Solved Boot recovery CDs with UEFI: Free Macrium Reflect vs Aomei

DavidY

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I'm just been playing with free backup tools; Macrium Reflect and Aomei Backupper, and working out which works best for me for those times when you need to boot from a Recovery CD.

I'm posting in case it helps someone else.

I've been using a Toshiba PC which has 64-bit Windows 8 preinstalled, and is using a GPT file system. I changed the boot order so that the CD/DVD drive comes before the main HDD, if it finds a valid bootable source.

The BIOS options on the PC also include:
* Secure Boot: enabled or disabled
* Boot mode: UEFI or Legacy (CSM)

I tried both Secure Boot enabled and disabled; this didn't seem to affect the findings below.

However the differences some on switching between UEFI mode and Legacy mode in the BIOS settings.

My question was whether I can boot from a Recovery CD in UEFI Mode; although the PC can access bootable CDs in Legacy Mode, it won't boot itself.

  • Aomei Backupper 1.6

    CD was created using the Windows PE option rather than Linux. By changing to Legacy boot mode, I can boot from the Aomei CD, and it then could backup my HDD to an external USB drive. But I had to change back to UEFI boot to make the computer boot again.

  • Macrium Reflect Free v5.2.6444 - 32-bit.

    This is similar to Aomei. I selected the option to create a CD using Windows PE (version 4). By changing to Legacy boot mode, I can boot from the Macrium CD, and it then could backup to an external USB drive. But I had to change back to UEFI boot to make the computer boot again.

  • Macrium Reflect Free v5.2.6444 - 64-bit.

    This works! I selected the option to create a CD using Windows PE (version 4), 64-bit this time. This creates a CD which will boot in UEFI mode. I think this is because it uses the 64-bit version of Windows PE 4 rather than 32-bit.


So on this basis, I prefer Macrium Reflect Free, because it creates a CD which I can boot in UEFI mode without needing to get into the BIOS settings. It also works in Secure Boot mode.

Although this particular Toshiba seems to allow me to get into the BIOS without too much trouble by repeatedly hitting the F2 key on startup, I know not all PCs are so easy and some times when you need a recovery CD, the PC may not be functioning well enough to let you get into the BIOS easily.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
You can use this to make efi bootable recovery media. It will include a whole bunch of tools, depending on what you already have installed.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Aomei is the best free imaging tool. It has to be. They are unknown, so they offer more than anyone else.

Macrium is good, but the newcomer has to give more to get noticed.Aomei has Lots more functions, easy to use, small and very fast. I have used it for some time.

Just did a test using identical source and destination .

Macrium 10.31 mins image size 17.3gb

Aomei 6.42 mins image size 17.7gb

FREE Backup software for Windows 7, 8 and Server 2008 R2, 2012
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I suggest buying the factory recovery disks also.
When nothing else will boot, they will. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
I suggest buying the factory recovery disks also.
When nothing else will boot, they will. :)
True enough-1st thing I did last time I got a PC was to make the Recovery Disks.

But if you want to restore a broken disk to a later state (eg. after upgrading to 8.1), one of these tools is more help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
Aomei is the best free imaging tool. It has to be. They are unknown, so they offer more than anyone else.

Macrium is good, but the newcomer has to give more to get noticed.Aomei has Lots more functions, easy to use, small and very fast. I have used it for some time.
Yep I'm sure you're right about the extra features they have in Aomei, and why they have them.

But the lack of efi-bootable media (at least without using techniques such as what you did in the 7Forums post) mean I used Macrium to make my 'back-to-when-8.1-was-just-installed' backup, in case of disaster.

Looking at your other post I gather that Aomei's partition product boots in 64-bit as well? Hopefully they'll bring this to the backup product soon.

Another benefit of Aomei is that it's free for all users, not just personal use.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
I am not sure why the aomei backupper created iso is not efi bootable for you. Perhaps because you have installed wadk. Aomei does not use wadk normally, maybe that confused it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I am not sure why the aomei backupper created iso is not efi bootable for you. Perhaps because you have installed wadk. Aomei does not use wadk normally, maybe that confused it.
It's entirely possible I did something stupid. :eek:

However... while I *did* have WADK on the PC, I then clean-installed Windows 8.1 Preview, then Windows 8.1, which I'd have thought would remove most things that would affect Aomei.

I then reinstalled Aomei, on what is now a fairly cleanish 8.1 install, then tried making the Aomei CD again, with the same result. Once again it won't boot in UEFI mode, although it does boot in Legacy mode.

There's an EFI folder on the CD too, but that doesn't seem to help.

If you assume I did something dumb, then Macrium still gets my vote by being more idiot-proof! ;)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
Thanks, I suspect I know what the issue is and will pass it on to them. The free partition manager also makes winpe recovery media - it may be the same.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Just a quick bump for this thread as i have a Windows 8 Asus laptop with the the newish UEFI,i have used Macrium free edition to make the PE 5.0 rescue usb,but when rebooting the pc to utilize the rescue media when attempting a live system image restore, the PE 5.0 usb is not recognised and the pc loads back into the windows desktop.My question is this:
Do i still need to enter the Bios and change the 1st boot order to usb even when using the PE 5.0 rescue environment,all the research i have done so far seems to say that the newer PE 5 rescue media will boot to Macrium without any other intervention,or have i got this completely wrong?As you can probably tell i am not at all pc literate so would welcome all help/comments.

