By M MacKenrick - 20 November 2021 11:01 PM
I'm trying to help my brother with a problem with his computer. His computer will not boot to windows, (gets a blank screen after inputting his user name). He now wants to try to restore his computer using his latest backup but his rescue media (usb flash drive) is apparently damaged and does not work. Is there a way of downloading the files to make a rescue media or does the rescue media have to be made on his computer? As you can see we are both not very knowledgeable about how to use Reflect. He is using a Dell desktop computer with Windows 10 (upgraded from Windows 7) and Reflect 7. Thank you.
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By dbminter - 21 November 2021 12:42 AM
The answer is a bit complex. Rescue Media should be made on the computer its intended to be used on. This has the highest degree of making Rescue Media that loads all the necessary drivers for your system. However, it's possible to use Rescue Media made on a different PC on another machine. Yet, there may be problems. For instance, I tried using Rescue Media on a new Dell XPS 8930 that was made on an older Dell XPS. This 8930 was the first one I had with an SSD and the old Rescue Media, when booted, would not recognize the SSD as being connected. Once I made new Rescue Media on the 8930, the SSD was recognized. And when I tried booting this Rescue Media on the 2nd generation of Dell's 8930, it recognized the SSD.
So, here's what I'd try in this situation. I'd try installing Reflect (Possibly Free Edition.) on a 2nd PC and create Rescue Media on it. Then, I'd try booting that Rescue Media on the old machine. If it boots, make sure Reflect recognizes all attached drives. All mechanical HDD's, SSD's, flash drives, USB drives, and optical drives.
This does present a new opportunity worth exploring. When you create new Rescue Media to flash drives, you might want to think about creating ISO files of the Rescue Media, too. This way, you can burn new optical media with existing Rescue Media files or use something like Rufus to "burn" the Rescue Media ISO to a bootable flash drive. And you can keep an archive of ISO's, or at least the most recent one, on hand for cases like this.
If you update to Reflect 8, it has the ability to image bootable flash drives, like Rescue Media. As long as the Rescue Media isn't too full, keeping an archive of Rescue Media flash drive images would also help in a situation like this.
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By M MacKenrick - 21 November 2021 3:19 AM
+xThe answer is a bit complex. Rescue Media should be made on the computer its intended to be used on. This has the highest degree of making Rescue Media that loads all the necessary drivers for your system. However, it's possible to use Rescue Media made on a different PC on another machine. Yet, there may be problems. For instance, I tried using Rescue Media on a new Dell XPS 8930 that was made on an older Dell XPS. This 8930 was the first one I had with an SSD and the old Rescue Media, when booted, would not recognize the SSD as being connected. Once I made new Rescue Media on the 8930, the SSD was recognized. And when I tried booting this Rescue Media on the 2nd generation of Dell's 8930, it recognized the SSD. So, here's what I'd try in this situation. I'd try installing Reflect (Possibly Free Edition.) on a 2nd PC and create Rescue Media on it. Then, I'd try booting that Rescue Media on the old machine. If it boots, make sure Reflect recognizes all attached drives. All mechanical HDD's, SSD's, flash drives, USB drives, and optical drives. This does present a new opportunity worth exploring. When you create new Rescue Media to flash drives, you might want to think about creating ISO files of the Rescue Media, too. This way, you can burn new optical media with existing Rescue Media files or use something like Rufus to "burn" the Rescue Media ISO to a bootable flash drive. And you can keep an archive of ISO's, or at least the most recent one, on hand for cases like this. If you update to Reflect 8, it has the ability to image bootable flash drives, like Rescue Media. As long as the Rescue Media isn't too full, keeping an archive of Rescue Media flash drive images would also help in a situation like this.
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By M MacKenrick - 21 November 2021 3:46 AM
Thank you for the information. I'll send him your reply. I'll suggest he try making rescue media from his laptop and try it on the desktop he is having problems with. He lives in Virginia and I'm in Missouri so I'm trying to help him over the phone and email, which isn't making it any easier. If the rescue media made from his laptop doesn't work, is there some other way he can restore his computer? I forgot to mention that the Reflect image is on an external hard drive in case that makes any difference.
