andysworld!

I do not have any floppy disks anymore, and as I’ve blogged many times, I don’t do the physical! Some System/Server Administrators seem to have forgotten the art of How to create a Windows Server 2003 boot disk, very useful to have if you’ve managed to corrupt the master boot record and cannot boot your OS, it’s not a big deal if you have a virtual server, you can create a virtual floppy to boot in minutes and recover your server, and service is restored, and why not leave the virtual floppy disk connected, it’s not causing any issues!

This step by step video How to create a Windows Server 2003 virtual floppy boot disk, demonstrates how to create a virtual floppy, format, copy the required files, and boot your server.

[flv:https://andysworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/How-to-create-a-Windows-2003-Server-Virtual-Floppy-boot-disk.flv 480 360]

(flash is required, sorry iPad users!).

Okay, so we have a Full Backup of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011, approx 20GB on our Western Digital Worldbook NAS (\\nas\backup).

(see this blog – New HD Video Bare Metal Recovery of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011: Part 1 How to Backup Microsoft Small Business Server 2011)

The next bit could not have been easier, we insert the Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 DVD into the DVD ROM drive, Boot from the DVD as if we are going to install a copy of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 on the server, you are already probably familiar with this step, but we Click the ‘Repair your Computer‘. This procedure WILL only work, if restoring to “like for like” hardware as the original server backup. Follow the Wizard, selecting the network location of the backup.

In this video, I’m restoring to a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine. Initially to prove, that I’m restoring to Bare Metal Server, (no OS is pre-installed), I’ve booted the virtual machine with NO Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 DVD ROM Media in the DVD ROM drive, and you can see it tries to PXE Boot from the Network, at the next reboot, I’ve inserted the media, to boot and start the Server Bare Metal Restore from the Network copy.

DO NOT TRY THIS PROCEDURE ON A PRODUCTION LIVE SERVER!

YOU WILL ERASE AND DESTROY IT!

[flv:https://andysworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Bare-Metal-Recovery-Part2-SBS2011.flv 480 360]

Wait for the Restore and Server to Restart.

Whilst on the subject of Backup and Restore, I also get asked “How Do I perform a Bare Metal Restore of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011?”

All the software is provided by Microsoft to perform a Bare Metal restore of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011. The application we use is called Windows Server Backup, available from the Start bar. So there is no excuse to try and practice, the software is included for free, and following these videos, you will also be able to perform a Bare Metal Recovery of your Microsoft Small Business Server 2011, should the need arise from a recent backup.

Firstly, we need to complete and run a Full Backup. You could backup to a another local disk, external USB hard disk, but I prefer to backup to a network location, which happens to be a Western Digital Worldbook NAS. I’ve already created a share called backup, so the full UNC path to the backup location is \\nas\backup

[flv:https://andysworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Bare-Metal-Recovery-Part1-SBS2011.flv 480 360]

See Part 2 Bare Metal Restore – New HD Video Bare Metal Recovery of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011: Part 2 How to Restore Microsoft Small Business Server 2011