Disaster Recovery

The Disaster Recovery (DR) process enables you to recover from hard disk failure and should be used in emergency situations only. If you do not have a Disaster Recovery Set, see Creating the Disaster Recovery Set. If you created a DR Set, follow the steps below.

Before using Disaster Recovery, decide if another recovery method can be implemented instead. For example, if the problem appears to be a Windows system problem, such as a corrupt registry, try to recover by following the steps outlined in your Microsoft Windows User's Manual before using Disaster Recovery.

If your hard drive failed completely and you have replaced it, Disaster Recovery may be the best method for recovery. However, you may also consider re-installing Windows, re-installing your backup software, then selectively restoring the rest of the files you need.

 
  To use Disaster Recovery for Windows 9x:

  1. Replace any lost hard drives with comparable drives.
  2. Insert the Windows Startup Disk (diskette #1 of the DR Set) into your machine's 3.5" boot floppy drive and restart your computer.

    A DOS screen appears.

  3. If a Windows Startup Diskette #2 was created, (not all systems require the creation of a second diskette) insert that diskette into your machine's 3.5" boot floppy drive, then press any key.

    The Disaster Recovery screen appears.

  4. If necessary, you can prepare your hard disk at this time using the following tools, by pressing Enter:
  5. To continue with Disaster Recovery, press F5.
  6. Your system files will be copied from the diskette to your hard drive.

    The following prompt should appear:

    Please insert Disaster Recovery Media #1 into your (device name).

  7. If it's not already in your drive, insert media #1 of your DR Set into your device when prompted, then press Enter.

    You will then be prompted to select a drive, or volume to recover. If you have only one drive, it will be automatically selected for recovery and this prompt will not appear.

  8. Select the volume that you wish to recover by highlighting the volume using the Up and Down arrow keys, then pressing Enter.

    You will then be asked to confirm your selections before recovering your information.

  9. Press Enter to confirm your selections.

    Disaster Recovery will begin recovering the Windows File System.

  10. Once the volume has been recovered, a summary of the process will be displayed. To exit this screen, press Enter. If there is more than one volume to be recovered, you may select it at this time.

After recovering the volume(s), you may wish to view the REPORT.TXT file which contains a text summary of the files that could not be recovered. If you wish to view this file, you must first exit the program by pressing the ESC key twice, then typing EDIT REPORT.TXT. After reading the text, press ALT+F, then press X to exit the editor.

Your recovery is complete. Remove any media from your machine and restart your computer.

 
  To use Disaster Recovery for Windows NT:

A minimal install of the Windows NT Workstation will be performed from the Disaster Recovery Set.

Disaster Recovery screens will display messages instructing you when to insert each of the diskettes from your Disaster Recovery Set.

  1. Insert the Windows NT Workstation Setup Boot Disk (diskette #1 of the DR Set) and restart your computer. You will be guided through a partial NT installation.

    Only the boot drive and the NT installation drive need to be partitioned at this time. You will be able to partition and format other drives at a later time through the Disk Administrator in the Disaster Recovery process.

  2. Restart your computer when prompted.

    The Recovery Wizard should appear now and guide you through the steps necessary to recover your system.

  3. After you have restored all the files from your backup volumes, reboot the machine to complete your recovery.