NoteYou can back up and restore the following system components using Backup:
Backup refers to these system components as the System State data. For Windows 2000 Professional, the System State data comprises only the registry, COM+ Class Registration database, and boot files. For Windows 2000 Server operating systems, the System State data comprises the registry, COM+ Class Registration database, system boot files, and the Certificate Services database (if the server is a certificate server). If the server is a domain controller, Active Directory and the SYSVOL directory are also contained in the System State data. Also, if you are running the domain name service (DNS) on a domain controller, then the Active Directory portion of the System State data also contains all of the DNS zone information (DS integrated and non-DS integrated). Finally, if the server is running the Cluster service, then the System State data will also include any resource registry checkpoints and the quorum resource recovery log, which contains the most recent cluster database information.
When you choose to back up or restore the System State data, all of the System State data that is relevant to your computer is backed up or restored; you cannot choose to back up or restore individual components of the System State data. This is due to dependencies among the System State components. However, you can restore the System State data to an alternate location. If you do this, only the registry files, SYSVOL directory files, Cluster database information files, and system boot files are restored to the alternate location. The Active Directory directory services database, Certificate Services database, and COM+ Class Registration database are not restored if you designate an alternate location when you restore the System State data.
Furthermore, if you have more than one domain controller in your organization, and the Active Directory directory service is replicated to any of these other servers, you may have to authoritatively restore any Active Directory data that you want to restore. To do this, you need to run the Ntdsutil utility after you have restored the System State data but before you restart the server on the network. The Ntdsutil utility lets you mark Active Directory objects for authoritative restore. This will ensure that any replicated or distributed data that you restore is properly replicated or distributed throughout your organization.
For example, if you inadvertently delete or modify objects stored in the Active Directory directory service, and those objects are replicated or distributed to other servers, you will need to authoritatively restore those objects so they are replicated or distributed to the other servers. If you do not authoritatively restore the objects, they will never get replicated or distributed to your other servers because they will appear to be older than the objects currently on your other servers. Using the Ntdsutil utility to mark objects for authoritative restore ensures that the data you want to restore gets replicated or distributed throughout your organization. On the other hand, if your system disk has failed or the Active Directory database is corrupted, then you can simply restore the data nonauthoritatively without using the Ntdsutil utility.
The Ntdsutil command line utility can be run from the command prompt. Help for the Ntdsutil utility can also be found at the command prompt by typing ntdsutil /?.
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