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Vista chkdsk: where is the log file?

E

Evenkeel

Member
Been trying to run full disk image backups using the built-in image backup utility in Vista Ultimate 64-bit. Haven't made one since May (which was successful)--I just back up data files as needed.

BUt went to make a full disk-image backup last week, and Vista Backup went all the way thru to the end (took an hour) then, w/a big red progress bar instead of a green one, told me there were some "bad clusters" and the backup had failed. Error code was 0x8078007D (best I can recall). I looked it up on MS KB--couldn't find it. Nothing on Google even.

After that first time, I ran chkdsk, including checking for bad sectors (which yes, I know, are different from bad clusters). Took forever, but thought it did okay. Was watching when it finished, but the info flashed by too fast to read, tho I think it said there were about 6 MB of bad clusters, so obviously it didn't fix it.

I got worried about the drive--a 750 gig Seagate 7200.11 SATA II (Model#ST3750330AS)--and ran Seatools to check the sectors. Seatools reported all was well--no bad sectors.

Tried another Vista image backup again today--and again, another failure due to bad clusters. This time I opened a command prompt, and typed "chkdsk.exe /B". Ran it again. It took much longer this time, seeming to get hung up at about 19%, then after an hour or so got cooking and finished. Again, I tried to watch the results screen, but it went by too fast.

I found an area in "Administrative Tools"/"Computer Management": "Administrative Events". Among many error lines saying the disk has a "bad block", I found the warning that the "Backup completed with warning(s)-Volume 'C:' has developed new bad clusters. This may be an indication of problems with your hardware. 78848 bytes have not been backed up as they could not be read. Please run chkdsk /R on 'C:' and rerun the backup"

I didn't find this until after I ran chkdsk /B, but chkdsk /? says /B implies /R. I didn't have time tonight to try another backup, plus I also wanted to find the chkdsk log to see if it did any good--no point in running another backup if Vista Backup still chokes on the bad clusters. (I don't understand why it just doesn't skip them and finish the backup.)

I should add that--between last week's backup attempt and today's--I installed an HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server EX475. I did succeed in making a backup of C: to the HP server; at least it said it was successful. I should also add that I used Vista's simpler "Back Up Files" part of the "Backup Status and Configuration" utility, to at least backup up my data files--that did work, so at least I got my data files backed up.

I'll try another backup tomorrow, but I'd really like to see the chkdsk log file first, if one even exists. Is there one? If so, where is it? I've been searching all thru my system, and can't find anything remotely like it.

Right now I'm kind of freaking out. The system seems to be working fine, but obviously something is lurking beneath the surface. And I suppose cloning the current C: drive to a new one would not do any good, right? As it would simply also clone the bad clusters?

I'm also not getting why chkdsk isn't just fixing the clusters. In the "old" days, I remember they used to be called "lost clusters", and chkdsk would attempt to recover them and give them cryptic names, to see if any data was recoverable. Now it hardly tells me anything.

So Seatools is telling me the drive itself is fine, and Vista is telling me I have bad clusters. What should I do here? And where is that d@mn log file?

Thanks.
 
The only log file that chkdsk creates is in the Application Event Log. You can find it in Computer Management or can type "eventvwr.msc /s" from the Start Menu.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
The only log file that chkdsk creates is in the Application Event Log. You can find it in Computer Management or can type "eventvwr.msc /s" from the Start Menu.
Click to expand...

Checked it out, but could not find an entry. Even filtered on just "chkdsk", but nothing.

How seriously should I take this situation?
 
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
Checked it out, but could not find an entry. Even filtered on just "chkdsk", but nothing.
Click to expand...
the log is stored in an entry for the event "Winlogon". At least that's where it is for XP. I haven't run Chkdsk under Vista yet.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
Checked it out, but could not find an entry. Even filtered on just "chkdsk", but nothing.
Click to expand...
the log is stored in an entry for the event "Winlogon". At least that's where it is for XP. I haven't run Chkdsk under Vista yet.
Click to expand...

Found some "Winlogon" entries, but nothing related to chkdsk.

How serious is this situation?
 
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
How serious is this situation?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what is wrong. Any NTFS errors or Disk errors in the System Event Log?

