Schwicky.net - Restoring a backup with a missing tape or corrupt catalog

May 5th, 2006

I recently had a Windows 2003 server that went bersek and where the semi-hardware RAID suddently showed no files more recent than a week before. At the same time, the rsync backup I do on a nearby standing Linux server also failed because the server had refused the mount of the data directory the last time I rebooted the Linux server. Moreover, thanks to Murphy (If something goes wrong, anything will go wrong), the last successful backup was more than a week old because the the data amount grew so much that there was not enough space for all data on one tape - but nobody had put a second tape in the drive to finish the backup.
By default, it is not so easy to restore data from a backup set where one drive is missing. Thankfully, there are at least 2 good sets of howtos:

What do you want me to do with a backup? What I need now is a restore!

How can Windows 2000 backup restore a multi-tape backup set, when some of the tapes are missing? - From JSI FAQ
How to restore data from a backup set that contains a missing or corrupted tape - Microsoft Knowledge Base Article

This Site used to be
powered by
Linux From Scratch!

Das Leben sollte mit dem Tod beginnen, nicht andersherum. Zuerst gehst du ins Altersheim, wirst rausgeschmissen, wenn du zu jung wirst, spielst danach ein paar Jahre Golf, kriegst eine goldene Uhr und beginnst zu arbeiten. Anschließend gehts auf die Uni. Du hast inzwischen genug Erfahrung, das Studentenleben richtig zu genießen, nimmst Drogen und säufst. Nach der Schule spielst du fünf, sechs Jahre, dümpelst neun Monate in einer Gebärmutter und beendest dein Leben als Orgasmus.
Donald Sutherland, Schauspieler