Windows Server 2008 installation fails with "The computer could not find a valid system volume" when installing to previously used disks

When attempting to install Server 2008 to a disk which was formerly used in a ZFS pool, you may receive the following error message:

 "The computer could not find a valid system volume"

or

When using Diskpart with the clean or clean all command from within Windows to erase any existing partitions on a disk which was formerly used in a ZFS pool before creating Windows compatible partitions you may receive the following error message:

"The system's information about the object may not be up to date."

or

 When in the Disk Management MMC console, if you try to online a disk which was formerly used in a ZFS pool, you get the error message:

"The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable."

 

The EFI partition header size is 200H on disks using the ZFS filesystem.  In Server 2008, we check for an EFI partition header size of 5CH when examining disks. Since the header size does not match our value, we decide that the disk is corrupt. This leads to a situation where the ZFS disks cannot be onlined, and cannot be cleaned or repartitioned using diskpart directly.

 

With the problem disk attached to a running Windows Server 2008, complete the following commands.

Note: For information on connecting the problem disk consult your hardware or storage provider.

 1. From a command prompt with administrative rights:
    Run diskpart
      Issue the following commands:
      SAN POLICY=OnlineAll
      exit

2. Open Device Manager.
    Under Disk Drives, right click each disk (that has the problem) and choose uninstall

3. Open Disk Management
    Choose Rescan from the Action menu
    Initialize each disk

4. The disks should now be useable; partition and format as desired.

Note: The EFI partition information on the disk is not able to be reset from within Setup.

 

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