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
