WHS Backups

Overslop

Overslop

Overslop

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Am I right in assuming that WHS only backs up client PC's personal files and does not actually create a full image backup? If so how can I configure it do so?

Also, am I right in assuming that if the drive containing the WHS OS fails then the whole system is kaput? And so therefore an extra drive is required to backup that too, even when the other files on that drive are mirrored already? (e.g. I have 4 WD 2TB drives installed - do I need a 5th one for the WHS OS?)

Thanks in advance, I'm a real noob when it comes to WHS.
 
WHS does a full backup of a client computer :)

I've used it many times in recent months when both identifying a hardware issue (restoring the image to multiple hard drives to rule out faulty ones), as well as when I've tried to tweak Media Center on my HTPC and it's gone screwy ;) It's certainly saved me lots of time! :)

And you're right, WHS does not back itself up. However, by doing a reinstall, and pointing it to the storage pool drives, the shared data itself will still be there.
 
I just checked the configuration and you are right, it does backup everything (except some stuff you wouldn't want backed up anyway - such as the contents of your recycle bin ^^). As I said, I am a noob with WHS so please forgive my utter ignorance! :p

Just to clarify with the WHS OS backup - if my drive containing that dies then I can just pop in the replacement drive, install the OS to that and then all my files are recovered and re-mirrored?
 
Overslop said:
I just checked the configuration and you are right, it does backup everything (except some stuff you wouldn't want backed up anyway - such as the contents of your recycle bin ^^). As I said, I am a noob with WHS so please forgive my utter ignorance! :p

Just to clarify with the WHS OS backup - if my drive containing that dies then I can just pop in the replacement drive, install the OS to that and then all my files are recovered and re-mirrored?
Click to expand...

Errr not unless the drive is mirrored already in a RAID1. If you're booting from a single drive it will need a re-install. But the rest of the data should be fine.
In reality the boot drive won't change much so you could just ghost it once in a while or after you change the config on it. Then restoring that image to a replacement drive should give you your server back as it was.
 
You don't even need to reinstall the OS. If the C: drive on your client PC dies, just replace the hard disk and boot the PC from the recovery CD supplied with WHS. The recovery program will ask you which backup you want to restore from, and it'll restore the entire contents of the drive from the WHS backup.

It's a very neat feature. I've used it to restore my desktop to a known good configuration when things have gone wrong.
 
Skidilliplop said:
Errr not unless the drive is mirrored already in a RAID1. If you're booting from a single drive it will need a re-install. But the rest of the data should be fine.
In reality the boot drive won't change much so you could just ghost it once in a while or after you change the config on it. Then restoring that image to a replacement drive should give you your server back as it was.
Click to expand...

OK, "mirrored" was a bad choice of word, I should have said "duplicated".

With regards to the server boot drive, I was planning on adding a small drive via USB to ghost it. I've installed a fair few programmes on it, and done lots of tweaking so would be a pain in the ass to do it all again.
 
dewi said:
You don't even need to reinstall the OS. If the C: drive on your client PC dies, just replace the hard disk and boot the PC from the recovery CD supplied with WHS. The recovery program will ask you which backup you want to restore from, and it'll restore the entire contents of the drive from the WHS backup.

It's a very neat feature. I've used it to restore my desktop to a known good configuration when things have gone wrong.
Click to expand...

That's great, that's what I assumed was the case when I bought WHS, somehow I'd planted a seed of doubt in my mind just recently for some reason! lol :p
 
If you havent got WHS whats the 'next best thing' software wise i can use for backups?
I would like to save full images but would prefer to 'get' at the data so i can pick out files i need.
 
What version of windows 7 do you have? Home premium does image backups to local disk, professional upwards does it to network storage using built in software.
 
Skidilliplop said:
What version of windows 7 do you have? Home premium does image backups to local disk, professional upwards does it to network storage using built in software.
Click to expand...

ive got Pro, but the computers i want to backup have 64bit and the server is running 32bit.
Im not sure you can get the differnet versions to work... i read it somewhere online but cant remember where.
 
That's fine. All the PCs need is a share to backup to, they don't care what the OS on the server is. You just need to set a job scheduled on them to run whenever and point it at a share, then it'll just drop it all in there.
 
Nope you can't restore a 64bit backup from within 32bit windows, or 32bit recovery CD but the backup itself doesn't really matter whether it's stored on a 64bit or 32bit machine - as it's just a boring network share.

Provided you use a 64bit recovery CD to restore a 64bit system image, It'll work fine.
 
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