Macrium First Time - Goof?

Well gang, I am finally onboard with this tool and successfully created my first system image backup using this tutorial (Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect). However the tutorial said that first usage would produce a request to create Rescue Media. This seemed like a good idea but the tool did not do this. I could not find the steps here so I went to the Macrium site and found it there.. I goofed and selected Windows Boot Menu rather than Removable USB Flash Drive when I cliked build.
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I next did it again with the correct selection. At first I had no idea what my mistake produced until I booted up this morning and saw an new screen.
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I did not clik either one and the machine proceeded to finish starting normally. I conclude that the Windows 10 boot option is the default.

1. What did I do?
2. What would happen if I had cliked the Recovery option?
3. Can and how do I remove the recovery option/boot window and get my machine to it's prior state?

thank you

MourningStar said:

1. What did I do?

You did not 'goof'. Many of us choose to add the Macrium boot menu in addition to making the USB.

2. What would happen if I had clicked the Recovery option?

You would boot to the Macrium recovery environment, exactly as if you had booted from the recovery USB.

3. Can and how do I remove the recovery option/boot window and get my machine to it's prior state?

Run the Rescue Media Builder again and select 'Remove Boot Menu'.

Bree said:

You did not 'goof'. Many of us choose to add the Macrium boot menu in addition to making the USB.

Thank you very much Bree (I feel better now).

Bree said:

You would boot to the Macrium recovery environment, exactly as if you had booted from the recovery USB.

1. What exactly is this 'environment' and what happens in it?
2. If I have the USB, I do not really need that boot option? IOW, if the OS or the drive gets hosed is it still viable?

MourningStar said:

1. What exactly is this 'environment' and what happens in it?

The recovery environment is a minimal Windows operation system, just sufficient to run a full copy of Macrium Reflect. It looks and behaves almost the same as when you run Reflect in your normal Windows, except that it opens at the Restore tab by default. Nothing will 'happen' until you ask it to, so it is quite safe to boot to it and have a look. In fact, it is highly recommended that you do boot from your newly made recovery usb to make sure that a) it works, and b) you know how to boot from a usb on your PC.

Part Five of Kari's tutorial shows you what to expect.

2. If I have the USB, I do not really need that boot option? IOW, if the OS or the drive gets hosed is it still viable?

No, you don't need the boot menu option (you did test that you can boot from the usb, right?). It is however useful in the case where the drive isn't hosed, but you just want to go back to before you installed some software that was not to your liking (either by choice, or one of those sneaky bits that are bundled in less reputable downloads).

Within File Explorer you can right-click on a .mrimg file and select Restore.



This will run Macrium to restore the image, but as you cannot restore the C: drive while Windows is running it will tell you it has to reboot to the recovery environment to continue. If you don't have Boot Menu option installed, then it will offer there and then to make it before rebooting. Then the PC reboots to the recovery environment and automatically restores the image you selected.

Great posts and advice Bree. Thank you!

Bree said:

... Many of us choose to add the Macrium boot menu in addition to making the USB.

One more question please. Should this or the USB be 'updated' regularly? And if so, how often or under what circumstances? -thx

MourningStar said:

One more question please. Should this or the USB be 'updated' regularly? And if so, how often or under what circumstances? -thx

In theory, it's good practice to update the recovery USB whenever there's an update for Macrium Reflect. In practice a usb with an older version of the recovery environment will still work just as well as the latest one.

On (very) rare occasions an update will introduce a bug in the recovery usb, so it's a good idea to keep two, one updated to the latest, the other with the previous version. Such bugs will very quickly be fixed by Macrium and the release notes for the fixed update would warn you that you should update your recovery environment.

^
OK - I ask because I am learning that MS is still breaking stuff regularly with each update. Your reply seems that this (w.u.) would not apply. -thx

MourningStar said:

...I ask because I am learning that MS is still breaking stuff regularly with each update....

Unlike MS, Macrium rarely 'break stuff'. And if they do (nobody's perfect) a fix is released within hours - not days (weeks, or even months) as is too often the case with MS.

Ok - marked as 'solved', re-marking as 'unsolverd'.

Bree said:

... (you did test that you can boot from the usb, right?).

I did just now and am confused. I shut off the machine. I put the USB in a port. I started the machine and expected the 'Choose OS' window like in post#1. Nope, it went directly to my sign-in screen. Signed in and opened the USB and here is what's inside :