SBS 2008 System State Restore

craigeb78 · Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 30

Hello, I have an sbs 2008 server that will not boot. I restored a system state to a USB drive.

when i enter the windows recovery/repair option off the boot cd, and run wbadmin get versions

It detects that it Can Recover: Applications (not system state)

When i run the command
wbadmin start sysrecovery -version:XXXX -backuptarget:g:

It gives me an error that the specified backup set does not contain all the critical volumes

craigeb78 · Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 30

Additional information...
I can't boot into Windows in any mode, and Microsoft is telling me I can't restore the data since I do not have a full backup.

What options do I have to restore a system using the system state backup, when I am not able to boot into the OS?

Thanks,
Craig

arul · Joined: 29 Apr 2005 Posts: 86

Hi,

You should be able to at least boot into the 'Directory Services Restore Mode' before you can apply the restored system state data into it. If you are not able to boot at all in any of the modes, then it looks like you have lost system/boot sector files itself. For such a failure, you need image backup/restore.

Regards
Arul
Vembu Technologies

craigeb78 · Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 30

Just wanted to update and let everyone know how I made out on this one...

First, storegrid users, if you're backing up any 2008 server, also use an imaging software or the microsft built in backup utility. Dont' rely on the storegrid backups alone to save your a$$.

I got lucky though. On the phone with 10 hours with microsoft due to the black screen of death (black screen, and a working mouse pointer). I could tell through logmein pro, that some services were running. For example, I could access file shares... but over half the services on the server would not start.

I could not get into windows using any safemode, last known good, DSRM, etc. So I boot up to the install disk to restore windows built in registry backups... Unfortunately since windows was booting up (according to itself) it overwrote the valid backup hives that it had. I also restored hives from the storegrid backup, but when I put them in the server halted.

Since I did not have an image backup, my only option was for a reinstall/reinsdtall system state. Note, this is NOT supported by microsoft on 2008, though it was on 2003. I was able to reinstall and my old install was put in a directory windows.old on the C drive (another note, when installing server 2008, make sure your system partition is huge).

I made the basic settings changes, rebooted into DSRM, ran the wbadmin command line for system state recovery, rebooted, and voila! I got lucky and I'm backup up and running.