Macrium Reflect

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

  1. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    The Reflect rescue media "wizard's" options can be set to make the UFD media UEFI and MBR "dual bootable" (or not) but it seems unlikely that installing "PE all over again to get things working" would affect that aspect of its UFD handling. If that option is selected, it requires and checks for a FAT partition on the UFD. Sounds more like a bad PE download problem or bad DISM functionality depending on the nature of the "corruption" encountered.
     
  2. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    When you create a bootable USB, an MBR is written to the USB drive. If you have something that blocks writing the mbr to the USB drive it will fail to boot.
     
  3. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Understood @Peter2150. I'm just saying that that possibility doesn't seem to fit the scenario described in this case as being fixable by installing "PE all over again." More specific info from @boredog about the "corrupted" UFD result that involved the corrective action he took to "get things working" again would be needed for a more precise answer IMO. Or a relevant extract from the original installation log might be helpful.
     
  4. boredog

    boredog Registered Member

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    When I created the original Bootable USB PE it was set to UEFI. It always worked till the last time I tried to do a full image restore. The USB stick would not boot into the Marcrium mode to let me do a restore. And so I installed the PE software again and was able to continue. And so somehow the PE got corrupted. That is all I can tell you. I just now did a restore to insider build 16232 because every time I get an new update It fails. Latest is 16251 and it fails every time.
     
  5. Robin A.

    Robin A. Registered Member

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    This is generally irrelevant in practical use, but to clarify... A boot UFD can be partitioned as MBR or GPT. In Macrium, when the "dual bootable" option is selected, is partitioned as MBR. This is equivalent to the option "Partition type MBR for BIOS or UEFI" in Rufus, I suppose. There are two other options in Rufus: "Partition type GPT for UEFI" (no MBR), and "Partiition type MBR for UEFI".

    Captura_R.PNG
     
  6. AlphaOne

    AlphaOne Registered Member

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    I've been watching for the next v7 update since Nick in the Macrium forums estimated a delivery date of a "few days" over two weeks ago. But I'm not at all bemoaning the delay because I am happy to see them favoring quality over meeting estimates.

    I'm interested in the next update after Nick committed to giving users the option of removing CBT during the install. I'm thinking that no reports of significant defects and favorable comments from the experts here for a month might be enough for me to update from v6 to v7.

    So, anybody here hear anything newer than I have?
     
  7. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Well, first of all, updating the Windows OS itself, regardless of whether or not its a Windows "insider" build update, doesn't have any direct impact at all on any of the WinPE builder base versions that are used by the Reflect "wizard" to create any rescue media. Those PE base versions are installed under the "C:\ProgramData\Macrium\Reflect\Windows Kits" folder either by the Reflect download agent or by the "wizard" itself on demand and they normally just stay there unchanged by any other updates. From there, the Reflect "wizard" then mounts the selected PE version under the "C:\Boot\macrium\WA?KFiles\mount" folder for incorporating hardware drivers and its own program files extracted from the "C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\WAIKFILES??x??.exe" package.

    To do that, Reflect does use the "wimmount.sys" and "dism.exe" utilities from the currently installed Windows OS version however. So an OS update of those utilities could affect that part of the WinPE build process. That seems to me more likely than some unprecedented failure of the Reflect rescue media builder itself or some unexplained corruption of the same PE base resources that it used and that worked okay prior to the OS update. Admittedly, however, that's just a "best guess" based on what you've said here. The information available isn't really sufficiently precise to permit anything more definite.
     
  8. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    No update has been released for the Reflect v7 installation package since that promised change to make CBT a user choice for "opt-in" installation.
     
  9. AlphaOne

    AlphaOne Registered Member

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    Thank you Arvy - Ron.
     
  10. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Macrium, on TWITTER, told all their "partners" and "resellers" that new versions would be available on July 27th. Not being either, I don't know if that happened or not. Seeing as we haven't heard anything, methinks the 27th release didn't occur either.

    Here's what was promised and hasn't occurred to date...

    Continuous Incrementals (shortly after the v7 release on 18Feb2017)
    Optional CBT at installation (next release??)
    Macrium Image Guardian (15July2017)

    Perhaps the next release may be a minor one (v7.1?) which just may include all of the above... and then again, it may not :rolleyes:
     
  11. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    And one more that was promised for both v6 and v7 to update the Windows 10 PE base download (from v1607 to v 1703) to permit recognition of more than a single partition on UFDs. No specific date promised for that one except that "it is on the list planned for a release in the not distant future."
     
  12. MPSAN

    MPSAN Registered Member

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    Froggie I never saw your PM...I just sent you one.
    Also, everyone, I just updated one system to Win CU 1703, will my current rescue dvd without the a new PE versions still be OK?
     
