A Miraculous Windows Recovery
Winternals Recovery Manager 2.0 is a great software product for systems builders tasked with the care and feeding of their clients' systems. Recovery Manager's centralized console makes the software easy to set up and use, and it also helps return damaged and corrupted PCs to working order very quickly.
In this article, you'll learn how to use Winternals Recovery Manager 2.0 (step-by-step directions to install it are on TechBuilder.org). By default, Recovery Manager captures four defined sets of files and settings, called Recovery Sets: system (system files, system settings and boot files); program files (files in the "programfiles" directory and all subdirectories); user settings (all user Registry settings); and user data (files from the Documents and Settings directory trees).
Custom Recovery Sets allow files from other volumes or directories to be captured as well. To create a Custom Recovery Set:
1. Launch the Recovery Set Editor by opening the Recovery Manager Console (Start/All Programs/Winternals Recovery Manager/Recovery Schedule Console). Right-click on the Recovery Sets entry. Then select Recovery Set Editor in the pop-up menu.
2. Inside the Recovery Set Editor, you can navigate to your target machine and use its controls to select either volumes or directories for capture inside named and unique custom Recovery Sets. Click the Extensions tab to select file extensions from the directories you'll designate as targets.
3. Click the Files tab to call up a browser interface. This lets you select target volumes and directories for inclusion in a Custom Recovery Set.
Next, you'll need to build a bootable CD from which Windows users can start the recovery process using Recovery Manager. This means creating a Boot Client image file that includes key system files, settings, configuration data, etc., then burning its image to a CD. To do so, you must use the companion program to the Recovery Schedule Console, known as the Recovery Center.
1. Launch the Recovery Center (Start/ All Programs/Winternals Recovery Manager/Recovery Center).
2. Click the Maintenance menu. Then select Create Boot Client.
3. A wizard leads you through all subsequent steps. If you need to point at driver files for SCSI or SATA drives, you are prompted to do so during this process.
4. Preinstall the Boot Client software on target machines. Note that "Save Boot Client files" must be selected to keep a local copy handy for preinstallation.
When the right Boot Client image is available for staging to selected target clients, the files necessary for booting will be copied to those machines as part of deploying the Recovery Manager agent.
Once you've created a Recovery Set schedule and have captured one or more Recovery Points, restoring a system is easy. Use Recovery Center to identify those machines whose Recovery Sets you wish to restore, then click the Roll Back Systems icon.
Recovering systems to earlier Recovery Points is only slightly more complicated. Click the Recovery Points tab in the Selected Computer pane, where you'll get access to a complete list of all Recovery Points stored for that machine. In the task pane, click Roll Back Systems.
To use this technique to define recovery for multiple machines, click on more than one computer in the Selection View pane. Then manage Recovery Point selection on a per-computer basis in the "Selected Computer" pane.
Parts List
• One or more PCs running either Windows 2000, XP or Server 2003.
• A console PC with a 900-MHz x86 compatible CPU (or faster); at least 256 MB of RAM; 10-Mbps or faster network interface; 100 MB of disk space for Recovery Manager Schedule Console; and 1-GB to 2-GB hard-disk space for Recovery Point file storage.
• A Recovery Manager client PC with a 233-MHz, x86-compatible CPU; 128 MB of RAM; 10-Mbps or faster network interface; and 10 MB of disk space (more for mobile clients).
• A working network connection between a Recovery Manager Schedule Console PC and at least one Recovery Manager client PC.
Ed Tittel (etittel@lanw.com) is a technology writer and trainer in Austin, Texas.
