Can I Boot A Macrium Rescue USB Drive On A UEFI Boot Only System

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  1. Posts : 9
    Windows 10
       #1

    Can I Boot A Macrium Rescue USB Drive On A UEFI Boot Only System


    I am currently using Easeus ToDo and because of the number of recommendations I have gotten for Macrium Reflect Free, I decided to give it a try.

    The first problem I ran into after starting it was in trying to create a rescue USB. Apparently, Macrium won't support GPT formatted drives. It will only permit MBR formatted rescue drives. This doesn't seem like very advanced thinking to me but I guess it is what it is.

    On the other hand, I have a newer Dell computer which supports "UEFI" booting only. It has no legacy booting capability at all. It is also brand new and at the latest level of Dell BIOS as well. Mine falls in the category described in the note below.

    https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...gacy-boot-mode

    >> Note: Some newer computers will only support "UEFI." It will not include an option for Legacy at all even with the latest BIOS version installed. This is normal, and it is working as expected.<<

    My question is will I have any problems booting an MBR formatted rescue drive on a system which supports UEFI only booting? My Easeus ToDo has a GPT formatted rescue USB which I created and it boots up fine on my system.

    Thanks in advance for any input.

    Running Win 10 Ver 20H2, Dell Inspiron 3891 I5-10400, 4.3 Ghz, RAM 16GB, Samsung M.2 SSD 970 EVO Plus
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 15,443
    Windows10
       #2

    Linus01 said:
    I am currently using Easeus ToDo and because of the number of recommendations I have gotten for Macrium Reflect Free, I decided to give it a try.

    The first problem I ran into after starting it was in trying to create a rescue USB. Apparently, Macrium won't support GPT formatted drives. It will only permit MBR formatted rescue drives. This doesn't seem like very advanced thinking to me but I guess it is what it is.

    On the other hand, I have a newer Dell computer which supports "UEFI" booting only. It has no legacy booting capability at all. It is also brand new and at the latest level of Dell BIOS as well. Mine falls in the category described in the note below.

    https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...gacy-boot-mode

    >> Note: Some newer computers will only support "UEFI." It will not include an option for Legacy at all even with the latest BIOS version installed. This is normal, and it is working as expected.<<

    My question is will I have any problems booting an MBR formatted rescue drive on a system which supports UEFI only booting? My Easeus ToDo has a GPT formatted rescue USB which I created and it boots up fine on my system.

    Thanks in advance for any input.

    Running Win 10 Ver 20H2, Dell Inspiron 3891 I5-10400, 4.3 Ghz, RAM 16GB, Samsung M.2 SSD 970 EVO Plus
    The Macrium Rescue drive will boot on uefi or mbr. The usb drive is mbr to make it universal.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 231
    Windows 10 Home 21H1
       #3

    Linus01 said:
    I am currently using Easeus ToDo and because of the number of recommendations I have gotten for Macrium Reflect Free, I decided to give it a try.

    The first problem I ran into after starting it was in trying to create a rescue USB. Apparently, Macrium won't support GPT formatted drives. It will only permit MBR formatted rescue drives. This doesn't seem like very advanced thinking to me but I guess it is what it is.

    On the other hand, I have a newer Dell computer which supports "UEFI" booting only. It has no legacy booting capability at all. It is also brand new and at the latest level of Dell BIOS as well. Mine falls in the category described in the note below.

    https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...gacy-boot-mode

    >> Note: Some newer computers will only support "UEFI." It will not include an option for Legacy at all even with the latest BIOS version installed. This is normal, and it is working as expected.<<

    My question is will I have any problems booting an MBR formatted rescue drive on a system which supports UEFI only booting? My Easeus ToDo has a GPT formatted rescue USB which I created and it boots up fine on my system.

    Thanks in advance for any input.

    Running Win 10 Ver 20H2, Dell Inspiron 3891 I5-10400, 4.3 Ghz, RAM 16GB, Samsung M.2 SSD 970 EVO Plus
    Hi!

    Macrium Reflect is a good choice. It is one of the most reliable tools, it has never failed on me. (Only Acronis True Image holds that same reputation to me)

    However, its boot-disk creator tool is mediocre to say at best. That thing often fails, especially if you feed it a GPT disk. (which you should, actually)
    It won't let you choose whether you want MBR or GPT, it won't let you select GPT/UEFI only, and as @cereberus described, it tries to create MBR to make it "universal", however in reality, with modern systems, this is unneccesary and actually just makes things worse.

    In my opinion, MBR should just die and be forgotten, forever. It is an insecure and unreliable partition map that is prone to corruption and has severe limitation. It was a good run in the 80s, 90s, and '00s of course, but now, with most systems already using UEFI, I say again: let's forget MBR, permamently.

    I read you loud and clear, you want a GPT-only disk . So here's how you do it:

    Choose to Create an ISO image with Macrium
    then
    Download RUFUS from Rufus - The Official Website (Download, New Releases) and use it to deploy the bootable ISO to your USB drive.

    Unlike Macrium's bootable creator tool, RUFUS is a proper tool for this, something that lives in the 21th century and not in the 20th, that is ready to create a GPT-only disk.

    And luckily for us, the ISO Macrium creates is perfectly ready for this. Actually that is a standard Windows PE/RE image , customized.

