Saving and Restoring Existing Windows NT Shares

ID: Q125996

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

If you need to:

- reinstall Windows NT over an existing installation (a clean install, not an upgrade)

- move all of your data drives from one server to another

- install Windows NT to another directory or drive on a computer that already has Windows NT installed

you can save the share names that exist on the original Windows NT installation, including any permissions assigned to those shares.


MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.

To save only the existing share names and their permissions on Windows NT follow these steps:

NOTE: This procedure applies only to NetBIOS shares and not Macintosh volumes.

  1. On the existing Windows NT installation containing the share names and permissions that you want to save, run the Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).


  2. From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following key:
    SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Shares


  3. Choose Save Key from the Registry menu.


  4. Type a new file name (a file extension is not necessary) and save the file to a floppy disk).


  5. Reinstall Windows NT


  6. Run Registry Editor. (Regedt32.exe)


  7. From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following key:
    SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Shares


  8. From the Registry menu choose Restore.


  9. Type the path and file name of the file that you saved in steps 3 and 4.

    CAUTION: This step overrides whatever shares already exist on the Windows NT machine with the share names and permissions that exist in the file you are restoring. You are warned about this before restoring the key.

    NOTE: If, after completing the procedure above, you decide that you should not have restored the Shares key, restart the computer and press the Spacebar to use the Last Known Good Configuration.


  10. Restart the server.


After restoring the shares key, the shares can be used by network clients. Although running NET SHARES on the server displays the shares, File Manager does not. To make File Manager aware of the newly restored shares, create any new share on the server. File Manager will then display all of the other shares after you reboot the server or stop and re-start the Server service.

In Windows NT 3.5, if you choose "Stop Sharing" in file manager, the restored shares will still show up, but they are grayed out.

Only permissions for domain users are restored. If a local user was created in the previous Windows NT installation, that local user's unique security identifier (SID) is lost.

NTFS permissions on directories and files are not affected when you save and restore the shares key.

Additional query words: 


Keywords          : ntdomain ntsetup ntregistry 
Version           : WinNT:3.1,3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        :

Last Reviewed: February 23, 1999