<div>
The only hit I got on your error turned out to be a bad sector on the server's hard disk drive. &nbsp;Look in the event viewer under system for disk and/or NTFS errors.<br />
If you are familiar with SMART, get the free trial of <a href="http://www.hdtune.com" rel="ugc">http://www.hdtune.com</a>&nbsp;'s pro version and use it to check the hard drive.
</div>


<div>
I appreciate being asked to help resolve this question; but, again, even though my answer was a big step in the right direction, the asker never came back which is a shame.
</div>


<div>
Sorry, please accept my apology. <br />
<br />
I tried SMART as you suggested, but it found no errors on the hard drive.
</div>


<div>
I have been working on a work around solution to the problem. I am backing up the 13 client computers to an external hard drive. This will allow me at least to restore a client PC if the hard drive crashes. The clients are saving their personal documents and files in their personal folder on the server. So I should be able to restore their PC using the external hard drive backup while all their documents and files are still available on the server.<br />
<br />
I am suspecting that the problem may be caused by my updating all the client PC's from Windows 7 to Windows 10. To get the PC's on the server after updating to 10 I had to remove them and add them back to the server. They were all backed up to the server again but I wonder if something is not set up correctly after the update to Windows 10.<br />
<br />
The main reason I wanted to make sure that I had a good backup for each client PC is that if one crashed I would not have a way to get it restored to Windows 10 without installing a new copy of Windows 10. I could not reinstall Windows 7 and upgrade to 10 since July 29 has passed.
</div>


<div>
Once a PC has booted 10 once, it got its license from a Microsoft server and you can reinstall 10 forever. &nbsp;It will automatically activate when it boots up. So there is no need to start with 7, ever again.<br />
<br />
As to the Client restore problem, did you find this:<br />
<a href="http://www.mcbsys.com/blog/2014/01/set-up-client-restore-on-server-2012-r2-essentials/" rel="ugc">http://www.mcbsys.com/blog/2014/01/set-up-client-restore-on-server-2012-r2-essentials/</a>
</div>


<div>
One question on reinstalling 10. &nbsp;If I replace a hard drive in a PC, can I reinstall using the &nbsp;Windows 10 ISO file that I downloaded?<br />
<br />
Yes, I have installed Windows PE. When I try to boot to PE from the LAN, the PC does not find the server. <br />
<br />
I am getting some fairly consistent errors in the event log. I don't know if they are related. <br />
<br />
One for example is Event ID 91, Source: CertificateAuthority: &nbsp;Could not connect to the Active Directory. Active Directory Certificate Services will retry when processing requires Active Directory access.
</div>


<div>
I am working on testing restore from Client Computer backup.<br />
<br />
I also downloaded the latest Windows 10 installation files.<br />
<br />
Thanks for the information about the blog post. <br />
<br />
Will update on my progress.
</div>


<div>
I finally got a client restore to complete successfully.<br />
<br />
I restored over the network and finally got a successful restore.<br />
<br />
One major thing you must do is install the LAN driver for the PC you are restoring.<br />
<br />
Thank you Davis for you help and patience!
</div>


<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
My Client Restore feature is not working on my 2012 R2 Essentials server. <br />
<br />
When I try to create a &quot;computer recovery key&quot; I get the message &quot;The bootable USB flash drive could not be created.&quot; &quot;After you fix the issue, try again.&quot;<br />
<br />
I have another server set up in a test environment and it creates the key.<br />
<br />
I tried using that key to do a client restore on the working server, but the restore fails.<br />
<br />
I have also tried to do a client restore using the boot from LAN on the client PC. But it fails saying that it can't find the server. I know that is connected to the server because the PC was on the server and I simply turned it off, replaced the hard drive and turned it on again.<br />
<br />
The server appears to be doing all the client backups OK. But I can't get restore to work.<br />
<br />
I have been unable to find anything in the error logs that would point to the problem. (I have also rebooted the server)<br />
<br />
Does anyone have a possible solution? I don't know anything else to try.
</div>
</div>


My Client Restore feature is not working on my 2012 R2 Essentials server. 

When I try to create a "computer recovery key" I get the message "The bootable USB flash drive could not be created." "After you fix the issue, try again."

I have another server set up in a test environment and it creates the key.

I tried using that key to do a client restore on the working server, but the restore fails.

I have also tried to do a client restore using the boot from LAN on the client PC. But it fails saying that it can't find the server. I know that is connected to the server because the PC was on the server and I simply turned it off, replaced the hard drive and turned it on again.

The server appears to be doing all the client backups OK. But I can't get restore to work.

I have been unable to find anything in the error logs that would point to the problem. (I have also rebooted the server)

Does anyone have a possible solution? I don't know anything else to try.

Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials Client Restore Does Not Work

Windows Server 2012 is the server version of Windows 8 and the successor to Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2012 is the first version of Windows Server to have no support for Itanium-based computers since Windows NT 4.0. Windows Server 2012, now in its second release (Windows Server 2012 Release 2) includes Foundation, Essentials, Standard and Datacenter, and does not support IA-32 or IA-64 processors.