Macrium Reflect Free Foobarred my Laptop!!!

konradklink said:

windows was already on it when I got the computer, so I cannot reinstall

With Windows 10, you make your own installation USB
1 Download the ISO - use one of the sources identified in Download Windows 10 ISO File -TenForumsTutorials [one of them, the MS MCT tool, achieves both steps 1 & 2]
2 Create Bootable Installation USB - TenForumsTutorials
3 Boot from the Windows 10 installation USB flash drive - TenForumsTutorials
4 Clean Install - TenForumsTutorials
5 Check for Bios updates & driver updates in Dell drivers & downloads section by putting in your Dell Service tag in the Dell support website.
6 In preparation for future recovery needs, start using Backup and Restore Device Drivers - TenForumsTutorials

All the best,
Denis

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Welcome to TenForums.

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Also I can boot it usIng AOMEI and Macrium on CD, but I cannot get it to boot from USB.

The method varies from PC to PC.
You might have to set boot priority in your BIOS/UEFI- you may have to hit a certain key when booting to get a boot selection menu. And the installation disk must be built appropriately.


Do you still have a valid image of your original Windows partition?

If you do, you have a good chance of recovering your PC to as it was when you created that image.

Clean install Win 10 as Try3 has given above.

When that is running, you can then restore your original Windows partition in place of the new Windows partition created when you clean installed Windows.

The easiest way to do that is to create Macrium's bootable medium, connect or plug in the disk containing your image file, boot your PC from Macrium's bootable medium, and carefully ensure you select the correct partition when restoring your original Windows partition.

When that's done, disconnect the two disks, and try to boot your PC.
It may be that automatic repair works and all is well.

If not, boot the PC from your Win 10 install disk, and - via 'Repair your computer' - navigate to the Startup Repair option.
(Tutorial available in the searchable Tutorial section).

N.B. that laptop is very old (2012?) - so no guarantees of running 64 bit Win 10 on it.
However its drivers page does seem to offer 64 bit support:
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en...-e6230/drivers

there are about 18 4 gig files on it.

If those are meant to be your Macrium disk image files, there's something wrong.

Given that Windows 10 uses, say, 20Gb minimum, allowing 50% compression, your base image file for your Windows partition should be, say, 10Gb or greater.

What you need to do is to beg/borrow/ a Win 10 PC, and with Macrium R installed on it, mount those image files and explore them to see what they actually are.


As it's an old laptop, your ports will be USB2 so any USB3 issues won't apply. However I wonder if Macrium PE supplies all the drivers you need...? Just a wild guess..

I made boot disks on a different USB stick and none boot.

The way to make a Win 10 boot disk is (as per tutorial Option 1) to use the MS media creation tool. That does everything for you in creating one.
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10

After that it's a matter of knowing how to get a particular machine to boot from it.

Why would Macrium screw up my system so badly without warning?

Macrium R basically does what you tell it to...

I bet you didn't backup all the partitions required to restore Windows (including the hidden ones) or failed to restore them.

Yes, I did comment the drivers offered included 64 bits, so that specific comment proved redundant.