How do I restore incremental backups?

[OscarVogel]

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

 

[VanguardLH]

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.

 

[OscarVogel]

Thanks for the detail.

Our file server crashed so I am restoring the shares on a new server. So I
will "Replace if older". Thanks for helping me to think this through.

 

[OscarVogel]

Please read the following additional information and tell me if I need to
choose "Always replace" (NOT "replace if older").

I have restored the shares to a Buffalo NAS "Terastation" which does not
have NTFS. (It only has share permissions). And I think that is why the
"date modified" on the folders and files have been changed to today's date.
So I'm guessing that means that I will need to use "Always replace". Is
that correct?

Also, after restoring the "Normal" backup I discovered that the backup log
show hundreds of pages of "Unable to restore the folder" But it looks as if
everything may have actually be restored. Is that possible? Does this have
something to do with me choosing to restore security settings (and the
Buffalo NAS not recogognizing the NTFS permissions)? In short, do you think
I need to restore that Normal backup again?

Thanks.

Also

 

[VanguardLH]

Please read the following additional information and tell me if I
need to choose "Always replace" (NOT "replace if older").

I have restored the shares to a Buffalo NAS "Terastation" which does
not have NTFS. (It only has share permissions). And I think that
is why the "date modified" on the folders and files have been
changed to today's date. So I'm guessing that means that I will need
to use "Always replace". Is that correct?

Also, after restoring the "Normal" backup I discovered that the
backup log show hundreds of pages of "Unable to restore the folder"
But it looks as if everything may have actually be restored. Is
that possible? Does this have something to do with me choosing to
restore security settings (and the Buffalo NAS not recogognizing the
NTFS permissions)? In short, do you think I need to restore that
Normal backup again?

Thanks.

Also

In a prior post, you said the server crashed. That say nothing about
what actually happened. If the hard drive failed and you replaced it
then it would have been clean of any files. However, if something
else "crashed" and you kept the old hard drive then there would have
been old files still on that hard drive. So when you did the restore
from backups, it complained/warned when it attempted to restore files
that were already on the hard disk. Without any real info on the
crash, I had assumed the restore would see a clean hard disk.

Note that I am familiar with running NT Backup on Windows
workstations, not on a server. You cross-posted to BOTH a server and
workstation newsgroup, and I read the workstation newsgroup
(microsoft.public.windowsxp.general). Unless you know the server and
workstation versions of NT Backup have the same options and
restrictions as each other, you should not cross-post between server
and workstation newsgroups. I know the workstation version of NT
Backup will not support networked drives but apparently the server
version does. I gave up on the workstation version of NT Backup
because of the overly restrictive list of supported devices for the
backup file(s). Although I thought the NT Backup program (workstation
version) only supported tape drives and local hard disks, maybe it
also supports mapped drives as mentioned at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/winntas/maintain/backup.mspx?mfr=true.
However, I don't know how you access your NAS device. Maybe you get
at it via a UNC rather than a drive letter to a mapped drive.

If you had backed up from the NAS device but FAT was used on that
device then there would have been no permissions to record and none to
restore. You say that NTFS is not used now but did not mention if FAT
or NTFS was used at the time the backups were performed. From the
program's help:

"You can use Backup to back up and restore data on either FAT16,
FAT32, or NTFS volumes. However, if you have backed up data from an
NTFS volume used in Windows XP, it is recommended that you restore the
data to an NTFS volume used in Windows XP, or you could lose data as
well as some file and folder features. Some file systems might not
support all features of other file systems. For example, permissions,
encrypting file system (EFS) settings, disk quota information, mounted
drive information, and Remote Storage information will be lost if you
back up data from an NTFS volume used in Windows XP and then restore
it to a FAT volume or an NTFS volume"

It doesn't mention if warnings or errors will be recording in the
restore log. Is "Unable to restore folder" the only information
provided? Nothing in the Event Viewer, either?