    Good luck and NEVER resort to MBR or legacy boot.
    Last edited by ish4d0w; 11 Jan 2022 at 13:43.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 231
    Windows 10 Home 21H1
       #4

    cereberus said:
    The Macrium Rescue drive will boot on uefi or mbr. The usb drive is mbr to make it universal.
    This is true but I have seen several cases when it just fails to work due to this. There are some modern systems not capable of booting from MBR anymore, and we shouldn't rely on legacy boot just to make some users happy - I mean, I understand Macrium's effort to make it work for everyone but honestly it will not, they should create a seperate legacy option for those still needing it, but not forcing this legacy MBR madness to everyone.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 21,421
    19044.1586 - 21H2 Pro x64
       #5

    Hello Linus01,
    Why is gpt not supported? Macrium Forum discussion on the topic
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 15,443
    Windows10
       #6

    ish4d0w said:
    This is true but I have seen several cases when it just fails to work due to this. There are some modern systems not capable of booting from MBR anymore, and we shouldn't rely on legacy boot just to make some users happy - I mean, I understand Macrium's effort to make it work for everyone but honestly it will not, they should create a seperate legacy option for those still needing it, but not forcing this legacy MBR madness to everyone.
    This is complete tosh.

    The Macrium drives work fine on either - my laptop is uefi only and works fine.

    I have never seen a pc where the reflect drive fails because pc is legacy bios or uefi. The only time failures are seen is if the pc needs special drivers and sometimes they need to be added to the boot drive if the drive was created on a different pc that never had the required driver.


    The reflect drive is set up exactly the same way as the MS installations drives created by the media creation tool.

    The windows drives are mbr formatted but can boot to either - yoou cannot get more official than that!

    Anyway, these drives boot in winpe mode, not full Windows. The only requirement is to have boot files on drive that support uefi.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 231
    Windows 10 Home 21H1
       #7

    cereberus said:
    This is complete tosh. [...]The reflect drive is set up exactly the same way as the MS installations drives created by the media creation tool.
    [...]
    The windows drives are mbr formatted but can boot to either - yoou cannot get more official than that!
    This is exactly the reason why I don't use MCT Tool either. They work well in MBR/legacy mode, and in most cases on UEFI too, but I have seen two cases when MCT's MBR installation didn't show up on an UEFI-only configuration, yet Rufus' GPT installation did.

    Why are we (by default) still supporting MBR where the latest OS (Windows 11) won't even install on MBR/legacy systems?
    Last edited by ish4d0w; 11 Jan 2022 at 13:41.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 15,443
    Windows10
       #8

    ish4d0w said:
    Hi!

    Macrium Reflect is a good choice. It is one of the most reliable tools, it has never failed on me. (Only Acronis True Image holds that same reputation to me)

    However, its boot-disk creator tool is mediocre to say at best. That thing often fails, especially if you feed it a GPT disk. (which you should, actually)
    It won't let you choose whether you want MBR or GPT, it won't let you select GPT/UEFI only, and as @cereberus described, it tries to create MBR to make it "universal", however in reality, with modern systems, this is unneccesary and actually just makes things worse.

    In my opinion, MBR should just die and be forgotten, forever. It is an insecure and unreliable partition map that is prone to corruption and has severe limitation. It was a good run in the 80s, 90s, and '00s of course, but now, with most systems already using UEFI, I say again: let's forget MBR, permamently.

    I read you loud and clear, you want a GPT-only disk . So here's how you do it:

    Choose to Create an ISO image with Macrium
    then
    Download RUFUS from Rufus - The Official Website (Download, New Releases) and use it to deploy the bootable ISO to your USB drive.

    Unlike Macrium's bootable creator tool, RUFUS is a proper tool for this, something that lives in the 21th century and not in the 20th, that is ready to create a GPT-only disk.

    And luckily for us, the ISO Macrium creates is perfectly ready for this. Actually that is a standard Windows PE/RE image , customized.

    Godo luck and NEVER resort to MBR or legacy boot.
    Rufus is garbage when creating installation drives - you have to disable secure boot to install. I create them using dism, and no need to disable secure boot.

    There is no UEFI Standard requirement to use GPT drives from the source drive. Hell the source drive could be an old DVD which uses neither mbr or gpt drives!


    In fact, if you create a Windows 10 installation drive using the MCT, it creates a dual mbr/uefi bootable drive on an mbr formatted usb drive. You cannot get more official than that.

    In any case, you can create a bootable reflect usb on a gpt formatted drive - dead easy to do but absolutely no blooming need to do this at all.

    People make silly statements without understanding how WinRe works versus full Windows.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 15,443
    Windows10
       #9

    ish4d0w said:
    This is exactly the reason why I don't use MCT Tool either. They work together in MBR/legacy mode, and in most cases on UEFI too, but I have seen two cases when MCT's MBR installation didn't show up on an UEFI-only configuration, yet Rufus' GPT installation did.

    Why are we (by default) still supporting MBR where the latest OS (Windows 11) won't even install on MBR/legacy systems?
    I still do not use crappy rufus.

    I have a batch files that creates a bootable usb drive from iso (see my tutorial if iso >4GB).

    So use dism to convert usb to gpt using dism - only needed once.

    Then copy files from iso to usb using simple batch file.

    No messing around with secure boot.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 525
    Windows 10
       #10

    In my experience, a UEFI computer will boot from a UFD as long as it has a FAT32 partition, and the necessary boot files are in this partition. The fact that the installed OS is Windows 10 or 11 is completely irrelevant. So is the boot mode, UEFI or legacy. Also, the UFD can have one or two partitions, and the FAT32 partition can be the first or the second.

    And to create the UFD, I simply format it with FAT32, mount the ISO and copy its contents to the UFD. If the UFD is already formatted with FAT32, it´s not necessary to reformat it, just to delete the existing files and copy the new from the mounted ISO.

    All the rest and unnecessary complications.
      My Computer


 

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