Dell incredibly stupidly adds a partition called OS, 2 Gb in size and formatted in FAT 32. If not removed before the OS is installed, it prevents a bare metal Windows backup.
Here is the solution (From Technet)
Convert Dell OS FAT32 Partition to NTFS System Reserve
Question
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I received a PowerEdge T310 Dell with a RAID 1 setup. Dell already prepared the HD and no OS. I installed SBS 2011 on it just to find out I cant’t do a BMR. I’m finding out it’s because of Dell’s FAT32 partition. I cannot reinstall the OS because it’s now in production. Is there a clean way to delete the Dell 39MB OEM partition, the 2GB OS partition and just leave the C: partition that the SBS 2011 is installed on. I know it won’t boot so what is the answer to solve my problem?
Thanks!
Below is the layout:
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I solved the problem by adding a drive letter (B:) to the OS system partition.
Used an elevated DOS prompt and went to B:
Ran Convert B: /FS:NTFS
It converted to NTFS without destroying the boot information.
Removed drive letter B: from system partition.
Rebooted (I had to reboot to configure backup again).
Configured server backup and the system partition is now part of the bare metal backup (it did not show prior to this).
I have not tried a restore yet. (will update this next week)
- Marked as answer by IbanezWizMicrosoft community contributor Friday, September 07, 2012 5:30
- Marked as answer by IbanezWizMicrosoft community contributor Friday, September 07, 2012 5:30
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Hi,
Here, I give you an easy way to solve your problem. You can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Server Edition to convert FAT32 to NTFS without data lose. What’s more, if some day you don’t like the file system of NTFS, you can change it back. With its help, you can also resize your partitions.
Best wishes!
- Edited by dandelion123 Friday, September 07, 2012 7:11 AM
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I solved the problem by adding a drive letter (B:) to the OS system partition.
Used an elevated DOS prompt and went to B:
Ran Convert B: /FS:NTFS
It converted to NTFS without destroying the boot information.
Removed drive letter B: from system partition.
Rebooted (I had to reboot to configure backup again).
Configured server backup and the system partition is now part of the bare metal backup (it did not show prior to this).
I have not tried a restore yet. (will update this next week)
- Marked as answer by IbanezWizMicrosoft community contributor Friday, September 07, 2012 5:30 PM
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Hi,
I had the same problem. Server2008R2 installed on a Dell PE410 with the OS FAT32 partition.
What I couldn’t find on the Internet is that after typing convert E: /FS:NTFS the system responds with “Convert cannot run because the volume is in use…” and “Would you like to force a dismount”
I was a bit scared what to put in. When I answered with N it asked for “Would you like to schedule it to be converted the next time the system restarts?
This time I answered Y and when I rebooted the server. It all went successfully. See picture.
I thought I share this with others as these Windows questions confuse some.
The partition converted to NTFS and all contents remain intact. I did not had to do any re-installing.
After this I removed the drive letter (E:) from this system partition and rebooted again. I can now successfully make WSB image backup’s.
Regards, Gary
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