Edit:
I just ran Chkdsk (with no parameters, so it's in read-only mode) on my Vista Business PC. When chkdsk finished (no errors), it put the log into an entry in the Application Event Log with Source: Chkdsk. Event ID: 26212. The Log has everything that was sent to the screen during the execution of the program.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
How serious is this situation?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what is wrong. Any NTFS errors or Disk errors in the System Event Log?

Edit:
I just ran Chkdsk (with no parameters, so it's in read-only mode) on my Vista Business PC. When chkdsk finished (no errors), it put the log into an entry in the Application Event Log with Source: Chkdsk. Event ID: 26212. The Log has everything that was sent to the screen during the execution of the program.
Click to expand...

Found it! (Did a search on "chkdsk"; the text was inside the log file.) Oddly, on my system, the Source is "Wininit", and the Event ID is 1001. Anyway, it's saying I have "1032 KB in bad sectors". Not sure why it's reporting bad sectors when Seatools said all sectors were good.

I continued searching down the list, and found older CHKDSK runs. On 10/20/08 I ran it, and that report says I had "6352 KB in bad sectors". Not sure what's going on here, why there was more then than now--did the bad sectors somehow heal between the 20th and today? 😉

As to your first question: Yes, the System Event log is showing Disk errors--Source: Disk, Event ID: 7. The error text says "The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block". There are several of these from today, w/in about a 10-minute period, but not while chkdsk was running or anything. I did have a utility called "Ariolic Disk Scanner" running at that time--it's designed to read each sector and show it as a colored block--green for "good", red for "bad". Problem is, it is v-e-r-y s-l-o-w. It ran for 7 hours and was only about 1/3 of the way done, so I stopped it. It didn't show any bad sectors for the time that it ran, tho. But maybe when Ariolic scanned those blocks, Windows thought they were bad? Geez, my head hurts...

Should I believe Windows, and not Seatools? This disk was installed in Feb. of this year, as part of a new system build, so it's not nearly time for it to die. Still...

What should I do here? Is cloning the drive an option? Or is 1 MB of bad sectors on a 750GB drive nothing to worry about? I also don't understand why CHKDSK is now reporting fewer bad sectors than it was 10 days ago?

And if I clone the drive, am I just copying the errors to the new drive? Or does the cloning process leave bad sector data behind, since theoretically it can't be read?

I also don't get why the HP MediaSmart server was able to make a successful backup, unless the method it uses is more of a file-and-folder approach, rather than a disk image. But it sure looked like a disk image backup when I set it up to run.

Anyway, what's your advice? Is this disk going bad, and Seatools just isn't catching it? Should I clone? (Because the thought of reinstalling everything I have makes me ill, and would take me days to accomplish.) Or keep running CHKDSK until it decides there's no more bad sectors? Ay-yi-yi! What's your advice?
 
Do you have two hard drives? "Harddisk1" indicates it's the SECOND hard drive in your system that has bad blcoks. Just want to make sure....

There shouldn't be ANY "bad block" errors. There's a problem and it needs to be fixed. Windows Home Server skips some files, like the Hibernation file and some cache files. Maybe the errors are on those parts of the disk.

I'd replace the drive and restore from the WHS backup. If WHS was able to read everything, your backup should be OK.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Do you have two hard drives? "Harddisk1" indicates it's the SECOND hard drive in your system that has bad blcoks. Just want to make sure....

There shouldn't be ANY "bad block" errors. There's a problem and it needs to be fixed. Windows Home Server skips some files, like the Hibernation file and some cache files. Maybe the errors are on those parts of the disk.

I'd replace the drive and restore from the WHS backup. If WHS was able to read everything, your backup should be OK.
Click to expand...

I dont think he's using WHS, he's refering to the built in Vista backup....
 
Originally posted by: bsobel
I dont think he's using WHS, he's refering to the built in Vista backup....
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: Evenkeel
I should add that--between last week's backup attempt and today's--I installed an HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server EX475. I did succeed in making a backup of C: to the HP server; at least it said it was successful. I should also add that I used Vista's simpler "Back Up Files" part of the "Backup Status and Configuration" utility, to at least backup up my data files--that did work, so at least I got my data files backed up.
Click to expand...

I read that as having made BOTH types of backups.
 
