Dell EMC Avamar for Windows Servers 19.7 User Guide

UEFI machine fails to boot after BMR

After a successful BMR, a UEFI machine may fail to boot. This can occur if the EFI boot manager does not have a valid Boot Order entry. For example, if the Boot Order was deleted or the BMR was performed to different hardware. In those situations the operating system recreates the Boot Order entry when the machine is rebooted, and it may not use the same path.

To correct this issue, use the computer manufacturer instructions to set the EFI boot order. Follow the instructions for setting the Boot from a file option. The target file path is EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi.

Re-creating 8dot3 file names after BMR may fail

During BMR, 8dot3 names are temporarily enabled for all volumes. This allows 8dot3 names to be created when files are restored. After the machine is rebooted, the system uses the following registry value to determine where 8dot3 names are created:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation

The default value of NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation is per-volume for volumes that have 8dot3 names enabled by fsutil. The “NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation” article on the Microsoft TechNet website provides details.

After BMR, decide how to manage 8dot3 names.

Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and later do not automatically create 8dot3 file names. This is because it is increasingly unlikely that 8dot3 names are actually needed. The use of 8dot3 names also has significant performance penalties for the file system. Microsoft recommends using the fsutil program to strip 8dot3 names from the file system if they are not needed.

You can enable 8dot3 file names on all volumes or on a per volume basis using the fsutil program. The values to enable or disable 8dot3 for all volumes or on a per volume basis are described in the “Fsutil 8dot3name” article on the Microsoft TechNet website.