Macrium Rescue Media
      Back to home
      1. Macrium Reflect X
      2. Restoring and Browsing Backups
      3. Macrium Rescue Media

      Rescue Media Builder - How it Works

      The Rescue Media Builder executable 'RMBuilder.exe' is located in the Macrium Reflect installation folder, usually 'C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect'. RMBuilder.exe can be launched independently or by taking the Rescue Media build menu option in Macrium Reflect.

      RMBuilder.exe depends on the following files:

      Description
      Architecture
      File name
      DVD/CD Support 32 Bit PrimoBurner.dll
        64 Bit PrimoBurnerx64.dll
      Free Edition 32 Bit WaikFiles00x86.exe
        64 Bit WaikFiles00x64.exe
      Home/Workstation Edition 32 Bit WaikFiles15x86.exe
        64 Bit WaikFiles15x64.exe
      Server Edition 32 Bit WaikFiles20x86.exe
        64 Bit WaikFiles20x64.exe
      Server Plus Edition 32 Bit WaikFiles25x86.exe
        64 Bit WaikFiles25x64.exe

      RMBuilder.exe requires Macrium Reflect to be installed.

      Windows Image File (WIM) and toolset files location

      For Windows PE 3.1/4.0/5.0/10 the files required to build the Macrium Rescue media are copied from the Input location to the Repository.  The Repository is then used to populate the Staging Area when rescue media is built from scratch or stale. 

      For the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) the required files are located on the current system and copied to the Staging Area when rescue media is built from scratch or stale. 

      The Staging Area provides the files for the Boot Menu and for creating ISO/DVD/CD and USB boot media.

      image2018-4-10_10-6-42.png

      Windows PE 3.1/4.0/5.0/10

      Required files to populate the PE Repository are searched for in the following sequence:

      1. PE Zip files: -  PE zip files(s) containing the Windows Image (WIM) file and toolset files are saved to the Macrium download folder by the Reflect download manager ReflectDL.exe.  

        The default location is 'C:\users\<USER>\Downloads\Macrium'

        Windows PE File Name
        PE 3.1 pe3x64.zip
        pe3x86.zip
        PE 4.0 pe4x64.zip
        pe4x86.zip
        PE 5.0 pe5x64.zip
        pe5x86.zip
        PE 10 pe10_1709x64.zip
        pe10_1709x86.zip

      2. WAIK/WADK - Windows is searched for installations of the Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for PE 3.1 or the Windows® Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK). These products contain the Windows Image File (WIM) and tools to create the rescue media. 

        https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install
        https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5753

        Note: The WADK and WAIK download is several GB. It isn't necessary to manually install these products unless you are having problems with the automated download.

      3. Automated Download - Finally, any missing files are automatically downloaded directly from Microsoft and copied to the PE Repository.

      If there is no Internet connection at this stage then the build process will fail.

      PE Repository

      Files located in 1. above are copied to the PE repository in the following folders.

      PE Version
      Location
      3.1 C:\ProgramData\Macrium\Reflect\Windows AIK
      4.0 C:\ProgramData\Macrium\Reflect\Windows Kits\8.0
      5.0 C:\ProgramData\Macrium\Reflect\Windows Kits\8.1
      10 C:\ProgramData\Macrium\Reflect\Windows Kits\10

      Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)

      Files for the Windows Recovery rescue environment are pre-existing and located on the local file system.

      The folowinng folders, and sub-folders are searched for file WinRE.wim:

      C:\Windows\System32\Recovery

      <ALL VOLUMES>\Recovery

      If multiple copies of WinRE.wim are found then each WIM is examined and the WIM that contains the most recent Windows OS is copied to the Staging Area.

      Additional toolset files are copied from folder 'C:\Windows\Boot' 

      Staging Area

      The Staging Area is re-populated each time the rescue media is re-built. Immediately after the Windows Image (WIM) file is copied to the Staging Area, it is mounted and the current version of Macrium Reflect is copied to the WIM file system along with required components and additional files extracted from WaikFilesxNNnnn.exe. 

      PE Version
      Location
      3.1 C:\boot\macrium\WAIKFiles
      4.0 C:\boot\macrium\WA4KFiles
      5.0 C:\boot\macrium\WA5KFiles
      10 C:\boot\macrium\WA10KFiles
      WinRE C:\boot\macrium\WinREFiles

      Output

      When the 'Build' button is clicked files are copied from the Staging Area to the rescue media target. For the Boot menu, the Windows Boot Configuration Data (BCD) is updated to add a 'Macrium Reflect System Recovery' menu option which loads the Windows Image File (WIM) directly from the Staging Area. 

      For more information on the Windows BCD please see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista_startup_process