NTBACKUP Full vs ASR

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Hi all,

Just a question... I am testing a Tape drive so decided to use NTBACKUP again (Its been a while)... what is the difference between simply a full backup (which includes system state data) and the ASR backup??

What is on the ASR floppy and is it essential??

I have searched for half a day looking at Microsoft sites and others and the differences are not obvious...

Microsoft says the ASR contains disk signatures etc?? and that it only backs up the system partition (i.e. C) which is OK, but then it specifically states not to rely on it for backing up user data that may be there???

Is it safe just to use normal full backup, then if the hdd dies, reinstall XP and then just restore everything including system state over the top?

 

Hi,

I have read this article and others very similar to it previously... I guess I shall just have to test it or something on a new drive...

 

This is a good question.

I believe that the main difference is that the ASR floppy contains information relating to the structure of the physical disk. So that when you try and restore the operating system, details about the original volumes basic/dynamic NTFS/FAT are all there on the floppy. Otherwise you would need to do a complete re-install, so that you have a working blank operating system, re-configure your original disk structure with the same configuration as before the failure and then restore the system state, which would take a long time.

So, to put it in a nutshell, the ASR floppy allows the system to be restored and the OS to be re-built in one operation, hence quicker. I think