How to Maintain Fully Populated Windows 2000 Backup Catalogs (249120)

SUMMARY

Windows 2000 Backup keeps a tombstone catalog on the local disk for each backup tape. After you select a backup catalog on the Restore tab, Backup mounts the tape and then reads the on-media catalog(s) to populate the on-disk catalog file before it expands file/folder restore selections.

This operation takes time and requires operator intervention, especially when multiple backup sets are contained on the media or the backup set spans multiple tapes. When Backup quits, file and folder information is removed and it becomes a tombstone catalog file again. This conserves disk space because the size of on-disk catalogs can become very large.

You may want to maintain a complete on-disk catalog of your backup tapes to expedite backup restoration. This eliminates the delay in mounting and reading the on-media catalog(s) that you must do before you make your restore selections and a restore procedure is initiated.

MORE INFORMATION

The on-disk catalogs are stored individually for each backup user in the appropriate profile folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\Catalogs

256d494e.v01 1 KB (note the file size and .v01 file extension)
256d52ba.v01 1 KB

When Backup reads the on-media catalog for a tape, it populates the on-disk catalog file that represents that tape. This is evident by the size of the catalog file. If you want to maintain a fully populated catalog between backup sessions, you need to rename the .v01 file extension or copy the fully populated catalog file before quitting Backup, and then copy or rename the file back to using the .v01 file extension before re-running Backup.

Warning Ensure that you have enough disk space to keep fully populated on-disk catalogs, especially when many backup tapes are being managed by several users. You may find duplicate fully populated on-disk catalogs if you have several backup operators following this procedure.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

241162 How to save backup report logs to an alternate location

Note After the application of Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, the catalog location was moved for Backup Operators and Administrators.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

325266 No files are displayed on backup tape or you are repeatedly asked to insert a tape