Question

SBS 2003 server failure; trying to restore data to an XP machine

Asked by: scend

Hey folks, thanks in advance for your wizardry.

We've been running a Dell PowerEdge server with SBS 2003 for 3 years. No problems. RAID 5, 3 drives. Backing up daily to a USB hard drive. Swapping that drive out every week. Two drives in rotation. Seemed like a bullet proof setup to me.

Last week the server failed. Won't turn on. Don't know why. Maybe power supply. That's a different topic. In the meantime, we're trying to access the data that was stored on the server. I figured it would be no problem.

However, without the server, there seems to be no way to access the data on the RAID drives. They sort of become worthless in a situation like this!

We turned to the backups. For some unknown reason the most recent backup was 3 weeks before the failure. We can live with that. Tried restoring via Backup Utility on a XP Pro machine. Receive "The backup file contains unrecognized data and cannot be used" error.

Went ahead and used a third party recovery tool. It kind of worked. But it left 20,000 files homeless without directories. Not good.

So here I am with data everywhere, and no good way to access any of it.

Solutions? Recommendations?

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-11-05 at 06:41:47ID24874536
Tags

sbs 2003

,

bkf

,

unrecognized data

,

xp

,

raid 5

Topics

Microsoft Server

,

SBS Small Business Server

,

Computer Hard Drives

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
6

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. RAID 5 Configuration on Dell PowerEdge 2650 with SBS…
    I have a PowerEdge 2650 (used, purchased through ebay, so no setup disks or documentation). I want to install Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition and MS CRM SBE on it. Before installing the OS, I want to make sure that I'm configuring RAID 5 correctly - and setting u...
  2. SBS and setting up Raid 1 on a new Dell PowerEdge
    SBS and setting up Raid 1. I have a customer that is running SBS 2003 and they want their Raid setup on the system. The system is a Dell PowerEdge 840 and they gave me some Dell Management and Utilities DVDs. How can I go about it? We have (2) 250 SATA hard disks. Th...
  3. Advice on extending RAID array on PowerEdge 2800 wi…
    We have a Dell PowerEdge 2800, 3Ghz Xeon with Windows SBS 2003. We are dangerously low on storage space and need to extend both the C & D drives. At present there are 3 x 73Gb U320 SCSI drives The Disk Management shows 3 NTFS partitions 1028MB EISA Configuration 12Gb C:...
  4. SBS 2003 R2 Dell Poweredge 1900 Raid 1 question
    I just reinstalled SBS 2003 R2 on my poweredge server using the Dell Installation and Server Management Cd. After I got everything up I had a C: partition that was set to the default of 25 GB and no D: partition with the remaining space. I have two 300GB HD's in RAID 1 on a...
  5. SBS Drive Image Restore
    I have Dell PowerEdge SC1430 w/ RAID 1 running SBS 2003. I made an image of the drive using Runtime's Drive Image XML and saved the image to an external hard drive. Our server was compromised with a major virus and I need to restore the system to when the backup was made. Ho...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: leewPosted on 2009-11-05 at 06:48:52ID: 25749980

Most of this (if not all) is recommendations for preventing this in the future - the way I see it, you're pretty much stuck until you get the server working.

1.  get the SBS server working.  It sounds much like a power supply issue.  Don't know what model, but it may well use a standard power supply CONNECTOR.  It may be possible to rig up a standard power supply to the Dell mainboard for the purposes of getting the server working.
2.  implement a new procedure - TEST YOUR BACKUPS on a regular basis.
3.  Don't use RAID 5.  Yes, it allows for less wasted space, but it makes data more difficult to access in an emergency.  If this were a RAID 1, you could likely pull a server drive, attach it to a workstation as a slave drive, and go from there.
4.  NEVER let the server out of warranty.  ALWAYS get a 24x7x365 warranty  on the server with 4 hour response. Such a warranty/policy would have had you running within a day.

 

by: afootPosted on 2009-11-05 at 06:50:11ID: 25749996

The files stored in the backup will only be accessible to another Server 2008 computer.  Have you tried that?

Regards,

Ady

 

by: afootPosted on 2009-11-05 at 06:51:56ID: 25750021

My apologies - you're using SBS 2003; please ignore me :-)

 

by: scendPosted on 2009-11-05 at 06:55:43ID: 25750075

Ady,

We don't have access to another SBS 2003 computer. One is all we got! We're lucky to even have a PC period since we switched to Mac last year.

Travis

 

by: noxchoPosted on 2009-11-05 at 07:01:20ID: 25750141

Is the RAID on failed machine built on PCI RAID card? If yes then move it to XP machine and try to get access to your RAID.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...