Understanding System State and Registry Restore

The Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 System State, or Windows NT registry is your computer's set of system-specific configuration components. The components of System State and registry differ for these operating systems. LiveVault Online Backup Service automatically handles restores differently due to the different components for these operating systems.

Important: Incorrectly restoring a computer's System State or registry can make the computer unusable. We recommend that you restore the System State/registry only when recovering the entire computer as part of a disaster recovery. For assistance, contact Customer Service.

What is restored for Windows 2000/2003

For a Windows 2000/2003 computer, LiveVault Online Backup Service restores the System State data. This is the set of system components, as defined by Microsoft, which collectively define the state of a Windows 2000/2003 system. This includes the following components:

  • Active Directory directory service (if the computer is a domain controller).

  • Registry.

  • Disk quotas (LiveVault Online Backup Service treats this as part of System State; it is not part of the System State as defined by Microsoft).

  • COM+ Class Registration database.

  • Boot files and system files (including the System File Protection database, Internet Information Services (IIS) database, and Performance Counter Configuration).

  • Certificate Services database (if the Certificate Service is running on the computer).

  • SYSVOL directory (if the computer is a domain controller).

  • Cluster service information (if the computer is running the Cluster service).

LiveVault Online Backup Service restores the Windows 2000/2003 System State data as a group; individual components cannot be restored.

What is restored for Windows NT 4.0

For a Windows NT 4.0 computer, LiveVault Online Backup Service restores both the registry hives and the NT user profiles. By default, LiveVault Online Backup Service maintains the registry hives and structure.

Restoring a computer's System State/registry

You request to restore a computer's System State/registry through MyLiveVault. You can restore the most current backed up version or a historical version.

The System State/registry can be restored over the Internet to the Agent computer or on media.

Note: The ability to restore the System State/registry on media may not be available to your Agent at this time. If you have questions, contact Customer Service.

Depending on whether you are recovering System State for a Windows 2000/2003 computer or registry for a Windows NT 4.0 computer, and the delivery method you choose, the procedure may require additional manual steps before or after the restore job runs.

Windows 2000/2003 domain controllers: Non-authoritative versus authoritative restore

LiveVault Online Backup Service restores Windows 2000/2003 System State in non-authoritative mode by default. If you are restoring a Windows 2000/2003 domain controller, you must determine whether to restore the System State in non-authoritative or authoritative mode.

This will determine whether the replicated and distributed data (such as Active Directory) that is restored will be updated by newer data replicated from other domain controllers.

For more information about non-authoritative and authoritative modes, see Non-Authoritative Versus Authoritative Restore and refer to your Windows 2000/2003 documentation.

Windows 2000/2003 System State restore notes

  • LiveVault Online Backup Service backs up and restores a Windows 2000/2003 System State as a group. Due to the interdependencies of System State components, LiveVault Online Backup Service does not support backing up or restoring individual components of System State.

  • The restored System State data, except for the registry, replaces the existing System State data on the computer. The restored registry will be merged automatically with the existing registry on the computer.

  • If you are restoring Active Directory Service, do not restore a System State version that is older than the Active Directory "tombstone lifetime" (the default is 60 days). This is the period of time during which an object deleted from Active Directory is still stored on the domain controller. If you restore an older version, the domain controller may contain deleted objects that have already been deleted from the Active Directory replicas on the other domain controllers. In this case, you must manually delete these restored objects from the domain controller.

Windows NT 4.0 registry restore notes

  • All users must log off the computer before restoring its registry.

    If users are logged on, LiveVault Online Backup Service cannot load the active user profile registry key correctly. LiveVault Online Backup Service is able to restore the user profile files, but cannot rename them when the computer is restarted.

  • If restored over the Internet, the computer's current registry is automatically saved to another directory:

    x:\SystemRoot\system32\config\$NIRegistrySaved$\

    Where:
    x Is the volume containing the Windows NT directory.
    SystemRoot Is the Windows NT directory specified at Windows NT installation time.

    In the event there is a problem during the restore, you can use Microsoft registry merge utilities (REGREST or REG) to recover this saved registry to the original registry directory. The REGREST and REG utilities are available in the Windows NT Resource Kit.

  • If restored on media, the registry is restored to the location you specify:

    • If you choose to restore to the original location, the user profiles will be restored to their original location, for example:

      C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator\NTUSER.DAT

      The registry hives will be restored to the default path:

      x:\SystemRoot\system32\config\$NIRegistryBackup$\

      Where:
      x Is the volume containing the Windows NT directory.
      SystemRoot Is the Windows NT directory specified at Windows NT installation time.

      For example, C:\Winnt\system32\config\$NIRegistryBackup$\

    • If you choose to redirect the restore, the registry will be restored into the path you specify, for example:

      C:\RedirectedRegistry\

  • If restored on media, you must use a Microsoft registry merge utility (REGREST or REG) to merge the restored registry files into the computer's existing registry. The REGREST and REG utilities are available in the Windows NT Resource Kit.

Related Information

Restoring the System State/Registry: An Overview
Restoring an Entire Computer
Non-Authoritative Versus Authoritative Restore
Restoring the Windows 2000/2003 Cluster Database

 
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