Solved Latest Macrium Reflect updates

cereberus said:

When I create a rescue media, it adds the wifi drivers even though option is off (not checked). I should have realised that from post #929. I have to choose option for "Do not copy drivers"


View attachment 85805

I went back to an earlier version of Macrium Reflect 8.1.7041, and if option to use wifi is checked, wifi drivers are not added.
So it looks there is a bug re. selecting to add wifi support?
Has anybody else experienced this?

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Martin, here's my status on all that.

You're correct in saying that un-checking the "add WiFi" still adds the WiFi drivers.

On mine, I did not have an option to not add the drivers, but did have an option to use the one already in the WinPE. I chose that.



The contents of the Drivers folder on my thumb drive is now this, just my SATA drivers.




All works fine.

Today on my Beelink MiniPC, I updated Macrium Reflect to v8.1.7847 and went on to create the rescue media . When I boot from the Rescue Media it only takes me to Windows Rescue Environment - Choose your Keyboard layout , Choose an option, Troubleshoot blah blah. I did a full format of the 4GB flash drive and recreated the rescue media. Still the same - it takes me to the Windows Rescue Environment and does not boot into Macrium Reflect. What is happening?

it takes me to the Windows Rescue Environment and does not boot into Macrium Reflect

Click to expand...

have a look in the wim with 7-zip

check in the program files folder



see if the macrium folder is in there



then look in windows\system32 for winpeshl.ini








and see if it is pointing the right way




in the regular winre.wim it looks like this which is why recenv.exe is launched as the shel

@SIW2

No macrium in Program Files

looks like it is the regular winre.wim renamed to boot.wim

for unknown reasons macrium pebuilder hasnt put the macrium files or the winpeshl.ini into it.

You can diy if you want. But I think the launch.exe ( the quasi desktop in pe ) is in this WAIKFILES thing . So if you diy you would need to point winpeshl at something else to use as the shell.

OK. I shall one more time recreate the rescue media and check. If it does not boot into macrium I shall use the ISO to create the rescue drive and check,( Only two days back I used the rescue media and did a full system backup)

jumanji said:

OK. I shall one more time recreate the rescue media and check. If it does not boot into macrium I shall use the ISO to create the rescue drive and check,( Only two days back I used the rescue media and did a full system backup)

Click to expand...

Here's how I make the Macrium Rescue Media...

I format my USB stick as FAT32

Then I go here... (it has RE and PE directions)


...and I scroll down to here... Create New Macrium Reflect Rescue Media

...and I just follow the directions. And it works like a champ.

This pic has all the directions (for PE Rescue Media). Anyone can have it if they want.





I've built it like this since July 2023, when MS broke all the bootable media.








Credit to @IanMosley at the following link, for finding the Macrium Knowledge-base Article...

Not needed if winre is 22621.1992 or above

SIW2 said:

Not needed if winre is 22621.1992 or above

Click to expand...

If that's to me... I don't even have a Recovery Partition or the files.
I've used the PE Rescue Media... since I got Macrium.


MR's bootable Rescue Media, has a Command Prompt.
I really don't see the need for a Recovery partition.

When it comes to Reflect rescue media, I create a UFD as most people probably do. But I also create both WinRE and WinPE rescue media ISOs.

Those ISOs are always available on my computers. If the need arises, I can always make rescue media using Rufus. I just find it to be quicker.

Ghot said:

If that's to me... I don't even have a Recovery Partition or the files.
I've used the PE Rescue Media... since I got Macrium.


MR's bootable Rescue Media, has a Command Prompt.
I really don't see the need for a Recovery partition.

View attachment 85877

Click to expand...

No. It is to Jumanji.

I created the rescue media on a new flsh drive - no luck

I wrote the ISO into the flash drive using Rufus - no luck

Both boot into Windows Rescue environment and not Macrium.

v8.1.7847

Click to expand...

If that is the paid version you could ask support. In the meantime you can make one yourself. It is not difficult. You wont have the macrium quasi desktop, not a problem. Some other explorer thing like just manager or explorer++ will do the job.

It is a Home perpetual license with support till 14 Jul 24.

That said, I do not understand even a bit of what you have written in the last post, Just Manager, Explorer++ and all. Brain dead .

f14tomcat said:

Martin, here's my status on all that.

You're correct in saying that un-checking the "add WiFi" still adds the WiFi drivers.

On mine, I did not have an option to not add the drivers, but did have an option to use the one already in the WinPE. I chose that.

View attachment 85824

The contents of the Drivers folder on my thumb drive is now this, just my SATA drivers.

View attachment 85826


All works fine.

Click to expand...

I see it says device support in winpe for you wifi drivers. Did you have both the wifi support checkbox and the check for drivers at startup checkbox unchecked?

I checked an earlier Rescue Drive from last March, and it does not add wifi drivers on my pc if wifi support checkbox is unchecked.

Without wifi drivers - initialisation c. 6 seconds.
With driver, over 20 seconds.

On mine, I do not see any option to add or override ethernet controllers. Maybe that is because I use winre not winpe?

Problem resolved.Thanks to SIW2 and Ghot - the super brains.SIW2 diagnosed that for unknown reasons Macrium did not modify the original wim that resulted in the rescue media booting into plain Windows Recovery Environment.

From Ghot's post referring to the follolwing script, I latched on step 6.

Problem Resolution for Windows RE​

1. Make sure that you have the Microsoft July 11, 2023 Windows Update (OS Build 22621.1992) or later installed on your PC
2. Start Macrium Rescue Media Builder
3. If the Rescue Media Settings at the top of the dialog do not show Windows RE, click the Advanced button, then the Choose Base WIM tab, select Windows RE, then click OK
4. Check that the Settings at the top of the dialog show Windows RE Build 22621, or later
5. Select your preferred Device – USB, ISO file etc
6. Hold down the Control key and click the down arrow on the Build button. Click Force WIM Rebuild
   
   

Quick formatted my recovery flash drive, Control+ Build to force WIM Rebuild and that worked. Now the recovery flash drive boots into Macrium Reflect.

Before:



After Control+Build



Thanks to SIW2 and Ghot.

That said, why in the first instance Macrium failed to do a correct build is not known. That is perhaps the magic of Windows 11.

( On my Dell Inspiron 3280, I had no problem in creating the recovery media after the Macrium Reflect update.. It booted into Macrium reflect as expected. Why it didn't on my Beelink MiniPC? Why a Control+Build was necessary? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

When searching for an OS in the Redeploy-tool ( with the booted Macrium-usb ) , it finds Win10 (???) , while Im on the latest Win11..........!
Is this normal behaviour ?

jumanji said:

On my Dell Inspiron 3280, I had no problem in creating the recovery media after the Macrium Reflect update.. It booted into Macrium reflect as expected. Why it didn't on my Beelink MiniPC? Why a Control+Build was necessary?

Click to expand...

If Reflect mistakenly thinks its existing custom .wim is up to date it will not automatically rebuild it.
Ctrl+Build can be used to force a rebuild in this case.

cereberus said:

Did you have both the wifi support checkbox and the check for drivers at startup checkbox unchecked?

Click to expand...

Yes, to both.

f14tomcat said:

Yes, to both.

Click to expand...

Interesting - on my laptop I can select to copy or not to copy wifi drivers.

I have no idea why you cannot choose not to copy the drivers.

In the end, I am sure this is a bug as choosing not to add wifi support should not copy drivers and earlier version of Reflect do not copy the drivers.

It is all kind of moot as one can just press "esc" to speed up initialisation anyway (assuming backup/restore over network is not needed).