Server 2016 ISO

[fastcompany2]

Ok so I have a license for server 2016 datacenter. its legit not stolen or anything. I do not have installation media. from microsoft you can get evaluation copies. so I did that and loaded one up into a vm. after its installed you have to convert the eval copy to a retail copy running a pretty simply command in command prompt or powershell. this process takes forever though. I'm actually in the middle of it now and its been converting for over an hour. I read that this is normal. So what I would like to do is create the real retail bootable media from inside this OS. is this possible so I can just load this up normal in the future instead of going through all this again? I know I can make a recovery drive but I've also read that it wont work in a different machine. I want a universal usb installation media.

 

[fastcompany2]

So not since no one has chimed in I still have a question. I know that from within the server I can do a "bare metal backup" which should enable the backup to be used on a different machine. Would I still need installation media alongside this like booting into installation media choosing repair and then using my bare metal backup? If I need to have 2 thumb drives to ease the process of loading this on a different machine I'm ok with that.

 

[das_stig]

Take a look here .. https://forums.mydigitallife.net/forums/windows-server.15/

 

[drtweak]

Ran into the SAME issues as you but was looking for Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2015 and had no access to the volume license as the previous IT for the company never gave it to them!

This program here is nice.

https://gitlab.com/s1ave77/SVF.ISO.CONVERTER

Basically download it, extract it, run the CMD file. Follow the instructions that are on the site.

What it does it downloads the Eval Copy and then decompresses the .esd file, replaces the files with the proper ones for the full version, and rebuild the .esd file to have the full version.