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The Value of Backing Up Files
A colleague once asked me to diagnose a problem he was having with his 1GB Western Digital EIDE hard disk. A boot-sector virus had infected the disk, and he had run fdisk /mbr to fix the problem. He then used a virus checker to analyze the hard disk for any other viruses. However, he could no longer access the hard disk when he booted the machine. Unfortunately, he needed to access a program on the hard disk that contained 5700 references that would have taken a lot of time and money to recreate.
Like my colleague, I found no available boot device when I tried booting the system. I booted to a 3.5" disk with fdisk, and I discovered that the hard disk contained no partitions. When I asked my colleague which version of DOS he used to run fdisk /mbr, he told me DOS 5.0.
I noticed a tape drive on the machine, and I asked for the latest backup tape so I could restore the reference program to a new drive. To my amazement, my colleague had never used the tape drive. On the hard disk, I also found a reference-dump utility for the program. This utility could copy the references to diskette, but no one had ever run this program.
As a last resort, I called Ontrack (http://www.ontrack.com) data-recovery services to determine the feasibility of salvaging the hard disk. After I ran the Data Advisor diagnostic software which I downloaded from Ontrack's Web site, I sent the drive to the company. I asked Ontrack to copy the hard disk's contents to CD-ROM. The company retrieved all the data from the drive for $1100 and sent me the CD-ROM. I copied the reference program to a new hard disk, and used Windows NT Explorer to change the read-only permissions on the program files (NT had labeled all the files as read-only because they came from the CD-ROM). The reference program is now completely functional, and the total restoration time took about 5 minutes. If you prorate those 5 minutes at $1100 to an hour's worth of work, the cost would be $13,200. Restoring the program and reference database was all that mattered, and a simple backup would have prevented this expensive lesson.
Moving Printers Between Servers
Several readers have asked me how to easily move printers from one server to another. One reader, Colin Hart, shared a method he used to migrate 150 printers from one server to another without having to add each printer to the new server separately.
The major consideration is making sure you save Registry keys for all printers and then restoring the keys on the new system. (If you are saving files from a remote machine, I suggest you map one of your drives on that machine so you can save to that drive without any problems.) Begin by stopping the spooler service and opening regedt32.exe on the machine that contains the Registry keys you want to copy. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print, and highlight the Printers key. Select Save Key from the Registry menu, and choose a filename and location for the file (I typically use printerlist.txt). If you have added TCP/IP printer ports, you need to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors\LPR Port, and highlight the Ports key. Next, select Save Key from the Registry menu, and choose a filename and location for the file (I typically use portlist.txt). Restart the spooler service if you want.
After you save the files, you can easily restore them to the new print server. Stop the spooler service, and open regedt32.exe on the machine that you want to copy the Registry keys to. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print, and highlight the Printers key. Select Restore from the Registry menu, select the name of the file (e.g., printerlist.txt) where you saved the Printers key from the original print server, and click OK. If you have TCP/IP (LPR) ports, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors\LPR Port, and highlight the Ports key. Select Restore from the Registry menu, select the name of the file (e.g., portlist.txt) where you saved the Ports key from the original print server, and click OK. Restart the spooler service, and install the needed printer drivers on the new print server. Colin points out that you can also use this process to save the list of user shares by saving and restoring the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Shares key.
Moving User Profiles to New Domains
In my September 1998 column, a reader asked how to move user profiles from one domain to another. Several readers replied with detailed instructions. The following procedures come from Mike Reid, Aaron Blosser, and David Rogers. I have combined their comments and appreciate the detail they provide.
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