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By jphughan - 21 November 2021 4:40 AM
If the Rescue Media doesn’t work, you might have to manually add drivers to the Rescue Media, which would involve identifying which devices need drivers and where to get them. To help with that, click the Restore menu and select View Unsupported Devices. Then grab a screenshot of that by clicking the camera icon in the taskbar and choosing to save it to your flash drive.
But if you’re restoring onto a laptop and the backups are on an external drive as opposed to on a network device that would require Rescue Media to support the laptop’s network adapter, then there is a very good chance that “foreign” Rescue Media will work just fine here.
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By capair45 - 21 November 2021 9:20 AM
Rescue media built on one PC is not necessarily guaranteed to recognize all the hardware on a different PC. When you create rescue media for one computer, files that are specific to that machine are copied over. These files may or may not be useful on a different machine.
Also, I'm wondering if there might be any EULA considerations here. It's not entirely clear but if a user has the free (unpaid) version installed on a non-booting desktop and creates rescue media from a licensed (paid) laptop, should that rescue media be used on the non-booting desktop? I would think that if both machines had paid versions of reflect then there would be no conflict. Just curious.
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By dbminter - 21 November 2021 3:23 PM
There is, also, one final nuclear option. If Rescue Media created on one PC does not start properly on this PC that is being attempted to restore from, you can always use the Windows Media Creation Tool from Microsoft to make Windows installation media to a flash drive. You can then reinstall Windows and then install Reflect. Create new Rescue Media on the PC where Windows has been reinstalled and test it. Then, if it works, restore the image you have of this PC. Hopefully, you backed up ALL the partitions necessary: the EFI one, the MSR one, the Windows partition, and the WINRETOOLS one, at least. So, be sure to restore all the partitions since you reinstalled Windows. You may also have to run Fix Boot Problems after doing this, too.
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By dbminter - 21 November 2021 3:34 PM
+xThank you for the information. I'll send him your reply. I'll suggest he try making rescue media from his laptop and try it on the desktop he is having problems with. He lives in Virginia and I'm in Missouri so I'm trying to help him over the phone and email, which isn't making it any easier. If the rescue media made from his laptop doesn't work, is there some other way he can restore his computer? I forgot to mention that the Reflect image is on an external hard drive in case that makes any difference.
I had a similar problem, only worse. A friend of mine in Canada had to get a whole new PC because he couldn't get his working anymore. He never took images or backups, so, for Christmas this year, I sent him a WD My Passport USB HDD. I then directed him to the Free Edition of Reflect. However, his bootable media never worked. You can imagine the problem trying to fix boot problems from another country! You can't see his screen and there's little way to get reliable screenshots other than a blurry smartphone.
I eventually gave up as he never tried to fix the problem, actually. Despite my repeated attempts to get him to do SOME kind of backup, he hasn't done it. I can't help that. I made the effort. He said he'd try to get his wife to troubleshoot the problem as she's better with computers than he is. I mean, he never even wrote down any errors messages, if there were any, or explained precisely what "failed" meant.
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By M MacKenrick - 21 November 2021 4:53 PM
Thank you jphughan. That's great information. He can try that if he can't get the one made on his laptop to work (haven't talked with him yet this morning).
dbminter, thanks for the information. I'm really hoping he can find some way of getting the Reflect rescue media to work but as you say, as a last resort he at least has the option of reinstalling Windows and reinstalling Reflect.
capair45, Both his laptop and desktop have the paid version of Reflect 7 and since he's trying to fix a problem with a corrupt/damaged Rescue that he made on the paid version, to fix the same computer, I would think that there would not be any EULA issue, but that is just a guess on my part.
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By capair45 - 21 November 2021 4:58 PM
+xThank you jphughan. That's great information. He can try that if he can't get the one made on his laptop to work (haven't talked with him yet this morning). dbminter, thanks for the information. I'm really hoping he can find some way of getting the Reflect rescue media to work but as you say, as a last resort he at least has the option of reinstalling Windows and reinstalling Reflect. capair45, Both his laptop and desktop have the paid version of Reflect 7 and since he's trying to fix a problem with a corrupt/damaged Rescue that he made on the paid version, to fix the same computer, I would think that there would not be any EULA issue, but that is just a guess on my part.
