Complete PC Restore operation failed (0×80042401)

My other half was banging his head against this error last night, after having to replace a SATA HDD in his brand-new Dell XPS:

“Windows Complete PC Restore operation failed. Error details: There are too few disks on this computer or one or more of the disks is too small. Add or change disks so they match the disks in the backup and try the restore again. (0×80042401)”

There was no size difference in the old and new discs, and he’d tried just about every way of configuring the new drive (no partitions, manually create partitions etc.) To cut the story short, when booting from the recovery CD, if he didn’t select language and keyboards as UK, but left them as the default US, the damn thing worked without a hitch!

There used to be a similar problem with installing Small Business Server 2003, when it would hang at 13% completed if you selected UK language and keyboard settings at the beginning of the install. Which I guess goes to show the level of consideration for non-US users in Microsoft’s testing departments.