Re: "live" backup solution for windows 2003 x64
Windows Home Server is likely to be offered primarily as a bundle with
supporting hardware, much as Media Center Edition was originally. However,
that being said, there _will_ be a System Builder version that you can buy.
Just not a pure retail version. It's an interesting solution for a smallish
network, with or without SBS. I'm running it here as the backup solution for
SBS and for my co-author's 32-bit workstation. I've tested it doing a full,
bare metal restore and it's really quite good at it, as long as you have
ACPI support on the restore target which most modern machines do. The
concept is simple - it's a stripped down version of Windows Server that does
some wierdness with the NTFS disks to completely hide it from you. You run
low on space? Plug in another disk. It will simply add it to the volume, in
the background. It's completely headless - you only need video, keyboard and
mouse for the initial install, and only if you build one yourself. Backups
are image based, and smart about what has changed and what hasn't. First one
takes a while, but after that they're quick.
Bare metal restores - boot off the restore CD, add drivers if you need to
for disk or network (it prompts you, after first listing the ones it already
knows about), point to the backup date you want, and it handles the rest. If
it's a brand new, never used, disk on the target you'll have to initialize
the disk (but again, it promts you and opens disk manager to let you do it),
and then just wait for the restore. A fresh Vista install takes about 20
minutes or less over a good network and fast disks.
Data Protection Manager is a very full featured two tier backup solution
that is smart and fast. Designed for large corporate networks, it's more
than most small businesses need. But it's impressive. (All this is about
version 2 - the less said about v1 the better.) Individual files or entier
disks are restored to any point in time and with no pain or uncertainty -
first tier is always to disk.
--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/xperts64
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel
"Tony Sperling" <tony.sperling@dbREMOVEmail.dk> wrote in message
news:%237sqQIo7HHA.1164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> You lift the veil on a couple of concepts that are new to me, Charlie -
> yes,
> I have been ignoring my MSDN and Technet mail subscriptions lately. Are
> any
> of those remotely interesting on a pure desktop workstation? I understand,
> the WHS is a HW/SW bundle, or. . ?
>
> And - are they both targeted solely at Vista?
>
>
> Tony. . .
>
>
> "Charlie Russel - MVP" <charlie@mvKILLALLSPAMMERSps.org> wrote in message
> news:5651E2D9-AF67-4524-AFD5-375DF9B5DDD4@microsoft.com...
>> I use Acronis, or the new Windows Home Server to take periodic dumps of
> the
>> drive. (WHS doesn't currently support 64-bit clients, only 32-bit, but
> that
>> should get fixed before too long, we hope.)
>>
>> For a more full featured, more frequent, and overall more robust
>> solution,
>> Microsoft's Data Protection Manager is an excellent solution. Version 2
>> is
>> in beta at this point, but I think it's a beta you can self-nominate for,
> so
>> you might want to give it a try.
>>
>> --
>> Charlie.
>> http://msmvps.com/xperts64
>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel
>>
>>
>> "Mycroft Holmes" <m.holmes@nospam.it> wrote in message
>> news:%23KEkugi7HHA.980@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > Is there some server "live" backup solution that creates a binary dump
> of
>> > the whole C partition on another drive?
>> > At the moment we rely on the shadow copy service; we got some results
> from
>> > google, but we'd like something as "lightweight" as possible
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > MH
>> >
>> >
>>
>
>