Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery - creating a recovery disk

http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/techtip-creating-custom-symantec-recovery-disk-part-1-2

http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/creating-custom-symantec-recovery-disk-part-2-2

Hope this Helps

Once you have downloaded the SRD ISO , you can then create a system specific disc as well to inject storage or network drivers in the srd iso by :

Programs > Symantec > Backup Exec System Recovery > Click on "TASKS" menu

Select Create Recovery Disk and follow the instructions

This will allow you scan for your drivers on the existing system you are using and will include them as well ; I think its not available in trial but its worth a try.

Thanks Mutahir - I'm just finishing updates/SPs to the server, then I'll prepare the disks.

Have you ever restored to different hardware?

Yes, I have used this product 6 or 7 times at different clients and at home  as well ;

Restored to same hardware with Windows 2008 Server ENT, Exchange and IIS ; restored in around 45 minutes flawlessly

Restored my laptop OS Windows Vista, with all applications settings to a new laptop flawlessly, I had to create a custom srd for the new laptop drivers etc

all in all its a good product and solid

Download the srd iso
burn it to a disc
then insert your srd to check for driver validation and check the report then to see if you are missing network or mass storage controller drivers
if you do then prepare the custom srd iso according to the article (very straight forward)

then test by booting your server with the custom srd to see if it sees the storage
take a backup of your server to a external hard disk and resotre it to any other hardware (custom srd for that hardware might be required if storage or network drivers are not already on the iso)

http://ftp.support.veritas.com/pub/support/products/Backup_Exec_System_Recovery_Server_Edition/305673.pdf

above is the user guide

I've created the ISO image CD (BESR855_AllWin_Multiligual_SrdOnly.iso) on my laptop. However I am unable to boot my SBS2003 from it as described in the first article. Unfortunately, the server does not have a writer to create it.

The server can read the CD.

You may need to edit the boot order of your server to boot from the CD. Your server may currently be not looking at your CD/DVD as a boot device. Depending on the server hardware a hotkey should allow you to choose the boot device at system restart. Having the recovery CD in your CD/DVD drive and choosing the CD/DVD as the boot drive should allow you to boot the machine from the recovery CD.

If your Server has older hardware you may need to edit the Boot order in the BIOS. Please make a note of all settings that you change in the BIOS just so that you can revert back to the original settings should things not work as expected.

You can save the customized recovery disk to an iso file. The wizard will allow you to do that. You will however need a writable DVD/CD drive to burn this to bootable media.

Once you have the SRD ISO on the server, did you followed the steps to create the customized SRD ISO, You can check for Driver Validation and check the report to see if SRD has the capability to boot your server ?

I would highly recommend a customized ISO of SRD (if you are 100% sure that

a) server is set to boot with cd
b) you have checked the cd would boot off on any other system for e.g. your Laptop

As mentioned in the how-tos and articles, you can save the customized srd to an iso file as well ;

Please try to run the driver validation report on your backup exec system recovery (as specified in the articles)


Verifying the SRD ISO can boot your system / server :

a) Insert the SRD disc on the System/Server you wish to protect while running Windows
b) Select Run Driver Validation when the screen appears or run autorun.exe from the root menu of the cd
c) When the Driver Validation Screen appears, select the validate drivers button to create a report of the drivers

You can either mount the iso of srd via magic disc / virtual cd rom or insert the disc you burned with srd and then click on autorun if you don't see the screen attached to select driver validation report ON YOUR SERVER.

No, don't see the screen and it won't autoplay

http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm

download the above on your server

http://www.magicdisc.net/setup_magicdisc.exe

Once you have installed this on your server ; then download the SRD ISO (or move it to the server) ; mount that ISO with this magic disc and then go into my computer and either double click on the virtual cd drive letter or run autorun from there

the downloaded file is basically a zip file which contains the srd.iso inside it, so you would have to extract it via 7zip, winrar etc

Extract the zip file to get to the iso ; you can then either mount it with magic disc or burn it on your laptop ;

looks like you haven't extracted it and directly burned it to the disc.

Thanks  Mutahir and Vince, I've set the server to boot off the CD/DVD drive, but it goes straight into Windows from the hard driives.

I think where I am going wrong is that I have just burned a copy of the ISO image and hlp files rather than creating the bootable CD from the ISO image. I thought I was using the ISO software I was using before - obviously not.

I will now follow your instructions step by step.  

use a tool called gburner (very light weight and 30 days full functional trial) www.gburner.com

Once you have downloaded the SRD file from symantec, you will see its a zip file, extract it using 7zip or winrar then you will see the ISO inside it.

right click that iso or open it with gburner and in gburner at the bottom you will see that it will show as bootable.

Before burning, I would suggest to mount it with magic disc and run driver validation so you can insert drivers into the ISO if need be

So :

1 - Download SRD file from symantec
2 - Unzip it to get to the srd.iso
3 - Use Magic disc to mount that iSO as a virtual cd rom (ON YOUR SERVER)
4 - then follow the screen I attached by autorun or double clicking the virtual cd rom showin in my computer

Once you have inserted the drivers if required, burn that iso with gburner and you will be good to go.

I would also suggest to follow the articles I initially posted that will give you a good insight and you will be more confident on your steps.

Mutahir - I'm following one article at a time so I'm getting there.

I've used the free Active@ISOBurner and that's done the trick. I did tell a client off for doing exactly the same thing and copying the ISO image instead of creating the files from the ISO image.

The server boots perfectly from the CD and I can see my USB drive, but only see the v2i of my laptop (done in Ghost 14) and not my server done in BESR.

Thanks for your invaluable help. I'm up to speed now.

I've run a Driver Validation on a spare server but that only found a Hamachi driver that's not really used and I'm trying a restore now. It's a test machine so if it doesn't work no problem.

This is a very basic single SATA drive server. I assume Adaptec SCSI  RAID and SATA RAID servers will need drivers added - burning a custom ISO. Did I see that drivers can be added if the server crashes and only the basic recovery CD is available?