Who Gives a .... Anyway

Quick Guide restore and backup Items you should have done Things that you need to have done before, sometime we have not done them all but see what you can do Made backups Of data (try have more than one place and more than one backup) Config - especially website and application Of databases Stored in a text file (and also backed this up) or some other place Network IP address and configuration info Driver letters and shares user names Hardware config, ram, hard drive size etc Restoring Guide Get server / machine up and running Install all patches and update FIRST Install Applications Do restore If you have had to reimplement domain, or as a precaution Log into workstations and back up setting to external drive / USB If there is problem with the mail profile create a new one DO NOT overwrite the old one, you may need it

Yesterday afternoon after 6 years of solid uninterrupted service my hard drive on my SBS 2003 server failed. I was pissed, the server had been telling me for about 3 months that it was coming, and I had just ordered a drive to mirror the system volume, and it had failed 2 days too early. My BAD. After calming down I thought well I better pop out and get a new SATA drive (or 2, to do the mirror). I had been backing up; using standard NTBackup, to an external drive (which I was alternating) and the backup has been reporting success. I also use SyncToy to backup the critical data to an external drive attached to my Laptop, so I was confident the critical data could be recovered. I saw a mountain ahead to climb as I was a bit worried about all the settings for: users firewall, RRAS, VPN, SSL certificate for Active Sync access mailbox data on Exchange my SQL Express data and the internal websites Once I had purchase a drive, I started loading the SBS box again. I googled to see if there wer...