restore files using backup utility to another PC/new hard drive

[Guest]

Hello All,

Using the Backup Utility, I have been regularly backing up "My Documents" on
one PC using a Daily Differential and a Weekly Normal. I store the files on
another PC on my network. I recently had some problems on the PC and was
hoping to restore some of the files to another machine while deciding what to
do. From a third machine, I attempted to open the Daily Differential.bkf
file using the restore wizard, but when I went tried to select a file to
restore I received a message "The backup file contains unrecognized data and
cannot be used." The weekly normal was no better. So...can I restore backup
files from one machine to another? If I have catastrophic disk failure, how
do I restore my backups to the new hard drive?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hello All,

Using the Backup Utility, I have been regularly backing up "My Documents" on
one PC using a Daily Differential and a Weekly Normal. I store the files on
another PC on my network. I recently had some problems on the PC and was
hoping to restore some of the files to another machine while deciding what to
do. From a third machine, I attempted to open the Daily Differential.bkf
file using the restore wizard, but when I went tried to select a file to
restore I received a message "The backup file contains unrecognized data and
cannot be used." The weekly normal was no better. So...can I restore backup
files from one machine to another? If I have catastrophic disk failure, how
do I restore my backups to the new hard drive?

Thanks,

Jeff

Perhaps you used different versions of ntbackup.exe?

There is an overall consideration here. A solid and robust backup
process requires these steps:
1. Create the backup process.
2. Perform a full backup.
3. Schedule daily backups.
4. Restore the full backup to a spare disk.
5. Test the spare disk.
6. Check the backup logs every week.
7. Test the backup / restore process at least twice a year.

Many system administrators never go beyond Step 3. They
may get a nasty surprise when crunch time comes.

 

[Guest]

All the machines have WIN XP pro SP2 so I do not believe that they are using
different versions of the WIN XP Backup utility.

I guess my question really has to do with using the Backup utility to
restore files in the event that the original HD is no longer available. It
appears that I can only restore files to the original hard drive. Is this
true?

What do I do if that hard drive is gone or I want to restore the files to a
different machine/spare disk?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I ran this little experiment for you:
- Create a small backup file on a Win2000 server PC.
- Copy the .bkf file to a Win2000 Professional PC
(different hardware, different OS).
- Ran ntbackup in wizard mode.
- Imported the .bkf file
- Restored some folders

In other words, I was able to restore files even though the
..bkf file was created on a different machine under a different
operating system.

I suggest you run the same experiment on a number of
machines in order to get to the bottom of this problem.