  13. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    There is no requirement for "version matching" the WinPE build base to any installed OS, not even if you want to use the rescue environment for backing up and/or restoring several OSes installed on a multi-boot system. Any Reflect rescue media is "okay" if it boots the machine in question successfully to the WinPE environment and provides access to all of that machine's backup destination locations.
     
  14. MPSAN

    MPSAN Registered Member

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    Great...I was just checking!
     
  15. boredog

    boredog Registered Member

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    The last time I loaded Marcrium a few weeks ago it said there was a new version of PE builder.
     
  16. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    The Reflect rescue media "wizard" will alert you any time a newer version of its WAIKFILES??x??.exe package has been installed since the most recent rescue media rebuild. However, that does not mean that the "PE builder" itself is new. Nor does it mean that the PE base version files are new. It only indicates an updated version of that self-extractor WAIKFILES package containing Reflect's own program files and recommends their incorporation into a WinPE rebuild. On acceptance of that recommendation, the rebuild process uses "wimmount.sys" and "dism.exe" to do that as I explained above.
     
  17. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    Arvy, that is very interesting and I appreciate your time to explain this. My old mind is still a bit befuddled by how these parts interact and what it means for me and my normal update procedure. So how often would these two files wimmount.sys" and "dism.exe be updated? Or in other words, how do I know when to update my rescue media?
     
  18. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    @beethoven - usually Macrium will let you know in the release notes of a new issue whether the Recovery Media needs to be rebuilt to remain compatible. The only other time I can think of is if you have a specific issue with your Recovery media that is addressed in the release notes.
     
  19. Robin A.

    Robin A. Registered Member

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    Is there any particular reason why Macrium does not support the creation of boot media from the WinRE? All the others do.
     
  20. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Those two files (wimmount.sys and dism.exe) are components of your Windows OS installation and may or may not be updated when the OS itself is updated. The first one, as its name implies, simply mounts any WIM image so that it can be modified. The second one carries out the actual modifications. If you want to get deeper into the technical details, this TechNet article explains it in greater depth. Macrium's release notes usually include a special mention of any critical impacts of its own updates on the WinPE rescue media. Personally, just to be safe, I rebuild for every Reflect update for all the extra time it takes after patching the main installation. But that just my "belt and suspenders" personality -- probably overkill.

    Reflect's rescue media "wizard" provides an option whereby you can specify its use of any boot.wim image base you wish. The most likely use for that option would be for using your own "customised" WIM file including, for example, some other standalone utilities. I suppose you could try using the WinRE boot.wim file as a starting point for your PE build, but its inherent capabilities are significantly more restricted than those of WinPE boot.wim bases.
     
  21. Gorkster

    Gorkster Registered Member

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    Well, everything ran as it should have for the beginning of August. As a reminder:

    Full = First Sunday of every month at 0500 hrs
    Diff = First Monday of every week at 0500 hrs
    Inc = Every day at 0500 hrs

    On Sunday 06 August the Full ran and the Inc did not. On Monday 07 August the Diff ran and the Inc did not. Just as it should have done. While good news, I am left scratching my head...
     
  22. warrior99

    warrior99 Registered Member

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    Same issue a Gorkster Full is working fine
    Inc set to run everyday stoped July 31
    issue since first of August , might be
    connected to this
    KB4032188 installed July 31.
    and the Diff runs when it likes set First tuesday of every week
    will reinstall it see if that helps ..
     
  23. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    @Gorkster -- Thanks for the follow-up. Happy to hear that your previous issue seems to have resolved itself for you, but as you say, it does leave one puzzled.

    @warrior99 -- Macrium's difficulties with unanticipated Windows Task Scheduler changes introduced by Microsoft's W10 updates aren't really new. They began quite some time ago with the Windows 10 "Anniversary Update" while they were still using the WTS v1 API in Reflect v6. Their more recent adoption of the WTS v2 API in Reflect v7 seems only to have added to the confusion, even amongst their own developers, about interactions of its scheduled task parameter settings with their own MacriumService handing of missed tasks and "order-of-precedence" rules. Gorkster's follow-up suggests that some of it may be getting sorted out, but I'm not very surprised if others are still getting inconsistent results. You may need to "refresh" your task scheduling after reinstallation. They aren't an integral part of the task definitions themselves.
     
  24. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    They should do what Shadowprotect did. Write their down scheduler. Shadowprotects imagemanager is a cadillac to Task scheduler being an old vw bus with 3 wheels.
     
  25. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    It may come to that ultimately as a matter of necessity rather than choice. It wouldn't really be a far step beyond all the add-on service "kludges" they've already been forced to introduce for handling background stuff (missed tasks, order-of-precedence, notifications, background task control access, etc.) especially in windows 10. Integration with Windows own Task Scheduler certainly has some valid points in its favour, but only if it works reliably and consistently for such critical tasks as system backups.
     
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