Windows – How to create Recovery partition for mirroring Windows Server 2016 UEFI boot partitions

bootmirroringwindows-server-2016

I'm trying to follow these instructions based on Windows Server 2008, but some things seem to have changed in 2016 – namely the Recovery partition seems to be an addition I don't know how to handle.

I have two identical 4TB drives. I have a successful Windows Server 2016 installation on Disk 1 booting UEFI.

I have cleaned and converted Disk 0 in preparation for mirroring Disk 1. After running the convert GPT command the Reserved partition was automatically created. This is not accounted for in my instructions, but it seems to match the one on Disk 1, so I guess that's good.

Now I am trying to figure out how to create the Recovery partition since it's next in line on Disk 1. How should I proceed? My end goal is to convert both disks to dynamic RAID mirror so I can boot from the failover partition if need be. Thanks for your time.

screenshot of partitions

Best Answer

run cmd as administrator run diskpart

first get info on the original and assign it letter Q

select disk 1

select partition 1

detail partition (note down /copy the size and the id)

assign letter=Q

now make the copy and assign letter R

select disk 0

convert gpt

select partition 1

delete partition overrirde

create partition primary size=450 ( that's what you noted down before)

format fs=ntfs quick label=Recovery

set id=***** ( whatever you noted down)

assign letter=R

exit

use robocopy to move the data form Q to R

robocopy.exe q:\ r:\ * /e /copyall /dcopy:t /xd "System Volume Information"

That's the recovery partition done now for EFI

get the info on the original system and Reserve partitions this time you only need the sizes and assign letter S to the system

select disk 1

list partition

**noted down sizes of System( I think yours is 100MB) and reverse (normally 16MB)

selection partition 2

assign letter=S

make the copies give efi letter T

select disk 0

create partition efi size=100

format fs=fat32 quick

assign letter=t

create partition msr size=16

exit

robocopy.exe s:\ t:\ * /e /copyall /dcopy:t /xf BCD.* /xd "System Volume Information"

then mirror the c drive using the GUI

hope this helps

Related Question