Bare metal restore of windows server 2003 using ntbackup

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. I have a single server, Win Server and would like to setup a system to be able to perform a bare bones restore if needed.

Ideally the backup could be performed while the is powered so that i don't have to support downtime during this, and in order to restore i would reboot and use some sort of liveCD Any ideas on this, software and all I'm not sure if I understood your question properly, but I'll try to answer anyway. I think you're talking about a bare metal restore.

If you are, then you will have to restart any OS just to do a restore. If you don't want that, then maybe you are talking about volume shadow copy service. You simple select "Automated System Recovery" and it will make a full backup your system while it is serving to your users to a disk you specify and then it will as you to insert a floppy disk that will serve as a boot disk. If in the case that you need to do this, just plug the backup disk and insert the floppy and then boot it all up.

NTBackup will give you the full backup of the entire system. It will create a huge file. You need to copy it to local disk first to do a restore. A bit of overkill for an individual or a non-virtual server, as keeping the image up to date takes work.

But what you seem to want is more of a unix-style block-level partition backup, which requires the system to go offline during the backup. Scott: You redirect the "My Documents", "Application Data" and "Desktop" folders out of the roaming profile for exactly the reasons you describe. By storing them on a server from the beginning via "Folder Redirection" policy you prevent the synchronization behaviour you describe.

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Novex Novex 1 1 bronze badge. Pros: -You can restore the computer to the way it was at a certain point in time. You can adjust the backups to fit your needs and back up every 15 minutes if you like.

Workstation software is inexpensive. SBS version of the software is considerably less than the standard server version. Licensing is portable, so if you get a new computer you can move the license. Takes less time overall to restore. Cons: No one click solution. The more often you back up the less retention you have. I have used this and it has saved me more than once with servers and workstations. Hank Hank 3 3 bronze badges.

I agree that this product does not meet my needs entirely, however, it does come close. Thanks for your response, I will look them over further and decide on which answer I should accept. Thanks again. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. In order to create a suitable backup, you need a ClientRunBeforeJob script.

It should create a system snapshot, and shut down any services that are not safe to back up. An ASR set should periodically be manually created and included in the backup.

This requires running ntbackup. An ASR set contains a backup of your operating system files and a bootable floppy disk that can be used to start your computer if it will not start normally. Before creating an ASR set, make sure that you have a 3. If your server does not have a floppy drive, you can still perform an ASR backup by copying the asr. However, before running the ASR restore procedure, you must attach a floppy drive to your server.

First you must create a working copy of Windows on the new system. This can typically take 30 to 90 minutes. At this point, the ASR Wizard should complete installation based on the system recovery files and automatically reboot. Now that the server is in a minimally functional state, you can begin reloading the last known good system state and user data. Insert the ASR floppy disk when prompted. After a reboot, the Automated System Recovery Wizard will open.

Confirm the location of the backup. NTBackup will then restore the data to the C: drive. BackupAssist bare-metal backup and recovery Windows Server includes basic backup and recovery tools, but the functionality they provide falls short of what most businesses require.

Uses CryptoSafeGuard to protect backups from ransomware and prevent infected servers from being backed up. Encryption BitLocker encryption requires manual intervention.

BitLocker encryption is built into the backup creation and recovery process. Recovery tools WinRE gives access to the Windows command-line.

RecoverAssist includes a set of recovery tools, custom driver support and the Windows command-line. Backup scheduling Basic daily backup schedule. Fully customizable with built-in schemes including grandfather, father, son.

Backup reports Includes the outcome of the backup job and any errors encountered. Scripting support Not included. Built-in scripting with selectable variables and settings, and script error reporting. Media labeling Not supported.

Supported for all removable media and backup schemes. This screenshot shows all of the recovery options available when you use RecoverAssist. Share on email. Share on print. Share on facebook. Share on google. Share on twitter. Share on linkedin. Subscribe to Blog via Email.