Understanding ASR
Automated System Recovery (ASR) Overview
Previously, in the Windows NT and Microsoft Windows 2000 operating systems, the emergency repair disk (ERD) feature was used to recover the system when disasters occurred. Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 now include the Automated System Recovery (ASR) feature for recovering the system in disaster situations. The Automated System Recovery (ASR) feature is a new feature found in the Windows Backup utility. ASR should be used to restore the system when all other disaster recovery tools are unavailable or do not work. ASR basically automates the procedure of saving and restoring system state information. In the event of all other recovery methods not being successful, you can use ASR to restore the operating system to a previous state so that you can start Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003.
The ASR disk contains vital configuration information which can be used to fix the following:
- Boot sector
- System files
- Startup environment
ASR works by:
- Writing operating system files onto backup media
- Writing disk configuration information to floppy disk
Therefore, for ASR to work, you need you to create an ASR set, which includes the following:
- A backup of all your critical system files.
- A floppy disk that lists which Windows system files (system settings) is installed on the computer.
When performing an Automated System Recovery, you need the following components:
- Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 installation CD-ROM.
- The ASR backup.
- The floppy disk listing which Windows system files are installed.
When a server failure occurs, all you have to do is restart the computer using the Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 installation CD-ROM. During Setup, select the Automated System Recovery option. The information on the ASR disk is then utilized to restore all standard drivers and files, and the ASR backup is used to restore the rest of the files.
ASR consists of the following two parts:
- ASR backup: The system information included in an ASR backup is:
- System state data.
- System services.
- Disk configuration information.
- All other files that are connected to the operating system.
- ASR restore: The information restored are listed below:
- A basic version of Windows.
- The copy of the system partition which you backed up using the ASR backup component.
- Disk configuration information needed to start the computer.
You cannot perform the restore process from network shares. In fact, you have to utilize locally attached devices:
- Removable disks.
- Tape backup drives.
- Hard disks.
An important point to remember about ASR is that it can only be used to restore the Windows operating system and important operating system information . it cannot back up data files or folders and files.
A few important factors to bear in mind when working with ASR are listed below:
- ASR does not support 4 GB FAT16 partitions using a cluster size of 64 kilobytes (KB). ASR only supports 2.1 GB FAT16 partitions. You have to convert 4 GB FAT16 partitions to NTFS in order to utilize ASR.
- ASR differs from the System Restore feature. The System Restore feature allows you to start Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 in Normal mode or Safe mode. System Restore saves incremental changes or shadow copies. ASR on the other hand backs up all files located on the system partition. Before deciding to use ASR, you should first try utilizing the System Restore feature.
- You need a 1.44 megabyte (MB) floppy disk to create the ASR disk.
- During the restore process, ASR formats the system partition. If your system partition includes dedicated space for user data files, you could lose this data because personal data and application files are not restored.
The Windows Backup utility is used to create ASR sets. You can access the Backup Utility via one of the following methods:
- Click Start, click Run, and enter Ntbackup.exe in the dialog box.
- Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then select the Backup utility.
Should the Backup utility automatically display the Backup And Restore Wizard, click Advanced Mode. You can initiate the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard:
- From the Welcome tab of the Backup utility.
- From the Tools menu.
Follow the prompts of the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard to back up your system configuration and to create the ASR floppy disk listing the information for restoring your system. The ASR floppy disk that is created is specific to the system and the time when ASR set was created. The files on the system which the ASR floppy disk contains are:
- Setup.log; points to the system files. location on the server.
- Asr.sif; holds the following information:
- Disk, partitions and volumes on the system.
- Location of the backup media utilized.
- Asrpnp.sif; holds information on the plug and play devices on the system.
How to create an ASR backup
- Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then select the Backup utility.
- Click Advanced Mode.
- To start the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard, click Automated System Recovery Wizard.
- When the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard launches, click Next on the Welcome to the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard screen.
- On the Backup Destination screen, select the backup type and location for the ASR files. Click Next.
- The ASR preparation process next commences.
- Click Finish.
- When the wizard is closed, the backing up of your system files starts automatically.
- When prompted, insert a blank floppy disk into your drive to create the ASR disk. All necessary system settings are
copied to the floppy disk. With Windows Server 2003, only the following three files are copied to the floppy disk:
- Setup.log; points to the system files. location on the server.
- Asr.sif; holds disk, partition and volume information on the system, and the location of the backup media utilized.
- Asrpnp.sif; holds information on the plug and play devices on the system.
How to perform an ASR restore
- Restart the Computer.
- Insert the Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 installation CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive.
- Enter the text-mode part of setup.
- When prompted, press F2 to start the Automatic System Recovery process.
- When prompted, insert the Windows Automated System Recovery disk into the floppy drive and then press any key to continue.
- Setup prepares for the Automated System Recovery.
- The basic version of the operating system is next loaded.
- Setup now proceeds to copy files to the hard drive, and then restarts the computer.
- The Automated System Recovery Wizard appears automatically, requesting the backup location.
- Select the backup location to continue with the remainder of the setup.
- After the Automated System Recovery process completes, the Backup utility opens automatically to restore the system.
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