Hello,

sorry for beeing "urgent" but it's true. I have a Veritas Backup Exec
8.6 backup of a Windows 2000 Server Systemdisk C:\ plus System State. I
will install Windows 2000 Server plus Backup Exec on the same computer
on disk D:\. Then I will boot with disk D: and restore C:\ plus
systemstate to C:\.

Will I be able to boot C:\ ? Or will this not work?

I tested a bit and restored the systemstate to J:\test. I found, that
Backup Exec makes some folders like _C etc. etc. I think, it's no
problem to copy these files to the correct places on C:\ (which is
offline because I boot from drive D). Am I right here?

Background if you are interested: My server has a corrupted
c:\winnt\system32\config\system-file. This means, I cannot boot the
server (also in active directory restore mode [translated from german])
correctly to play back the system state. My idea is to restore C: plus
systemstate from a good backup a few days ago by installing a second
operation system on the same machine. The "system"-file is 3.7 MB, so
it is below the 10.3 MB limit (KB 256986), therefore, I assume that the
file is corrupt.

Regards

arno

"arno" <schoblochr@azoppoth.at> wrote in message
news:eGTUjzwaHHA.4940@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
Your approach should work, provided that BackupExec will
restore the boot files c:\ntldr, c:\ntdetect.com and c:\boot.ini.
If it does not then you can copy them manually from D: to C:.
You must then adjust c:\boot.ini to reflect the correct location
of the Windows system folder c:\Windows.

Your predicament is typical for a well-meant but not fully
thought through backup process. A robust system backup
process requires these steps:
1. Design a backup process.
2. Run the backup process.
3. Perform a full restoration to a spare disk.
4. Boot with the spare disk.
5. Test the backup process twice each year.

Many people omit Steps 3 to 5. They might get some
unpleasant surprises when the crunch comes.

Since ntbackup and BackupExec are quite tedious when it
comes to doing a full restoration, you might want to explore
some alternatives that are NOT dependent on a operative
OS for the restoration effort. Here are a couple of options:
- Use an imaging product such as Acronis TrueImage. It lets
you burn a recovery CD which you can use for a black start.
- Use humble xcopy.exe to create or restore a system disk.
To do this successfully you must boot the machine with
a Bart PE boot CD (or similar).

If you wish to sleep well then you must fully test both methods.

Here is another hint: If you use the Task Scheduler to run regback.exe
once a week, and if you keep two or three versions of the saved
registry files, then you have a scaled-down equivalent of System
Restore as implemented in WinXP. Having these files would have
solved your current problem in less than an hour. It has saved
me several rebuilds when something went wrong on my servers.
Again you need a Bart PE CD to restore the saved registry files.

Hello Pegasus,


it does, I am not sure about boot.ini.

The problem is, that I have many many possibilities when I boot. I can
restore the system state etc. etc. etc. But this is NOT possible if the
system-file is corrupt. I'd loved to simply restore the system state
and that's it... This is why I've been using Acronis True Image (and
Powerquest Drive Image r.i.p.) for years. And I've restored pretty
often after misconfigurations or desasters.


I used the emergency CD's. I just ordered the Server version with
scheduled backups (images). So I do not have to worry about what else
can go wrong next, so i do not have to worry about saving the registry,
copying the logfiles of veritas, exporting the AD, saving the system
state, etc....

BTW, I have a Windwos 2003 Storage Server (NAS) which has ntbackup
"preinstalled" on the desktop. I have the impression that I can use
ntbackup for a full backup and restore of the system drive plus system
state. Am I right here? Does this work in Win2003? (I have images
anyway).




arno

I forgot to mention, that I could replace the system file using BartPE
and Backup of the system state, so everything is working again.

arno