Aww missed that, just had caught the "Been trying to run full disk image backups using the built-in image backup utility". Thanks for the clarification 😉

 
I've gotten bad block errors in my event log, but I have several removable drives on USB ports, so I assume it's just poor connections. I haven't had any lasting issues. The drive that they appear on seems to be random.
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I've gotten bad block errors in my event log, but I have several removable drives on USB ports, so I assume it's just poor connections. I haven't had any lasting issues. The drive that they appear on seems to be random.
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I think that USB-connected drives are a bit more likely to give "random" errors. But USB drives also tend to fail a lot more often than other types. I don't know if it's the electronics or the cabling or the drives themselves (since many USB cases have zero ventilation).

I tend to give USB-connected drives a BIT more leeway than other types of drives. But I only use them for making backups and I'll always have multiple, rotated, backup drives. SATA-connected hotswapped drives seem to be a lot more reliable than USB-connected drives. But all my SATA backup drives are either in well-ventilated cases with fan and temperature alarms, or are in higher-end external cases with good fans.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Do you have two hard drives? "Harddisk1" indicates it's the SECOND hard drive in your system that has bad blcoks. Just want to make sure....

There shouldn't be ANY "bad block" errors. There's a problem and it needs to be fixed. Windows Home Server skips some files, like the Hibernation file and some cache files. Maybe the errors are on those parts of the disk.

I'd replace the drive and restore from the WHS backup. If WHS was able to read everything, your backup should be OK.
Click to expand...

Yes, color me stoopid--I have a pair of these Seagate drives, C: and D:. C: is System, apps, data, etc. D: is storage, place for backups, etc. After I posted last night, and got refocused on the issue, I recalled seeing in Vista Computer management/Disk management that my D: drive was drive 0, and my C: drive was drive 1. At that point it clicked. D'oh!

At first I thought it was some Windows disk management arrangement, but then started thinking the mobo might have arranged them like this. I don't know why--the C: drive is plugged into the lower-numbered SATA port than the D:. I couldn't tell in the motherboard BIOS, since they have the exact same model #'s, w/no serial # or volume label to distinguish them. I think that's where the the order got reversed.

Anyway, I went back into Seatools and tested the other drive, which was listed as the second drive in the list, and--wait for it--was drive 1. The drive I had been testing was drive 0, and now turns out to be the D: drive. (Well, it always was the D: drive; I was just an idiot.)

Now, testing drive 1--the C: drive--resulted in about 100 bad sectors. I had Seatools repair them, then ran it again. The second time I got 88 errors, and repaired. It was late last night by then, so I waited till today to test again. First pass today resulted in 78 errors. Repaired. I did one more pass, and finally no errors. At 2 1/2 hours per test, I was getting pretty fed up.

Now I still have to run chkdsk again, to clear the bad clusters file and recheck. What worries me is that it took 3 repair passes. I'm more than half-expecting that running chkdsk again, w/the /R, /F, and /B switches, will probably make more errors show up. but maybe I'm just being pessimistic. I know the 3 chkdsk switches are redundant, but since it takes about 4 hours per chkdsk run when the sectors are bad, I only want to do it once more.

What I am trying to do is get the drive to a point where the bad sectors have been reallocated w/the spare good sectors--like the Seatools help file said the drive is supposed to do--do a good backup using Vista backup, the WHS, and I'm also going to buy Ghost 14 and do an image w/it.

Plus I'll need Ghost to clone this drive to a new one, because I don't have any faith that this drive is going to hold up. Once it's cloned, I can either use it for Mediacenter TV recordings (since a corrupted TV show in a bad sector won't matter too much), or maybe try to RMA it to Seagate, since it's not even a year old. Tho I don't think I want another Seagate drive.

I've been looking at the new Western Digital RE3 drive--I know it's an enterprise drive, but I've been told they'll work on desktops--just more ideal in a RAID 0 config and a server. Basically I'd be paying for a heavier-duty drive. The destop version--WD Black--has been getting some bad reviews about DOA and sudden death.

Unless you guys have some compelling reason for me not to get the WD RE3, I think I'll go ahead and order it right away, before the Seagate dies suddenly (which is my fear--no good backup and sudden death). I read several reviews on it, and it actually has pretty good specs for a "server" drive--the reviews all said it was essentially a Caviar Black made more heavy-duty, and w/some server-specific fault tolerance thingies included. But It will boot Vista, and that's my main concern right now.

