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Stand-Alone Backup Help!!

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by scott.hall1

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I'm needing to figure out the best way to do a stand-alone operating system backup on my NT and 2000 servers. I'm beginning to think that installing a second instance (dual boot) of NT or 2000 server may be the way to go. My goal is to fully backup the primary operating system drive.

Has anyone gone through this and if so, what were the basic steps taken?

Thanks in advance,

Scott

9 replies

by avi_mohod

Hi,
If u want stand alone backup then u can apply mirrors set which is also known as RAID 1.I will be best for ur requirement.U have to purchase one new harddisk of same capacity and put in ur computer as primary slave or secondary master.Now from operating system like NT go to disk administrator and set the mirror.U don't have to install other os.Here if primary disk fails by changing some values in boot.ini file present in second harddisk u can driectly boot from second harddisk. avi.

by scott.hall1

Servers are already setup with mirror-set for OS volumes. This stand-alone backup is for disaster recovery purposes.

If my server room gets flooded or fire destroys HDD's, mirror set is no good. The only chance I get to shutdown/modify servers is tomorrow. If I have the base operating system backed up onto tape, I could restore to a new set of drives after a basic NT install has been installed on them.

The only problem I still have is how to safely install another instance of NT onmy NT servers, and a second instance of 2000 on my 2000 servers using dual boot.

by curlergirl

If you have a real disaster (like fire or flood), having a dual boot system won't help you any more than a mirror would. I have worked with CA's Arcserve (now called "BrightStor" - go figure) Disaster Recovery module - this is an add-on to the backup software (BrightStor 2000 is the current version). What the Disaster Recovery Module does is walk you through preparing a set of boot disks for your server which will contain not only all of the drivers for the server but also the backup softwareitself. Once you boot with these disks, you can restore directly from any full tape backup (without having to first reinstall NT and the tape backup software). I have only had to actually use it once, but it worked great!! This is not a low-price/free solution, but it is a full-featured one. Hope this helps!

by shanghai sam

the best way to go you install windows 2000 with the servers packs and RAID 5. for fast reading while you can make it dynamic when you saving to the active server you can at the same time backing up the server but have to make the stand alone read only other wise datas save it on it can't be modified

by shmaltz

You don't have to install a dual boot OS in order to backup a Windows NT/2000 server. You can use Veritas Backup Exec which will do a full backup to your system.
It also allows you to have one computer dedicated as a backup server to do backups foryour whole network.
The following are options for Veritas BackupExec that will help you acomplish what you want:
1. Inteligent Disaster Recovery option. Which allows you to create boot disks or bootable CD to install just whats needed on your computer to restore.
2. Open File Option. Whcih allows you to backup files that are currently in use.
3. Remote Agent Backup. Which allows you to bakcup remote Servers (you don't need it for workstations).
In addition to the above you can also get thefollowing options:
. Exchange Backup Option. To backup Exchange Server and Exchange Mailboxes.
. SQL Backup Option. To backup SQL Server.
. Oracle Backup Option. To bakcup an Oracle Database.
You can also backup Win9x, Lynux, Unix, NetWare Servers and Mac Machines. All from one server.

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