Re: SBS 2003 raid1 C: drive failed - need guidance quickly



The 1st thing I would have tried was to disconnect one of the pair of HDDs
(without destroying the RAID) and a 'repair installation' of Windows. If it
failed I would be trying 2nd HDD.

<jason_cordell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:564dd807-fc85-4749-a3ee-bf0d66b367db@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Good Morning Everyone,

I have a SBS 2003 Premium server (not R2) that crashed late
yesterday. The C: drive was in a RAID1 and when one of the drives
died, it appears to have taken the other one with it, or at least a
chunk of the data. I am working with Dell to see what can be done
with this mirror.

I pulled the backup drive (USB hard drive using ntbackup) and the
daily_backup.bkf file appears to be bad. Using ntbackup on my XP
laptop, I cannot open the file. I downloaded a trial piece of
software called "Repair My Backup". An initial (hour long) glance at
the file appears that it the software is going to be able to allow me
access to the files for extraction.

Given the fact that I have lost my C: drive, and it's mirror, and the
backup file isn't complete, I am starting off in fairly lousy shape,
but at least the D: drive appears to be fully functional, and that is
where all of the data is stored.


I am assuming that I just need to do a clean install of SBS 2003. I
found the following Microsoft document titled "Backing Up and
Restoring Windows Small Business Server 2003" at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=487736f8-f6f5-436d-a82d-0c8d66e2a634&DisplayLang=en

I quickly glanced over it, but this is designed to work with a
functional backup file. I found another link: (http://www.experts-
exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Server/
SBS_Small_Business_Server/Q_22074580.html). Here is what was
recommended in that thread:

(
What I'm concerned about is that you say you "don't have any copy of
the data besides the system state". The System State is not data,
it's your Active Directory accounts and other security settings. Your
data would be the user's home folders (usually in C:\Users Shared
Folders), your Exchange Stores (usually in C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr
\MDBDATA, there are four files: priv1.edb, priv1.stm, pub1.edb and
pub1.stm), and your SharePoint data files (usually in C:\Program Files
\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$SHAREPOINT\Data)

You need to make sure that you at least have those files to restore to
your new install. I'd suggest that you use a USB hard drive to copy
them off to.
)

So finally my point to all of this is:

1) How do I recover my server from a broken backup?
2) I am assuming that I can get the files that I need from the
corrupted backup file.
3) I need to restore: the domain, exchange, sharepoint - exchange is
critical.
4) If I can't restore exchange, is there a local copy (per user, per
machine) of a mail file (outlook.pst) that I can import once I
reinstall exchange from scratch?

I don't really have time to research this myself, and risk making a
critical mistake, or causing myself to lose valuable time, so I am
asking for help. Does anyone know of documentation/processes that
will assist me in my efforts to recover this server/domain?


Thanks,

Jason Cordell


.



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