Restore From Cloud At Ridgebrook

🔧 Bare Metal Recovery from MSP360 (Staging Backup)

1. Boot into BIOS Setup

Boot into the BIOS and make the following config changes:

1A. Disable Secure Boot - select Boot Configuration and turn the slider OFF to disable secure boot. Click Yes to confirm.

1B. SATA/NVMe Operation - Select Storage and set SATA/NVMe Operation to AHCI/NVMe.

1C. AC Behavior & Block Sleep - Select Power and set AC Behavior to Last Power State and Block Sleep to On.

1D. Wake on LAN/WLAN - Select System Management and set Wake on LAN/WLAN to LAN or WLAN.

1E. Click Apply Changes (at the bottom) & Exit to reboot.

2. Boot into MSP360 Recovery Image

Insert the USB and boot into the MSP360 Recovery Image on the target machine.

3. Launch Bare Metal Recovery

From the Recovery Environment menu, choose “Bare Metal Recovery"

3. Authenticate with MSP360

Enter your MSP360 account credentials (Username/Password)

Credentials for "staging@dtctoday.com" are stored in 1Password - https://start.1password.com/open/i?a=QF5SHHOLYVG5TMAI3PF2TQM5GA&v=wcqnpbfbjggdea6jruotfavnou&i=x6jk3ody2jemuok3ewcfnzajx4&h=team-dtc.1password.com

4. Select the Storage Location

Choose “Staging Storage (Restore Only)” from the list of available locations.

5. Troubleshooting: Missing Staging Storage

If the Staging Storage is not listed:

1. Exit the Bare Metal Recovery interface.

2. From the main menu, go to: Tools → Backup.

3. Switch to the “Backup Storage” tab — confirm the Staging Storage appears here.

4. Exit the Backup tool and return to Bare Metal Recovery — the Staging Storage should now be listed.

6. Select Backup Job

Choose the backup job named “Staging Job".

7. Locate the Backup Image

Navigate to and select the appropriate backup set

Structure: Company > Location > ComputerName

8. Select the Backup Version

Select the Latest version available as the restore point.

Click Yes to Retrieve archive content from storage.

9. Review Partition Layout

You should now see the partition layout from the backup image. Uncheck all disks except for the OS drive.

From the partition screen you can change the target size of the drive to be smaller if it is bigger than the local systems drive by clicking on the underlined amount.

Please check that the Used amount isn't bigger than the local drive before making this change.

10. Choose Local Disk

Ensure the correct physical disk on the local machine is selected as the destination.

If you see the Backup Service is unavailable error instead of the local disk, we are currently resolving this by remaking the USB MSP360 Recovery Image. You may also be able to resolve this be restarting the MSP360 service from the command prompt. Please share or update document if we determine a better a fix for this.

11. Configure Logging/Notifications

Proceed through the Notifications and Logging screen (default settings are fine). Click Next.

12. Confirm & Restore

On the Summary page, review settings. Click Finish to start the restore process.

13. Completion

Once you receive the message stating the restore has completed, close the Restore tool.

14. Check OS Disk for MBR

If the restored source disk is MBR it should be converted to GPT on the target machine.

MBR is not supported for boot drives in Windows 11.

1. Check if OS disk is MBR

Close the restore window once it completes and select Tools and Command Prompt.

Use the following steps to check if the OS disk is MBR and must be converted to GPT:

From Command Prompt, type diskpart > list disk.
- An "*" (asterisk) in the Gpt column indicates that the disk is GPT.
- An empty value in the Gpt column indicates the disk is MBR.
If you have multiple disks and are unsure which one is the boot disk, type list volume. In the screenshot below, Disk 0 is the C drive and Disk 1 is the USB drive. Disk 0 is MBR and must be converted to GPT
If you come across a data disk using MBR, it does not need to be converted for the purpose of the disk imaging process. MBR data disks are supported by Windows 11.
GPTGEN is a requirement to download and use. You can download it here and then put a copy on your flash drive used to boot into MSP360, or another flash drive will work too.

Verify that the OS volume is Healthy. If a different status is shown you may need to rerun the restore or take a new source backup.

Leave the command prompt window open if MBR to GPT conversion is needed.

2. Optional Check for MBR in Ninja

Ninja can also be used to check if MBR is in use.

In Ninja, select the source device, then select the Custom tab and Default fields. The BIOS type, boot partition style and size can be viewed if they have been populated with the Windows Determine Boot Partition Specs script.

If the information is blank, this script can run on the device to populate the information (Run Automation > Run Script > enter Windows Determine Boot Partition Specs in the search field and click to select > leave defaults and click Run)

After the script run, the values below will be populated in Ninja for the device under Custom > Default fields.

The Ninja activity log will also show additional details found by the script

15. If Needed - OS Disk MBR to GPT Conversion

Follow this step if MBR to GPT conversion is needed.

In the command prompt window that is still open:

In the command prompt, type diskpart.
Type "list disk"
Identify your flash drive, ignore it moving forward. This is done by identifying the size.
Select the only other available disk by typing "select disk 0".
Type "list volumes"
Now perform the next step on each volume under 20 GB.
- select volume $VolumeNumber.
- delete volume force
Type exit.
Next type "E:" or the drive letter where GPTGEN is located.
Now type gptgen.exe \\.\physicaldrive0 -w
- This will convert the MBR table to a GPT partition table.
Type diskpart again and hit enter.
Type rescan. This will rescan the disk for changes.
Now type create partition efi size=2048
Now typeformat quick fs=fat32 label="System"
Now type assign letter=V:
Type create partition primary size=2048
Type format quick fs=ntfs label="WinRE"
Exit
reagentc /enable

Verify that all commands complete successfully before existing the command prompt.

Optional - use the list disk command to confirm that the OS Disk is now GPT.

Close the command prompt

16. For UEFI Based Systems: EFI Partition Creation

If the computer that has been restored is a UEFI based system and not BIOS, the EFI partition needs to be made.

Use command: diskpart ---> list disk ----> check the OS disk and see if it is checked for GPT or not.

If it is GPT then the system is UEFI.

Select disk 0 or whichever disk the OS is under. type in "list volume" and then "list part" - Additionally, delete any non-OS partitions under 20GB before continuing.

Select the partition with the OS and type in extend to remove leftover free space on the drive

After extending, you will go ahead and use the shrink desired=xxxx command - (typically 1-3000 is good) to create space for the efi partition.

Type in: create partition efi size=xxxx - use the amount that you shrank for the efi partition.

After partition is created - type in: format quick fs=fat32

Type in: Assign letter S - "S" can be any letter so long as there aren't any other volumes with that letter.

Confirm that the new partition was created and the assigned letter is showing.

Exit from diskpart and run the command - bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI (Replace S with the EFI partitions letter).

Once confirmed, go back into BIOs and verify that you can boot into Windows.

Turn Secure boot back on

17. Boot Into Restored Image

Exit the Recovery Environment and boot into the restored system image.

go to Dell Family Driver Packs and using those to update ~~the~~any missing ~~drivers~~network ~~after~~and ethernet drivers, once those are fixed, the ~~restoration~~system can fix the rest of the drivers on its own and you should run windows updates as well.

- Ensure that the display driver isn't the basic one. If it is ~~complete.~~the basic display driver it will mess up the displays from other devices connected to the PC.

Upgrade to Windows 11 after drivers have been restored.

Troubleshooting

~~Issue - Unclear if same backup can be restored concurrently to two target machines.~~

~~Fix - Restore to one target machine at a time.~~

~~Update - Used the same image to restore 2 different machines and had no issues. You do need to make sure that you change the 1 of the system's name after doing this. - JT~~