Hi, (only just now discovered this thread)
> I read about ntbackup of systemstate a while back. But I seem to > recall that one of the key things it backs up are the registry hives > which I do with shadow copy. So I wonder what the 'systemstate' adds > to a full shadow copy (plus full subinacl acl backup). Specifically, > the page you reference says: > Windows XP Professional: The System State data includes only the > registry, COM+ Class Registration database, files under Windows > File Protection, and boot files." > Note that the COM+ Class Registration database is stored under: > C:\Windows\Registration > which seems to be backed up correctly under my shadow script. > So, I'm not sure what if anything it adds (at least in the non-Domain > controller non-Cluster setting). > I'm someone that completely agrees on the subject of Windows and backup and the complexity of it. It's one of the reasons I would never setup Windows as a server (if I think prevent it). I'll tell you what I think about how the system state and some other things in Windows work. The registry (among other things) holds information about a number of things: - driveletter and partitions/filesystems mapping information - information about drivers to load at startup Then somewhere else (I forgot right now) it also keeps information about machine-id, domain (member ?)-id and thus also the machine-id/localusername-mapping. To be honest, I don't really know how these are mapped to NTFS (in unix/linux it's id's in the filesystem, name/id mappings in passwd, etc.). Also the filesystem has an ID as wel, just like you have 'blkid' in Linux. So to boot a windows-system you need to have a few things setup right: - information about hardware drivers, especially the HD-controller and maybe some other motherboard chips - the driver needs to be installed - the right drive-mapping, which has several methods, which possible even changed over the years (from NT4 to Windows 2008R2), it used to be the partitions. But it may now also use some filesystem id (as you can add a 'signature' to the filesystem). I'm not sure. The idea about system-state-backup I think was, you create such a backup, then on an other machine to a new installation and then do a of the restore system-state-backup. The new installation would create the proper information in the registry about hardware-drivers, drive-letter mappings and filesystem-ids, etc. And then you restore the system-state-backup and get all the other registry settings back. Maybe you also first need to install all the applications on the system so their settings also get overwritten ? I don't know. Maybe you install the after the steps above. 'fun' A few months ago I was trying to create a rsync with VSS-capabilities ( http://consolejunky.net/cwrsync-vss/ ) build in, I however have been really busy with other things. Not even took the time to update the README. My lastest binary did work on all the windows-versions I could easily support: - does NOT work: windows 2000 would not be supported, it doesn't have VSS - does work: windows XP has an old version of VSS - does work: all 32-bit versions of windows vista/2003 and newer, I skip the 'junction-points' - does NOT work: all 64-bit versions of windows, I didn't think I could create a usable build-enviroment, but I recently found ming64 might be the answer (so building on Linux). I don't know if that's useful to you folks. What I did last time with a windows machine with a bad harddisk (but still kind of running, including windows), I plug in the new harddisk on the same machine create the new partitions and filesystems and xcopy with acl information on the new disk and open the registry on the new harddisk and load the hive in a registry editor and change the drive mapping so it can find the right C:, etc. Plug the new disk on the right cable and run: http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm I hope this adds something useful to the discussion. Have a nice weekend, Leen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list [email protected] List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
