Additional Information about Backing up and Restoring Windows SBS

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Updated: August 21, 2008

Applies To: Windows SBS 2008

Configuring shadow copies

By default, Windows SBS 2008 automatically uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service technology to save “snapshots” or “shadow copies” of your data twice daily. A shadow copy is stored on the same volume from which the copy is created. It is not possible to change the location where the shadow copy is stored; however, you can change the amount of disk space that is allocated for the storage of shadow copies. You can also change the schedule for when a shadow copy is created.

To view or change the storage and schedule settings for a shadow copy

  1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management. The Computer Management console appears.

  2. In the console tree, click Shared Folders, point to All Tasks, and then click Configure Shadow Copies. The Shadow Copies configuration dialog box appears.

  3. Select the volume for which you want to view or change settings, and then click Settings. The Settings page appears.

  4. From the Settings page, you can perform either of these tasks:

    To change the amount of disk space that is allocated for the storage of shadow copies

    1. In Storage area, select Use limit, and then specify the amount of space in megabytes that you want to allocate for storage shadow copies.

    2. To accept your setting, click OK.

    To change the schedule for when shadow copies are created

    1. Click Schedule. The Schedule page for the selected volume appears.

    2. Do one of the following:

      • To change an existing schedule item, select the item in the list, and then revise the schedule as desired.

      • To add a new schedule item, click New, and then configure the schedule settings as desired.

      • To delete a schedule item, select the item in the list, and then click Delete.

    3. When you are finished making changes to the schedule, click OK.

  5. When you are finished making changes to the shadow copy settings, click OK to close the Settings page, and then click OK to close the Shadow Copies configuration dialog box.

Recovering data on client computers

If you configure folder redirection for network users, by default, the server automatically creates shadow copies of redirected files and folders. Because of this, network users can use the Restore Previous Versions feature to restore files that are accidentally modified, deleted, or damaged. For information about using the Restore Previous Versions feature, see “Recover Files or Folders [Solution Doc]” earlier in this document.

Defragmenting backup source and destination drives

When you defragment a data drive, blocks of information can move from one location on the drive to another. Because of this, if you defragment the source drive for a server backup, it is possible that some of the relocated blocks of information will overwrite previous versions of files and folders on the backup destination drive. If this occurs you cannot recover the lost data from the backup drive. Therefore, your backup plan should address how to handle a backup after defragmenting a source drive.

If necessary, you can safely defragment the backup destination drive because the Volume Shadow Copy Service technology tracks the changes that are made during defragmentation.

Activating the server after recovery

After you restore the server, Windows SBS 2008 prompts you to reactivate the server. You then have three days to do so.