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Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

ws2008 I am considering moving to Windows Server 2008 as my full time production environment.  One of the hurdles to doing this has been lifted.  I am referring to the fact that up until recently, Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition didn’t run on Windows Server 2008.  The latest version (version 9) now runs nicely.

However, I have another unique requirement.  Actually it’s probably not that unique.  I need to be able to take a full image backup and restore it to another hard drive.  With Windows Vista, I have a lot of different options.  Symantec Ghost, Acronis True Image Home, the built in Complete PC feature, etc. are all options for a relatively low price.

But when you switch to Windows Server 2008, add a decimal point or more to the price of a backup solution.  So needless to say I’m looking for a solution on the cheap.  The lowest cost route appears to be using the built in backup feature.  Unfortunately that feature brought some Windows Vista baggage along that I really don’t like.  Specifically, the restore drive must be equal to, or greater than the size of the source backup drive.  In other words, if I am backing up a 320GB drive, I cannot restore to a 200GB drive.  Big bummer.

I am also considering building a WinPE 2.1 solution to imagex a capture, and use the captured .WIM to apply it to a different hard drive.  This would probably be the lowest cost alternative of the bunch if it works.  Then of course there’s DPM.  Checking to see if Home Server will do what I want.

Anyone doing something similar today?  Have a backup/recover solution you like for cheap?  I’m looking for something that works on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 for less than $100 if possible.  Let me know.

The only reason I’m even going down this path is to use Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 on a full time basis.

Published Monday, August 04, 2008 1:01 PM by Keith Combs

Comments

Monday, August 04, 2008 2:47 PM by Flemming Riis

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

time to bug the home server team for w2k8 client support

Monday, August 04, 2008 3:42 PM by mikestre

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

Keith,

I'm already using my HP MediaSmart Home Server to back up a Dell server running Windows 2008. The Home Server components installed on Windows 2008 without any problem

Mike

Monday, August 04, 2008 3:52 PM by Keith Combs

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

Mike,

Have you done a bare metal restore?  And have you done the restore to a hard drive that is smaller than the original?

Time to ping the internal discussion group.

Now I have a reason to spend more money...  like I needed one.  :?)

Monday, August 04, 2008 4:06 PM by mikestre

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

Keith,

Not so far, but based on anecdotal evidence of the capabilities of Home Server, it should be possible to restore to a different drive on a different system than the original. Don't know if that applies when the new drive is smaller, but still large enough to hold the image. You would have to bounce that off the Home Server crew.

Monday, August 04, 2008 6:07 PM by Jordan

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

It kinda surprised me upon initial reading that you DONT already use WinPE/ImageX to swap around images.

Its free and made by your company :).

Its what i use, without paying a penny. Just remember if your changing HAL's on the hardware you need to sysprep it to switch detecthal.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008 1:01 AM by Mike - MVP Windows Desktop Experience

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

I've used Acronis True Image for 2008 as well, but I of course have to boot into the CD image to image the drive.  Not ideal, but cheap, and I trust TI. :)

Tuesday, August 05, 2008 4:54 AM by nmercer

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

Keith, WHS backup lets you restore to a smaller drive, in fact it is dead simple with a nice wizard UI and everything when you boot of the restore CD

Home Server has saved me several times with laptop HDD failure

Cheers

Nathan

Tuesday, August 05, 2008 4:58 PM by Alex Parker

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

Keith,

Kindof a tangent...but it might be helpful...

I have struggled with this very issue many times and keep coming back to virtualization. In the end I just moved all my "Prod & DEV" home servers to VMs.

Instead of backing up physical machines, I just backup VMs.  I have two physical machines that are configured identically to host the VMs.  I can move the VMs between them by moving my external eSata RAID drives between the servers in the event of a failure.

If your workloads allow you to virtualize, that would be my approach.

The other benefit is that one of the machines can run Windows Vista, provided that you aren't looking to run Hyper-V virtual machines.  

You will just need to some extra work to automate Virtual PC to auto start your machines on reboot of the Vista host.  On the other hand there is VM**** server which will run just fine on a Vista client.  

That way you don't have to struggle to get the multimedia stuff to work on a W2K8 client and also spend a fortune on AV, firewall and backup software.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 7:18 AM by Andy Helsby

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

Home server won't fit the under $100 bill (unless you include the microsoft discounts you will get). Also I'm assuming this $100 doesnt include the hardware?

Friday, August 08, 2008 5:41 PM by Ron Fairchild

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

try the drive imag solution from TeraByte Unlimited.  They aren't as elegant as Symantec or Acronis solutions but they do always seem to work and they are reasonably priced.  I don't think you will have the ability to mount the image in a virtual machine as with the other two but your not out a lot of $$ either.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 9:24 AM by Mike Stankavich

# re: Looking for a poor mans Windows Server 2008 backup

Keith,

I've been evaluating Macrium Reflect for my home office Server 2003 box.  It appears to be working well thus far, but I haven't attempted a bare metal restore yet.  I'll have to give that a try soon.  According to posts on the Macrium support forum it works on Server 2008, but there are some small installer issues that they are working out.  

http://www.macrium.com/default.asp

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