How to ignore hard drives size with Windows Server Backup (Win-2008) restore

I PXE boot Windows PE, then use Imagex to capture the existing HD, pop the new drive in, use imagex again to write the image back, and it's good to go. But getting WinPE to PXE boot is unnecessary for a smaller shop.

For you, use Microsoft's ISO to USB Disk tool to make a bootable USB drive. You can get Imagex from the Windows AIK; copy imagex to the USB Disk. Boot from the disk, push Ctrl+F8 to bring up a command prompt. Capture the image: imagex /capture C:\ D:\MyServer.wim "MyServer". Change the HD. Boot again, write the image: imagex /apply D:\MyServer.wim 1 C:\.

The bootmgr and BCD may have been on a different partition when you used imagex to make a backup. This is the default for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7; 2008 and Vista it depended on if you enabled BitLocker, and which direction the wind was blowing that day. When you booted WinPE did it show both a C: and a D: drive? If so, keep reading.

Unfortunately this is a possibility in Server 2008 that I didn't cover in my previous post, my apologies if this is the case. It's a somewhat easy fix at least:

1. Pop the old drive back in the server, and use imagex to grab both the Boot Partition (C:) and the System Partition (D:) (you'll have to run it twice to get both partitions, don't write both to the same WIM file, the second time will just overwrite the first).

   imagex /capture C:\ Z:\MyServer-BootPartition.wim "MyServer"
imagex /capture D:\ Z:\MyServer-SystemPartition.wim "MyServer"

2. Pop the new drive into the server. Create partitions like so in diskpart

   sel drive 0
clean
create part pri size=100
format quick
act
assign letter=c
create part pri
format quick
assign letter=d
exit
   

   Note: If you pick different letters than C and D above, substitute those letters in the following steps as well. The letters you assign in this step will not effect the letter assignment when windows boots, that's in the registry.

3. Write the images to the drive partition (covered in the last post, but repeated here for clarity):

   imagex /apply Z:\MyServer-BootPartition.wim 1 C:\
imagex /apply Z:\MyServer-SystemPartition.wim 1 D:\
   

4. Modify the BCD for the new partitions.

   Run: bcdedit -store C:\boot\BCD -enum and take note of the "identifier" line in the "Windows Boot Loader" section. It's usually "{current}" or "{default}" but could be a GUID. Whatever it is, substitute that identifier where I put {current} in the 2nd and 3rd line below.

   bcdedit -store C:\boot\BCD -set {bootmgr} device partition=c:
bcdedit -store C:\boot\BCD -set {current} device partition=d:
bcdedit -store C:\boot\BCD -set {current} osdevice partition=d: