HOWTO: Creating SADR Floppies for the Free SADR Utility

HOWTO: Creating SADR Floppies for the Free SADR Utility - Alpha

UBQ ID Number: UBQ000155

Last Modified: 2000-08-16 at 10:45:06

SUMMARY:

Creating the boot floppy disks for the free Stand Alone Disaster Recovery utility, for an Alpha machine.

DETAILS:

In order to create an Image using the free SADR Utility, the user must create UltraBac's SADR Floppies. These floppies do not need be made on the computer where the restore or backup will be performed. However, the hardware on the computer during the floppy creation needs to be compatible with the hardware at the time of backup and restore (e.g. complex RAID drivers.) The boot floppy disks may be created on a different (yet compatible) computer, but crucial files may end up being missing from the disks, and the floppies may be unable to boot up the original disk. If you are using a RAID controller, or have a tape device or SCSI device driver that was originally installed from floppy or CD, you need to make sure those drivers get installed on the floppy. (For more information, see UBQ000026 - Supporting Proprietary & Multiple Drivers with Stand Alone (Recovery) Floppies.)

BEI has created a batch file to automate the creation of the NT boot recovery floppies. Alpha computer users also have the flexibility to define any bootable fixed or removable disk, e.g. Jaz/Zip/Syquest. From the Microsoft NT DOS Prompt, execute the batch file:

mkdisks destdrive cdromdrive: tape_driver [scsi_controller], and an example of the parameters are given: mkdisks a: f: 4mmdat, where a: is the target floppy drive and f: is the CD ROM drive containing the Windows NT (Server or Workstation) CD-ROM, and c:\ultrabac is where the UltraBac SADR files reside, and 4mmdat is the driver for the tape device. (E.g. From the directory where mkdisks resides type mkdisks a: f: c:\Ultrabac 4mmdat)

From the C:\> prompt, go to the directory where the Stand Alone Disaster Recovery files have been placed. If the zip file was downloaded from the web, it may need to be unzipped on an Intel computer and then the files copied to the Alpha machine.

Figure 1: SADR Directory

Figure 2: Format of MKDISKS Command
Now from the directory where the SADR files reside, type: mkdisks a: f: 4mmdat and press return. Your screen will look something like: C:\SADR> mkdisks a: f: 4mmdat.

Figure 3: Make Boot Recovery Disks - Creating Disk #1

You will then get the following screens:

Figure 4: Make Boot Recovery Disks - Creating Disk #2

Figure 5: Make Boot Recovery Disks - Creating Disk #3

Figure 6: Make Boot Recovery Disks - Creating Disk #4

Figure 7: Make Boot Recovery Disks - Creating Disk #5

Figure 8: Make Boot Recovery Disks - Completed

Following is a partial list of valid "tape_driver" parameter values and their associated type:

4mmdat	4mm DAT tapes
dlttape	DLT tapes
qic117	QIC floppy controller
qic157	QIC IDE controller
exabyte1	Exabyte SCSI-1 tape drives
exabyte2	Exabyte 8mm SCSI-2 tape drives
tandqic	Tandberg SCSI QIC drives
wangqic	Wangtec SCSI QIC drives
miniqic	Miscellaneous SCSI QIC drives

You can usually find your tape device by going into "Control Panels"/ "Devices" and searching for a device driver that "looks" like it would be a tape device driver and is "started". These devices usually stand out and are not difficult to find.

NOTE: With Intel based machines, the tape device driver argument is not necessary if not using a tape device for restore (e.g. When using a Static Mirror Image Disk rather than tape.) With Alpha based machines, when not using a tape device for restore, use "4mmdat" for the tape device driver.

The [scsi_controller] is optional and represents the filename of the SCSI_contoller driver. Supply this information only when the SCSI_controller driver is not supplied by Windows NT (Server or Workstation) CD-ROM. An example would be mkdisks f: 4mmdat ini910u.sys

You will need to have the following number of formatted floppies ready, and labeled (e.g. Stand Alone disk #1, Stand Alone disk #2, Stand Alone disk #3, Stand Alone disk #4, and Stand Alone disk #5):

Intel	3 floppies
Alpha (NT 3.51)	4 floppies
Alpha (NT 4.0)	5 floppies

As noted above, Alpha users can create a bootable hard disk. To do so, use the "-d" switch to MKDISKS. Note that Intel computer users must make sure that their system is configured to boot with priority from the A: drive. If not, the boot recovery process will fail from floppy!

NOTE: The tape device driver supplied above becomes NTTAPEDD.SYS and will be placed on floppy by the mkdisks process. If the following tape drivers exist in the <System Root>\system32\drivers directory, will also be placed on floppy, and will be automatically loaded during the recovery process: 4mmdat, exabyte2, exabyte1, miniqic, dlttape, qic117, qic157, tandqic, wangqic, and archqic drivers. The following SCSI device drivers, if they exist in <System Root>\system32\drivers, will also be placed on the third boot floppy disk: aha154x, aya174x, aic78xx, ultra14f, and ultra24f. All IDE device drivers are covered by the atapi.sys file.

MORE INFORMATION:

See UBQ: UBQ000024 – What is an Image Backup?

See UBQ: UBQ000026 – Supporting Proprietary & Multiple Drivers with SADR (Stand Alone Disaster Recovery) Floppies

See UBQ: UBQ000027 – Restoring Individual Files from an Image Backup

See UBQ: UBQ000028 – PCMCIA SCSI Controllers and Disaster Recovery

See UBQ: UBQ000051 – Defining an Image Storage Device

See UBQ: UBQ000052 – Defining a Partition Storage Device

See UBQ: UBQ000057 – Creating SADR (Stand Alone Disaster Recovery) Floppies - Intel & Alpha

See UBQ: UBQ000058 – Stand Alone Image Backup/Restore Using Floppies – Intel & Alpha

See UBQ: UBQ000059 – Integrated GUI Image Recovery (Non-Boot Disk)

See UBQ: UBQ000060 – Static Mirror Image Recovery

See UBQ: UBQ000061 – Stand Alone Backup & Disaster Recovery Utility