Regards
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    WINDOWS 8/64 bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus K550C
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3537U
    Motherboard
    ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. X550CC 1.0
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000, NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M
    Sound Card
    Intel(R) Display Audio/ Realtek High Definition Audio
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro SSD
    Browser
    Chromium
    Antivirus
    Windows defender
My question is this:
Do i still need to enter the Bios and change the 1st boot order to usb even when using the PE 5.0 rescue environment,all the research i have done so far seems to say that the newer PE 5 rescue media will boot to Macrium without any other intervention,or have i got this completely wrong?
I think you need to change the boot order.

If the BIOS Boot order is set to look at the main hard disk first, and assuming your Windows installation is currently working fine, it won't even get as far as trying the USB.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
You need the Macrium Boot environment---

screenshot_95.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Does the computer have the one time boot menu key, usually F12? If so, no need to change boot order in BIOS.

With the USB drive installed, boot up and press the one time boot key. You should see the USB drive as one of the boot options. It won't show unless the drive is already inserted.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaCenter K450
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core i7-4770 @ 3.4Ghz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Integrated HD Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP h2207
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050@59Hz
    Hard Drives
    250GB Samsung EVO SATA-3 SSD;
    2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA-2;
    1.5TB Seagate ST3150041AS SATA
    PSU
    500W
    Keyboard
    Wired USB
    Mouse
    Wired USB
    Internet Speed
    3GB Up, 30GB Down
    Browser
    SeaMonkey
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender; MBAM Pro
    Other Info
    UEFI/GPT
    PLDS DVD-RW DH16AERSH
Just a quick bump for this thread as i have a Windows 8 Asus laptop with the the newish UEFI,i have used Macrium free edition to make the PE 5.0 rescue usb,but when rebooting the pc to utilize the rescue media when attempting a live system image restore, the PE 5.0 usb is not recognised and the pc loads back into the windows desktop.My question is this:
Do i still need to enter the Bios and change the 1st boot order to usb even when using the PE 5.0 rescue environment,all the research i have done so far seems to say that the newer PE 5 rescue media will boot to Macrium without any other intervention,or have i got this completely wrong?As you can probably tell i am not at all pc literate so would welcome all help/comments.

Regards
Your system spec does not tell me whether you are running 32 bit or 64 bit. UEFI is supported in 64 bit only. So if you have 64bit and your BIOS is setup for UEFI.
  1. Build the Rescue disk and in one of the screen, make sure you have checked as shown in the screen below:

    m.png
  2. You don't need to change anything in the BIOS. For ASUS Laptop, the one time boot is <ESC> key so you need to keep tapping on it during the boot up.
  3. Select UEFI-USBXXX.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Thanks for all your replies chaps[chapesses],my system is 64 bit but i think the usb pendrive was faulty so as a result was not being recognised,so built another and on RESTART i kept the "esc" key depressed and sure enough up popped the one time boot screen where i was able to choose the usb drive and boot straight into the Macrium recovery environment.Only on this forum did i actually find/receive the info needed to answer my question,so once again thanks to all and keep up the good work.

Regards
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    WINDOWS 8/64 bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus K550C
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3537U
    Motherboard
    ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. X550CC 1.0
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000, NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M
    Sound Card
    Intel(R) Display Audio/ Realtek High Definition Audio
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro SSD
    Browser
    Chromium
    Antivirus
    Windows defender
Thanks for all your replies chaps[chapesses],my system is 64 bit but i think the usb pendrive was faulty so as a result was not being recognised,so built another and on RESTART i kept the "esc" key depressed and sure enough up popped the one time boot screen where i was able to choose the usb drive and boot straight into the Macrium recovery environment.Only on this forum did i actually find/receive the info needed to answer my question,so once again thanks to all and keep up the good work.

Regards
Glad to hear it's working and BTW, your USB pendrive might not be faulty. Try this post to see if you can make it work again:
http://www.eightforums.com/drivers-...anagement-reallocation-issues.html#post399405
and thanks for the rep.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
^^^
I went through the above proceedure on the 2nd usb pendrive as i got a error message from Macrium saying "This usb disk does not contain a partition table,it may not be UEFI bootable,use Diskpart to initialise this disk as MBR.Error code 2" when attempting to make the PE 5.0 and all turned out fine,with the 1st usb drive i have since formatted it and am using it for my automatic files backup,but i think it is not 100% as sometimes it does not show up in "My Computer" but will if i disconnect/reconnect it?

Regards
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    WINDOWS 8/64 bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus K550C
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3537U
    Motherboard
    ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. X550CC 1.0
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000, NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M
    Sound Card
    Intel(R) Display Audio/ Realtek High Definition Audio
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro SSD
    Browser
    Chromium
    Antivirus
    Windows defender
One of my usb sticks does that too. You may be better using a different one.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Hi everyone. I just joined specifically to share the solution to the same problem with my own Windows 8.1 ASUS laptop.

Regardless of trying many possible solutions, the Macrium Rescue Boot USB would not boot, or simply stall every single time and go no further.

I discovered this through much trial and error from searching online for literally hours.

Please see the two screenshots here, as this most definitely worked for me and should for you too.:D

(For Windows 10 you should choose Windows PE 10.0 as your rescue media option...)

1. VIP!  Procedure for using Macrium Reflect Rescue Boot Media to Restore Image.jpg



2. VIP!  Procedure for using Macrium Reflect Rescue Boot Media to Restore Image.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
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