Ever tried re-installing a file/print server?  And ever had to manually recreate a number of printers / print cue’s?  Its a horrible way to spend an evening :-/

And actually its a total waste of good (Battlefield playing) time, if you use “Print Migrator” from Microsoft to export the printers in advance you can simply re-import all printers and cue’s in minutes.  In order for this to work properly, you should export your printers from time to time (as a disaster recovery preemptive step).

Print Migrator is a Microsoft utility, and its free 😉

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/printmigrator3.1.mspx

Additional disaster recovery hints;
Be sure to backup;
DHCP scopes,
Printers,
Shared folder info (a reg key) – “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServiceslanmanserverShares” (you can once you have restored all data simply import this registry key and all shares are restored with correct NTFS).

Export data via commandline this way;
Create a C:ackup directory
use this commandline:

regedit /e c:ackupshares.reg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServiceslanmanservares

printmig -b c:ackup\%computername%-Printers.cab

Now you will have a dump of your printer cue’s and the setup of all your shares on this server/machine, these can be found in c:ackup.

This will reduce your recovery time tenfold.

I use a scheduled script like this to ensure I have a current backup of printers and shares;

@Echo off
cls
Echo *************************************************************************************
Echo * SYSTEMBACKUP SCRIPT V 20081104        *
Echo * This script will backup printers, dhcp and shares to c:systembackup directory    *
Echo *************************************************************************************
Echo.

rem
rem   To schedule at 12:00 /interactive /every:sa “c:systembackupsystembackup.cmd”
rem

mkdir c:systembackup
mkdir c:systembackupdhcp
mkdir c:systembackupprinters
mkdir c:systembackupshares

Echo System Backup Commencing… [SHARES]
regedit.exe /e c:systembackupshares\%computername%-shares.reg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServiceslanmanserver
Echo System Backup Commencing… [PRINTERS]
c:systembackup oolsprintmig.exe -b c:systembackupprinters\%computername%-Printers.cab
Echo System Backup Commencing… [DHCP]
del /F /Q c:systembackupdhcp*.*
copy %systemroot%system32dhcpBackup
ew c:systembackupdhcp
regedit.exe /e c:systembackupdhcp\%computername%-dhcp.reg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesDHCPServerParameters
netsh dhcp server dump > c:systembackupdhcpDHCPconfig.cfg

Echo Done.
exit

Want to expand your knowledge in the security field? ofcause you do, its cool 🙂

Spend some time visiting;
http://www.irongeek.com – tons of cool stuff and tutorials
http://www.hak5.org – a cool show with neet stuff from modding to hacking.