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I am looking at creating backups of our C: drive in case we have a major HD or OS failure... This is a web server, so I want the fastest way of restoring IIS with all the settings and all the program files (SQL Server etc.) and read the built in 'Windows Server 2008 Backup' is what I should be using.

So I basically want the C drive backed up so I can restore it to how it was before a failure...

  • But I am confused by the options, do I need to be choosing bare metal recovery?
  • Or just The C Volume and the 'System State'?
  • Does system state include IIS settings etc..?
  • Is bare metal used if I won't be recovering from a fresh Win2008 install?

Sorry for all the questions I just want to make sure I choose the correct options for what I need

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For the OS/ System recovery you want to do a system state backup. This will include the registry, System Files, IIS metadata, etc. For a full list see: System State

The OS/ System State backup will NOT backup your actual data, however. For that, you need to backup the SQL/ other data separately. Your restore process would include booting to the 2008 server dvd, choosing repair system, and selecting the backup to restore from. Once the OS is restored you would then restore the SQL/ other data.

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So if I chose 'System State' AND 'C Drive' this would backup the state and all whole C Drive... Could I also restore this from a fresh install? As 1&1 only offer a complete re-image with clean Win2008 installed. – leen3o Mar 24 '11 at 13:42
Yes, the portion that specifies to backup the System State is the "Enable System Recovery" checkbox when selecting what to back up. If you do a backup immediately after you finish installing the OS then yes you could restore to a fresh install. As I said before though the OS restore will not restore anything other than the OS. – Cheekaleak Mar 24 '11 at 13:56
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