I have a question about all the system images I made when my laptop was still encrypted. My assumption is that they are still good, and if I ever need to use one Macrium will just tell me that it needs to do an un-encrypted restore. Of course, making assumptions is how I got into this mess, so I was hoping you could confirm this is correct.
If you made backups while the partition was encrypted but unlocked, then the backups themselves do not contain BitLocker encryption, and they will work just like regular image backups. The only difference is that Reflect notes that the partition was using BitLocker at the time of the backup, so that if you ever stage a restore that will result in that partition being restored without encryption being enabled, you will get a warning about that. But the restore will still work just fine. (The reason for the warning is to avoid scenarios where a user might perform a restore and not realize that their partition is no longer encrypted afterward. That has actually happened, because the default TPM unlock method for the Windows partition and the possibility of enabling auto-unlock for other partitions means it can be easy for BitLocker encryption to be “transparent” most of the time, which means that it’s easy not to notice when it’s gone.) The only side effect I’ve seen of taking a image of a Windows partition that had BitLocker enabled and restoring it in unencrypted form is that if you had BitLocker auto-unlock enabled in that Windows environment for any OTHER partitions, such as secondary data partitions or external hard drives, then those auto-unlocks will no longer work. The reason is that Windows only allows auto-unlock to be enabled for other partitions when the Windows partition itself has BitLocker enabled, presumably to ensure protection of the auto-unlock info that Windows will need to store. And if memory serves, even after you re-enable BitLocker, if you try to enable auto-unlock again for any partitions where you had it before, you get a cryptic error message. I remember working around that by finding a manage-bde command that purged all stored auto-unlock keys, and after that my auto-unlocks could be re-enabled. If you made an image backup while the partition was encrypted and LOCKED, then BitLocker will always still be in effect when you restore it. But that is a relatively uncommon way to make image backups, and there are multiple downsides to this. Those are covered in the KB article.
I have a rescue media question. After the C: Partition is re-encrypted, how do I update the rescue media so that it will have the new unlock key and anything else that it needs? The C: Partition is the only partition/drive that was encrypted before.
Rebuild the Rescue Media with the auto-unlock option enabled. You just need to make sure it’s a full WIM rebuild rather than a basic copy of an existing cached build. To force that, hold Ctrl to show an arrow on the Build button. Click that arrow and choose Force WIM Rebuild. If the option there instead says Skip WIM Rebuild, then it means Rescue Media Builder was going to perform a WIM rebuild anyway, in which case just click the Build button as normal.
According to https://www.macrium.com/products/home you pay €41.50 per year for the Reflect Home Annual Plan and €57.95 per year for a one-time purchase of Reflect Home 8 including support for one year, so the prices mentioned by Deskmodder do not seem to be correct.
That's right, but since Deskmodder is located in the country where I live, I would have thought that prices should be identical. Edit: I get different prices if I access the MR site with a VPN via the Netherlands, so yes, prices do differ, as mentioned by xxJackxx.
No, as far as I can see, the prices mentioned by Deskmodder (https://www.deskmodder.de/blog/2023/07/03/macrium-reflect-jetzt-auch-als-abo/) are o.k. He shows the prices in $ (US-Dollar) and they are exactly the same that I can see on Macrium's website (the link you mention): 49,99 $ respectively 69,95 $. I am in a country with Euro, but for some reason the prices are shown to me in US-Dollars too. I have to click on the button "Subscribe Now" respectively "Buy Now" so that on the next page I can choose another currency: When chosing there "Euro", I get the prices mentioned and shown in the image by you (41,50 € respectively 57,95 €): --> The shown currencies differ, not the shown prices.
So I re-encrypted my laptop and rebuilt the rescue media. I think I’m good now, but I have a question about the rebuilt rescue media. Is there an easy way to verify (without doing a restore) that it has the new encryption key and will automatically unlock the C drive?
