We have been spending some serious time tearing into SBS 2008 by breaking all sorts of things to see what happens and to figure out how to fix them.
In some cases, we are successful in getting the fix in, and in others we are still on the short end of the learning curve.
The big confidence builder in all of this is the fact that the built-in SBS backup is phenomenal! The ability to restore various aspects of the server up to and including the server itself is simply the best out of the box backup system we have worked with on any Microsoft OS product.
We have restored the bench SBS 2008 box so many times from so many backups we made during our testing that the built-in SBS backup is a viable contender to stay on the box as the de facto backup solution for SBS 2008.
The one spot we have not tested yet is the built-in backup’s ability to restore to different hardware. Though, from what we can see, the ability is there as the restore process gives us the ability to install drivers prior to running the restore.
While working on one of the restores, we ended up receiving this error:
Windows Complete PC Restore
The Windows Complete PC Restore Operation failed.
Error details: Element not found. (0x80070490)
It did not take much to find the reason behind the error: WindowsNetworking.com: Performing a Recovery Using Complete PC Restore.
It seems that even though have the USB Boot Priority disabled in the BIOS, the boot order was set as follows:
USB HDD Set as Default
The recommended action in the WindowsNetworking article was to keep the USB HDD unplugged until it came time to scan the backup drive for the backup being used to restore the system.
Once we left the USB drive unplugged during the POST and subsequent SBS DVD boot, we were able to accomplish a successful restore.
Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac!
39 comments:
Thanks, This tip helped me restore my Vista system.
A,
You are very welcome. I am glad that the post helped you out.
Philip
Worked for me too - thank you. Its people like you who make the internet the fantastic resource it is, giving up their time for the sake of others.
Thanks once again.
Hi,
I was getting this exact error trying to restore a backup off the network, Web server 2008. I turned off booting off usb and network. But I still get the same error. Very frustrating because this error is not very helpful.
If I had any hair, I would be pulling it out.
Thank you for your post it gave me a ray of hope. Microsoft does some things very good and some things very bad. Very poor error information and I cannot find any information on this error.
Thanks,
Victor
Follow up because you were only one posting about this error.
I was trying to restore a backup of Windows Web Server 2008 that was installed on a Citrix XenServer. Wierd configuration, drive 0 24G as D:, drive 1 100G as c:. Backed up full system and then tried restore to bare drive, and then partitioned drive. Error - The complete PC Restore failed. Element not found 0x80070490. I added second drive to sata1 and this did not work.
So set sata0 to 80G drive and sata1 to 250G drive.
I then went back into recover and on the last step I went into advanced and unchecked reboot when done and the unchecked the check disk option.
I do not know if unchecking the two options or arranging the drives to match the virtual drives worked but the system restored.
If I run more tests I will post.
I wish MS would supply more information than the poor error message. Especially with something as critical as restoring backup.
Thanks,
Victor
Why does Microsoft not just put in proper error messages, like remove the dam drive before you boot. It would make life so much easier!!!!
Thanks a lot for this tip. I was getting the same error trying to restore a backup from usb-hdd to my hp dl 380G6 with W2008SRV. I try something different ways, but always the same error occurs. Then I went back into recover and on the last step I went into advanced and unchecked reboot when done and the unchecked the check disk option. The system were restored.
Thanks and Greetings
Antoni
Hamburg/Germany
Thank you very much for this tip. I was getting the same error trying to restore, got to the point where I was thinking of rolling back to SBS2003 that had been a reliable servant for soo many years.
Thank you
thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks very much this post saved my bacon at 5am on a Sunday morning.
What a godsend!!
Now I just need to figure out what is causing my server to do the reboot loop!
Thanks Phil.. would have beat my head for hours on this one...
-your old compadre... Pete from Logical Computers-
Much appreciated! It saved me much frustration with a restore to an HP ML110. Thanks for posting!
worked perfectly for me to restore my sbs2008.
thank you very much
This is a great guide, I had the same problems as you had.
My setup was a little different though. I had to restore a complete server over remote KVM. A USB disk was attached to the computing module with the backup image on it. So I couldn't just unplug the USB disk when I got the element not found error...
I decided to have a look at the BIOS myself.
I changed the USB boot priority to disabled. I also changed the hard disk order. Because if the USB disk was attached at a previous boot, it would be on top of the list already. (Philip, I thing that is why you still could not restore after the change)
After these changes. The restore did start for me.
I'm off to sleep now, hoping by morning I will have a bootable system...
Thank you for the article.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
If I was young and cute I'd kiss you!!
A quantum leap in in help for 'microsofted' people !! Thanks a lot.
In my case, it helped already changing the boot order of hdds in BIOS once (target drive first, source drive second).
After that, everything worked perfect as -it should.
Im trying to do this on windows 7 and im still getting the error element not found.
And don't forget to keep the USB pen drive with your RAID drivers unplugged until asked for as well..!
Many thanks for your post - SBS2008 restoring nicely now :)
Amazing. I am certain you saved me countless hours of troubleshooting. Thank you very much.
- Previously very stressed disaster recovery specialist
Wooooow, its working fine, i lost alot of time for this error..
Thanks alot
Thank you, restoring a 2008 server is that easy when you have this missing link.
This worked for me:
1. go to advanced then uncheck all.
Should have tried that option 5hrs ago. Damn!
Thank you guys SO much!!!!
This was driving me INSANE!!!
Another thank you for this most welcome tip when faced with this error....
R.
You are THE MAN. You saved me spending hours and days to resolve this.
I was replacing a SBS 2008 installation on a HP Proliant ML110 using P212 Smart Array. Was wondering why was it failing when all seems in place. your article is a God send.
Thanks you my friend :)
You are THE MAN. You saved me spending hours and days to resolve this.
I was replacing a SBS 2008 installation on a HP Proliant ML110 using P212 Smart Array. Was wondering why was it failing when all seems in place. your article is a God send.
Thanks you my friend :)
Thanks Philip-leaving teh source USB HDD unplugged worked for me too! dp
Thanks a lot! It is working :) I made restore SBS2008 with raid 1. Before I changed the HDDs with largest capacity. I thought it a problem but my think was wrong.
Thank you again.
Thanks, This Blog/Article is still helping people out there. Thought you should know. Nice Job!
I had the exact same issue today on my SBS 2008 restore. A nice quick fix which worked, thanks!
Nice tip, helped me a lot !!
Worked on my Windows Server 2008 Standard. Thank you!!!
Thank you so much! Luckily, your solution was first on the list when I did a search on the error. I have already wasted enough time with this raid controller. I am tired and want to go home. Thanks again.
Thanks! Same error here.
I was actually booting from an ISO on a USB thumb drive. Tried lots of different things booting from USB, but nothing worked. Once I read your post, plugged in a DVD drive and booted from an actual DVD (with no USB plugged in), it worked.
Thanks for the tip....
Hope works for me....
Thank you very much! I was starting to panic when I wasn't able to get a restore going after a failed disk repartition attempt.
Unplugging the USB hard drive initially did the trick for me.
Thanks again.
it worked...
was using bootable USB (works with server 2008 r2 btw) , found an old CD of server 2008 and booted from that....
unchecked all in advanced too
thx !!!
Same here, thank you for your blog.
I managed to get the server back by restoring from my image using DVD. Tried alot of way using USB boot but jumped into errors after errors.
So for anyone jumps into my situation, this is what I do:
- Create CD boot from your windows version iso. Always keep a version of CD boot by your side.
- Remove all USB from your server, only plug-in your external hdd containing the image after your setup shows "found no image to restore"
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