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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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. :o

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! ;)
 
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.
 
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 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.
 
You need the Macrium Boot environment---

screenshot_95.jpg
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
^^^
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
 
One of my usb sticks does that too. You may be better using a different one.
 
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
 
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