Windows 10: Trouble installing Macrium boot files on an external drive partition

I have two external USB backup drives. Both work fine when backing up my system image. However, disk #2 installed and will boot the Macrium recovery program. But when I try to install the Macrium boot files on disk #1, it will not give me the option to select that drive, and only offers the DVD or an ISO.

Could it have anything to do with the left-right order that I've installed? And #2, the one that is bootable, also says "Active." I don't see a way to change that on disk #1

Thanks for any help.
Rusty

:)

 

I want Windows 10 Home back.

Do you have a backup of all your personal files & folders? If not save them to an external hard drive/usb stick/memory card depending on the size of the files you wish to save - external hard drive is best. You could also use Macrium reflect free to create
an image of the entire computer's hard drive in case somthing goes wrong - don't forget to create the Macrium boot/rescue disk in order to restore the image.

You'll have to do a clean install of Windows 10 to get home back as any upgrade from Win 7 ultimate will give you Win 10 pro afaik. You'll need a usb memory stick, download & run the media creation tool & choose create media for another device/pc, then choose
to save the files to the usb stick.

Restart & boot from the newly created Windows 10 usb disk (to boot from it you may have to press F2 or F7 or F8 to override the normal boot, check with your computer's manufacturer for the correct F button), choose clean install/keep nothing & follow the
prompts of deleting the partitions & choosing the newly clean partition to install Win 10 - it will create the partitions in needs itself.

 

Upgrading Windows 10 Solid State Drive

Windows 10 Anniversary will not install because I don't have enough free space. I purchased a larger SSD and used Macrium Reflect to clone the new hard drive partitions. The new drive does not boot. Is there any way of doing this, short of installing
Windows 10, then the anniversary update, and then all the installed Program Files?

 

Open Admin Command and type:
diskpart
select disk 1
select partition 1
active
exit

 

Hi Topgun,
I did that and it is now marked "Active," but still no go from the Macrium bootable media wizard. USB is grayed out
Rusty

 

@RknRusty
You need to assign a letter for this partition, create a rescue then unassign or
You can try this link below:
FYI: Setup Macrium Rescue to boot from an Internal/External USB HD/SSD

 

Yeah, maybe that's how I did it on the other drive, didn't think of assigning it a letter. I'll check out the link before I do anything. Thanks for the answers, and I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm just trying to make things convenient in case my son or wife ever has to restore an image.
Rusty

 

That did it. I guess I just stumbled into doing it right on the other drive. I also learned I allocated more space than I needed too.
Thanks for the help, Topgun.
Rusty

 

Glad we could help. BTW, Macrium Rescue only takes about 270MB of space. However, allocate 512MB just to give it a little bit of extra space.