Restoring a Windows 2000 WINS Database from Other Backup Sources

This article describes how to restore a WINS database from a backup. You may not be able to use only the Restore Database function in the Microsoft Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) MMC Snap-in to restore a WINS database. This article assumes that you know how to use the WINS MMC snap-in to access the WINS Server information.

Backing Up the WINS Database

To back up the WINS database, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type mmc in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. If the WINS server does not appear in the interface, add it. To do so, click WINS, right-click Add Server, and then type either the NetBIOS name or the IP address of the WINS server you want to back up.
3. Make sure that the green arrow appears over the icon to the left of the WINS server name. The green arrow indicates that the service is running.
4. Right-click the server that you want to back up, and then click Properties.
5. On the General tab, type the name of the database backup and the default backup path. Do not use a network drive. Microsoft recommends the following location:
   %Systemroot%\System32\Wins
6. Right-click the WINS server that you want to back up, click Backup Database, click OK, and then close the dialog box.
   
   Unless you designated a folder under the main folder, WINS automatically creates a Wins_bak folder to contain all the backup files. WINS backs up the database and you are prompted with the following message:
   The database backup completed successfully.
   The Wins_bak folder contains a folder that is named New. The New folder contains the following three files:
   • J500000X (X is the version number)
   • Wins.mdb
   • Wins.pat
7. If you want WINS to back up the database every time you shut down or restart the WINS server, click to select the Backup database during server shutdown check box.
8. You must manually back up the WINS database before the automatic backup schedule starts. WINS automatically backs up the database every three hours to the backup location that you specified earlier in this article.

Note Frequently, network administrators back up the same files in the WINS backup location to another media such as a tape drive. The J500000X, Wins.mdb and Wins.pat files are put in the Wins_bak\New folder. If you want to back up the WINS database to tape, you must select these files or the backup folder.

Restoring a WINS Database from the Configured Backup Location

To restore the WINS database from the default location, follow these steps:

1. Stop the WINS service. To do so, from the WINS MMC Snap-in, right-click the server, click All Tasks, and then click Stop.
   
   Note When the WINS service stops, the green arrow that was to the left side of the server name changes to a red circle with a white 'X' mark inside it.
2. Right-click the WINS server that you want to restore, and then click Restore Database.
3. Locate the folder where the backup files are located, and then click OK.
   
   Note Use the parent folder of the Wins_bak folder.
4. The WINS database now includes all the entries that the backup copy of the Wins.mdb file contained. This information is as current as the last automatic or manual WINS database backup.
5. You can now jetpack the database to make sure that the database compacted successfully without errors.
   
   For additional information about how to jetpack a WINS database, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   145881  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/145881/ ) How to Use Jetpack.exe to Compact a WINS or DHCP Database
   172570  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/172570/ ) Jetpack Error Codes for Windows NT 4.0

Restoring a WINS Database from Other Media

To restore a WINS database from other media sources such as a tape backup, you must copy the J500000X, Wins.mdb, and Wins.pat files to the folder where the latest backup files are stored. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Identify the location of the backup files.
2. If the current WINS database does not work, you can create the database. To do so, follow these steps:
   1. Stop the WINS service. To do so, in the WINS MMC Snap-in, right-click the server, click All Tasks, and then click Stop.
   2. Delete all the files in the System32\Wins folder except the Wins_bak folder. You can copy the backup files to another folder in case you must use them for troubleshooting.
   3. In the WINS MMC Snap-in, right-click the server, click All Tasks, and then click Start.
3. In the WINS MMC Snap-in, right-click the server, click All Tasks, and then click Stop.
   
   Note When the WINS service stops, the green arrow that was to the left side of the server name changes to a red circle with a white 'X' mark inside it.
4. Locate the Wins folder, and then delete all the files under this folder, but do not delete the Wins_bak folder.
5. Locate the New folder under the Wins_bak folder, and then delete all the files under this folder.
   
   Note Make sure that there are no other j5xxxxxx files in the Wins_bak\New folder of the WINS server after you complete this step. You can find these folders at the following location:
   %Systemroot%\System32\Wins
6. Copy the J500000X, Wins.mdb, and Wins.pat files from the external media source to the Wins_bak\New folder.
7. Right-click the WINS server that you want to restore, and then click Restore Database.
8. Locate the folder where the backup files are located, and then click OK.
   
   Note Use the parent folder of the Wins_bak folder.
9. The WINS database now includes all the entries that the backup copy of the Wins.mdb file contained. Verify that the database was restored.
10. You can now jetpack the database to make sure that compacted the database successfully without errors.

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