...Both his laptop and desktop have the paid version of Reflect 7 and since he's trying to fix a problem with a corrupt/damaged Rescue that he made on the paid version, to fix the same computer, I would think that there would not be any EULA issue, but that is just a guess on my part...
Yes, I would agree with that.
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By dbminter - 21 November 2021 5:08 PM
Now, I don't know how this might play out, but there may be a license registration issue with trying to install Reflect on another computer. The current license would be linked to the PC that needs a backup restored to it. So, installing Reflect on another PC might be problematic unless you install the 30 day free trial/Free Edition to create new Rescue Media. There might not be an issue installing the paid Reflect 7 on another PC, but there most likely would be a refusal by the registration server to install the paid Reflect 7 on another PC since the old license was not unregistered from the old PC that needs restoring on.
So, you might best be off installing the Free Edition/30 day free trial of Reflect 7 on another PC to create Rescue Media on.
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By M MacKenrick - 22 November 2021 12:12 AM
My brother was able to restore his computer. He wasn’t able to get the Rescue media from his laptop to work but found something that worked. I should start by saying that this problem with the blank screen after log on to Windows started right after he accidentally upgraded to Reflect 8. He saw the pop-up message saying there was a new Reflect available and thought it was an “Update”. It apparently said New Version, because it installed Reflect 8. After the install, he rebooted his computer and that’s when he got the black screen after putting in his password on the login screen. It may not have been caused by the Reflect 8 installation and may have been just a coincidence that the problem started at that time. There are so many things that can cause this behavior.
It took several days to get it fixed but he learned a valuable lesson, “Read the manual so you know a little about the program and be sure to “MAKE A RESCUE MEDIA”! Lol.
A big Thank You to all of you who have tried to help. You folks are great.
Here is what he did to restore his computer:
Screen turns black after entering pin at Windows 10 sign in screen.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open File Manager.
Select “Task Manager”
Select “File” at the top left corner of window.
Click on “Run new task”
Type “C:” then press “enter”
This should open “File Explorer”
Navigate to C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\
Double click on ReflectBin.exe
This will open Macrium Reflect where you can restore a backup file
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By dbminter - 22 November 2021 12:52 AM
I wouldn't think updating Reflect from Version 7 to Version 8 would produce an unbootable PC. Now, I suppose it's possible if CBT was part of the installation that something might go wonky and prevent Windows from starting. But not the PC from starting. And even CBT is a bit of a stretch for causing Windows not to start. I would say it's some kind of Windows Update that came in at the same time that was causing the problem. And it's just coincidence the two were together.
Anyway, as long you get it working, really who cares what the problem was, right? It's always been my philosophy that if you find a solution, finding the cause of the problem is secondary.
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By M MacKenrick - 22 November 2021 3:25 AM
Well, he ran into another problem. He was able to restore the last Full Image he made but when he tried to restore the Differential backup, he ran into a problem. He gets to the Image Restore Tab, and a list of his Full Image and Differential backups are listed. There is only one Differential backup that was made after his last Full Image, so he selects that. He gets the message about PE Boot Up and after it starts the restore process, it stops and he gets a message saying it can't find the correct file to restore. It wants FAC4D85#20BECC08-00-00.mrinmg and a screen displays showing "Search for missing image file" that shows a Windows File Explorer type display with a list: System, This PC, Libraries, Seagate (L , Seagate (M, etc. The problem is there is no FAC4D85#20BECC08-00-00.mrimg anywhere in his Seagate External HD and that is not the Differential file he is trying to restore anyway. The Differential backup he is trying to restore is listed as FAC4D85E20BECC08-11-11.mrimg (dated 11/14/2021). The Full Image he restored is listed as 9A6F83F8290EBEC7-00-00.mrimg (dated 11/8/2021).
What is he doing wrong and why is it asking for a backup file he doesn't have and doesn't want to restore?
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By capair45 - 22 November 2021 11:32 AM
...He was able to restore the last Full Image he made but when he tried to restore the Differential backup, he ran into a problem...
When restoring, a user does not need to start by restoring the Full and then any Differentials and/or Incrementals throughout the entire chain. He/she would just start the restore by selecting the Differantial or Incremental at the point in time the restore should be made to. Reflect will figure out what needs to be done back to and including the parent Full. If a user only has one Full and 1 Differential, then the complete restore will be completed by simply selecting the Differential. Simply put, to perform a restore, you just choose the backup corresponding to the time you want to return to and Reflect will do the rest.
