Creating Rescue Media on Offline Computers

- Overview

- Downloading WinPE Components

- Creating the Rescue Media on the Offline Computer

Overview

The Macrium Reflect rescue media is used when a version of Macrium Reflect can not be accessed to perform a restore, including scenarios like Windows failing to boot and bare metal restores. As a result, the rescue media is extremely important. More information about the Macrium Reflect rescue media can be found here.

When creating the rescue media, either the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), the default choice where Windows RE is available, or Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) can be selected as the base WIM.

WinRE is included with a computer's operating system; as a result, there are no special considerations required when creating WinRE rescue media for an offline computer. If WinRE is not available, for example, when creating rescue media on an operating system older than Windows 7, WinPE should be used instead. To create WinPE rescue media, the WinPE components must be downloaded from Microsoft. As a result, additional steps are required when creating WinPE rescue media for offline computers.

Downloading WinPE Components

First, the WinPE components should be downloaded on a computer with an internet connection. The WinPE components can be downloaded using the Macrium Download Agent, found here.

In the Macrium Reflect Download Agent, select 'Options':

In the window that opens, use the 'Select Download Option' dropdown to select the WinPE components that will be downloaded:

The PE components that are required will depend on the operating system of the offline computer. Below are the operating systems that the various PE components relate to:

The architecture of the PE components can be changed using the radio options at the top of this window.

Once the relevant PE options have been selected, click 'OK'. The 'Download Information' section of the Macrium Reflect Download Agent will show the selected components:

Select 'Download' to download the selected components. This process can be repeated to download multiple versions and architectures of the PE components.

Once the relevant PE components have been downloaded, they should be placed in the 'C:\Users\<USER>\Downloads\Macrium' folder on the offline computer.

Creating the Rescue Media on the Offline Computer

Once the PE files have been moved to the offline computer, the rescue media can be created. 

Rescue media can be created using the 'Rescue' button on the quick actions menu at the top of Macrium Reflect or by selecting the 'Create Rescue Media...' option in the 'Other Tasks' menu on the top bezel:

Both of these options will open the 'Macrium Rescue Media Builder'.

In the Macrium Rescue Media Builder, select 'Advanced':

In the window that opens, select the 'Choose Base WIM' tab, then select the relevant WinPE version for the downloaded components, then select 'OK':

In the main Macrium Rescue Builder interface, select the media that will be used for the rescue media, then select 'Build':

The rescue media builder will automatically locate the relevant components on the offline computer. If the components cannot be located, the following message will be displayed:

In this case, use 'Browse' to navigate to components manually.