Need some Backup Help

[Joseph Sinclair]

Craig is correct in that a files backup (the best you can do with a file share) will not permit a bare-metal restore.

That said, if you do need a files backup, then what you need to do is use the admin share.

Every drive in Windows is shared by default, and there's very little you can do to prevent it (One of the barn-door security holes in Windows).
If you can connect with an ID that has administrative rights, then you can use\\Server\\C$ for the C drive or \\Server\\D$ for the D drive, etc...

This only works for partitions mounted with a drive letter, but most Windows users don't use multiple partitions, much less filesystem mounts.

==Joseph++

Richard Wilson wrote:
> All,
> 
> I have a Linux Workstation running Fedora Core 3 with a SCSI Tape Drive
> attached (a very nice DLT 3 drive that was being excessed by my
> company...)
> 
> I want to use it to back up my XP laptop and thought it would be a
> simple case of sharing the C drive using Samba and then any decent Linux
> backup utility... I had a tar working until it hit C:\WINDOWS and took a
> permission failure...
> 
> I had shared the entire C drive, (read only) and was using an ID with
> admin privs on the XP system... but no, Uncle Bill wants to protect me
> against the folly of sharing \WINDOWS....
> 
> Is there another approach I can take, one that perhaps might make the
> tape drive appear local to the XP system?  I am no Samba expert, but am
> willing to try.
> 
> Or are there some other tools that this list can recommend?
> 
> I really want a clean backup of the XP system -- I plan on
> repartitioning it so I can install Linux and dual boot; but the open
> source tools I have for repartitioning (Gnu PartEd) don't guarantee
> results...
> 
> Thanks in advance,