Hello everyone, I guess I should mention that, after asking this question initially, I solved my own problem by not using a *nix rescue disk. Instead, I simply took another machine and piggybacked the broken drive to it along with changing DNS to link to the machine (Note that I had to restart nscd on the server because of this). After hooking up the drive, I backed it up to the current "C" drive (just in case) and deleted all the data from it (except for the System Volume Information folder). I then when into the rsyncd.conf file and simply changed the Path from /cygdrive/c/ to /cygdrive/DriveLetterOfPiggyBackedDrive/. I finally went onto BackupPC and clicked "Restore" which, a short while later, restored the entire cDrive. If anyone is interested, here is the original file setup (http://www.cyberdeath.us/backuppc/rsyncd.zip). Please note that I have only had the opportunity to test this on Windows XP and not Windows 7. Also, like others have stated, it did not recreate the ACL data. I would love, as I am sure others would as well, to see an Cygwin rsyncd build that handles ACLs as well as VSS. Much thanks to Leen Besselink for writing the one I use :-).
~Ryan -------------------------------------------------- From: "Michael Stowe" <mst...@chicago.us.mensa.org> Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 11:42 PM To: "Jeffrey J. Kosowsky" <backu...@kosowsky.org>; "General list for user discussion,questions and support" <backuppc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: Re: [BackupPC-users] Restore entire Windows OS using rsync (usingrescue disk)? >> Michael Stowe wrote at about 20:17:18 -0600 on Monday, January 3, 2011: >> > You are correct, but if the registry is backed up to BackupPC (using >> VSS, >> > for example, since it's always open) then it can be restored >> consistently. >> > The trick is to unpack it in a different place than the registry in >> the >> > running OS, then switch over using the recovery console. (I do have >> > complete details, should you want them.) >> > >> > Like you, I recommend tar, although rsync can probably be made to work >> if >> > you don't try to restore to the original locations. >> >> Couple of questions: >> - Does restoring the registry (actually it seems like there are >> multiple registries) restore all the detailed Windows ACL's and ssid >> stuff? > > No, they're not stored in the registry, they're stored in an NTFS database > that isn't exposed as a file -- more accurately, they're stored in > metafiles that NTFS doesn't allow to be read as files (without tools like > the NTFS File Sector Information Utility.) > >> - How do you handle junctions? > > I haven't tried it -- I suspect they end up being two copies of the file, > but I don't know, since I don't happen to have any being backed up > >> My understanding is that cygwin sees directory junction as symbolic >> links. This is important because Win7 has a lot of important >> junctions to preserve compatibility with WinXP/2000 and I know for >> certain that Win7 doesn't work well when junctions are replaced by >> symbolic links >> - NTFS has various other non-POSIX features that are not translated by >> cygwin (and hence certainly not captured by rsync). One example is >> multiple file streams. Now I don't know if any of these other >> features are commonly used in Windows but I do think there is >> some type of Master Record that is used. In any case, what have you >> done to restore those items? > > Rsync doesn't see alternate data streams, so they're not backed up. This > is where stuff like the data that tells you that a zip file was downloaded > from the Internet is stored, so all that's lost. I'm not aware of any > other common alternate data streams, but that doesn't mean they don't > exist. > >> - I guess more generally, have you succeeded in doing a bare metal >> restore of Window 7 (or even XP) or do you just do this to restore >> user files? > > XP: yes > 7: haven't tried it, but assume it's possible > > Both of the above subject to the loss of ACL's and ADS's. > >> If you are just restoring user files, I find that my script to >> record all the ACL's (not just the POSIX ones captured by getfacl) >> using subinacl is useful since I can then grep/sed against it to >> restore selected ACL's with individual files. > > I'm certainly missing those, so I haven't tried restoring them. My > backups are a pretty vanilla rsync/VSS. > >> Again, I don't have much experience in restoring windows so I would >> love to hear experiences from others who have done actual bare-metal >> or close to bare-metal restores of Windows systems >> (Yes, I shamefully admit that even though I have contributed a fair >> bit of coded to do shadow backups and backup ACL's, I haven't had the >> time or opportunity to really test it on bare-metal restores) >> >> Jeff >> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Learn how Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) One Node allows customers > to consolidate database storage, standardize their database environment, > and, > should the need arise, upgrade to a full multi-node Oracle RAC database > without downtime or disruption > http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdevnl > _______________________________________________ > BackupPC-users mailing list > BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net > List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users > Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net > Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn how Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) One Node allows customers to consolidate database storage, standardize their database environment, and, should the need arise, upgrade to a full multi-node Oracle RAC database without downtime or disruption http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdevnl _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