I used to use Maxtor drives exclusively, and in nearly a dozen of them over the years, never had one fail. I was always a little leery of Seagate, and now am moreso.

Anyway, I finally figured out why I couldn't find errors on the drive. Once I get the new drive in and working, I'll go into the mobo BIOS and set the drives in the right order so that C: is drive 0.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: bsobel
I dont think he's using WHS, he's refering to the built in Vista backup....
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: Evenkeel
I should add that--between last week's backup attempt and today's--I installed an HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server EX475. I did succeed in making a backup of C: to the HP server; at least it said it was successful. I should also add that I used Vista's simpler "Back Up Files" part of the "Backup Status and Configuration" utility, to at least backup up my data files--that did work, so at least I got my data files backed up.
Click to expand...

I read that as having made BOTH types of backups.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are right, I did make both types of backups. It was the WHS one that registered as successful, but the Vista Complete PC backups that kept failing due to bad clusters--which is what got me started on this mission in the first place.

And actually, I'm not too sure how good a backup the WHS one is. I haven't had much time to play w/the MediaSmart server yet--just pretty much had it on for one day to set it up and run a backup. It's been shut off since then, until I have a chance to learn how to make sure it's secure. It comes w/a trial version of Macafee, which I don't care for, but until I have the security of the device down pat, I'm not leaving it running and open to the world!

Even tho the WHS backup looked and ran like an image backup, I haven't had time to read up on how it backs up, so it could be a file-and-folder type affair. Or it might not be as hair-trigger as Vista Backup to bad clusters, as long as there aren't too many of them. A Symantec KB article on Norton Ghost says it will clone a drive and skip bad sectors w/out failing the cloning, as long as there aren't too many bad ones. THe article didn't specify a number for "too many", but even tho this bad sector situation has been giving me fits, the most it's ever been was a bit over 1 MB. On a 750GB drive, that ain't much. Of course, Vista had to be pissy about it.
 
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
Now, testing drive 1--the C: drive--resulted in about 100 bad sectors. I had Seatools repair them, then ran it again. The second time I got 88 errors, and repaired. It was late last night by then, so I waited till today to test again. First pass today resulted in 78 errors. Repaired. I did one more pass, and finally no errors. At 2 1/2 hours per test, I was getting pretty fed up.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't bother using that drive. It's VERY likely to sustain more damage. I'd either toss it or get it replaced under warranty.
 
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
I've been looking at the new Western Digital RE3 drive--I know it's an enterprise drive, but I've been told they'll work on desktops--just more ideal in a RAID 0 config and a server. Basically I'd be paying for a heavier-duty drive. The destop version--WD Black--has been getting some bad reviews about DOA and sudden death.

Unless you guys have some compelling reason for me not to get the WD RE3, I think I'll go ahead and order it right away, before the Seagate dies suddenly (which is my fear--no good backup and sudden death).
Click to expand...

It's all a matter of opinion, I suppose...

I've been doing 'this stuff' since the 80's and always preferred Seagate drives, but I've also run WDs, Maxtors, IBMs, Hitachis... basically whatever is 'on sale'.

LoL! I don't like to pay over $100 for a HD 'cause they're all junk - every one of them! 😀

Personally, if I REALLY cared, I'd go with SCSI drives - they're still the best, after all these years, but they go belly up too!

The way I've cheated the system, if you will, is to run several machines on my LAN - here at the house - and spread my important data around (e.g. backup) from machine-to-machine. I've NEVER had two machines go down at the same time - knock on wood...

I could care less about the application software and operating system - that's easy to restore. It's my digital photos, MS Word docs, music, and all the rest that I care about! I actually backup that stuff to my production web server in Atlanta, GA - 2000 miles away - as well as locally, just to make sure it's safe.

