be responsible for device incompatibility. If disabling Secure Boot ever resolves something even though the user never saw an error/warning specific to Secure Boot first, it will typically be because disabling Secure Boot also enabled CSM/Legacy BIOS boot support and the subsequent boot attempt was in Legacy BIOS mode rather than UEFI mode without Secure Boot.
Ok good to know on Secure boot and fismbr and fixboot. redid the rescue again with Rufus - there was activity on the usb drive on restart but it failed to boot again. I have another question with Rufus - one box was labeled "partition scheme" the options were MBR or GPT. I used MBR is that right? bios settings (AMD A6) boot menu - disabled D2D recovery - enabled fast boot - disabled quiet boot - enabled secure boot - disabled first boot device is - removeable device
Yes, MBR is fine. Flash drives set up as GPT can only be booted in UEFI mode. Flash drives set up as MBR can be booted in either UEFI or Legacy BIOS mode. GPT can be useful if you specifically want to make sure somebody does NOT boot the media in BIOS mode by accident. As mentioned above, when using MBR on a system that supports both Legacy and UEFI booting, you can see two different boot options for the same device, one for BIOS-mode and one for UEFI-mode booting. Booting the "wrong" way can have consequences. For example, if you boot Windows installation media in BIOS mode, then it will perform a BIOS-mode installation of Windows onto your disk. That might not be desirable on a system that is capable of UEFI booting. With Reflect, the fixes attempted by the Fix Boot Problems wizard depend on how the Rescue Media itself was booted. So if you boot Rescue in BIOS mode and have it try to fix a UEFI-mode Windows installation, it will attempt the wrong fixes. But if you're careful about that sort of thing, a flash drive that's initialized as MBR and uses a FAT32 partition is the most flexible option.
I boot UEFI systems in UEFI mode from MBR flash drives on a regular basis. And Rescue Media Builder itself sets up flash drives as MBR even when the "multi-boot" option is selected. In fact it specifically does NOT support GPT-initialized devices.
He asked about RUFUS and that app prepares for a BiOS BOOT only with an MBR partition scheme. RUFUS requires GPT when building specifically for an UEFI BOOT.
jima, Can you do me a favour? Plug in your UFD (the Macrium one that doesn't boot) and start your computer into the Boot Menu. Do you have two entries for the UFD? What are they called? Then do the same with the Macrium one that does boot.
Brian I don't know what you mean by start the computer into the boot menu. (the boot menu in my bias is disabled). (I'm afraid I don't have the knowledge you guys do by a long shot) I don't think this computer has an option for a legacy boot. I believe it just has UEFI. (actually it doesn't show an option for either - I know it's UEFI because I checked in system properties) It's a small form factor gateway. I enabled the boot menu with the UFD in and rebooted but I didn't see anything in the bios
I redid the rufus drive with GPT just to rule it out - still no boot? The thing that I can't get past is that I can boot with the drive I made with Macrium as the computer is. So you would think that the bios settings would have to be OK to some extent? It's like a twilight zone to me - as Froggie says with Rufus and the Macrium ISO it should boot (have to leave for a couple hrs)
All AMD motherboads support CSM but it might be called something else. ? Legacy I don't have an AMD MB. With my computer I press DEL to get into the UEFI BIOS firmware. I press F12 to get a Boot Menu. The Boot Menu shows my bootable devices. I also have a Boot Override menu in the UEFI BIOS firmware which is similar to the F12 Boot Menu. I never use Boot Option Priorities with the UFD as the first item. If you have two UFD entries in the Boot Menu, how do you know which one is booting?
Yes, I enabled boot menu and when it was restarting, I hit F12 and it came up. (never saw this before - apparently this was the trick) It showed the hard drive on top and the removable drive under it, with arrows to select which one to boot from. So when I selected the removable drive - it booted I was wondering if you can help me understand what happened? I had the removable drive as the second option for several tries when it didn't work I moved it to the first option just to try it - didn't boot (now have it back it 2nd place) when I turned on the boot menu and rebooted I didn't notice anything. finally, as you advised, when I hit F12 on restart, I got the option that worked. I don't believe I ever had boot menu enabled on this computer before this What role did enabling the boot menu play in making it work? (was it just so I could get the option to choose the drive to boot from using F12)? Why didn't it boot to the removable drive prior to that, in that I had it prioritized over the hard drive? should I now leave the boot drive enabled? I appreciate very much you sticking with me on this one - thank you
jima, that's great news. Can you do one more test now you have CSM disabled? Put Removable Drive at the top of Boot Priorities. As you had before. Above Hard Drive. Plug in your UFD and power on your computer. Does the UFD boot without doing anything?
OK. Then I can't explain why the Boot Menu works and the Boot Priority method fails. I only use the Boot Menu method.
no - failed as before. I seems the one variable is the F12 on restart, and then choosing the removable drive. the other one worked - the new ones wouldn't. I never used the boot menu before. We got it - I guess "our is not to reason why, but ........" I really throws a guy like me who just knows enough to get something to work and then when it doesn't you think there has to be a bigger picture I'm not seeing, and you feel the answer has to be somewhere else beyond my grasp. That's where you guys are so helpful in that you know where it's not, and instead of branching out on tangents, you know where it has to be, and keep punching til you get it.
The Boot Menu and the Boot Priority list are not the "same". I have everything in the Boot Priority list disabled, except for the HD. This is Windows Boot Manager in a UEFI system. If I use a bootable UFD or CD, they appear in the Boot Menu.
Ok, for now with this new back up drive I have has to have the boot menu enabled - so I can hit F12 and select the UFD I noticed that with the boot menu enabled I do not have the option to re-enable secure boot - that sound right? anyway I can put the settings back the way they were as long as I use the original UFD. If that should die I can always set it up with the boot menu again and use the backup I now have. One last question, is this where you can have the option of starting Mac refl on the boot menu?
When you clone a UFD you have to image the Entire Drive, not just the partition. You can do this using backup/restore or a direct copy (clone). But not with Macrium.
I used a program called imageUSB that I downloaded. It was very simple to use like Rufus. It was made for imaging boot disks etc. the BIOS seemed to be acting flakey so I decide to reset the settings back to default. I can't explain what happened, but as long as I have 2 rescue sources that I can get to work if I need them, I'm good. I also tried putting Macrium in the boot menu. It was a simple task to do and it worked, but it significantly lengthened my boot up time. Since I seldom restore images, I decided it wasn't worth it - So I removed it, with the realization that I could always regenerate and use this if I had to in a case where the operating system was still working.
