How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal This article applies to Barracuda Backup Server firmware version 5.4 and higher. Bare metal recovery allows you to restore a complete Microsoft Windows system, including data, settings, applications, and operating system, onto a new computer on which nothing is installed. Caution The bare metal recovery process overwrites all existing data on the system to which you are restoring the data; therefore, bare metal recovery is recommended only when no other recovery option is available. This process rebuilds the target computer or server to its original system set up. A bare metal restore is intended to be used for restoring to similar hardware. All system volumes and system state must be backed up in order for bare metal recovery to be possible. Requirements You must have an existing backup of a system that uses one of the following Microsoft operating systems: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows 2008 Server Windows Small Business Server 2011 Windows Small Business Server 2008 Windows Vista Windows 8 Windows 7 Additionally, you must have all of the following: Barracuda Backup Server firmware version 5.4 or higher; Barracuda Backup Bare Metal Live CD 5.4 or higher (available from the SYSTEM > Software Downloads page); and Administrator rights to the Microsoft Exchange Server. Bare Metal Live CD Use the following steps to download the Bare Metal Live CD boot media; select the appropriate bit version for the OS you are planning to restore. For example, if you are restoring a 64-bit operating system, you must use the 64-bit version. 1. Log in to Barracuda Backup and go to SYSTEM > Software Downloads. Download the Bare Metal Live ISO file to your local system. 2. Burn the Bare Metal Live ISO file to a CD. 3. Boot the system you want to restore using the Bare Metal Live CD you created in step 2. How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal 1 / 10
Read the onscreen warning: How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal 2 / 10
4. 5. 6. To continue with the Bare Metal restore, click Next. Set up the Network configuration: If you have DHCP enabled on your network, an assigned IP address displays in the IP Address field. If DHCP is not enabled, uncheck DHCP, and enter the IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway: How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal 3 / 10
7. Click Next. You are prompted to log in to Barracuda Backup: How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal 4 / 10
8. In the Barracuda Backup web interface, go to the RESTORE > Restore Browser page and select the system you want to recover. 9. Click View all revisions up to: <date> to view the selected system's revisions available for restore: 10. In the Revisions list, click Restore for the revision you want to recover. 11. In the Restore dialog box, click the Restore tab, and enter the IP address of the system you are recovering in the Restore to section: How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal 5 / 10
12. Click Start Restore. 13. For the system booted using the Bare Metal Live CD, a list of volumes that are recoverable displays: How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal 6 / 10
14. Select the volumes you want to recover. Boot and System Volumes You cannot deselect boot and system volumes as these are required for the Bare Metal restore. If you choose to restore to a server that does not have identical volumes as the original machine the data was backed up from, the Barracuda Backup appliance will still attempt to restore all drives even though you may have only selected one of these on the Bare Metal Restore screen. The restore will throw errors for these missing drives, but will restore the drives that exist on the target machine. 15. Click Next to begin the restore: How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal 7 / 10
16. When the restore is complete, click OK in the Confirmation dialog box: How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal 8 / 10
17. Remove the bare Metal Live CD, and reboot the system. SQL and Exchange Server If SQL and/or Exchange are installed on the system, you are required to restore those items separately once the bare metal restore is complete. How to Restore a Windows System to Bare Metal 9 / 10
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