I'm trying to restore a server running Windows 2008 R2 Standard. The server is an IBM x3250 M3 with EFI.

I did a complete image backup of the two drives to a network share.  Then I try to restore to the same server, (with no hardware changes).  When I run the restore, I get this message:

"The system image restore failed.

Windows cannot restore a system a system image to a computer that has different firmware. The system image was created on a computer using BIOS and the computer is using EFI."

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello,

There are two Boot modes in your particular machine-> BIOS & EFI. BIOS is the general booting mechanism found in most of the machines. Some of the machines (like this one) also support EFI booting mechasnim alongwith BIOS.
Windows 2008/R2 setup supports both installation mechanism. For more Information: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/firmware/UEFI_Windows.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/firmware/uefiguide.mspx

Either BIOS or EFI is set as the default mechanism in your machine - please check from Boot Setup which one is active by default.

If the EFI OS is installed, it will create an EFI System partition in your machine. BIOS installation will not have EFI partition.
Please open Diskmgmt.msc/Diskpart.exe in your machine and verify whether System partition is EFI or BIOS.

Bare Metal Recovery is only supported if the OS Backup and Windows Recovery Environment are of same Boot type. As per the Error Message above: Your OS is BIOS based (NO EFI partition). You took BMR Image backup to a Network share. Now, when you are booting from Setup DVD, the boot method is via EFI Shell.
You need to boot the CD from BIOS to recover the system. Please follow the 2nd link to know more booting.

Please send us this data from WinRE and Online OS: "Bcdedit /enum all"

---------------------------------------------------------------- Snippet -------------------------------

Booting into UEFI Shell:

·         Start the EFI internal shell from the EFI boot menu and select the drive with the installation DVD. The following example assumes that the DVD drive is Fs0:

Shell> Fs0:

  

·         Start the EFI boot application. There are separate applications for x64 and Intel Itanium systems. For an x64 system, run the following command:

fs0:> \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI

  

For an Intel Itanium system, run the following command:

Fs0:\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA64.EFI

  

·         After the application starts, the system displays the following message:

Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…

  

·         Press a key to continue booting from the installation media.

 Thanks,
Vikas Ranjan [MSFT]

------- this information is provided as-is without any warranties, implicit or explicit.-------

• Marked as answer by kwm100 Friday, April 09, 2010 9:04 PM

Thanks, Vikas.

You are right about the need to boot from BIOS.  I found an IBM document on its uEFI firmware, located here:

http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5083207&brandind=5000008

Page 25 explains how to accomplish this using the "Legacy Only" flag.

I also needed drivers for the RAID. I put them on a thumb drive and was able to load them, when prompted. The server is back up and running!

Thanks again.

• Marked as answer by kwm100 Friday, April 09, 2010 9:05 PM

Hi, I have a similar problem, with Efi/bios:

 

The system image restore failed. Windows cannot restore a system image to a computer that has different firmware. The system image was created on a computer using EFI and the computer is using BIOS.

 

How can I run SBS2008 cd install under efi to make the restore of my system image?

Hi everyone,

i have a similsar problem here, please help me:

i have installed windows 2008 R2 in a IBM system X M3 on a RAID 10 array (4 disks).

I planned to change these 4 disks (10 K disks) with 15K disks.

I used Norton ghost to ghost the system. (i booted into WinPE 3.0, run ghost and create a GHO file)

I removed then the 4 disks, replace them with the new disks, configure the RAID 10 array, and then applied the ghosted image.

Normally, with no EFI system, Windows is directly able to boot. But in my case i receive always the error "Failed to boot"

I followed all threads and tricks but with no luck. When, i boot with the Windows 2008 R2 DVD and run the repair option. I can see the C:drive, apply the bootrec /RebbuildBCD and the others commands. The result is successful but i still unable to boot, the same error message "failed to boot".

It seems that the EFI boot manager is not even trying to load the Windows boot loader (it's a theory), because i should in this case have another error message like "missing file" or "mbr corrupted".

 

Please can anyone guide me through this issue, because i spent three days resolving it with no success.

Unfortunately, these threads are closed as soon as the original question is answered.