On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Umarzuki Mochlis <umarz...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, > > I had searched on the net for a few days but none of the truly open > source/free software (no freemium please!) but nothing that could back up > windows system state. > > As we know, a windows server backed up via smb or rsyncd (cygwin) only does > files & folders backup. Without the system state, any change to the > registry, local user added etc. would not be restored. > The Windows system state is stored in files and folders. Specifically, the Windows registry files are located in c:\Windows\System32\config They should be readable by rsync or SMB. In Windows, unlike in Linux and OSX, file access and locking is managed by the operating system. So, these files might be locked and unreadable by a backup program. They're definitely not writable. If they're not readable, then no backup program will be able to backup the files while Windows is running. This is probably true even in "Safe Mode". This might be why many drive-cloning programs boot to their own "live cd" like environment. In this case, Clonezilla, as recommended by "TH Chew" is a solution, but it won't allow you to do automated backups easily. If you do have to power off your server, it's perfectly reasonable in a corporate environment to have a scheduled maintenance period. Another option to consider is that you could use your cloned hard drive image to put a copy of your server on another machine. When you're ready to do your backup, disconnect the network wire from the main machine and immediately connect it to its clone. There won't be any noticeable down-time for users while you do your backups. Since you're never using both machines at the same time, you're not violating your Windows server license. This requires some creative interpretation of the license terms, but I don't think it would ever get you into any kind of trouble. References: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/where-are-the-windows-registry-files-located-in-windows-7 http://clonezilla.org -- Ghodmode http://www.ghodmode.com/blog -- To unsubscribe from and detail about this group http://portal.mosc.my/osdc-my-mailing-list-information OSDC.my Discussion Group In Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/osdcmalaysia/ Malaysia Open Source Conference 2012 MOSC2012 http://portal.mosc.my/
