Confused about backup/rescue options

I need guidance about backup or rescue processes to use for my PC with Win11 Home. The setup is as a local machine with no link to MS and no login required. The default location of all personal folders/files is on an external drive.

The personal files are also backed up to another external drive (irregularly at present but hoping to get my wits back soon!).

System backup options are a real challenge for me to grasp since MS no longer guides this process.

Recently this forum introduced me to the Haselo Backup Suite and I've used it to create a system image. In the discussion of creating a system image, @Bree mentioned "creating an ISO" for a rescue disk and to "make a USB from the ISO" and "just mount the ISO and copy its contents to a Fat32 formatted USB." I'm still uncertain about what this means.

Can someone provide (or link me to) "Win11 system backup for dummies" instructions? I know it is still imperative to create a bootable rescue disk, but the truth is I don't even know what size is needed, especially if I add the system image backup. And when I look at the Hasleo options I find myself wondering what if I'm supposed to "add Boot Menu", etc, beyond just creating the emergency disk. (attaching image)

I was dismayed to discover (when I really needed it, of course) that Windows no longer creates the easily accessible system restore point. Does this tutorial fix that? Enable Automatic Backup of System Registry when Restart in Windows 11. I have plenty of space on my PC's hard drive to store these.

I'm so thankful to this community!

Here's how i backup my Windows 11 i use Macrium Reflect to create a backup image of the Windows 11 i also backup my personal files to second external drive if needed i use image backup to restore my Windows 11 and again if needed i use the second external drive to restore my files.

RDG said:

, @Bree mentioned "creating an ISO" for a rescue disk and to "make a USB from the ISO" and "just mount the ISO and copy its contents to a Fat32 formatted USB." I'm still uncertain about what this means.

Can someone provide (or link me to) "Win11 system backup for dummies" instructions? I know it is still imperative to create a bootable rescue disk, but the truth is I don't even know what size is needed, especially if I add the system image backup. And when I look at the Hasleo options I find myself wondering what if I'm supposed to "add Boot Menu", etc, beyond just creating the emergency disk.

Click to expand...

Adding to the boot menu means you can boot to the rescue media from the PC's own drive. This may not be possible if the drive is badly corrupted or has been replaced, so a rescue USB is an essential tool.

Usually I keep the rescue USB and the images on seperate USB drives. For Reflect a 1GB USB is sufficient to hold the rescue media, Hasleo should have similar requirements.

Creating a bootable USB from an ISO is simple. The USB should be formatted as Fat32 (most are anyway).

1. double-click on the ISO file to mount it.
2. Select everything on the mounted ISO.
3. Right click or press and hold on the selected files.
4. Click/tap on Show more options (Shift+F10).
5. Click/tap on Send to, and click/tap on the USB drive you want to use.

This will create a USB that is bootable on any UEFI PC. To make it bootable on any Legacy bios machine as well then one further step is needed. Open Disk Management. Right-click on the USB's partition and select 'Mark Partition as Active'.

@Bree Is the *.DBI file created by Hasleo an ISO file?
Also, is the Disk Management step related to this warning on the Hasleo site? "Please note that you may need to disable UEFI Secure Boot to boot from the bootable WinPE media created by Hasleo Backup Suite." Thanks.

RDG said:

@Bree Is the *.DBI file created by Hasleo an ISO file?
Also, is the Disk Management step related to this warning on the Hasleo site? "Please note that you may need to disable UEFI Secure Boot to boot from the bootable WinPE media created by Hasleo Backup Suite." Thanks.

Click to expand...

I only have limited experience with Hasleo. @antspants is an experience Hasleo user and can probably best answer that for you.

No, the Disk Management step has nothing to do with Secure Boot. It is only required if you need to boot the USB on an old Legacy BIOS/MBR machine.

Regarding Secure Boot, older versions of WinPE and WinRE have security certificates that pre-date MS's latest EFI security update. They will not be allowed to boot with Secure Boot turned on. Even older Windows install USBs will require Secure Boot temporarily turned off if you need to boot from them.

RDG said:

@Bree Is the *.DBI file created by Hasleo an ISO file?
Also, is the Disk Management step related to this warning on the Hasleo site? "Please note that you may need to disable UEFI Secure Boot to boot from the bootable WinPE media created by Hasleo Backup Suite." Thanks.

Click to expand...

No, the DBI file IS NOT an ISO file, it is a proprietary disk image file. You can create an ISO file (containing the Rescue Media) by using the "Emergency Disk" creator in the "Tools" area.

@Bree thanks. Well, I am at least capable of creating an Emergency Boot Disk and have all my personal files on an external drive and backed up. Do you know if "Enable Automatic Backup of System Registry when Restart in Windows 11" tutorial creates restore points? That was always an easy way to correct problems generally caused by a newly installed software.

Froggie said:

No, the DBI file IS NOT an ISO file, it is a proprietary disk image file. You can create an ISO file (containing the Rescue Media) by using the "Emergency Disk" creator in the "Tools" area.

Click to expand...

I don't understand what an ISO file is so can't grasp what its purpose is or how it might better serve me in a worst case scenario, which is why one tries to keep everything backed up. My mind is sill analog!

@Froggie @Bree My post above was to both of you.

RDG said:

I don't understand what an ISO file is.....

Click to expand...

