Question about Backups

I'm scheduled for a retake of the exam. I have to admit that I've come a long way since originally failing the exam, but I've noticed many little things that I didn't fully grasp before. Here is one such thing:

I have a question about ASR. Say I have multiple disks on a computer with one operating system. If I perform an ASR backup, will this backup everything on the system or just the standard system state files?

So, in other words, if I performed an ASR backup on the system every night, would I be able to use any one of those restores to bring back ALL DATA at that point in time?

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astorrs

The ASR backup consists of a backup of the system files that ASR requires for Windows to function and a 3.5" disk that contains information about your system that ASR requires to start the restore process. The ASR backup doesn't back up data files, so you need to back them up separately.

MCPWannabe

Thank You. That's what I needed.

dynamik

Where'd you get that quote? It works in this circumstance because he specified multiple drives, but it would include all the data if everything was on a single drive. It backs up the entire system drive.

Also, if you're recovering from disk failure, you need a drive that is equal to or larger than the original drive, regardless of how much data you actually had on it. i.e. if your files were stored on an 80gb drive, but you only had 20gb of data on it, you'd still need an 80gb to replace it. A 20gb or 40gb would not work.

Finally, you can do an ASR backup without a floppy drive. Just backup the files in %windir%\repair. You will need a floppy to restore though.

royal

What's an ASR Backup?

dynamik

royal wrote:

What's an ASR Backup?

Something small/poor companies have to use

brad-

royal wrote:

What's an ASR Backup?

It's 2 things.

1) M$ trivia
2) Useless software

astorrs

dynamik wrote:

It works in this circumstance because he specified multiple drives, but it would include all the data if everything was on a single drive. It backs up the entire system drive.

Yes I know, he had specified multiple drives that's why, thanks for clarifying it for him.

royal wrote:

What's an ASR Backup?

Ignorance is bliss. I have never, and will never recommend using only NTBackup to perform backups - "How do I despise thee? Let me count the ways..."

sprkymrk

Question for the motivated people with Virtual (or real) test servers and backup devices. Have you ever done an ASR backup and know for a fact that the ENTIRE system drive, including data, is actually backed up?

I think you may be in for a surprise if you didn't back up that data seperately from the ASR... No user data gets backed up in my experience, regardless if it's on the system drive. Can someone test and prove me wrong?

Automated System Recovery (ASR) overview

The Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard backs up the System State data, system services, and all disks associated with the operating system components.

ASR does not include data files. Back up data files separately on a regular basis and restore them after the system is working.

astorrs

You're right. It only backs up:

* System state data.
* System services.
* Disk configuration information.
* All other files that are connected to the operating system.

Like I said, I never use NTBackup.

dynamik

I created a test user account and logged in with it. I created a few text files in my documents, and I created some more in a new folder in the root of the drive. I then performed an ASR and all of the user's files in both locations remained.

royal

dynamik wrote:

royal wrote:

What's an ASR Backup?

Something small/poor companies have to use

Exactly

brad- wrote:

royal wrote:

What's an ASR Backup?

It's 2 things.

1) M$ trivia
2) Useless software

Exactly

astorrs wrote:

royal wrote:

What's an ASR Backup?

Ignorance is bliss. I have never, and will never recommend using only NTBackup to perform backups - "How do I despise thee? Let me count the ways..."

Exactly. But for those that do only use NTBackup, who ever does an ASR Backup?

astorrs

Well it appears that even Microsoft can't decide what ASR can and cannot do. Play it safe, do a full backup anyway - or better yet, use a real backup application. :P

sprkymrk

dynamik wrote:

I created a test user account and logged in with it. I created a few text files in my documents, and I created some more in a new folder in the root of the drive. I then performed an ASR and all of the user's files in both locations remained.

Ok thanks dynamik. Can you be more specific though on the procedure you used? Did you run ASR and backup to tape or external drive? Did you wipe the drive as in a catostrophic failure before restoring with ASR?

dynamik

No. I'm pretty sure that proved what I said was right, so I'm just going to leave it at that, sorry.

Actually, I just added another virtual HD, backed up to that and restored. It said it formatted the drive, but maybe it lied to me.

I'm bored, so I'll give it another go, with extra catastrophic goodness this time.

Also, from the MS Press book, regarding what an ASR backup contains:

A full backup of your local system partition on tape or as a file located on a network server

dynamik

Ok, I did the same thing and created a user and various files, but this time I completely deleted the virtual HD, which was the system disk. The ASR backup was made to a second disk and restored to a third. The user's files remained.

sprkymrk

dynamik wrote:

Ok, I did the same thing and created a user and various files, but this time I completely deleted the virtual HD, which was the system disk. The ASR backup was made to a second disk and restored to a third. The user's files remained.

Great, thank you for the verification. I wonder if SP2 had anything to do with it.