Forum Discussion

davidfreeway's avatar
davidfreeway
Level 2
6 years ago

Restoring System State

I have restored a working SBS2008 Server to another server with exactly the same hardware, everything is working ok. I would now like to be able to restore a later system state from the original ser...
12.x and Earlier
Windows Server 2008
  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    6 years ago

    It will overwrite where the file names are the same and where the files are not locked open.

    However:

    1) if the files in that folder change regularly (new ones get created old ones deleted, with lots of file name changes) then the process will not remove files that existed in the earlier backup but not the later one (which would then use more disk space)

    2) If any files are locked open, then I think during system state restores we may write to a temp location (using an MS process) so that during first reboot the correct files are replaced. (again this would use more disk space)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

Colin_Weaver's avatar
Colin_Weaver
Moderator
6 years ago

System state restores do not provide a partial restore ability. As such everything that counted as the System State at the time of the backup has to be restored.

There is a minor exception to the above comment in that if you Backup a Domain Controller (which of course also applies to SBS) with Active Directory GRT enabled in the backup job then you can restore objects within Active Directory without restoring the complete Systerm State

 

  • davidfreeway's avatar
    davidfreeway
    Level 2
    6 years ago

    Hi Colin,

    Thanks for your reply. much appreciated!

    It would be better if I could just restore the active directory but I'm using Backup Exec 12.5 SBS which I think doesnt include the agent for active directory as part of the licence.  Its an option on the install for 60days.

    So when restoring from a later system state, does it overwrite the existing files/folders in the winsxs folder it created from the first restore ?  This appears to not to be the case as the original server's winsxs folder is 30Gb, mine before it ran out of disk space was 50Gb +.

    Many thanks

    Dave.

     

     

    • Colin_Weaver's avatar
      Colin_Weaver
      Moderator
      6 years ago

      It will overwrite where the file names are the same and where the files are not locked open.

      However:

      1) if the files in that folder change regularly (new ones get created old ones deleted, with lots of file name changes) then the process will not remove files that existed in the earlier backup but not the later one (which would then use more disk space)

      2) If any files are locked open, then I think during system state restores we may write to a temp location (using an MS process) so that during first reboot the correct files are replaced. (again this would use more disk space)