Question

NT SAM file

Asked by: Notorious

How can i backup the SAM file of a PDC on to a floppy disk without getting the message that a sharing violation has occured.



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Asked On
2000-03-19 at 12:25:46ID10313672
Tags

sam

,

file

Topic

Windows NT Operating System

Participating Experts
4
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: tmackPosted on 2000-03-19 at 13:01:18ID: 2633926

ALthought I have never had to do this I would imagine that as long as users are logged on to the network you will not be able to copy this file. I would suggest that everyone log off and you copy it then or just set up your back up to pick it up in the off hours if you have off hours.

T

 

by: jjeff1Posted on 2000-03-19 at 13:16:24ID: 2633951

You can boot into DOS with a bootable floppy and copy the file if you file system is FAT.

But a much better idea is to use RDISK.EXE to create an emergency repair disk. This is a good thing to have anyway.

Just hit Start -> Run, and type in rdisk. Click the "update repair info" button. This placed the SAM, among other things, into the C:\winnt\repair directory. Then it prompts you to make an emergency repair disk with a copy of these files.

If your system ever needs a repair install of NT, that disk is a good thing to have.

If your SAM is too large to fit on one disk, you can simple copy the contents of the C:\winnt\repair directory whereever you want it.

Jeff

 

by: carminePosted on 2000-03-21 at 07:56:44ID: 2640614

jjeff1 is almost there, but...

For rdisk to backup the SAM hive, you have to run it with the /s parameter.

rdisk /s

If the SAM is too large for a floppy, then run:

rdisk /s-

This will backup the SAM (and the rest of the registry) to the "%SystemRoot%\Repair" directory from where you can copy it to another server, or include it in your tape backup.

Regards
Mark

 

by: NotoriousPosted on 2000-03-27 at 03:05:00ID: 2660372

I used the RDisk /s option but it only backed up the following autoexec.nt, config.nt, default._, ntuser.da_, sam._,
security._, setup, software._ and system._ Of which sam._ is alot small than the sam file on the server. What if anything has not happened.

 

by: carminePosted on 2000-04-10 at 09:39:47ID: 2700988

Rdisk, compresses the hives (hence the underscore for the extension) so that they are more likely the fit on a floppy.

The NT reapair process will expand them when you need them!  Alternatively, you can run the expand command:
expand a:\sam._ c:\temp\sam.

regards
Mark

 

by: carminePosted on 2000-04-10 at 09:40:53ID: 2700992

PS: How come you've accepted an answer if you're still not happy?

Mark

 

by: DoubleJ2003Posted on 2003-02-06 at 05:17:18ID: 7891539

The above described solutions will not help you solve your problem.
The accepted answer will only backup the 'repair'-sam with installation-admin-account.
The other answer of logging out all user --> than you will need to log of yourself too....tell me, how are you able to copy the file without logging on???

To backup the sam-file in use, you have two options:
1) create a bootdisk, which also contains the NTFSDOS-executable (look at http://ramattack.mailru.com/ubd/indexen.html).
Restart your server with this bootdisk and when NTFSDOS has been run, you can get access to your NTFS-drives.
Copy the sam-file to a diskette(default path=\winnt\system32\config\).
2) another option is to do a search on the internet for the tool: ForceCopy.exe .
Using this tool you will be able to copy the sam-file in a special way. When you entered the syntax, the tool will create a copy-script, which will be run at the next bootup of the server, before the system locks the sam-file.

Good luck.....
Double J

 

by: DoubleJ2003Posted on 2003-02-06 at 05:34:53ID: 7891666

Above mentioned site has a lot of dead links: try this one:
http://www.karimov.ru/ftp/ubd.zip

Double J

 

by: carminePosted on 2003-02-06 at 06:10:49ID: 7891937

Sorry Double J you are wrong.  The file sam._ in the repair folder is updated with a copy of the current SAM every time you run rdisk.

I know! I've just restored the SAM from one domain to another using the repair folder.

If you have never run rdisk then it will indeed just contain the admin account created at install time.

Mark

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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