Anyway, the Western Digital RE3 looks okay - but it's just another drive to me. Turn 'em upside down and they all look the same, you know?!?!? 😉
 
Originally posted by: VinDSL
The way I've cheated the system, if you will, is to run several machines on my LAN - here at the house - and spread my important data around (e.g. backup) from machine-to-machine. I've NEVER had two machines go down at the same time - knock on wood...
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Yeah. Backups beat "the world's most reliable drive" or "the world's longest warranty" anytime.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
Now, testing drive 1--the C: drive--resulted in about 100 bad sectors. I had Seatools repair them, then ran it again. The second time I got 88 errors, and repaired. It was late last night by then, so I waited till today to test again. First pass today resulted in 78 errors. Repaired. I did one more pass, and finally no errors. At 2 1/2 hours per test, I was getting pretty fed up.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't bother using that drive. It's VERY likely to sustain more damage. I'd either toss it or get it replaced under warranty.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much the plan. Once the new drive is up and running, I'll contact Seagate and see what they want to do. If I have to pay $10+ to ship it to them for a replacement (which may not be any better than the one I have), It's probably not worth it. I could probably complain loudly that the drive is less than a year old, and they might cave, but who knows? I had a run-in w/Plextor years ago, when after being a loyal Plextor customer for many years, I bought a very expensive DVD burner that went belly-up quite fast. Turned out that whole model line had problems. WHne contacting Plextor, I expected they would provide a "VIP" style treatment, given that I'd chosen their driv--which cost 2-3x as much as any other at the time. Nope, was treated like dirt, and will never buy another Plextor product, and now buy $20 OEM Lite-ons. 😉 It costs less to use one of those for a year or three before it dies, than it does to buy the more expensive product and have to ship it back for replacement.

So yeah, I agree w/you--I absolutely do not trust that drive. If I use it at all, it will be for temporary stuff like TV recordings, DVD backups, etc.
 
Originally posted by: VinDSL
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
I've been looking at the new Western Digital RE3 drive--I know it's an enterprise drive, but I've been told they'll work on desktops--just more ideal in a RAID 0 config and a server. Basically I'd be paying for a heavier-duty drive. The destop version--WD Black--has been getting some bad reviews about DOA and sudden death.

Unless you guys have some compelling reason for me not to get the WD RE3, I think I'll go ahead and order it right away, before the Seagate dies suddenly (which is my fear--no good backup and sudden death).
Click to expand...

It's all a matter of opinion, I suppose...

I've been doing 'this stuff' since the 80's and always preferred Seagate drives, but I've also run WDs, Maxtors, IBMs, Hitachis... basically whatever is 'on sale'.

LoL! I don't like to pay over $100 for a HD 'cause they're all junk - every one of them! 😀

Personally, if I REALLY cared, I'd go with SCSI drives - they're still the best, after all these years, but they go belly up too!

The way I've cheated the system, if you will, is to run several machines on my LAN - here at the house - and spread my important data around (e.g. backup) from machine-to-machine. I've NEVER had two machines go down at the same time - knock on wood...

I could care less about the application software and operating system - that's easy to restore. It's my digital photos, MS Word docs, music, and all the rest that I care about! I actually backup that stuff to my production web server in Atlanta, GA - 2000 miles away - as well as locally, just to make sure it's safe.

Anyway, the Western Digital RE3 looks okay - but it's just another drive to me. Turn 'em upside down and they all look the same, you know?!?!? 😉
Click to expand...

You sure know how to make a guy feel good--they're "all junk"!?!?!? 😀

I used to be pretty good about spreading backups around like you said--make one on a second HD, another on a DVD backup set, etc. Norton Ghost 14 just arrived today; new "okay" :laugh: WD RE3 to arrive Wed. It's a 1TB drive (not used to typing that!), so I expect it will take a couple weeks to format 😉--once that's done, will clone the Seagate to it, and hope it works!

But you're right--"spread it around"-wise. Once I figure out that HP NAS, I'll backup to it, use Vista's bare-metal image backup, use Ghost's imaging backup...etc. etc etc.
 
I posted the bulk of this as a reply in another thread for someone who was having problems adding a second disk and getting it to boot, albeit under XP. I also thought you guys might like to hear what I ended up doind w/my situation. So here's the screed:

Today I went to move my C: (boot) drive w/Vista x64 to a new drive, as the old drive seemed to be failing, as you know. I purchased Norton Ghost 14 expressly for the purpose of cloning drive-to-drive. Additionally, Ghost says it can clone a C: (boot) drive to a new drive, and make the new drive "Active", which is necessary for it to be bootable.

