Hi, I used MR to restore a file yesterday. It was my first use of MR to do a Restore and I stumbled along the way but got there in the end. Today I have found several drive letters assigned to... well I'm not sure what. I have got rid of all but one (in File Explorer) by right clicking, selecting "Macrium" and then selecting "unmount".

My problem is that the last one doesn't want to go. If I right click the drive letter and select Macrium, the only option offered is "Create a Macrium image of this partition". All I want to do is get rid of the drive mapping. Help!! please.

Thanks,
John

It sounds like you ended up mounting either multiple images or multiple partitions from the same image to restore a file, which would explain why you had the Macrium > Unmount option for those, but whatever is left that doesn't offer that unmount option isn't a virtual drive from a Macrium image.  Any virtual drives mounted by Reflect can always be listed by opening Reflect, clicking the Restore tab, and clicking "Detach a backup image from Windows Explorer".  If that list is empty, nothing that's left is coming from Reflect. And if it's not empty, try detaching things that way.

But if you're not sure what the remaining letter is actually assigned to, it's probably a good idea to get sure before you proceed -- that actually would have been a good thing to do before you started removing drive letters at all, fyi.  If you open the Computer Management application (just search that name under Start) and then click Disk Management, you can remove drive letter assignments from local volumes, but that mechanism also leaves the volume mounted, just without a drive letter assigned, which may or may not be appropriate depending on what it is. You may want to post a screenshot of what you're seeing in Disk Management so people here can give you clearer guidance as to what exactly you're looking at.  Drag the horizontal slider separating the upper and lower halves of Disk Management's main display area to show as much from each section as possible, ideally so no scrolling is required in either area and therefore everything can be captured in a single screenshot. The Snipping Tool built into Windows is a handy way to capture screenshots if you've never done that before.

And for future reference if you weren't aware, when you need to mount an image, you don't have to mount ALL of the partitions contained in the image.  You can just mount the partition(s) containing the file(s) you wish to restore.  It's a bit faster and simpler to look at.

Additionally, since you said you stumbled along the way just trying to restore a file for the first time, you may want to peruse Reflect's online user guide.  Macrium's documentation is much better than most (same with their How-To articles), and you can access the guide under the Help menu within Reflect, but this link will also get you there.  You may even learn about some functionality you're currently unaware of but would find quite useful, and testing out features/procedures in advance before you actually need them isn't a bad idea either. Trust me, the software handling your backup and restores is something that you definitely want to understand and utilize properly.

JP, thanks, "Detach a backup image from Windows Explorer" did the trick. I thought there would be something in MR but I couldn't find it.

You are right about RTFM of course, I did (eventually) read a copy of the manual which I downloaded some time ago (I really ought to check to see if there's an update, my copy is for v6). I found I was suffering tab blindness - there was a screen showing OS image backups and I didn't see the tab at the top which, the instant I selected it, got me on the right path to restore a file from my data partition. I also wandered around a bit going back in time to older copies of the same file. 

Thanks for your help,
John

Excellent!   I think there's a V7 PDF version of the manual around here somewhere, although 95% of what applies to V6 also applies to V7.  And in terms of UI discoverability, I actually have a Wish List thread requesting some changes on that front, some of which are driven by the fact that several tasks "hidden" under the Restore section might be performed even when somebody doesn't need to restore something.  Perhaps even better, while I think the changes will make the UI more intuitive to new users, I don't think they'll introduce a learning curve for people familiar with the current interface, nor should they be difficult for Macrium to implement, which might be why Nick seemed to like the ideas -- maybe for Reflect 8. You can see them here if you like: https://forum.macrium.com/Topic15061.aspx

JH, a PDF version of the v7 manual may be found in the LEFT hand pane of THIS PAGE...

The option to detach an image from the MR GUI is also located under the Restore menu item and is called "Detach Image."

Speaking of which, MR menus are sort of confusing

That's why I created this Wish List thread: https://forum.macrium.com/Topic15061.aspx

I was unaware before I read this post that you could unmount an image on the Restore tab of MR.  I had a similar situation that JH had & wondering what causes it.

I create image files & alternate between 2 external drives (D & E).  I've pinned both drives to my "Quick Access" in Windows Explorer, even though only 1 is connected at the time.  I lost some files & wanted to use my latest MR image on Drive E to restore them.  Drive D shows up in Windows Explorer as D with a question mark (because it's not connected).

I mounted an image & MR chose the letter D for the drive.  After restoring some files, I went to unmount it by right clicking Drive D (which MR created) & only got the option to "Create a Macrium image of this partition".  Eventually, I rebooted & the mounted Drive D disappeared.
1.  Do you think the problem occurred because I had pinned Drive D to Windows Explorer?
2.  Will rebooting dismount a drive or is that a poor way to try? [Disregard]
3.  Does MR give you a choice of picking a drive letter when mounting? [Disregard]
After I posted this, I found the answers to the last 2 questions in the MR knowledge base.  Sorry.  I'm still wondering about the first question though.
Thanks in advance, Phil


Phil
Windows 10 Pro
Windows XP- SP-3