Question on restoring a server system image

[tribz]

I've a SBS2008 server which is built upon Server 2008 (not R2).

We back it up to tape at the moment but only the data folders and the exchange mailboxes and data recovery is fine as long as we have a working system. If we have a disaster and have to start from scratch, its going to be a problem.

I've been thinking about using the built in server backup to create a system image that we can restore from and then use the latest tape to bring back the most recent data folders and mailbox information.

My question is can I use a 4TB disk to backup and restore from. I'm assuming a 4TB disk will be a GPT partition. Am I likely to be able to boot the server install DVD, choose the repair my server option and then successefully be able to restore from an image on a GPT partition?

For some reason in my head, I'm not sure if the GPT side of things will cause a problem.

 

[edscdk]

Possibly vmware workstation or esx use their physical to virtual tool to create a virtual version of your server, it's very easy. Ideally do it out of hours and stop exchange. You could have a virtual workstation to test email / server

 

[#Chri5#]

Windows Server Backup in 2008 (IIRC R2 as well) his big problems with drives with 4k sectors. You can end up messing with format tools to get 512e sectors eg

http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/501223-windows-server-backup-and-4k-sector-hard-drives

Though it uses the same backup engine, have a look at BackupAssist as it provides a lot more features eg granular Exchange recovery and help building a boot CD for recovery. It's not very expensive either - we've got it on quite a few customer servers.

 

[tribz]

Thanks for that Chris, I purchased a Western Digital 4TB disk as per the spiceworks post and got it working on a test system. I flattened it yesterday and restored it ok once the USB3 drivers had been loaded.