Windows 10: Use Macrium Reflect Rescue Media to Fix Windows Boot Issues

How to: Use Macrium Reflect Rescue Media to Fix Windows Boot Issues


Information Macrium Reflect is one of the most popular Windows backup programs. It is available both as a paid for version and as a free version. It is my personal choice, I have tested several other products failing to find one as easy to use and secure, complete solution. I wholeheartedly recommend Macrium Reflect, free version being enough for most private users.

Creating scheduled system image backups is naturally the main function of Macrium Reflect. For installing Macrium Reflect and basic imaging instructions, see this tutorial: Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials

This tutorial will show how to use Macrium Reflect to fix Windows boot issues when Windows fails to boot.



Note The starting point for this tutorial is that you have already created Macrium Rescue media (USB flash drive or CD/DVD), or that you have added Macrium Rescue Environment to Windows Boot Menu as told in Part Two in Macrium Reflect tutorial.


Contents
[table][tr][td]One:[/td] [td]Optional: Dual / Multi Boot systems - Backup Boot Menu[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Two:[/td] [td]Fix Windows Boot Issues with Macrium Reflect[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Three:[/td] [td]Optional: Dual / Multi Boot systems - Restore Boot Menu[/td] [/tr] [/table]


1. Optional: Dual / Multi Boot systems - Backup Boot Menu1.1) Open an elevated Command Prompt (tutorial).

1.2) In elevated Command Prompt, enter following command replacing E:\BootMenu_Backup with your preferred storage location and file name (no file extension required):

bcdedit /export E:\BootMenu_Backup




1.3 If using an elevated PowerShell instead, enter the following command:

cmd /c 'bcdedit /export E:\BootMenu_Backup'






Note As seen above, when using Windows commands in PowerShell, start command line with cmd /c to tell PowerShell that what follows is a Windows command instead of PowerShell cmdlet or script, followed by command with all its options, parameters and switches as a string within quotes (both single and double quotes can be used, as you prefer).


2. Fix Windows Boot Issues with Macrium Reflect

Note The below method to fix boot issues can also be used if you for any reason lose your dual / multi boot menu being not able to select from all installed operating systems.

A dual boot system with two different version of Windows can for instance occasionally lose the boot menu.
2.1) When Windows can't boot you will see the Recovery screen (screenshot from UEFI based PC, BIOS based machines do not have option to enter BIOS settings):




2.2) On dual / multi boot system, or on single OS system with a recovery console like that of Macrium Reflect added to boot menu, F9 takes you back to boot menu and you can try to boot another OS.

2.3) If the failed OS is Windows 7 or older, the Recovery screen is shown in legacy mode:




Pressing Enter takes you back to boot menu

2.4) If you are not able to select and start any of available operating systems, select Macrium Reflect System Recovery from boot menu:




Alternatively, if you have not added it to boot menu, start your PC from Macrium Rescue media (USB or CD/DVD).



Note On some UEFI based computers booting to Macrium Rescue fails if Secure Boot is enabled. If you have it enabled, press ESC on Recovery screen to enter UEFI settings and disable Secure Boot.

You can enable it again when boot issues have been fixed.
2.5) When Macrium Rescue has booted, select Fix Windows boot problems on top left:




2.6) Macrium scans all disks and shows a list of installed operating systems it finds. If you are satisfied, all operating systems found, click Next and continue from step 2.12:






Note Macrium Rescue does not find operating systems installed on a native boot virtual hard disk, these you must add manually after boot issues have been fixed and you are able to boot to Windows desktop.

Also if you have copied a boot menu entry of an existing physical Windows installation to be able to use the same OS installation with different settings, the copied boot entries will not be found and need to be manually added later.

For an example, see screenshot above in step 2.4 showing I have four OS entries in boot menu, in addition to Macrium Rescue. Only two of these will be found by Macrium Rescue when selecting Fix Windows boot problems as shown in screenshot in step 2.6 because one of the four OS entries is a native boot VHD (W10 PRO (VHD)), another (W10 PRO (VMware)) being just a copy of my main OS entry (W10 PRO (Hyper-V)) with different settings to allow me to run both Hyper-V and VMware virtualization programs on same PC, on same installation.
2.7) If you want to remove one of operating systems found, just select it and click Ignore:




Selected OS will be ignored and not shown in fixed boot menu. If only one OS is found or left after ignoring all others, no boot menu will be shown after boot records have been fixed, Windows booting automatically to only available OS. Boot menu will only be shown by default when there are two or more operating systems to choose.

2.8) Edit allows you to manually change the path to selected OS, and change Windows version in case it is recorded wrong:




2.9) If you think an OS (Windows installation) which should be present is not found, you can browse your PC to find correct partition ID letter:




2.10) When you have found the path to missing Windows installation, click Add to add it:




2.11) When all operating systems have been found, click Next:




2.12) Macrium shows the summary of operating systems found. Click Finish:




2.13) Macrium will now write new boot records. When done, click Yes to restart PC:









3. Optional: Dual / Multi Boot systems - Restore Boot Menu3.1) When back on Windows desktop, restore your exported (see steps 1.1 to 1.3) original boot menu.

Elevated Command Prompt:

bcdedit /import E:\BootMenu_Backup




Elevated PowerShell:

cmd /c 'bcdedit /import E:\BootMenu_Backup'






That's it!

Kari


Related Tutorials

• How to Run a Startup Repair in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Automatic Repair in Windows 10
• How to Create a Macrium Reflect Rescue Partition

:)

 

Use Macrium Reflect Rescue Media to Fix Windows Boot Issues  

Thanks, @Kari! Yes, it does, and very nicely laid out. For me, would save the hassle of the renaming of the OS names. Otherwise, you need a cheat sheet to know what "Windows 10 (on partition 6)" means.