Well, no it can't, at least not for me. The problem was, the drive assignment "C:" was already in use. So even tho Ghost says it's supposed to take care of this, the drive assignment drop-down in Ghost's Drive-to-Drive config was grayed out. W/some trepidation, I went ahead and cloned anyway.

Oh boy, what a cluster-****.:disgust: Ghost made the new drive "D:", and I could not change it, not even w/Drive Management, because C: was already in use, and esp since C: was a boot drive letter. IOW, many reasons why Windows would not change the letter. And both the old and new disk were marked as "Active"--something Windows had previously said was impossible--i.e. you can't have 2 "Active" drive on one system.

Then I did some even stupider than buying Ghost: I plugged back in my old C: drive, keeping the new "D:" drive also connected. I changed the drive letter of the old C: drive to X:, against my better judgement, hoping to free up the "C:" assignment once I rebooted, as Disk Management said would happen.

Well, on reboot, I got the usual Vista startup screens, then where it usually says "Welcome", it said "Preparing Desktop". Fine, I thought, I knew Vista had to rebuild the page file, etc. so I waited. The screen next went blue--not a BSOD blue, just a blank, featureless, pastel Windows-color blue. And there it stayed.

I rebooted many times, w/the old drive both attached and unattached. No joy. I tried to fire up Disk Management thru the Computer Management console, but even tho I could start "Task Manager" and try to run programs, it--wait for it--said the path was incorrect.

At this point I had no choice but to try using the Vista CD repair function. It said there was nothing wrong with my "C:" drive. Let me repeat that: "C:" drive, not "D:". So the Vista CD read the drive correctly as C:, but as Windows (hard drive) tried to boot off it, it was getting read as D:. I got stuck in a no-man's land of incomplete boot.

Now there was probably some way to fix this, but I didn't know how, and I was already many hours into this disaster. I can't remember enough of my DOS to know if I could have assigned a correct drive letter outside of Windows. I couldn't boot into Safe Mode either.

Here's where the happy ending comes in: I had the rare foresight yesterday to make a full system backup using the Vista built-in "Complete PC Backup". It was on my real D: drive, which I had temporarily unhooked to do this cloning. It runs off the Vista CD, under "Repair your computer" (or whatever it's called). It automatically does a quick partition and format; I crossed my fingers and hoped this would finally override the bad drive letter assignment. Or that since it was a C: drive backup anyway, that the image stored info about the drive letter assignment and things would get back to normal.

It took maybe 20 minutes. Vista found the backed up image on my D: drive, partitioned and formatted the new drive, and restored the backed up files to the new drive, which it correctly identified as C:.

I won't even go into the hell that was the installing of Ghost in the first place, and one nice advantage of restoring from yesterday's backup is that I hadn't installed Ghost until today, so there was no trace of it on my system. The worst thing that happened was that Norton Internet Security 2009 (which actually works pretty well, I'm surprised to say) complained that it's virus definitions were off--probably had gotten out of sync w/the server because of the time difference of the backup file. That fixed itself right away.

So I guess the moral is, assuming you want everything that's on your first disk to end up on your second disk, do it from a backup. A good backup, one that you've tested, and tested again. Then make another backup on another disk, just to be sure. I think you might have mentioned this, RebateMonger. 😉

And believe me, no one is more surprised than me that it was actually Vista that saved me.
 
Sounds like you got everything working again. Great!

Now get that Windows Home Server fired up. The WHS backups are, for all practical purpose, image backups. It's great having that little green/yellow/red WHS icon on every desktop, warning me if there's a problem with backups on any of my PCs. I don't need to bother doing a backup before doing something "risky". The backups were all done for me last night.

I've already used WHS backups to recover malware-contaminated PCs, to restore a Vista Business PC after a "bad" upgrade to Ultimate, and to clone systems to larger boot drives. I've also moved my backup database across three different WHS boxes without losing a beat. So far, the restores have been easy and flawless.

The backups of drivers (such as for disk controllers or network cards) is unique. All drivers are stored in a special area of the backup folders. You can copy them to a USB stick and install them before doing a system restore if they are needed.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Sounds like you got everything working again. Great!

