Bare Metal Restore

With Windows Server 2008 R2 you can perform a Bare Metal Restore of a server that has suffered a catastrophic failure. That’s right you can restore a server without having to install the OS and then the backup agent. You just simply boot from the Windows Server 2008 R2 DVD, but I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a look at the process a bit closer:

 

To start with you have to take the Bare Metal Restore (BMR) backup. And this is how you do it:

1. Begin by clicking on Start –> Administrative Tools –> Windows Server Backup**

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** Note…You must have the “Windows Server Backup” Feature installed to see this option.

 

2. Wait for the Windows Server Backup to start up and then select the option “Backup Once…”

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3. Once the Backup Once Wizard starts up select “Different options”

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4. Click [Next]

 

5. Select the “Custom” option

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6. Click [Next]

 

7. Click [Add Items]

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8. Select the “Bare Metal Recovery” option

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9. Click [OK]

 

10. Click [Next]

 

11. Select where you want to store the file. For me I selected “Local Drives”. Click [Next]

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12. Choose the backup destination…then click [Next]

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13. After that you will get to the Confirmation screen. Begin the backup by clicking on the [Backup] button

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14. The backup starts.

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15. You should see a screen like the following when the backup completes:

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Now that the backup is complete your ready to begin the restore of the BMR. Now hold on to your hats everyone… we’re about to do the restore a server with out loading the operating system first.

To begin you will need to place the Windows Server 2008 R2 DVD into the computer.

1. Let the server boot from the Windows Server 2008 R2 DVD.

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2. Select the options here that you want and then click Next. On the next screen choose the option “Repair your Computer”.

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3. You can choose two options here. You can either use the recovery tools that can help fix problems, or you can restore the computer from a system image that you created earlier.

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4. Once you choose the restore option and then click on [Next] the computer will search for the backup image. Mine is on the second hard disk in the server so it finds it rather quickly. If you have multiple images you can select the option to choose which one you want, then click [Next]

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5. By clicking [Advanced…], you will see a window that allows you to control whether you want restart upon completion. It will also allow you to perform a hard disk scan to check and possibly repair errors. After you're done, select your options, and click [Next ]

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6. All you have to do now is click [Finish]

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7. You will get a warning about restoring the system…select [Yes] and we’re off.

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8. And there you have it the computer is now being restored without having to load an operating system first.

Keith Hill
Support Escalation Engineer
Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support