THEN there was the attempt to create the Rescue Media Disk. Right off the bat things looked differently than on the procedure in the link you provided. See the 1st image that I attached. I attempted to follow along anyway, but eventually things just hung at the Zip File loading as per the 2nd image. I finally threw in the white towel.
Is there some other non-Macrium Reflect Rescue Media Disk that you can recommend that I can just download and not be having to BUILD?
Creating the Rescue Media on the same computer that will be used to create/restore the backups is recommended because the Wizard will make sure that the Rescue Disk will have all the specific drivers needed to work on the hardware of the computer that is running. You can create the rescue disk using another computer with a different Windows versions but there is a change that it will not work properly on a different computer...
I have the much-maligned Windows XP Pro SP3.
Every day more and more companies drop support for Windows XP... its a complicated task continuing to use this Operating System for simple tasks like browsing the internet because of outdated browsers, new security standards for certificates no longer supported by XP, etc., etc.
I understand the need of using XP if you have old or specific hardware to do a certain job that can't be replaced or cost lots of $$$ to replace. In a scenario like that makes sense to keep the machine working but disconnected from the Internet, but not for a day to day use...
The tools needed to build the Macrium Rescue are not included on Windows XP (only on Windows 7 and higher), I don't know if the v7 will work properly on Windows XP to create the Rescue Disk, its possible to install the Microsoft tools on XP, its a very big download and this could be the reason for the long time to download...
I barely started using Panda Dome Free 18.07.00 anti-virus like last week.
After doing some searching, I found out that actually, I could create a bootable USB "Rescue Kit" with my Panda Dome. I managed to accomplish that successfully.
NOW ... here is what I don't know. From what I see as per 2 of the files that were downloaded, that Panda Dome USB Rescue Kit appears to be in the Linux environment.
QUESTION #1: If that Panda Dome USB Rescue Kit IS in the Linux environment, does that mean I would NOT be able to bring up Macrium Reflect Free from there?
No Linux is a completely different Operating System and you can't run Windows software on Linux without emulation, etc. (complicated stuff)
QUESTION #2: Say I encountered a situation whereby my computer wouldn't boot up properly ... but, WOULD boot up fine into Safe Mode. Can Macrium Reflect Free be brought up fine and work OK from Safe Mode? You know ... OK enough so as to be able to execute a Macrium Reflect restore operation from an HD image?
Most likely the software will not work in Safe Mode because Windows will only load a limited set of drivers and not the specific ones installed by Macrium Reflect.