Sure. If you kept the auto-unlock option enabled on your new build, then just boot into Rescue Media, click over to the Create Backups > Local Disks tab, and check the partition that you’re interested in. If it shows as full and the BitLocker icon is locked, then Reflect didn’t auto-unlock it. If on the other hand it shows the used vs. free space accurately and the BitLocker icon shows as unlocked, then you’re good to go.
using Version 8.1.7544 and looking at the logs I am a bit confused. This relates to a GFS backup that is running every day. Under scheduled Backups I notice for yesterday the task launched and ended with 0x06 Conflict. However under logs I can see a differential as successful. I assume that this is because yesterday was the day for the differential and this overrides the incremental daily? So the conflict for the incremental is to be expected?
^ Yes, exactly. Your Incremental task should show that error code, but the Differential task that you should also see listed under Scheduled Backups should show 0x00 Success
It seems a new version is available for the paid version: https://updates.macrium.com/reflect/v8/v8.1.7638/details8.1.7638.htm
WinRE updates have been failing on my Windows 11 PC recently. According to the following Microsoft support article, this is the problem: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...e-update-400faa27-9343-461c-ada9-24c8229763bf Microsoft has changed how it updates PCs that run the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). WinRE will be updated using the monthly cumulative update. This change only applies to PCs that get updates from Windows Update (WU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). This change starts on June 27, 2023, for the Windows 11, version 22H2 cumulative update. Some PCs might not have a recovery partition that is large enough to complete this update. Because of this, the update for WinRE might fail. You will receive the error message, "Windows Recovery Environment servicing failed.” Can I use Macrium Reflect Home v8.1 to manually resize my recovery partition instead of trying to follow the instructions from the Microsoft article?
WinterKnight, I've used an offline partitioning app to manually resize my recovery partition when it needed to be larger. I just looked at my Win11 RE partition. The partition is 710 MiB. Winre.wim is 614.87 MiB and is dated Aug 24 2023. The update occurred without my knowledge and the partition was not manually resized. The previous Winre.wim was dated September 2022. In another Win11 computer the RE partition is 715 MiB and Winre.wim is 486.95 MiB. Dated Aug 20 2023.
If I followed the instructions from the Microsoft support article to resize my recovery partition and something went wrong, would a Macrium restore put things back to the way they were? I don’t want to make any assumptions about this because the instructions call for deleting the recovery partition. Also, would the Macrium boot menu still work after deleting the recovery partition, or would I have to use a flash drive to do the restore?
If you have a whole disk image, you should be fine. The BOOT menu directives and image are not located in the recovery partition.
I have a problem that Macrium Home does not find the pc disc when booting to the usb rescue media on a pc. Works ok on another that does not need a specific intel driver when installing the os, but this one does. Not only Macrium does not find the os, also HBS and IFW. So i add that "specific" driver so MR will detect the os, but no, it does not work. When adding an external image for restore, it sees the media with that image as the os drive and want me to select another to restore to, and the only other that exists is the rescue media. So, is there a way solve this? It must have something to do with that intel installation driver, since without it, a Windows installation do not see a disc. And this scenario is practically the same.
I have saved a lot of the disk drivers when creating the USB on different laptops including ones that have RAID, just copy/paste this into the drivers folder under the DISK folder: https://gofile.io/d/QbtGaf
Since the driver works to install windows with, i think it is the right and ok driver. I have set MR:s boot media to ask for missing drivers so i can add them. But nevertheless it does not work. It sees the MR image on a external media and loads it ok, but when choosing the disc to restore to, it only sees the usb restore media, not the os disc
I have during the year i have owned this pc tried v.18, 19 and 17, the last one is the oldest version of the installation driver. 18 and 19 works, 17 not. Hopefully Froggie can solve this otherwise i will try you pack, which i have downloaded. Thank you.
Tried the "pack" without sucess. The driver i use does work so MR finds the disc with C: and D: and therefore the image on D:, but when loading it, it loads as disc 1 and the MR destination choice is empty besides the boot media which comes up as a destination disc option.
