How to enable DSRM on Windows Server 2008 R2 By Default

Admins that manage Server 2008 R2 Domain Controllers may already know this, but the Directory Service Restore Mode option have disappeared from the F8 options. Instead you have to either enable and disable it through MSConfig.exe, or by using the BCDEdit command line utility ( for more info and the specific commands look here)

You can however create an extra option in the Boot menu that is available even if you forgot to set the option before the last reboot. You use the same solution I described here to “dual boot” your system.

First using the BCDEdit command, you need to create a New entry in your boot options list:

BCDedit /copy {current} /d “DSRM Mode”

where the quoted text behind the /d parameter is the displayed description in the boot menu

This command will return a text that the copy has succeeded to an option with a GUID.

You will need this GUID to take the next step, ( you can copy it, this is the easiest way)

In the next step you will set the DSRM boot mode for the newly created boot option.

BCDEdit /set {GUID} safeboot dsrepair.

You can check the changes have happened correctly by listing your boot entries.

For normal time saving when reboots are needed, you can set the Timeout setting to something convenient ( not too long, because in normal reboots, you do not want to wait for 30 seconds, and not too short, because you want to have the time to choose.) I can do this by going to the computer advanced properties, or by using the bcdedit commandline:

BCDEdit /timeout 5  will set the timeout to 5 seconds.

I hope this will help.