An ISO file is an image of a DVD or CD that can be burnt to a real DVD or CD disk, or mounted as a virtual DVD/CD and explored with File Explorer.

kelper said:

Which ISOs can be used this way? I'm curious, I have always used Rufus to make an ISO into a bootable USB stick. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Any Windows install ISO can be used in this way, with the exception of those with an install.esd/install.wim that's larger than Fat32's 4GB file size limit. For those they can still be copied to a Fat32 USB, but you'd need to split the install.esd/wim into 4GB sections first using DISM.

The current W11 24H2 ISO as made by the Media Creation Tool has an install.esd that's 3.98GB.

@Bree

I just tried this with a Macrium ISO and it worked! Presumably it will only work with a bootable ISO, not just any ISO?

Bree said:

An ISO file is an image of a DVD or CD that can be burnt to a real DVD or CD disk, or mounted as a virtual DVD/CD and explored with File Explorer.

What Is an ISO File? Explained in Plain English

By Adam Naor An ISO file is an exact copy of an entire optical disk such as a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray archived into a single file. This file, which is also sometimes referred to as an ISO image, is a smaller sized duplicate of large sets of data.

www.freecodecamp.org

Click to expand...

Can it be an image of my entire system (minus personal files) as it is set up or are those two separate things? If I understand correctly, I have created an image of my system with all my settings.

kelper said:

I just tried this with a Macrium ISO and it worked! Presumably it will only work with a bootable ISO, not just any ISO?

Click to expand...

Yes, it should work with a bootable ISO based on any Microsoft OS. It may or may not work for Linux ISOs, if not the Linux community usually recommend using Rufus or balenaEtcher, I use AnyBurn for mine.

RDG said:

Can it be an image of my entire system (minus personal files) as it is set up or are those two separate things? If I understand correctly, I have created an image of my system with all my settings.

Click to expand...

No, the image you created is not in an ISO format. The ISOs I'm talking about are the ones for the rescue media that Macrium Reflect or Hasleo can create for you. In Hasleo this is 'Tools>Emergency Disk' then select 'Export ISO'.

Bree said:

No, the image you created is not in an ISO format. The ISOs I'm talking about are the ones for the rescue media that Macrium Reflect or Hasleo can create for you. In Hasleo this is 'Tools>Emergency Disk' then select 'Export ISO'.

Click to expand...

Okay. I think I understand now. Found this: EXE File vs ISO File, What's the Difference? Thanks so much your help and patience!

Bree said:

I only have limited experience with Hasleo. @ant

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Not at all, unfortunately Bree. I just made that tutorial for people who may be as simple as I am. And also because I thought it might contribute to the traffic brought into this forum

Bree said:

Adding to the boot menu means you can boot to the rescue media from the PC's own drive. This may not be possible if the drive is badly corrupted or has been replaced, so a rescue USB is an essential tool.

Usually I keep the rescue USB and the images on seperate USB drives. For Reflect a 1GB USB is sufficient to hold the rescue media, Hasleo should have similar requirements.

Creating a bootable USB from an ISO is simple. The USB should be formatted as Fat32 (most are anyway).

1. double-click on the ISO file to mount it.
2. Select everything on the mounted ISO.
3. Right click or press and hold on the selected files.
4. Click/tap on Show more options (Shift+F10).
5. Click/tap on Send to, and click/tap on the USB drive you want to use.

This will create a USB that is bootable on any UEFI PC. To make it bootable on any Legacy bios machine as well then one further step is needed. Open Disk Management. Right-click on the USB's partition and select 'Mark Partition as Active'.

Click to expand...

"For Reflect a 1GB USB" Was that a typo? A 32GB Flash Drive was too small, The ISO file is 666 MB. And thanks for pointing out I could create the ISO with Hasleo. I got that part done!

RDG said:

"For Reflect a 1GB USB" Was that a typo? A 32GB Flash Drive was too small, The ISO file is 666 MB.

Click to expand...

No typo. Official Macrium statement for Reflect V8.

USB Flash Drive Formatting​

	Boot__________________________________	Type__________________	Min*Partition*Size_________________
	The following partition is required on the USB flash drive for booting the Macrium Reflect rescue media:
	Multi-Boot MBR / UEFI	FAT32	1.2 x Size of Rescue Media PE files
	MBR Only	FAT32 or NTFS	1.2 x Size of Rescue Media PE files

The Rescue Media PE files vary in size dependant on PE/RE version. 1GB will be sufficient for all PE and RE versions as of May 2018.

Click to expand...

Here's one I made earlier on an 8GB USB, then shrank the rescue media partition to it's minimum possible size (792MB) so that I could create a 2nd partition as a scratch drive to use for data and other files.

I've just made an MR 8.1 recovery USB. It uses 1.1GB. I used a 16GB flash drive.

I also made an ISO. It's 1.11GB in size

Bree said:

Regarding Secure Boot, older versions of WinPE and WinRE have security certificates that pre-date MS's latest EFI security update. They will not be allowed to boot with Secure Boot turned on. Even older Windows install USBs will require Secure Boot temporarily turned off if you need to boot from them.

Click to expand...

There's a way to make USB drives bootable without turning off Secure Boot.
It simply requires replacing the USB_Drive:\Efi\Boot\bootx64.efi file with the bootx64.efi file that resides on your EFI partition.



To do this, mount the EFI partition:

mountvol s: /s

Then copy bootx64.efi to the root f C: (or wherever you like)

copy S:\EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi c:\bootx64.efi

Copy/Replace the file on the USB drive and it will now be bootable with Secure Boot on. The new file is signed with CA 2023,
while the old file is signed with CA 2011 and the reason it won't boot with Secure Boot on.

I do this with all my bootable drives and can even be done with a ISO file using a program like AnyBurn (thanks @Ghot).