4.15 Help! A disk drive has crashed and I can't get my system up!

You can if you've followed the recommendations in Chapter 10 to prepare for the eventuality and follow this checklist from Gilles Schipper:

Assuming no non-system volume sets, here is what you should do (I am also assuming you have a current SLT and that either the SLT or one of your backup sets has a current directory).

HP replaces drive.

Mount the SLT and boot from the path of the tape drive (usually the alternate path)

INSTALL

After choosing boot from primary, START NOREVCOVERY

HELLO manager.sys

Mount a tape that has the complete system directory (ideallyon, say, ldev 7

:FILE t;dev=7 and :restore *t;;directory

VOLUTIL (at this point add all disk volumes to the appropriate volume set, assumed in this checklist to be the mpexl_system_volume_set)

mount your most recent partial backup on ldev 7

:OPENQ lp

:LIMIT 1,1

:JOBFENCE 14

:RESTORE *t;@.@.@;olddate;keep;show=offline;create

mount your most recent full backup and redo the restore from 10 above

note any users created in RESTORE listings and :PURGEUSER them all (since they were not there to begin with)

shut the system down

perform a START NORECOVERY

RESTORE listings should be printed and noted for any unusual events. Notice that it is preferable, in my opinion, to perform the RESTORE from the partial backup before the full backup.

That should do it.

I want to emphasize the ";olddate;keep;show=offline;create" options of the above RESTORE. The ";olddate" will prevent all file modification dates from being changed to today, which will cause your next partial backup to become a full and will essentially upset any future file management activities based on date-last-accessed. The ";keep" option will prevent ldev1-located files from being placed elsewhere and ensure the most recent copies of files (from the partial) are keep - besides there is no need to re-RESTORE files already in place. The ";show=offline" option will give you a hardcopy of the RESTORE output - almost always useful - but most useful, I find, after you have omitted this option. The ";create" option may create new users on your system but will ensure that ALL files from your backup are restored. Of course, the extra users created should be then deleted (step 12) - and the listing of these users is included in the listing resulting from the ";store=offline" option.

[Editor's notes:

Always involve the Response Center, assuming you have a contract

Clean the tape drive after EVERY use if it is a DDS drive of some kind.

Use DIRECTORY instead of BULDJOB - it is more reliable

Making the RESTORE of the directory a separate step has been questioned since theoretically it does not need to be done separately. Gilles responded that it was a combination of "old habits die hard" (there was a bug in 4.5 that would cause you great grief if you did it in one step) and intuition. I side with Gilles. Restoring the directory separately requires little extra time, yet gives you an extra measure of peace of mind. Actually, I go even further and create a tape with just the directory. Also, there is some evidence that DIRECTORY, specified on a partial backup, will leave off some or all Posix directories. ]