Now get that Windows Home Server fired up. The WHS backups are, for all practical purpose, image backups. It's great having that little green/yellow/red WHS icon on every desktop, warning me if there's a problem with backups on any of my PCs. I don't need to bother doing a backup before doing something "risky". The backups were all done for me last night.

I've already used WHS backups to recover malware-contaminated PCs, to restore a Vista Business PC after a "bad" upgrade to Ultimate, and to clone systems to larger boot drives. I've also moved my backup database across three different WHS boxes without losing a beat. So far, the restores have been easy and flawless.

The backups of drivers (such as for disk controllers or network cards) is unique. All drivers are stored in a special area of the backup folders. You can copy them to a USB stick and install them before doing a system restore if they are needed.
Click to expand...

You read my mind! That's my next step. I'm just basically concerned about security--the HP MediaSmart comes w/a trial add-on of Macafee (not my favorite net security suite), which I will have to pay for when the trial is over.

I use Norton Internet Security 2009 on my other systems--used to use ZoneAlarm suite, but since Checkpoint bought out ZoneLabs, things have been going downhill for them. ANyway, Norton doesn't seem to have a version that works on WHS--what security do you use on your WHS box? And is it a commercial NAS, or did you build it and install WHS yourself?

I'm also concerned with--and maybe you can answer this also--getting at the backups on the HP WHS box if I have a disaster. When I got it, it was a PITA to set up, HP not bothering to put in instructions on how to get the Connector off the NAS and onto my system--I use Vista x64, and that Connector didn't ship w/the box... It was an Update, and then I had to log onto the server kind of sideways (http://hpserver:5000, or something like that), where I eventually saw a link to download the 64-bit Connector. This all took about 45 minutes on the phone w/an HP tech.

Anyway, getting around to my question: If I had a disaster like I did yesterday, and I had to boot from the Vista CD and use the "Complete PC Restore" feature like yesterday, how would I get at the backup on the WHS box? I.e., that "Connector" thingy seems pretty important, and it would not be available in the Repair environment, would it?

I know, I know, "RTFM", and yes, I'll eventually answer some of these questions for myself as I go along, but having you point me in the right direction now could save me from another unexpected disaster.

So I guess my usual verbose post boils down to:

1) What security works on WHS? Esp my HP MediaSmart box?
2) How do you get at the backups on it if you have a disaster and need to do a "bare-metal" recovery?

This is my first NAS, in case you couldn't tell. 😉
 
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
1) What security works on WHS? Esp my HP MediaSmart box?
2) How do you get at the backups on it if you have a disaster and need to do a "bare-metal" recovery?
Click to expand...
Most of the major antivirus makers offer a special version for WHS. I haven't gotten around to installing anything, since all my desktops and servers have their own AV and the backup shares on WHS aren't readily accessible. WHS isn't a Domain member, so it won't even accept Domain credentials.

Oh, and my personal WHS is on a mid-tower Antec box with an ASRock C2D motherboard. I have a bunch of older IDE drives that I wanted to use, so that motherboard and box worked for me. It draws a measured 60 watts with three hard drives installed.

All you need to do a bare-metal restore is to insert a WHS Client PC Restore CD into the computer and boot from it. Microsoft has updated the Restore CD image and doesn't put the new one on the WHS Server, so you might want to download the new image and put it on the server.

Upon boot, the Client Restore CD will tell you what network cards it sees and what drives it sees. If you have some odd NIC or special drive controller, you can feed your computer the drivers (stored on the Windows Home server in a special directory) on a USB stick.

That's it. It'll find any WHS boxes on the network, ask you which server you want to use, ask you what backup you want to use, what partition you want to restore, and what disk you want to put it on. From there, it's automatic.

Oh...and I learned by doing...don't try to restore a PC while the WHS is making backups of other PCs. It will refuse to do it.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Evenkeel
1) What security works on WHS? Esp my HP MediaSmart box?
2) How do you get at the backups on it if you have a disaster and need to do a "bare-metal" recovery?
Click to expand...
Most of the major antivirus makers offer a special version for WHS. I haven't gotten around to installing anything, since all my desktops and servers have their own AV and the backup shares on WHS aren't readily accessible. WHS isn't a Domain member, so it won't even accept Domain credentials.

