virtualbox.org

Hi there!

I was planning to test a disaster recovery using VirtualBox, but have a hard time doing it...!

I have a couple of Windows Servers, on which I use Windows builtin backup utility to back them up on external USB drives, everything is fine there (did some DR some time ago, using a physical PC). My troubles start when I try restoring in the "Repair my computer" setting on the Windows 2008 installation, because the installer simply does not recognize / see the USB drive where the backup images are kept :/
I tried using diskpart, and that doesn't see the backup drive either, I tried using a USB filter to make the drive mount automatically, but to no luck so far - anyone with ideas are more than welcome

/Tommy

TomLar wrote:did some DR some time ago

Does "DR" stand for "Disaster Recovery"? Just to make sure. TLAs are great as long as we're on the same page.

TomLar wrote:because the installer simply does not recognize / see the USB drive

Would that be the Windows Installer? Because you also mention "diskpart" at some point.

TomLar wrote:I tried using a USB filter to make the drive mount automatically

USB filters do not mount devices automatically, they use the device after the VM has started and after the USB is plugged in (in that order, not the other way around).

Generally speaking, you're a little "spartan" on the details. Please try to expand a little bit more. Remember, you're describing this to "deaf" and "blind" people, as far as your set up goes.


PS. Moving to "Windows Guests" from "Mac OS X Hosts". Mac is not even mentioned in the post.

socratis wrote:Does "DR" stand for "Disaster Recovery"? Just to make sure. TLAs are great as long as we're on the same page.

Yes, DR is Disaster Recovery

socratis wrote:Would that be the Windows Installer? Because you also mention "diskpart" at some point.

I am booting from a Windows 2008 ISO file (grabbed using my MSDN subscription), and from there I select "Repair my computer", which would be the normal way to recover. Diskpart is mentioned because I used that via Command Prompt, also from the Windows 2008 CD, and the drive is also not visible there.

socratis wrote:

TomLar wrote:I tried using a USB filter to make the drive mount automatically

USB filters do not mount devices automatically, they use the device after the VM has started and after the USB is plugged in (in that order, not the other way around).

OK, thought that maybe the drive would be available to the guest at boot time, and otherwise not, maybe that would be the reason Windows 2008 can't see the drive, but as you say, that's not the issue.

socratis wrote:Generally speaking, you're a little "spartan" on the details. Please try to expand a little bit more. Remember, you're describing this to "deaf" and "blind" people, as far as your set up goes.

Of course, the more you know, the easier it is to do something So, to sum it up, my setup and scenario is this:

I am running VB 5.1.8 on a Mac
I have an external USB drive, containing a backup of a Windows 2008 Server
I boot a virtual machine, using a Windows 2008 Server ISO file
I select Repair my computer, which tells me that no backups can be found on any available drives

Since my original post, I tried to install a clean Windows 2008, and the "funny" thing here is that even that one, after booting into the desktop, can't use the drive either, asking for a driver, which is not available, neither by installing Guest additions or searching online....?! No wonder that the recovery utility can't, then...!
The external drive is a USB3 drive, which I can see some people are having a bit of trouble with, but if I set the USB controller in the guest to USB 2.0, I just get an error telling me that I can't mount / use the drive.
So, is this basically because of some missing drivers for USB3, potentially because I'm using a Mac with what hardware that comes with, or could I be missing some settings?

socratis wrote:PS. Moving to "Windows Guests" from "Mac OS X Hosts". Mac is not even mentioned in the post.

My bad, thought that since I am running the host on OS X, it should be posted there!

I think that your problems are with Windows Server, not with VirtualBox. With Windows you really need a recovery disk for the machine you are trying to recover in a bare metal recovery. This will include a driver for all the devices it requires to recover your system. It is basically a WInPE boot disk with the drivers for your hardware. I prefer to use a CD/DVD but USB should be fine on a physical machine. (I would not rely on USB boot for a vm).

If you don't like the way Windows does it, there are many third party recovery tools and most have a free or demo version. I particularly like Macrium but one of the others (Acronis, Paragon etc) might suit you better. I think they all rely on a recovery disk to recover the system to a bare metal install - Macrium certainly does.

"Repair you System" really only works to repair a machine which is having problems but has an OS installed.

Actually, Repair your system is the only way to get into a full recovery mode, using the backup image, restoring every drive exactly as it was before, kind of like the way Norton Ghost and Acronis does it - naming convention is bad, like it is to hit Start to Shut down

I still think what I'm trying to do should be possible, right now the main issue must be that I can't see a USB3 drive in a Windows guest environment?

Have a nice weekend

/Tommy

If you want it to work like Acronis, use Acronis or one of the other third party solutions.

Windows Backup/Restore in Server 2008 is not like backup in Windows 7 or in previous server editions. There are not a lot of people who are familiar with it (and probably none who use this forum).