Note to self: read your own blogs on Windows 2008 R2 Native Backup 
. Yes people, Windows 2008 R2 Bare Metal restore to dissimilar hardware does work as long as you follow the rules and guidelines. Those are not super evidently documented but still, if I can find ‘m you can too! But today we lost some time because we didn’t head one of the rules that trip people up frequently. That rule is that the disk layout on the restore server can’t differ from the original one. I literally wrote “Pay close attention to the disk layout/ boot order as well, the restore doesn’t allow for variation from the original layout” in http://workinghardinit.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/using-windows-2008-r2-backups-to-go-virtual-2/. That means you need to simulate the same disk layout on the new hardware. If the new server has an extra disk, disable that one for the restore, if it has one less, add one. Another situation where the disk layout comes into play is when you boot from an USB stick with W2K8R2. If you leave it plugged in there during the restore the recovery will fail. Because if that extra attached disk isn’t the one containing the backup image you’ll get a very harsh error:
"The system image restore failed. Error details: The parameter is incorrect. 0×80070057"
Not very helpful in explaining but that generally means you’ve got a disk layout issue. In this case because you have the bootable USB stick attached. Once you’ve booted to the “Repair your computer” functionality, selected “Select a system image backup” and found your image to restore you should remove the bootable USB stick from the server if you’re not going to be doing an install. Beware of this! Typically when you boot from DVD or PXE you wouldn’t even notice but when using a bootable USB device with W2K8R2 you might forget that this changes the disk layout. So again, always pull the bootable USB stick from the server before you restore and you’ll be fine. Yes the recovery will work a soon as you’ve booted, you don’t need the media anymore so you can unplug it safely. You can even attach another USB disk in its place containing the backups if you only have one USB port available. That will work because the disk with the backup itself is never taken into consideration and won’t cause any issues with the restore.
So we’ll never forget to head our own warnings again (I hope). The good thing is we had some refresh training on restoring today and it’s all refreshed in our minds
Thanks, that bit about removing the USB key with the install image really solved a lot of confusion for me.
You’re welcome. I’m glad it helped and thank you for the feedback.
Pull the boot usb stick did the trick! Thanks.
One thing is my new 2TB drive was not partitioned, and it didn’t work at that time.
After it’s partitioned and tried again, it works right away
You’re most welcome
Greetings from Brazil / South America. I’ve had that problem trying to restore a master image to other computers at my gaming center and your advice solved the issue. Nowhere else on Google had I found an answer, that’s why I made a point on thanking you.
Good work!
Best wishes!
Thank you very much! I’m happy to help and glad to receive feedback that it made a difference.
You don’t need to plug off your USB stick. In wizard there is an option to exclude volumes, you just only check the volume that contains your usb bootable WinRE.
I’m afraid telling Windows to skip those other disks won’t work. Indeed you HAVE to unplug it in order not to get that error. I know we can select disks or devices that should not be formatted, but I know as well that won’t fix the error. I often use image restore with Windows on a pendrive, I technically support a gaming center and I couldn’t live without this feature since frequenly people cause damage to the OS and the gaming stations don’t have DVD drive. So, I’m secure of what I’m saying.
This also applies to Windows 7. When booting from a USB drive, click through all the restore prompts, and yank the USB drive you booted from just before clicking ‘Next’ to restore the system image.
It’s amazing that MS didn’t build the restore tool to work in this scenario, seeing as booting from a USB flash drive is a common repair method.
Same thing on Windows 7. You saved my day!
Thanks for sharing this information – I spent at least an hour trying to figure out why I couldn’t restore my backup, and fortunately I stumbled upon your post. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much!!!!
I spent some 9 hours to get this working – i tried everything and then finally unplugging that stupid usb stick worked for me.
You made me very glad!!!
THANK YOU!!
You’re most welcome. I’m happy you were able to restore your system. Windows Backup is pretty good but has some intricacies you need to be aware off. Once you know it’s fast & reliable.
Ah thank you so much – my test domain is now up and running thanks to your advice!
You are most welccome. Good luck with the new lab.
You sir are an ABSOLUTE LEGEND! I have had this issue before and was unable to get it working and had to find another way of restoring (luckily the original was still working). I am at a clients now and my only option is to restore from a Windows 7 image. I removed my USB key before the final “Finish” and it works! (BTW found you page via Google)
You’re most welcome
Hey man thank you! Your hint really helped! Pluggin off the USB Stick worked.
I’ve been trying to restore a Dell R710 for several hours without success. Then I found your blog. Your tips were right on the money, the system restored! Thanks very much!
Happy that it helped! Windows Backup is a rock solid tool when you know the cardinal rules
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I’d like to join the choir of »thank you!« Wasn’t obvious to me you had to remove the USB stick you booted from. On the contrary, even when following your advice I was fearing a hard error was about to occur, kinda like the recovery program trying to read some more pages from the device it had been loaded from and that had unexpectedly been removed … Thankfully I quickly found a web page where someone posted a link to this page.[1] This had the potential for wasting hours on it. Once more, thank you for sharing your knowledge, this has been a great help to me!
[1] http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/de-DE/sbsde/thread/ae010e3e-bda3-4af4-aa8a-8c535f606591/
You’re most welcome and thx for the feedback!
Thanks a lot. This Blog entry resolved my problem.
thnk bro, i was usng i USB bootble i and didnt know tht i had to take it on before the restore… muito obrigado,
You’re most welcome.
Also works for WHS 2011, so +1 thanks from me