Repair, Recovery, and Restore

Restoring System State Data

In Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server, system state data comprises the registry, COM+ Class Registration database, system startup files, and the Certificate Services database (if the server is a certificate server). If the server is a domain controller, Active Directory™ directory services and the Sysvol directory are also contained in the system state data. If the server is running the Cluster service, the system state data also includes resource registry checkpoints and the quorum resource recovery log, which contains the most recent cluster database information.

When you restore the system state data, all system state data that is relevant to your computer is backed up or restored: you cannot back up or restore individual components of the system state data. This is due to dependencies among the system state components. However, you can restore the system state data to an alternate location, and only the registry files, Sysvol directory files, Cluster database information files, and system startup files are restored to the alternate location. The Active Directory database, Certificate Services database, and COM+ Class Registration database are not restored if you designate an alternate location when you restore the system state data.

Note

You can only back up and restore the system state data on a local computer: you cannot back up and restore the system state data on a remote computer.

To restore system state data

Start Backup.
Click the Restore tab, and then select the check box for any drive, folder, or file that you want to restore.
Click the box next to System State to restore the system state data along with any other data you have selected for the current restore operation.

Caution

If you restore the system state data, and you do not designate an alternate location for the restored data, Backup erases the system state data that is currently on your computer and replaces it with the system state data you are restoring.

You must be an administrator or a backup operator to restore files and folders. For more information about restoring the system state data to a domain controller and about authorative restores, see the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server Resource Kit Distributed Systems Guide.