Boot Macrium Rescue from Internal SSD

In addition to adding Macrium Recovery to my boot menu and having a bootable USB, I always set up a bootable partition on one of my HDs per this thread by @topgundep, FYI: Setup Macrium Rescue to boot from an Internal/External USB HD/SSD. It always worked flawlessly giving me an easy way to reach Macrium in case my OS and USB get hosed. But today when finished replacing all of the HDs in my PC with SSDs I decided to test out the bootable partition. Unfortunately it didn't boot. I recreated it on several drives and it still wouldn't work. This works on all my other PCs and has worked on this on for many years. But after I migrated everything over to SSDs it not working. I'm recreated the partition on several drives both at the front and at the back and still no go. What the heck am I missing? Any thoughts?

SIW2 said:

In what way is it not working? Any messages?

Booting a wim off a hard disk should be straightforward. Have you checked all the files are present and the bcd entry is correct?

Just a blank screen and a blinking cursor.
I neglected to explain that that I just boot to the BIOS and set the SDD as the boot device. With the Rescue files on a FAT32 partition set as Active it should boot right up. It does so on my other PCs and it did on this one (for several years) until I swapped the HDD for a SSD. I'm absolutely baffled. BTW, the other PC is the same, Dell XPS 8700 with all SSDs and that work just fine. I'm really stumped on this one.

Update, I should have mentioned that I have Macrium create a rescue ISO and then copy the contents to the rescue partition. I’ve also copied the files from a working rescue USB thumb drive to the partition. Neither of these work anymore. I’m really stumped.

Hi @SoFine409
You missplelled my nick so I did not get mentioned.

1. Do you use UEFI mode for Windows ? if so, make sure you boot it with correct mode ie. with the prefix UEFI-XXXXX.
2. When you change new hardware, sometimes the UEFI firmware does not update correctly.
   Turn off the PC completely and reset your CMOS
3. If step 2 does not fix the problem. The BCD might get corrupted. Try to rebuild with a clean BCD. From admin command:
   
   reagentc /disable
   bcdedit /createstore %temp%\emptyBCD
   bcdedit /import %temp%\emptyBCD /clean
   bcdboot C:\Windows
   reagentc /enable

Here's what I have in my PC. Since I only boot this PC in UEFI, formatted as NTFS from a GPT disk (cannot set Active on GPT disk and only needed for MBR disk) with 4 different WinPE envirenment:: Windows 10 Installation, WinPESE which I build (similar to KHYI's winpe), Macrium, and Disk Genius partition Manager. Just pick correct one from boot menu;

topgundcp said:

Hi @SoFine409
You missplelled my nick so I did not get mentioned.

1. Do you use UEFI mode for Windows ? if so, make sure you boot it with correct mode ie. with the prefix UEFI-XXXXX.
2. When you change new hardware, sometimes the UEFI firmware does not update correctly.
   Turn off the PC completely and reset your CMOS
3. If step 2 does not fix the problem. The BCD might get corrupted. Try to rebuild with a clean BCD. From admin command:
   
   reagentc /disable
   bcdedit /createstore %temp%\emptyBCD
   bcdedit /import %temp%\emptyBCD /clean
   bcdboot C:\Windows
   reagentc /enable

Here's what I have in my PC. Since I only boot this PC in UEFI, formatted as NTFS from a GPT disk (cannot set Active on GPT disk and only needed for MBR disk) with 4 different WinPE envirenment:: Windows 10 Installation, WinPESE which I build (similar to KHYI's winpe), Macrium, and Disk Genius partition Manager. Just pick correct one from boot menu;

Sorry about the misspelling and thanks for responding. It’s MBR and not UEFI. It’s a multi boot PC with Win10, Win 7, and Linux and the multi boot menu works just fine, no problems. Mater of fact I also have Macrium added to the boot menu and that works fine as well. But when I boot to the BIOS with F12 and select the SSD with the Macrium Rescue partition it won’t run. There are 6 or 7 characters on the top line but nothing else. It’s like it’s waiting for something. It just sits there and I don’t know why. Cntrl-Alt-Delete will reboot the system.

It’s funny because I can boot directly to the other SSDs from the BIOS (Win10, Win7, or Linux Mint) but not the one with the Macrium partition. I even tried moving the Macrium rescue partition to another SSD but that makes no difference either. I’ve recreated the Macrium Rescue ISO several times and even copied the files from a working USB Macrium Rescue drive but nothing works. I’m definitely missing something here. I’m really scratching my head on this one. Any other ideas?

OK. For MBR, you must set the partition "Active"

You could also try bootsect.exe from the command prompt, Type bootsect /help for more info.

How did you build the mac ISO ? I would try to rebuild it, on first screen , click on Advanced and select build with WinRe instead. Otherwise it will build with old WinPE version 1709.

Did you mount the ISO and copy or use WinRar/WinZip to extract the files to the partition ? If you have 7-zip installed, just use it to update the ISO file.
I have a BAT file just to do this task and run it as Admin to ensure that everything get copied. Only takes few second to update.

Code:

@echo off
set local
cd /d %~dp0
net session >nul 2>&1
if %errorLevel% neq 0 echo Run As Admin !!! && pause && exit
echo Extracting Macrium.iso...
7z.exe x -y -oH:\ Macrium.iso >nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel% neq 0 echo Failed!!!
pause

In the code H:\ is Macrium boot partition.

topgundcp said:

OK. For MBR, you must set the partition "Active"
It is set as Active. Same as my other 3 PCs

You could also try bootsect.exe from the command prompt, Type bootsect /help for more info.

How did you build the mac ISO ? I would try to rebuild it, on first screen , click on Advanced and select build with WinRe instead. Otherwise it will build with old WinPE version 1709.
I let Macrium build the Rescue ISO then I mount it and copy the files to the partition. I do this every time Macrium issues an update for all 3 PCs and never had an issue. I also tried just copying the files from a working Macrium USB boot drive.
I use the WinPE version but I also tried the RE version and that didn't help.

Did you mount the ISO and copy or use WinRar/WinZip to extract the files to the partition ? If you have 7-zip installed, just use it to update the ISO file.
I have a BAT file just to do this task and run it as Admin to ensure that everything get copied. Only takes few second to update.

Code:

@echo off
set local
cd /d %~dp0
net session >nul 2>&1
if %errorLevel% neq 0 echo Run As Admin !!! && pause && exit
echo Extracting Macrium.iso...
7z.exe x -y -oH:\ Macrium.iso >nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel% neq 0 echo Failed!!!
pause

In the code H:\ is Macrium boot partition.

On a hunch I just reinstalled the the 2TB Seagate HDD that the SSD replaced and sure enough when I selected it as the boot device in the BIOS the Macrium partition booted right up. Go figure? Do you think its something about the SSD? I'm going to copy the files from Macrium partition on a similar PC to the problem PC and see if that helps. I'll post right back with the results.
UPDATE: Copying rescue files from the working PC to the problem PC resulted in the same blanks screen with ten mysterious characters in the upper left and a blinking cursor. Took a pix of the screen and tried to post it as an attachment but it wouldn't upload. Below is the disk layout and the contents of the Macrium partition.

What brand is your SSD ? I use Samsung and never have any problem. Check if they have new firmware for the SSD.

topgundcp said:

What brand is your SSD ? I use Samsung and never have any problem. Check if they have new firmware for the SSD.

Samsung 860 Evo and Magician said the firmware is up to date. Just did a surface test with MiniTool and it check out OK.