This is not the complete answer you're looking for but I thought I'd add this to the discussion.
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By DanDanz - 22 November 2021 1:24 PM
I suspect that he no longer has the matching full backup that matches the differential. In my experience, this condition is a major drawback of manually deleting backup files using Windows File Explorer. The safest way to delete backup files is to use the Existing Backups tab of MR version 8. It will show you dependencies among the files. It also eliminates using modified or created date/times from File Explorer to determine the sequencing of the files. A further benefit -- if you have Macrium Image Guardian(MIG) protecting the backup files from malicious software, you won't have to temporarily disable MIG when deleting files via Reflect.
Here's a sample from one of my laptops viewing backups on an external share; the actions in the bar above the list will do the right thing for whichever backup SET or partial SET you select. You can see the consequences of any action.
By the way, I choose to not have any retention set for anything except 3 fulls, taken once a month. When a full is deleted, either manually or because the retention policy has been exceeded, all the dependent (weekly) differential and incremental (unscheduled, but manually initiated via New action from this screen whenever I'm about to do something that might need to be backed out).
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By M MacKenrick - 22 November 2021 6:36 PM
First I would like to ask if it is possible to mount or open just a Differential so that files can be copied from it? If that is possible, he can get the half dozen reports he wrote since the Full Image and start with a new Backup Set, doing it more correctly this time.
capair45, thank you for that information. This is the first time my brother has attempted a restore (I haven't had to do one yet) and is still learning. I'm learning a great deal trying to help him, thanks to this forum.
Dan, thank you for your information. It may very well be that he erased the Full Image that matches the Differential but what I find curious is that the Full Image he is using was made on the 8th, the only Differential (FAC4D85E20BECC08-11-11.mrimg) he has was made on the 14th (about a week later, which is normal). So, it appears as if that Differential could be the first one made after the Full Image of the 8th. I'm also curious as to why Reflect is trying to find a file named "FAC4D85E20BECC08-00-00.mrimg" which has the naming sequence of a Differential backup and appears to be the first Differential in a series because of the ....-00-00.mrmgh. If the retention rules for the Differentials were to keep three, wouldn't the first Differential have been deleted some time ago? I am not at all familiar with how Reflect works so maybe it keeps the first Differential.
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By dbminter - 22 November 2021 6:54 PM
If the parent Full backup is missing, as may be the case here, the Differential is pretty much useless without it. But, one way to check is to see if the Differential will mount as a virtual drive. Try double clicking on the Differential file in File Explorer. If the Differential is complete with its parent Full, then it will mount like an ordinary drive in Windows. You can then navigate to that drive in File Explorer and find and copy the necessary report files from it.
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By M MacKenrick - 22 November 2021 10:59 PM
Thank you. Just what I needed to know. He tried mounting the Differential several ways but it would not mount. It appears he has lost his Full backup. Well at least he was able to restore his computer to a point where he only lost a few files and not his whole computer. I've learned a lot from these posts and will be changing the way I do my backups. The information was very valuable.
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By dbminter - 22 November 2021 11:35 PM
One possibility that may have happened is the Full is present, but the Differential is either incomplete due to a deleted file or a file that may have become corrupted. The Full appears to be complete and not corrupt because it was restorable, but the Differential either had a file deleted from its chain, renamed, or it exists but became corrupted on disc somehow.
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By M MacKenrick - 22 November 2021 11:50 PM
+xOne possibility that may have happened is the Full is present, but the Differential is either incomplete due to a deleted file or a file that may have become corrupted. The Full appears to be complete and not corrupt because it was restorable, but the Differential either had a file deleted from its chain, renamed, or it exists but became corrupted on disc somehow.
That sounds very possible because of the time frame between the original and the Differential, it seems like the Differential really was the first Differential made after the Full Backup (that was able to be restored). If I had to bet, I would bet that you are correct about the Differential being damaged.
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By dbminter - 23 November 2021 12:33 AM
I think it was someone else in this thread who postulated that a file in the Differential chain after the Full was made was probably deleted in File Explorer. That is probably a more likely explanation of what happened. Which, unless you're absolutely sure of the file naming schemes being employed, it is best to delete the image files from within Reflect itself versus File Explorer. Reflect would be smart enough to realize what needs to be deleted and delete only those parts.