Oh, and my personal WHS is on a mid-tower Antec box with an ASRock C2D motherboard. I have a bunch of older IDE drives that I wanted to use, so that motherboard and box worked for me. It draws a measured 60 watts with three hard drives installed.

All you need to do a bare-metal restore is to insert a WHS Client PC Restore CD into the computer and boot from it. Microsoft has updated the Restore CD image and doesn't put the new one on the WHS Server, so you might want to download the new image and put it on the server.

Upon boot, the Client Restore CD will tell you what network cards it sees and what drives it sees. If you have some odd NIC or special drive controller, you can feed your computer the drivers (stored on the Windows Home server in a special directory) on a USB stick.

That's it. It'll find any WHS boxes on the network, ask you which server you want to use, ask you what backup you want to use, what partition you want to restore, and what disk you want to put it on. From there, it's automatic.

Oh...and I learned by doing...don't try to restore a PC while the WHS is making backups of other PCs. It will refuse to do it.
Click to expand...

Avast makes one for WHS. Symantec doesn't, or at least I can't find anything about it on their site. I don't know if it gets a bit stickier when the NAS is a prebuilt commercial proprietary product like the HP MediaSmart (as opposed to the DIY one you built). At least Avast specifically mentions compatibility w/the MediaSmart on their Avast WHS page. I really don't care for Macafee, so will probably delete it and buy Avast for the HP when Macafee runs out its trial.

AFA doing a bare-metal restore: Some Restore CDs came w/the MediaSmart, one for the server, and a "PC Restore" disk. I'll read the online guide in more depth, but I gather the PC Restore CD boots a Windows PE to allow you to connect to the server and recover your data. When I set up the server, HP was still in the process of rolling out its 64-bit versions of drivers, connectors, etc. for Vista, so I had a bit of a time getting it going--had to first install it on a 32-bit Vista laptop, just to set it up, download a lot of updates (one of which was the 64-bit connector), and only then could I get to the 64-bit connector for my desktop (as I mentioned before). HP still hasn't released any updates to the CD, and when I was on the phone w/the tech guy, he said he didn't know when--or if--they were going to create a 64-bit CD w/all the software needed to connect, restore, etc.

I know I just need to spend some time w/it and read the guide. Tho I wonder now if I should have turned my old, unused desktop into a WHS NAS, instead of buying the HP.

On a related topic (related to this thread, and my backup woes, I mean), I noticed when I used the Vista Complete PC restore utility from the Vista install/repair CD, that when it restored the backup image it had made from the failing 750GB Seagate HD, and restored it to the new Western Digital 1TB HD, that it made the partition the same size as it had been on the old 750GB drive--i.e. 750GB (actually 698GB, allowing for formatting and etc.). This is even tho the total amount of data on the disk was only about 80GB. (Double that if you count the Shadow Copy, which didn't get backed up.)

Anyway, it was a simple matter to go into Vista's Disk Management console and merge the unallocated space into the main partition. But this got me thinking today:

When I make my first image backup of the new 1TB HD, using Vista Complete PC backup, the image will essentially be a 1TB partition. THe new 1TB drive is the only 1TB drive I have, tho I have 2 other 750GB drives. So let's say this is the scenario: I make a backup image of the 1TB drive. For some reason, the 1TB drive fails, and I need to get up and running right away--i.e. can't wait for a new 1TB drive to come in the mail.

If I try to back up that 1TB image to a 750GB drive, will Vista's Backup utility refuse to do it, since the target partition will be smaller than the source partition? Even tho the actual data is only 80GB? Have you or anyone here tried this?

I can try to find the time to run the test. Problem is, once I run a new image backup w/Vista Backup on the 1TB drive, that image will then become the preferred image to restore from. IOW, the old 750GB image that saved my bacon yesterday may or may not be available to restore from. I save the older images, just renaming them slightly, but Vista's Backup is pretty rigid, and doesn't allow much customization, so I don't know if renaming them back to the default filename will allow Vista Backup to recognize them. (Am I explaining this clearly? I feel like I'm fumbling around here.) Vista Backup seems to prefer to just make one full image backup, then do incremental/differential backups to that same image. Problem w/that is--as I discovered--if one of the incremental backups is corrupted, then you've lost your only image.

So what do you think? Would Vista allow a 1TB restore to be squeezed to a 750GB drive?
 
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