Incomplete system state backup

[neonrh]

Hello,

I backup roughly 25 servers, mostly Windows 2000 using Veritas Backup Exec. Backups went without error until last week when one application manager upgraded some applications on his server. While there, he complained that his add/remove programs applet would not come up when he double-clicked on it, so he had to remove a program manually and then install the new version.

After this occurred, the system state backup for only that server began failing. Backup Exec reported "access denied to boot files". I tried doing test backups of it as a separate instance, same result. I checked file permissions and the user account permissions, all turned out fine (exactly like the other servers that have successful system state backups).

So I did a backup of the system state directly from the server using the NT Backup utility. It went through without error, but it was only 40mb in size, where it used to be roughly 250mb. I did it again with a detailed log. No errors, but the system state is skipping several resources, including (but not limited to) the winnt\system and system32 folders.

So something is wrong. I half suspect that the application administrator accidentally deleted too much in the registry when "manually" uninstalling one of the applications. So my questions are:

1. Have any of you encountered this and if so did you fix it? How?
2. Can I fix it by applying a backup from when the system state was still backing up properly? Will it break the new software upgrades that he just put in place?

TIA

 

[TwoTons]

I would think it would break the new software upgrades, but then you start from a clean slate. I would ask if you can help him remove the software so you know what he is del from the registry. You could waste many hours trying to patch his error up.

 

[jeglum]

I also have a NTBackup.exe system state backup that should be around 250mb and yet only produces a 40mb file.

Job completes as if there were no problems. No errors reported to the logs.

Detailed log compared to another similar server (windiff.exe) shows resources skipped: c:\winnt\system32 and c:\program files

A few files in each of these directories do backup. Most do not. File security, directory security, and ownership are consistent between files that backup and those that don't.

File auditing shows that even files that don't backup are being accessed by NTBackup in a similar way.

Turning off McAfee had no affect on the problem.

Same NTBackup.exe file is running on both the server that completes correctly and produces the 250mb file and the server that only produces the 40mb file.

Any ideas?

Kelly J. Jeglum
jeglum@aux.uwm.edu