robbyk
 
Well the rescue disk did not boot into windows, so it failed. Macrium will not create a rescue image, etc for me on my pc. 
 

The Macrium rescue disk is not intended to boot directly into Windows. It uses a cut down version of Windows as a graphical utility to allow you to select a previously created Windows image and restore that to your hard drive.
 
So multiple steps are required to restore an image.
 
1. Have a Macrium image file on a backup drive that was created while Windows was in a known working state.
2. Boot the system from the rescue disk (that loads the rescue environment and gives you access to your drives).
3. Restore the good image file to your hard drive while running from the rescue disk.  The restore utility reads the image file from your image backup disk (not the rescue disk), and writes it to the target drive (your hard drive that you want to fix).

OK fireberd's advice worked! Halleluiah! I reinstalled and created a boot drive, this time connected. It built or mounted the VIM (unlike the first time) and then successfully created the disk (DVD) image!
 
I tried then to test boot, but it went right back into windows. I'm sure it worked though so I must be doing something wrong.
 
On my Dell, there apparently is no going into "anything" at startup via F8 or whatever. Apparently, you have to be in windows, go to Settings / Recovery / Advanced Startup. Then it restarts and you select CD / DVD. I did that and it went right into win 10 as normal.
 
I was not connected cause Microsoft keeps prompting me to install the 1803, nor did I have my disc image external drive connected.
 
Was either necessary? abacab, is that what you are saying, have the disc image (external HD)?
 
However, this is a BIG step forward for me!!!

robbyk
OK fireberd's advice worked! Halleluiah! I reinstalled and created a boot drive, this time connected. It built or mounted the VIM (unlike the first time) and then successfully created the disk (DVD) image!

 
That is not your image, that is just a bootable WinPE OS, for the recovery environment.
 

 
I tried then to test boot, but it went right back into windows. I'm sure it worked though so I must be doing something wrong.

 
You need to tell your Dell BIOS to boot from DVD prior to looking at the hard drive for a Windows boot.  I do not have a current Dell computer, so I am unable to provide a step by step procedure for that.  Suggest the Dell forums or tech support for that part.  Your BIOS will continue to load the Windows OS from the hard drive until you override that.
 

On my Dell, there apparently is no going into "anything" at startup via F8 or whatever. Apparently, you have to be in windows, go to Settings / Recovery / Advanced Startup. Then it restarts and you select CD / DVD. I did that and it went right into win 10 as normal.
 
Was either necessary? abacab, is that what you are saying, have the disc image (external HD)?

You need to boot from the bootable rescue disk (which does NOT contain your image), then tell it to restore a good image from your external HD to your internal HD.

You can hit the F12 key when starting up your computer to pick which device you want to boot from. 
 
Jim

abacab

robbyk
OK fireberd's advice worked! Halleluiah! I reinstalled and created a boot drive, this time connected. It built or mounted the VIM (unlike the first time) and then successfully created the disk (DVD) image!

 
That is not your image, that is just a bootable WinPE OS, for the recovery environment.
 

 
I tried then to test boot, but it went right back into windows. I'm sure it worked though so I must be doing something wrong.

 
You need to tell your Dell BIOS to boot from DVD prior to looking at the hard drive for a Windows boot.  I do not have a current Dell computer, so I am unable to provide a step by step procedure for that.  Suggest the Dell forums or tech support for that part.  Your BIOS will continue to load the Windows OS from the hard drive until you override that.
 

On my Dell, there apparently is no going into "anything" at startup via F8 or whatever. Apparently, you have to be in windows, go to Settings / Recovery / Advanced Startup. Then it restarts and you select CD / DVD. I did that and it went right into win 10 as normal.
 
Was either necessary? abacab, is that what you are saying, have the disc image (external HD)?

You need to boot from the bootable rescue disk (which does NOT contain your image), then tell it to restore a good image from your external HD to your internal HD.

Oops I misspoke, after reinstalling the macrium software, I meant to say I successfully created a rescue boot on DVD, unlike before. That is the build worked and I watched it mount the VIM. My disk image created at another time is on a WD external drive and all apparently went well there.
 
Now my issue is how to boot to a DVD. F2 (according to the manual) takes me to the Bios. I went there and there is only one extra option, boot to an onboard NIC 4 or 6(whatever that is), same as a advanced startup. That just boots back into windows. A You tube (official Dell) suggests I have to create the DVD option in the BIOS first from a command prompt but many people report it doesn't work. Tenforums helpfully suggests trying F12 which is not listed in my manual and see if that will give a one time option to boot into a DVD. I'm going to try that soon today.
 
So I'm stuck on this right now, but I'm sure all is well, but I will not risk updating to win 10 pro and receiving updates until I'm sure. Updates have taken out enough of my pcs now.

haydn12
You can hit the F12 key when starting up your computer to pick which device you want to boot from. 
 
Jim

Yes sir, I am going to try that soon today after errands and I pray it will work. Thanks much for the advice. I'll report back yet today. I am really hopeful!

So F12 brings up a new menu, this despite that Dell support for my pc (which has expired) clearly states in the support manual F12 will bring up one start up in the upper right. Below is what I get.
 
UEFI Options:
    Windows Boot Manager
    Onboard NIC (IPV4)
    Onboard NIC (IPV6)
Other Options:
    Bios Setup
    Diagnostics
    BIOS Flash Update
    Device Configuration
    Peripheral Device Settings (OPROM) <-greyed out
    Change Boot Mode Setting
    Support Assistant OS Recovery
 
I checked Change Boot Mode Setting and there is nothing there important.
 
I have one option, do the rescue media over, this time using a flash drive. I already have a flash drive rescue created the day I got the pc, so it should be able to do that, but maybe not. To use that, you must click recover which will automatically reinstall windows rather than boot into it via F12. I found one article stating that Dell does not support booting into DVDs, but I don't know if that is correct or not.
 
I found one other Dell support ticket via google that asked my exact same question. The dell support agent simply referenced a doc which had nothing to do with booting from a DVD or Flash. There were no other entries on that so the OP probably figured he wouldn't get a correct answer and left.
 
I can't believe my misfortune in this. In settings / recover on my pc, it clearly states click here to boot into a DVD or Flash drive but all I get is the NIC (4 or6) options. I'm beyond frustration so I'm going to forget about this for a time.
 
Still many thanks to all who offered help in ther waning hours of this forum. Everyone here is a great bunch of guys. abacab you have helped me on other issues before too. many, many thanks!

Do you have your flash drive inserted when booting?   If it was setup for UEFI boot, then it should appear as a UEFI Flash Boot device.     You may need to setup legacy mode to boot from a flash drive or DVD.  After image is restored, change the BIOS back to UEFI.  This is hard to explain as there are a few settings that have to be changed in the BIOS to get this to work and I don't have a Dell computer in front of me.
 
Jim 

The boot device priority is set in the BIOS.  You need to access "BIOS Setup" to change that on any computer.
 
Here is a generic procedure, and so it may not appear exactly like this in your PC, but the concepts will apply:
https://www.lifewire.com/change-the-boot-order-in-bios-2624528
 

NOTE: The boot order is a BIOS setting, so it's operating system independent. In other words, it doesn't matter if you have Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Linux, or any other PC operating system on your hard drive or other bootable device — these boot sequence change instructions will still apply.