Generally, when I get the alert that there is a reflect update, I apply it – in addition I then update the recovery environment which I have set as a boot option and that was the case with the last update 8.1.7638

I was having an issue with one of my laptops, so I tried to boot in the reflect recovery environment. I got the message on the screen that it was “loading files.” It then failed with code of

0xc000a004

stating that there was an issue with

\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe

At first thought it as an issue with this pc, but then I tried this on another computer and the results were the same

I have not changed or altered the setting for the reflect boot option using Windows RE 10 version 2004

Is this a known issue?

I'm like you with updates, and on one of my 4 systems I also install optional previews of windows 11 update rollups.  I got bit, because there was no problem with a week's worth of running on my Win 11 laptop, so I installed the optional patch on a Win 10 Pro system and ended up with Rescue Media boot symptoms very similar to yours.   To decide on similarity, see the sordid details in this post:  https://forum.macrium.com/73641/Blue-Screen-on-RE-Rescue-Media.  You'll see that very few people have encountered the issue.   I finally restored the system from a backup from before the application of the dastardly bug fix, and then dreaded the upcoming mandatory version of the patches, but so far it has not been seen in the patches released yesterday.  The four systems at my place are up and running on the versions shown in my signature below.

I've been very verbose with details about what I encountered inthe post, and it mirrors what I've reported to Reflect Support, so if you think you have the same issue, you MUST have applied the Optional Preview patch, starting with the same beginning versions of Reflect and the OS, built your Rescue Media using WinRE 10 from the same after-update version of Windows 10, and get the same error code when booting the RM (it can be from the Windows Recovery Boot Menu (WRBM) or from booting the same version from a flash drive.  It will NOT appear if you use WinPE 10 instead of WinRE 10 to base your Rescue Media on so that lets you have a version of RM that works as you restore your system to pre-patch version.

Edited to correct the versions shown in my signature.


L.W. (Dan) Danz, Overland Park KS

Thanks for your reply --- have you got any new info from your support request? 

+x

 

Frank Esposito - 18 September 2023 1:25 PM

Thanks for your reply --- have you got any new info from your support request? 

No, but I don't care if they close it. There are 3 avoidances or recovery strategies.
1. Don't apply OPTIONAL preview WU updates without a very recent backup of the system disk (all partitions).
2. Restore the system disk (all partitions)
3. Don't reapply the WU update after step 2. (The update might reappear after step 2 as optional, so you would have to deliberately reinstall it).
Edited to add;
Let me be clear...I don't think there is anything wrong with Reflect.  The error was in the WinRE 10 patch that modified the WINDOWS Recovery code. IMHO Reflect was a victim and I facilitated the problem by applying an optional preview patch without adequate, recent backup.

Did you also apply the optional bad preview update identified by KB number in my other post.?


L.W. (Dan) Danz, Overland Park KS

yes --- I did apply KB5029331 on 8.24 

It seems to be best to skip preview updates and wait until patch Tuesday?

for this to be fixed MS has to correct RE 10?

Thanks again

+x

 

Frank Esposito - 18 September 2023 2:44 PM

yes --- I did apply KB5029331 on 8.24 

It seems to be best to skip preview updates and wait until patch Tuesday?

for this to be fixed MS has to correct RE 10?

Thanks again

The patch Tuesday release already arrived yesterday without mention of that KB5029331 -- and the fixes contained in the bunch of patches since then have been applied without incident.


(And I took a backup immediately before applying them just in case, and I successfully built and booted Rescue Media on \\hopi ( Reflect v8.1.7638+ on Windows 10 Pro 22H2-19045.3448+)

So I think there's nothing for Macrium folks to fix.  If anything later happens involving any of this, I'll update this post.


L.W. (Dan) Danz, Overland Park KS

In my case it was:

Win11 PE no boot RE booted

And from @Dan Danz reply the opposite happens on Win 10.

So make one of each for now.  Also save an older backup and older disk that did boot.

What is unbelievable is I have used reflect since Version 4 and never had these problems in the past.

I wish some would get their act together at MI$ and have good actual no problem updates.