Tape drive broke, now what?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gerry Hickman
  • Start date Start date
G

Gerry Hickman

Hi,

I was going to use my Dell DLT1 tape to move all user data to a new
server, but it's now failing to complete backup jobs. Backup Exec log
says it's an "I/O Error - Device not ready". Doesn't sound good!

Thing is, if it gets to Easter and I can't get a full backup I'll have
to move the data some other way - e.g. copy over network. I've been
advised that copying over the network is not supported for migration of
large chunks of data.

I ran some tests today;

1. Windows Explorer is out, as it does not preserve original ACLs and
can stop half way with a modal dialog.

2. XCOPY seems to work as long as you use plenty switches. However a guy
who did a migration a few months back said he had problems with it when
it came to doing it for real - not sure of details.

3. Robocopy - I have not tested this one yet.

Does anyone have advice on this, and specifically how to prepare for,
and handle, any potential errors that may occur?
 
Gerry, here's my idea.

Buy an external USB drive (cheap these days).
Use NT Backup to backup your data or use Backexec by adding the drive/media.
Move to your new machine and run NT Backup/BExec to restore to new location.

You can then justify the drive purchase as necessary; they are very useful
for an assortment of things. Get one that has both firewire and usb-2 ports
if you can.

--
Scott Baldridge
Windows Server MVP, MCSE


"Gerry Hickman"
 
Hi Gerry

Scott's suggestion sounds very good to me.

In the past, I've removed the share at 5:00 one evening, and then kicked off
a copy using Robocopy and saving the log. Early in the morning, I review
the log to see if all the data copied (a quick cross -reference of Mb copied
is easy) and then either back out and reshare the original, or share the
data in its new location. Robocopy is good because it copies NTFS
permissions, if that's what you want.

Hope this helps

Oli
 
I can also confirm Robocopy works for large amount of data moves - subject
to volume of data and available bandwidth.
 
Third that - I've moved hundreds of gigs over a LAN connection. Works really
well if you plug the servers together with a x-over cable.

--
--
Brian Desmond
Windows Server MVP
(e-mail address removed)12.il.us

Http://www.briandesmond.com
 
Brian said:
Third that - I've moved hundreds of gigs over a LAN connection. Works really
well if you plug the servers together with a x-over cable.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the suggestions.

It seems most favour Robocopy over Xcopy, even though Win2k Xcopy can
preserve NTFS ACLs. Is there anything technicallly superior about
Robocopy, or is it just that it has a better reputation?

Oli, Regarding the log, do you mean EVERY path and file? When you say
x-ref the number of bytes, do you mean in relation to the log file, or
do you mean check with the original file locations?

Old server is NT4, and new server is Win2k - should I initiate the copy
on the target server using newer tools, or should I initiate it from the
source server using NT4 tools, or doesn't it matter?

Regarding x-over cable, I only have one NIC in the old server. Should I
reconfigure domains, TCP/IP etc into a private network of two machines,
or should I just play it safe and use the "normal" network (100Mb Bay
Networks Switch)? There should not be any staff on that day...
 
Hi Gerry

The log file has fields for total Mb and Mb actually copied. If they match,
you've got all the data. Trawling through the log isn't practical. In
fact, if for some reason the numbers don't match, finding out why can be
tricky. In my experience, files with bad ACLs or illegal names tend to
cause problems.

It may pay you to do a CACLS beforehand, using the one of the following
commands:

cacls mydir /t /e /g "MACHINE\administrators":F; or
cacls mydir /t /e /g "Domain Admins":F

I would run the command on the Windows 2000 box. I have also just used the
regular network. That way, I can VPN in from home and kick off the copy,
rather than staying late at night and arriving early in the morning just to
plug in cables, etc. If you have a switched network, this should be fine.

Regards

Oli
 
Robocopy can do NTFS - /SEC switch

Gerry Hickman said:
Thanks for all the suggestions.

It seems most favour Robocopy over Xcopy, even though Win2k Xcopy can
preserve NTFS ACLs. Is there anything technicallly superior about
Robocopy, or is it just that it has a better reputation?

Oli, Regarding the log, do you mean EVERY path and file? When you say
x-ref the number of bytes, do you mean in relation to the log file, or
do you mean check with the original file locations?

Old server is NT4, and new server is Win2k - should I initiate the copy
on the target server using newer tools, or should I initiate it from the
source server using NT4 tools, or doesn't it matter?

Regarding x-over cable, I only have one NIC in the old server. Should I
reconfigure domains, TCP/IP etc into a private network of two machines,
or should I just play it safe and use the "normal" network (100Mb Bay
Networks Switch)? There should not be any staff on that day...
Click to expand...
 
Brendon said:
Robocopy can do NTFS - /SEC switch
Click to expand...

Thanks Brendon, but Xcopy can also do NTFS using the /o or /x switches.
I'm not arguing though - Robocopy sounds like the way to go!
 
Thanks Oli,

This is very helpful. I'll do it in the way you suggest. I'm going to do
some test runs with about 5Gb anyway on a late night schedule. I should
also be able to divide up the data into 4 chunks of 10Gb or so, running
as separate processes - if one fails, I'll have 3 that are OK.

The byte count in the log file will be very useful. I'll have to read up
 
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