DR 2: Recovering Your Windows NT 4.0 System

These procedures describe how to perform a disaster recovery for a Windows NT 4.0 system which was backed up with LiveVault Online Backup Service.

Perform a disaster recovery in the event of a machine failure or disaster such as:

• Hard disk failure or corruption, requiring the system drive (usually C:) to be rebuilt.

• Windows NT 4.0 cannot boot or has been corrupted.

• Physical machine loss.

Assumptions

These procedures assume:

• Backup was configured to protect the full Windows NT 4.0 system (including its general files and directories, its databases and applications, and its NT registry) and that the initial backup completed for the system. LiveVault Online Backup Service can restore only files, directories, registry, and metadata that have been backed up.

• You previously recorded and have available the failed system's hardware and operating system "as-built" configuration information (for example, Windows NT version and Service Pack version, hotfixes, Windows NT installation directory and the computer's disk partition configuration including drive letters, partition size, and file system formats).

• All Windows NT, databases and applications functionality tested and confirmed working before the disaster occurred.

Before you begin

• Ensure you have the appropriate Windows NT 4.0 installation CD-ROM. This must be the same version that was running on the system before the disaster occurred.

• Ensure you have the failed system's hardware and operating system "as-built" configuration information.

• The following terms are used in these procedures to distinguish between systems:

  • Recovering system / recovered system: This is the system that you are building as part of the disaster recovery procedures. When you complete this procedure, this will be your Windows NT system running the LiveVault Agent.

  • Original system: This is your Windows NT system that has experienced a failure or has been lost due to a disaster.

  Depending on your circumstances, these may be the same or different physical machines.

Determine which procedure to use

There are three disaster recovery procedures for Windows NT. The procedure you will use depends on the NT security role of the system and whether you can use the same computer with a replaced or reformatted hard disk.

Procedure 1

Use procedure 1 when you want to recover the Windows NT system on:

• The same NT Workstation.

• The same NT Stand-Alone Server or Backup Domain Controller.

• A different NT Workstation with the identical hardware configuration.

• A different NT Backup Domain Controller with the identical hardware configuration.

Procedure 2

Use procedure 2 when you want to recover a Windows NT 4.0 system that is also the Primary Domain Controller.

Note: If there is not a Backup Domain Controller in the domain, then recover the Primary Domain Controller using Procedure 1.

Procedure 3

Use procedure 3 when you want to recover a Windows NT 4.0 system on a different system that has the same disk subsystem but is configured differently in other respects. For example, the second system has a different type of video card, network card, and CD-ROM drive.

Related Information

Restoring an Entire Computer