Backup Windows Server 2003, part 3

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
What is backup?
Types of backups
Volume Shadow Copy Technology
Permissions
System state data
Restore system state data
Backup data
Where are the log files?
Restore data
Use the Restore and Manage Media tab
Advanced options
Recovery Console
Install Recovery Console
Remove Recovery Console
Automated System Recovery
Create an ASR set
Recover using ASR

Restore data

It’s Wednesday, and you discover that an important file is corrupt. The question is, how do I restore the file from a backup? Well, it’s quite simple. The first thing we have to do is locate where the file are. If we know where on the disk it’s supposed to be, we can start from the latest incremental backup (Tuesday) and try to find it. If it’s not there, it means that the file was not altered, and we have to try the next file (Monday). On the other hand if we do not know where the file is, we have to restore the full backup file (Friday), find the file, and then find out if there is a newer version.

If the Backup Utility is not open, open it and click on the Advanced Mode link.
Click Restore Wizard
Click Next
Expand Tuesday.bkf, find the file you want to restore and check the box in front of the file. In my case it is 0055.txt in D:\sql

Click Next
Click Advanced
Select Single Folder. This is because I am only restoring one file, and I don’t want to restore it to the original location. If I choose Alternate Location it will keep the folder structure (in my case it will create the folder sql). Usually you will use Alternate Location when restoring files.

In Folder Name type where you want to restore the file (in my case c:\restore) and click Next
Select Leave existing files and click Next
Make sure Restore security settings and Preserve existing volume mount points are selected and click Next
Click Finish

That’s it! The file is restored.

You use the same process to restore System State data. Just remember that if you are restoring the System State data on a Domain Controller you must start the computer in Directory Services Restore Mode, which you access be pressing F8 when the computer is starting. And if you want to perform an Authoritative restore, remember to run ntdsutil before restarting the computer. More info about the ntdsutil can be found by typing ntdsutil /? in a command prompt.

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