Restoring System State Data....

[eggedd2k]

I'm carrying out some disaster planning and am trying to restore our system state backup to a test server. The test server is a totally different server (hardware wise) to our main server.

After restoring system state data in the normal way, upon rebooting the system freezes. I believe this is due to the two servers having different hardware. Can anyone confirm this?

Am I right in stating the following:-

1. To restore system state data it must be restored to the same computer it was created on.

2. If a server completely dies and is unusable and a replacement is obtained (different hardware) the system state data cannot be restored to it and a fresh install/setup of AD is required.

thanks

 

[paulhthomas]

Does it freeze on the Windows 2000 screen (the one with the moving blue line across the bottom).
If so this happened to me in a DR test a few weeks back. try booting into safe mode firast to give windows chance to load the default drivers, then try a clean boot.

 

[eggedd2k]

yes it does. i'll give it a go.

should you be able to restore system state data to a totally different computer with different hardware??

 

[paulhthomas]

I don't know about TOTALLY different, but the servers I used in the DR test weren't identical. From what I can gather,you'd probably have mroe of a problem if you were restoring an NT server. 2000's preloaded drivers and plug and play compatability makes it a lot easier to dr onto a non idential box.

 

[bofhrevenge2]

This might be worth a look.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;249694

"Horsey to king bish three

 

[eggedd2k]

freezes each and every time when restarting the machine after restoring system state data from a different server.

it seems clear now that to restore system state data you must be restoring it to an identical computer.

 

[bofhrevenge2]

Microsoft seem to inply that as long as the new hardware doesn't require a different HAL then it is possible, i have done it before ages ago as a test but it is probably a shakey area.

"Horsey to king bish three