Slightly OT....how did you get such a nice pic of your Boot Manager screen without a camera?

my ugly one:

 

Use Macrium Reflect Rescue Media to Fix Windows Boot Issues  

A really good question deserving a bit more in-depth answer. A short answer is it makes restoring boot menu on a dual / multi boot system a piece of cake, one simple command to restore it as it was instead of manually adding / changing everything.

Let's use my actual boot menu as an example:




The easy way to restore my boot menu when I have been forced to reset boot records with Macrium Reflect is to restore a boot menu backup as told in tutorial (Part 1. to export / backup boot menu, Part 3. to restore it). One command to restore it fully:

In Command Prompt:

bcdedit /import X:\BootMenuBackup

Or in PowerShell:

cmd /c 'bcdedit /import X:\BootMenuBackup'

If I hadn't exported boot menu, I had to restore it manually:



(Click screenshot to enlarge.)

1. Add Windows 10 Education on physical drive W: to boot menu
2. Change its name (as shown in boot menu) to W10 EDU
   
3. Add Windows 10 PRO on a mounted virtual hard disk file (drive I: when mounted) to boot menu
4. Change its name to W10 PRO (VHD)
   
5. Change current OS boot menu entry name to W10 PRO (Hyper-V)
   
6. Copy the current OS boot menu entry to new entry W10 PRO (VMware)
   
7. Disable hypervisor in the copied new entry to allow running VMware on same machine and installation already running Hyper-V
8. Make current OS (my main OS, W10 PRO with hypervisor) default entry in boot menu, the one booted if user selects no OS within given time (by default 30 seconds)
9. Set boot menu display order. To do that I open another PowerShell / Command Prompt to list all boot menu entries with simple bcdedit command to get and copy identifiers of all added operating systems. Last OS added is by default always {default}, current OS you are using is {current}, all other entries are identified with their hexadecimal GUID

Not shown in screenshot: between steps 8. and 9. I launched Macrium Reflect to add Macrium Rescue environment as fifth entry to boot menu.

Notice that in steps 2. and 4. I used the same identifier {default} for two different operating systems when changing entry name. This is possible because by default the last OS added to boot menu gets identifier {default}; adding W:\Windows in step 1. made it default, then adding I:\Windows in step 3. made it default.

Exporting boot menu when it is as you prefer, then importing it with one command when need arises is much faster and easier.

I hope the above answers your question.

 

Use Macrium Reflect Rescue Media to Fix Windows Boot Issues  

In my case, with an Asus laptop and a Medion tablet I can't boot them to Macrium Rescue (default Macrium PE created by latest version of Macrium Reflect Free) if and when Secure Boot is enabled.

Both laptop and tablet are running clean installed W10 PRO Build 16199, new rescue media created after installation separately for both (laptop x64, tablet x86).

The same applies to Generation 2 Hyper-V virtual machines, Secure Boot must be disabled in order to be able to boot to Macrium Rescue. Of course with Checkpoints and VM export function there's no need to make system images of Hyper-V virtual machines but as Macrium is the best possible way to fix even the VM boot issues it is good to know how to boot with rescue media if VM does not boot anymore..

Kari Good change. Interestingly on my pc, Macrium does boot in Hyper-V even if secure boot is enabled on a gen 2 vm.

I have MR in a partition on ssd, and added a boot entry, and it works perfectly. Go figure ......

 

Use Macrium Reflect Rescue Media to Fix Windows Boot Issues  

I edited the note, adding the highlighted words:


Note On some UEFI based computers booting to Macrium Rescue fails if Secure Boot is enabled. If you can't boot to Macrium Rescue and have Secure Boot enabled, press ESC on Recovery screen to enter UEFI settings and disable Secure Boot.

You can enable it again when boot issues have been fixed.
In my case, with an Asus laptop and a Medion tablet I can't boot them to Macrium Rescue (default Macrium PE created by latest version of Macrium Reflect Free) if and when Secure Boot is enabled.

Both laptop and tablet are running clean installed W10 PRO Build 16199, new rescue media created after installation separately for both (laptop x64, tablet x86).

The same applies to Generation 2 Hyper-V virtual machines, Secure Boot must be disabled in order to be able to boot to Macrium Rescue. Of course with Checkpoints and VM export function there's no need to make system images of Hyper-V virtual machines but as Macrium is the best possible way to fix even the VM boot issues it is good to know how to boot with rescue media if VM does not boot anymore..

 

Use Macrium Reflect Rescue Media to Fix Windows Boot Issues  

Of course on a single OS system, boot menu is not used nor needed. On dual / multi boot systems it can be restored manually as shown in my last post. I wanted to avoid replies like "You don't have to export and import boot menu, you can do it manually with bcdboot and bcdedit commands or using third party software like EasyBCD".

That's why I marked parts 1. and 3. as Optional; an effort to avoid wise a** replies like that *Wink

As always, I cheated

There's no way to make screenshots from first phase of Windows installation (before OOBE), or from PC / Windows boot phase. You just have to "cheat" in every post, tutorial and / or video showing Windows setup or boot.

As a Macrium Reflect user, I always have quite recent system images available. With free Macrium viBoot tool (see TenForums viBoot tutorial) I can mount and use any Macrium system image as a Hyper-V virtual machine, allowing me to run an exact copy of my physical Windows installation in Hyper-V.

To get boot menu screenshot, I mounted my most recent system image in viBoot as a virtual machine:




Now I have a 100% identical copy of my laptop running as a VM:




To get screenshot of boot menu, I simply restart the viBoot VM and take screenshot when boot menu is shown:




Cheating is the key to good screenshots *Wink