Re: Need help restoring after failed hard drive

Everything's intact including profiles, etc. The real challenge is going to
be to get them to actually check the backups consistently (or pay me to check
them :).
--


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:

In news:C8012B94-2F6E-4831-AA0E-114B565204CD@xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
SolRodriguez <SolRodriguez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> typed:
Thanks for the tips. This was a valuable lesson learned.

I hope it proves helpful, and that you managed to get this taken care of
without too much fallout.


In news:B4EBB15F-2DC4-45EA-85A8-6A84CA94530C@xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
SolRodriguez <SolRodriguez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> typed:
This will be my first restoration and I want to make sure I get it
right.

The only hard drive failed on a client's SBS 2003. It's a small
network with 2 client computers/users and the SBS. Their main
business app data is backed up daily and stored on the local drive
and on a zip drive. I'm confident that it is in good shape.
However, the system state was only stored on the local hard drive.
I got the drive to boot up one last time (even though when I ran
chkdsk there were hundreds of lines of errors...) The problem is
that I checked the backup log, and all the backups of the system
state that they have were failed backups according to the log. Key
files/dlls etc. were unreadable so the backups quit and just failed.

I've resolved that we're ok to reinstall SBS 2003 on a new drive,
reconfigure, and put the main busines app and data back on. My
question is: since the client machines were "married" to the
original Domain/server, if I install it from scratch and add the
client computers to Active Directory, will it create new profiles
on the client machines when I join them to the domain, or will they
think it's the same domain and simply log in as normal. How can I
keep the existing profiles so the users don't lose their MyDocs,
Desktop, etc. if their machines think they are joining a new domain
and they create new profiles?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Sol

Ouch. This doesn't sound like fun, sorry. Restoration isn't really a
good word to use here, I'm afraid...there's nothing to restore from!

Firstly, a single hard drive does not a server make - if you're
going to have to rebuild this box (and yes, you're going to have to
rebuild this box) I suggest that you do it right and get hardware
RAID in there (even SATA, although I prefer SCSI/SAS). Also make
them buy some decent hardware for their backups, and make sure
you've assigned a tape changer in SBSBackup so that someone is
monitoring the backup logs. Also, someone needs to be monitoring the
server's health in the future. If they weren't getting successful
system state backups *and* proper online Exchange backups, you're in
for some data loss if the drive is completely hosed - but maybe they
weren't using Exchange much. In the future, note that running chkdsk
/f on a possibly failing server hard drive is not a good idea. You
might have been able to salvage more off the drive the last time it
booted (even with imaging software).

Anyway - not trying to sound like the Voice of Doom. Re your user's
profiles - you can do the following on each workstation:

Create a local user called something obvious: TempJoe (or
something), for the domain user Joe whose credentials/profile is
cached on that workstation. Log into the local machine as TempJoe
once
Log out, and log back in as an account with local admin rights.
Go to control panel, system, advanced, and find the profiles settings
Find Joe's cached domain profile, and select it, and click "copy
to...." and browse to the new TempJoe profile path ( \documents and
settings\tempjoe ) Log back in as TempJoe and make sure it looks
like he's got the domain user profile settings you expect - test
thoroughly.

Then:
Make sure you know the local admin password, and then take the
workstation out of the domain
When you've got your new server built, join the workstations again
using /connectcomputer
Select the new domain user Joe, and when prompted for the local user
profile to copy, pick TempJoe.

Some things may not work right (shortcuts, etc) but you should be
good to go overall. Hope this will prove a valuable learning
opportunity for the client. I'd also suggest you start using folder
redirection so there is really no data to speak of stored on the
workstations, esp where My Documents is concerned. I also like to
use roaming profiles so they're all backed up as well, but that
isn't mandatory.




.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Need help restoring after failed hard drive
    ... state that they have were failed backups according to the log. ... keep the existing profiles so the users don't lose their MyDocs, ... for the domain user Joe whose credentials/profile is ... Log into the local machine as TempJoe ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Need help restoring after failed hard drive
    ... they have were failed backups according to the log. ... existing profiles so the users don't lose their MyDocs, Desktop, etc. ... the domain user Joe whose credentials/profile is cached on that workstation. ... Log into the local machine as TempJoe once ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Need help restoring after failed hard drive
    ... network with 2 client computers/users and the SBS. ... they have were failed backups according to the log. ... existing profiles so the users don't lose their MyDocs, Desktop, etc. ... the domain user Joe whose credentials/profile is cached on that workstation. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: programmers using qsecofr or qsecaadm to run programs?
    ... wouldnt these be instances were they should use adoptive authority? ... For backups, I can not see any reason for requiring these profiles. ... As for EDI, ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.as400.misc)
  • Re: DNS configuration
    ... That's a good reason to use folder redirection. ... Application Data, and Desktop, in a custom GPO, linked at the MyBusiness ... Keep your profiles tinytinytiny! ... Profiles\single domain user folders: the same as yours: ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)