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By DanDanz - 23 November 2021 4:26 PM
+xFirst I would like to ask if it is possible to mount or open just a Differential so that files can be copied from it? If that is possible, he can get the half dozen reports he wrote since the Full Image and start with a new Backup Set, doing it more correctly this time. capair45, thank you for that information. This is the first time my brother has attempted a restore (I haven't had to do one yet) and is still learning. I'm learning a great deal trying to help him, thanks to this forum. Dan, thank you for your information. It may very well be that he erased the Full Image that matches the Differential but what I find curious is that the Full Image he is using was made on the 8th, the only Differential (FAC4D85E20BECC08-11-11.mrimg) he has was made on the 14th (about a week later, which is normal). So, it appears as if that Differential could be the first one made after the Full Image of the 8th. I'm also curious as to why Reflect is trying to find a file named "FAC4D85E20BECC08-00-00.mrimg" which has the naming sequence of a Differential backup and appears to be the first Differential in a series because of the ....-00-00.mrmgh. If the retention rules for the Differentials were to keep three, wouldn't the first Differential have been deleted some time ago? I am not at all familiar with how Reflect works so maybe it keeps the first Differential.
@M MacKenrick I have to correct something you said that may be contributing to the confusion.
I'm also curious as to why Reflect is trying to find a file named "FAC4D85E20BECC08-00-00.mrimg" which has the naming sequence of a Differential backup and appears to be the first Differential in a series because of the ....-00-00.mrmg
It does NOT have the naming sequence of a Differential backup. File names ending in -00-00 ARE ALWAYS FULL BACKUPS that start a backup set. The set consists of the 00-00 file and all others that have the same Image ID (the FAC4D85E20BECC08 portion).
the only Differential (FAC4D85E20BECC08-11-11.mrimg) he has
is trying to find its PARENT FULL which will be the file with the same Image Id followed by -00-00. If that file is missing, any and all differential (and incremental) backups made with it as a parent are useless, cannot be restored, and probably should be deleted. This situation would have been apparent if Reflect had been used to manipulate files instead of File Explorer. It would have shown exactly which members of the set were about to be deleted, and it also would have deleted the -11-11 differential and any other members of the backup set if you chose to delete the -00-00 member of the set.
If you have a Backup Set (all with the same image-id portion) consisting of a full and say 20 or more differential backups, you may delete any or all of the differentials in any order without affecting the ability to restore any of the remaining differentials, as long as the parent full is retained. The differentials represent different points in time. Pick the time you want to restore, select the appropriate differential to restore, and Reflect will take care of restoring any data not in the differential itself by loading the data from the parent full. You do not have to select the full. It's inclusion is automatic. None of the other differentials including the ones taken between the selected differential and the parent full will be needed or used for this restore operation. And if retention rules automatically perform deletion of differentials, the process always starts with the OLDEST remaining differential thereby losing the ability to restore from that point in time, but this won't affect the other differentials that represent later points in time.
Beware though that the rules for any incremental backups in the set are vastly different than what I described above.
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By M MacKenrick - 23 November 2021 10:00 PM
Thank you for pointing that out to me Dan. I made the incorrection assumption about the naming sequence. I made the assumption from looking at a screenshot my brother sent me of the files in Windows Explorer and in Reflect and that's what the pattern looked like to me. The time frame of the two Full backups and the timeframe of the three Differentials, made it appear as though that were the case. Looking at it now, it does appear as though he did lose the original Full backup for the set he was trying to restore and there were no Differentials made for the two Full backups in the same folder. Thanks for pointing that out for me and the information on the Differential and Incrementals. I am keeping all the information I have obtained here and will send it to him. I will especially remind him to try to do all the work on his files in Reflect instead of Explorer.
Trying to help my brother has made me realize that I REALLY need to learn more about the use of Reflect. At least I did make a Rescue disc and it appears my Backup sets are in order. Thanks again.
This is off-topic but I was going to try to insert a picture of the screenshot my brother sent me of the list of Full and Differential files he had in his folder. I wasn't sure if it is more secure to insert a link to say Dropbox or is it just as safe to insert a picture straight from my computer?
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