> Michael Stowe wrote at about 20:17:18 -0600 on Monday, January 3, 2011:
>  > You are correct, but if the registry is backed up to BackupPC (using
> VSS,
>  > for example, since it's always open) then it can be restored
> consistently.
>  >  The trick is to unpack it in a different place than the registry in
> the
>  > running OS, then switch over using the recovery console.  (I do have
>  > complete details, should you want them.)
>  >
>  > Like you, I recommend tar, although rsync can probably be made to work
> if
>  > you don't try to restore to the original locations.
>
> Couple of questions:
> - Does restoring the registry (actually it seems like there are
>   multiple registries) restore all the detailed Windows ACL's and ssid
>   stuff?

No, they're not stored in the registry, they're stored in an NTFS database
that isn't exposed as a file -- more accurately, they're stored in
metafiles that NTFS doesn't allow to be read as files (without tools like
the NTFS File Sector Information Utility.)

> - How do you handle junctions?

I haven't tried it -- I suspect they end up being two copies of the file,
but I don't know, since I don't happen to have any being backed up

>   My understanding is that cygwin sees directory junction as symbolic
>   links. This is important because Win7 has a lot of important
>   junctions to preserve compatibility with WinXP/2000 and I know for
>   certain that Win7 doesn't work well when junctions are replaced by
>   symbolic links
> - NTFS has various other non-POSIX features that are not translated by
>   cygwin (and hence certainly not captured by rsync). One example is
>   multiple file streams. Now I don't know if any of these other
>   features are commonly used in Windows but I do think there is
>   some type of Master Record that is used. In any case, what have you
>   done to restore those items?

Rsync doesn't see alternate data streams, so they're not backed up.  This
is where stuff like the data that tells you that a zip file was downloaded
from the Internet is stored, so all that's lost.  I'm not aware of any
other common alternate data streams, but that doesn't mean they don't
exist.

> - I guess more generally, have you succeeded in doing a bare metal
>   restore of Window 7 (or even XP) or do you just do this to restore
>   user files?

XP:  yes
7:  haven't tried it, but assume it's possible

Both of the above subject to the loss of ACL's and ADS's.

>   If you are just restoring user files, I find that my script to
>   record all the ACL's (not just the POSIX ones captured by getfacl)
>   using subinacl is useful since I can then grep/sed against it to
>   restore selected ACL's with individual files.

I'm certainly missing those, so I haven't tried restoring them.  My
backups are a pretty vanilla rsync/VSS.

> Again, I don't have much experience in restoring windows so I would
> love to hear experiences from others who have done actual bare-metal
> or close to bare-metal restores of Windows systems
> (Yes, I shamefully admit that even though I have contributed a fair
> bit of coded to do shadow backups and backup ACL's, I haven't had the
> time or opportunity to really test it on bare-metal restores)
>
> Jeff
>


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn how Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) One Node allows customers
to consolidate database storage, standardize their database environment, and, 
should the need arise, upgrade to a full multi-node Oracle RAC database 
without downtime or disruption
http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdevnl
_______________________________________________
BackupPC-users mailing list
BackupPC-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net
List:    https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users
Wiki:    http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net
Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/