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Jason
Asked: 2009-11-03 13:29:49 +0800 CST

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

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I used Windows Server Backup to backup my 640GB boot drive. Only about 30GB is used, and the backup was very fast.

Now I am trying to restore the image to a 500GB hard drive but it is saying that the drive is too small... even though I only had 30GB on the original backup.

How do I overide this and have the restore ignore that I only have a 500GB drive? If I can't, then I can't restore the hard drive with anything except one that is equal to or bigger than the original hard drive - which would be a real bummer.

windows-server-2008

2 Answers

  1. Here's just something to add. This isn't a fully fledged answer, and I'm sorry I can't make comments.

    Possibly restore the vhd created by Windows Server Backup using a third party tool. Acronis True Image's boot cd supports vhd restore.

    Also another caveat is that only Microsoft can restore anything other than the latest copy of a backup from a vhd produced by their server backup program.

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  2. Since Server 2008 backup is doing an image based backup it requires you to restore to a disk of equal or greater size. If you need to move to a smaller drive the approach to take is to defrag, shrink the partition, and then restore. If this is a DR situation, get a bigger drive.

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