Test those Boot devices!

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[RetiredGeek]

Hey Y’all,

I had a weird thing happen to me today, but that’s another story. This story is about what I did to try to recover from that weird thing.

Luckily, I had just taken an image backup of the SSD in my laptop so sure let’s just restore the backup and be done with it.

1. Pop in the USB recovery drive.
2. attach the USB HDD dock
3. insert the HDD int the dock.
4. boot into the recovery USB.
5. locate the Image.

Wait a minute! Where’s the Drive! Why isn’t it showing up in Reflect! I just used Reflect to make that image via the dock to that drive!

Computers s..k!

So time to start trouble shooting. Note: I have several USB Recovery drives and they had all previously worked on All 4 of our computers w/o issue forever, I’m still using Reflect V6!

Enter trouble shooting mode…
Low hanging fruit first, try one of the other USB Sticks, same issue.
Try the USB on another computer with the dock attached, no problemo, what gives?
Ok, let’s make a new recovery drive with the dock attached to the computer to see if it’s a driver issue, Bingo!

So what changed? I haven’t a clue. However, I’m now checking that new USB recovery drive on all the other computers to make sure they boot and see the dock and disk drive.

Just a cautionary tale to check your backup system (all it’s moving parts) on a regular basis even IF you think nothing has changed!

HTH

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

• This topic was modified 10 months ago by RetiredGeek.

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jburk07, SueW, opti1, NaNoNyMouse, geekdom

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RetiredGeek wrote:

let’s make a new recovery drive with the dock attached to the computer

Except when the computer has died after the strange thing and no longer runs Windows…

It’s difficult to guarantee anything when the machine is misbehaving.

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

Except when the computer has died after the strange thing and no longer runs Windows…

I’ve had hardware failures, but after the failure was diagnosed and repaired, my drive images are able to restore the PC to the “nothing happened” condition.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We were all once "Average Users". We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do to our systems, we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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Haste and panic does more damage than collective concentrated feedback, so I’d ask over on the macrium forum before changing ANYTHING and perhaps a raise a ticket if others are encountering the same issue.
July MSFT patches changed something that macrium needs to address/ resolve? wouldn’t be the first time for any software..

Keeping IT Lean, Clean and Mean!

1 user thanked author for this post.

opti1

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RetiredGeek wrote:

Pop in the USB recovery drive.
attach the USB HDD dock
insert the HDD int the dock.
boot into the recovery USB.
locate the Image.
Wait a minute!
Where’s the Drive!
Why isn’t it showing up in Reflect! I just used Reflect to make that image via the dock to that drive!

Several years ago I had intermittent similar problems with USB-connected (and eSATA-connected) drive docks.  In one case I had two identical eSATA-connected docks, and one suddenly became invisible to any PC in any fashion.  Turns out the dock itself had gone belly up.

I decided back then to use only internal drives as my drive image target.  Of course, I’ve also had internal drives fail, but I felt more confident in an internal drive being available.  I’ve tapered off some these days, but I still do a bit of tinkerin’ and restoring drive images when I pooch the PC.  I probably do more image restorations than most other AskWoody members.

I use my TBWinRE USB rescue drive from time to time, but I also have Image for Windows incorporated into Windows Recovery, which in my standard Windows setup is on a separate partition on a different drive.  Restarting in the Recovery partition allows me to restore the OS drive image, since the OS drive is not in use.

RG, your issue may be due to Windows (if all your machines are at the same update level) or due to Macrium.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We were all once "Average Users". We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do to our systems, we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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