Backing up your server
I happened to crash one of my test server mirror copies when I installed the applications Exchange Server, Visual Source Safe, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. I made an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) but even after I installed these applications they all failed to work. Is there any reason for the ERD other than to recover the registry?
-- Meghna Sabherwal
The ERD provides help with problems such as incorrect start-ups and reboots of NT. It sounds like several of your files may have been damaged after your server crashed. The best solution would be to reinstall the applications. Depending on the damage, the ERD won't be able to solve problems unrelated to the NT operating system.
This brings to mind a good point. An updated ERD is but one tool in your disaster recovery arsenal. Although there are options such as server mirroring technologies, files can still be damaged on the mirrored copies of the server. You should always do a daily backup. I prefer to do a full backup, which requires using only a minimal amount of tapes. This will prove important should you ever need to do a full restoration. But if it takes too long to back up a server overnight, you could do a full backup one day and a differential backup on another day. With this approach, you'll only use two tapes for your data recovery.
» posted by ITworld staff
Network World
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