Backing Up the Windows Home Server Backup Database and Files

By on December 31, 2008 in How to Guides, Windows Home Server, Windows Home Server v1

Microsoft has a solution to back up your Shares folder.  Alex Kuretz created a WHS add-in to backup your WHS backup database.  Nicky Murphy has created an automated method to backup both to a NAS box.  With Nicky’s method, you can even encrypt the backup.

Nicky can say it lot better than myself.  From his webpage:

In the event of a disaster it’s best not to have all your data in the same place.  The trouble with Windows Home Server backups, is that they are generally in the same building as the client PCs, so if you lose the building, you lose everything.  The following method will allow you to do an encrypted backup to a remote drive that could live, for example, in your garden shed.

A feature that was pulled from Performance Pack 1 was the ability to backup the client backup files.  An add-in was developed that automated the documented process that Microsoft published, though the PDF file that contains those instructions, now seems to have been removed / moved.

The manual process was:

  1. Run mstsc.exe to start a Remote Desktop Connection session to your home server.
  2. Plug in an external hard drive to your home server (do not add it to the Server Storage through the Windows Home Server Console).
  3. Open a Command Prompt, Click Start, Run and type CMD
  4. Type net stop PDL
  5. Type net stop WHSBackup to stop the Windows Home Server Backup service.
  6. Copy the contents of to the external hard drive:
  7. Type net start WHSBackup to restart the Windows Home Server Backup service.
  8. Type net start PDL

I’ve developed this manual process into a an automated script that will give you a fully encrypted backup of both the PC backups and the WHS shares to any NAS drive or server that supports files over 4Gb.  For my system, I’m using a 500GB Freecom Network Drive Pro.  It has to be the Pro version as the cheaper one only supports FAT32 as a file system.  FAT32 has a 4GB single file limit.  The Pro supports ext3 which doesn’t.  The NAS drive can then be located off-site i.e in the shed or garage.

I have been wanting to try this method out for awhile, but I have simply not found the time to do so.  If you do want to try it yourself, Nicky has created a very nice tutorial at the link I provided above.  If you have a WHS and have a NAS sitting around, try it out.

I, and others, would be very interested to know how works for you.


Enjoyed this post? Share it.

If you enjoyed reading this post, then why not share it with your friends and followers?

About Jim Clark

Hello. I’m from the heartland of the U.S. Lots of corn and beans, although Iowa is a lot more than just farmland. It also has a few computer enthusiasts (no, not me!). I’ve been around PCs since I got my 1st PC XT aloooong time ago. WGS is one of the first sites I found centered around WHS. And the best. Every once in awhile, I do get away from the KB and enjoy time with and my wife and our 4 kids. And I do have a day job.
View all posts by Jim Clark →

Sign Up for WGS Daily News

If you don't want to miss out on the latest news from We Got Served, why not subscribe to our daily digest? You'll get the day's headlines and a short summary of each news item delivered straight to your inbox each morning.

, , , , , ,

  • http://reluctanthippie.net mfmjos

    I’ve been planning to do almost exactly this! In my case I want my NAS/Remote backup to be at a family members house. I even plan to use truecrypt to protect the data. I intend to use OpenVPN to establish the connection. Also, with the distant remote storage, you would want to do the initial copy on the local network then move the NAS to the remote site. Great job Thanks!

  • http://reluctanthippie.net mfmjos

    I just finished reading the post on Nicky’s site. That date stamp change/resync of the backups is not ideal. I’ll have to look into that.

  • http://www.hodgkinshistory.com/ The Kitty

    I’ve had two primary disk failures and would like the ability for the WHS to rebuild the OS partition as easily as the client PCs. Any add-in that would help would be a blessing, even if the NAS has to be connected to the server box.

  • Pingback: Best backup routine and software | keyongtech

  • Bob St. aubyn

    This is an add-in that should definitely be incorporated into a next version/Power Pack for WHS. Should be a feature. Being a SQL DBA I understand the importance of “backing up the backup” and the precarious feeling of single point of failure. Now, this isn’t exactly a ‘single point’ scenario – the native software RAID 1 mirroring that WHS provides is great – but I just had one of the two local drives on my server die and I was looking for a solution just like this. GREAT idea Nicky. Nice job.