Restoring the Remote Storage Service database

The Remote Storage Service database contains information about remotely stored data. If you are setting up an entirely new Windows 2000 installation and you want remotely stored data to be available on the new system, you must restore the Remote Storage Service database on the new machine. Migrating or cloning systems will bring the database over automatically, so you don't need to do this on a migrated machine.

Note that this must have Windows 2000 installed in the same folder/drive layout it used in the previous installation. This method will not be able to work if you have Windows 2000 installed in a different location.

1. Right-click on My Computer, select Manage, and open the Removable Storage snap-in.

2. Under Media Pools, look in the Import Pool. Insert the most recent tape (or other media) used for remote storage. If the backup is on more than one piece of media (i.e., it spans two or more tapes or discs), catalog the media by moving them temporarily into the NTBackup Media pool and checking the dates.

3. Move the media into the NTBackup Media pool. If there is no such pool, you can create one automatically by simply running NTBACKUP without doing anything else.

4. Launch NTBACKUP and catalog the media to find the last copy of the RSS database, which is stored in the %Systemroot%System32RemoteStorage folder. Make sure you are getting the most up-to-date copies.

5. Select the most recent folders labeled NTMSData and RemoteStorage. Make sure you're restoring files and folders underneath those folders as well.

6. In the "Restore Files To:" box, select a new location and point to the drive that contains the %Systemroot% folder.

7. Under Start Restore | Advanced, select "Restore Removable Storage Database." Click OK for each prompt.

8. Reboot after the restore operation is finished.

9. Look in the Removable Storage Manager after rebooting and make sure all the databases have been restored. All the earlier media pools should exist, with all of their attendant media inside.

10. Under Add/Remove Programs, add the Remote Storage Server component to Windows, and reboot.

11. Check the Services snap-in to see that Remote Storage Engine, Remote Storage File and Remote Storage Media are all stopped.

12. Look in the %systemroot%system32RemoteStorageengdb folder (make sure you have Show Hidden Files/Folders and Show System Files turned on in Explorer). If there is anything in there, move it to another, temporary folder.

13. From the command line, type Rstore %systemroot%system32RemoteStorageengdb.bak. This runs the Rstore tool, which comes with the Remote Storage service, to repair the Remote Storage database.

14. Restart the Remote Storage Engine, Remote Storage File and Remote Storage Media services.

15. Look in Remote Storage to make sure all the managed volumes listed there show up correctly, and test by restoring a few migrated files.

Fast Guide: Remote Storage Service

 Introduction
 Remote Storage Services troubleshooting tips
 Reconfiguring Remote Storage Services for new media types
  Ensure data is available for Remote Storage Services
 Make the most of Remote Storage Service in Windows 2003
 Restore Remote Storage Service database in WinServer 2003
 Restoring the Remote Storage Service database

Serdar Yegulalp is the editor of the Windows 2000 Power Users Newsletter.