Thanks for a very informative answer.  We will look into these items closer as
we develop our restore procedures.

Jerry Lawson
ITT Hartford
________________________Forward Header________________________
Author: INTERNET.OWNERAD
Subject: NOTE 01/15/96 14:10:30
01-15-96 02:10 PM

From: Pete Tanenhaus, ADSM Client Development        TANENHAU at GDLVM7
To:   ADSM-L at VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: NT System32\config directory

This directory contains the actual registry files.

These files are always in use by the system (open deny r/w)
and cannot be accessed directly.

The reason this directory is excluded is that attempting
to do anything with these files is useless because they
are always opened by the system in deny r/w mode.

The NT client backup/restore functions indirectly handle
these files by using Win32 Registry Apis.

Every time a registry backup is performed a copy of these
files is written to the Adsm.Sys\Registry directory on the system
partition, and every time a registry restore is performed a
a copy of currently active registry is written to the
Adsm.Sys\Registry.Sav directory.

The files in these directories correspond directly (except the names
are slightly different) to the files residing in Sytem32\Config.

In fact, one method of manually restoring the last backed up copy
of a damaged registry is to boot another operating system such as DOS
or NT from a different partition, and to copy directly copy the
files from Adsm.Sys\Registry to System32\Config (the filenames
are close enough to be able to figure out whats what).

Under these circumstances this is possible because the copy of NT
to which these files correspond is not active.

Anyway, to answer your original question, yes it is safe to
exclude the System32\Config directory, all these files are
backed up indirectly via the registry backup functions.

Pete Tanenhaus
ADSM Client Development

-------------------------------Original
Append---------------------------------
Append---------------------------------

From:         Jerry Lawson <jlawson AT ITTHARTFORD DOT COM>
Subject:      Windows NT/ADSM question
To:           Multiple recipients of list ADSM-L <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>

Date:     January 12, 1996            Time:    12:10
From:    Jerry Lawson
    ITT Hartford Insurance Group
    (203) 547-2960    jlawson AT itthartford DOT com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are starting to deploy Windows NT servers, and in installing the NT client,
We are starting to deploy Windows NT servers, and in installing the NT client,
we noticed something that appears to be inconsistent.  Can someone help us
understand the functions?

In the NT client book, the Registry is discussed; as I read the book, the
registry is backed up every time an incremental is done UNLESS you specify
otherwise.  Manual backup functions are also provided.  The confusion occurred
when we were doing the install, and we looked at the Exclude list supplied
with the product.  In the list, c:\...\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\*.* was excluded
(Mia Culpa - I think that is the right directory - I don't have it in front of
me now.)  We looked in this directory, and there were log files from the NT
registry process in there.

Our concern:  "Is this a critical directory to the registry?  Are the log
files purely documentation, or are they needed for any recovery processing?"
"Why are these files being excluded?  are they open, and cannot be backed up?"
 We really haven't got a lot of NT experience here, and so are probably
groping with some basic stuff, but do appreciate any help that you can give.

*************************************************************
                        Jerry

Any idiot can face a crisis.  It's the day to day stuff that really wears you
down.