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OscarVogel
Guest
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 Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject: How do I restore incremental backups? |
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I'm using ntbackup on a Windows 2000 Server.
I have finished restoring the big "normal" backup of a shared directory.
Now I have a several incremental backups that I need to restore. How do I
do that in order to end up with the directory as it was when the last
incremental backup was done?
I'm guessing that I need to choose "Replace the file on disk only if the
file on disk is older". But it worries me the default choice is "Do not
replace the file on my computer (recommended)". That doesn't sound logical.
Why would I restore if I wasn't wanting to replace files? What am I missing
here?
BUT MAINLY, how can I restore these incremental backups w/out screwing it up
and having start all over again by restoring from the first "normal" backup?
Thanks |
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VanguardLH
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject: Re: How do I restore incremental backups? |
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"OscarVogel" <rtk@divecochran.com> wrote in message
news:BFD945EB-74EC-4459-BBC0-AE6B63703103@microsoft.com...
| Quote: | I'm using ntbackup on a Windows 2000 Server.
I have finished restoring the big "normal" backup of a shared
directory. Now I have a several incremental backups that I need to
restore. How do I do that in order to end up with the directory as
it was when the last incremental backup was done?
I'm guessing that I need to choose "Replace the file on disk only if
the file on disk is older". But it worries me the default choice is
"Do not replace the file on my computer (recommended)". That
doesn't sound logical. Why would I restore if I wasn't wanting to
replace files? What am I missing here?
BUT MAINLY, how can I restore these incremental backups w/out
screwing it up and having start all over again by restoring from the
first "normal" backup?
Thanks
|
What if the file on the hard disk is older than the version of that
file in the latest backup? You or the user may have, for example,
have restored an earlier version of a file because they screwed up the
latest version. So you have the earlier and latest version in your
backups but the user already got back the earlier version that they
really needed.
You then run through your incremental backups which includes the
latest version of the file. You overwrite the earlier version that
was on the hard disk with the latest version from your backups. Now
the user doesn't have the earlier version that they restored
previously and the version that they really need. They don't want the
latest version. They already retrieved the earlier version that they
want. Then you do the restore and return them back to a later version
that they cannot use.
Besides users wanting to keep the earlier version of a file rather
than get back the latest version, they may have simply touched a file
to give it an earlier date for their own reasons. There are 3 dates
on a file (date modified, date created, and date accessed) so who
knows which date the user touched (changed). For some reason, a file
with the latest modified date gets that changed to a date earlier than
for some of the earlier versions in your backups. You do the backup
and overwrite their latest version based solely on the datestamp.
Their latest version with an earlier date may not have yet been
included in your latest backup so they permanently lose their latest
version.
If you don't give a gnat's fart about any files that are currently on
your hard disk because you need to revert back to a logical "snapshot"
of a particular backup then use the "Replace if older". You don't
make it clear if you want to wipe the current state of the shared
directory and restore to a backup snapshot state or if you want to
keep any existing files and *add* files from the backups.
Do you want to replace any file on the hard disk that is an older
version than the latest version available in your backups? Maybe.
Maybe not. Depends on your intention as to what state you intend to
restore the shared directory: restore to a backup snapshot state, or
restore to just add any lost files.
From the help included in NT Backup:
- Do not replace file on my computer. This will prevent files from
being overwritten on your hard disk. This is the safest method of
restoring files.
- Replace the file on disk only if the file on disk is older. If you
have changed any files since you last backed up your data, this will
ensure that you don't lose the changes you have made to the files.
- Always replace the file on my disk. This will replace all of the
files on your hard disk with the files in your backup set. If you have
made any changes to files since you last backed up your data, this
option will erase those changes. |
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