HOWTO: Creating SADR Floppies on a Non-Target Computer

UBQ ID Number: UBQ000157

Last Modified: 2000-09-05 at 10:55:06

SUMMARY:

When a disaster has occurred and the boot floppies have not been created prior to the disaster, then boot floppies need to be created on a different computer. Note: This utility (MakeDisk.exe) will run on Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0, and Windows 2000. However, the source of the driver cache, required to create the disaster recovery diskettes, must be the Windows NT 4.0 installation files (typically the Windows NT 4.0 server CD). A user creating the diskettes on a Windows 2000 system will be prompted to provide a path to the Windows NT 4.0 installation files (typically the I386 directory of the Windows NT 4.0 installation CD).

NOTE: The "MakeDisk.exe" utility, which provides for the creation of the SADR diskettes, will not be included in UltraBac 6.3 and above, in favor of the UltraBac Disaster Recovery (UBDR) utility.
See User Manual: UBDR: UltraBac Disaster Recovery

DETAILS:

Create the boot recovery floppies through the "UltraBac Disaster Recovery Disk/OBDR Image File Generator". Select "Tools"/"Make Floppies/OBDR Image for Disaster Recovery" or from Microsoft's Task Bar, "Start"/"Programs"/"UltraBac"/"Make Disaster Recovery Floppies and OBDR Image".

From Microsoft's Task Bar:

Figure 1: Starting MakeDisk.exe utility from Start Menu.

From within UltraBac:

Figure 2: Starting MakeDisk.exe utility from UltraBac.

Either method brings up the "UltraBac Disaster Recovery Disk/OBDR Image File Generator" dialog box:

Figure 3: MakeDisk.exe utility

Select "UltraBac Boot Floppies" to create the SADR floppies. Set the "Floppy Drive" where the SADR floppies will be created. Have 5 NT Formatted floppies ready. Note: Do not use DOS formatted disks! DOS disks are NOT usable for restoring since they will NOT boot an NT computer. If you have DOS formatted disks, perform a Quick NT Format before using them.

Select "Local Install File Cache" to create or update the cache. Whenever non-default SCSI or tape drivers are added the cache should be updated.

When the "Use Original Windows NT Installation Files" is selected, enter a valid path by selecting "Specify" (e.g. F:\I386 where F: is the CD-ROM drive and I386 is a folder on the Windows NT Server or Workstation installation CD-ROM disk). When un-selected, the "Local Install File Cache" will be used expediting the disk or image creation process. Note: When un-selected the local install file cache must exist – see the "Local Install File Cache" option.

"Use 3rd-Party Tape Driver" allows the addition of any driver not otherwise listed. Select "Specify" to specify the path to the driver. Note: Only one 3rd party tape driver may be specified.

Select "Show Known Optional Drivers", and "Show This Machine's Drivers" to display available drivers. The "Use UltraBac Drivers" option will replace the NT native drivers with UltraBac's enhanced drivers. This change is reflected in the "Source" field. Drivers displayed with a blue check mark or red exclamation mark will be included. To exclude a displayed driver, click on it to remove the blue check mark.

"Add SCSI Driver" allows the addition of SCSI drivers not otherwise listed. Select "Specify" to specify the path to the driver.

Select "Continue" and insert floppy disks as instructed.

NOTES:

Under certain circumstances, an appropriate driver file for a tape/SCSI/RAID/etc. device may not be immediately available. There are several things to note regarding this.

The MakeDisk.exe utility will run under Windows 2000. However, Windows 2000 drivers will not work with the boot diskettes. The boot diskettes' file cache must be created using a Windows NT 4.0 installation source (typically a Windows NT 4.0 installation CD). If the tape/SCSI/RAID/etc. device attached to the target machine (where the Image restore is taking place) is different from those attached to the source computer (where the diskettes are being generated), then there are a few options available to load the appropriate device drivers onto the boot diskettes.

Install the appropriate device drivers onto the computer where you are creating the boot disks. They won't be started, and the utility won't automatically select them for creating the boot floppies, but they'll be available, and you can still select them for installing on the boot disks.
With the *.sy_ file from an original floppy or CD, you can expand the files manually, and then when you run the boot floppy utility you can select those drivers even though they aren't installed into that operating system. To do this, copy the *.sy_ file to the NT 4 computer's <System Root>\system32\drivers directory and use the command

expand filename.sy_ -r

It will create a .sys file with the same name. Therefore, a file named 4mmdat.sy_, will expand out to 4mmdat.sys. Now make sure to select this expanded driver file when creating the boot floppies.

This means that even without an O/S that will allow you to install the driver (or if you choose not to install that driver on that O/S) you can still expand that driver and use it on the boot floppies.

MORE INFORMATION:

See UBQ: UBQ000024 – What is an Image Backup?

See UBQ: UBQ000186 - Image Backup and Restore Data Sheet

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: 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