Usage examples :
Backup the NTFS permissions of drive E :
saveperm E: permissions.bin
Restore the NTFS permissions of drive E :
restperm E: permissions.bin
Backup the NTFS permissions of the folder C:\test
saveperm C:\test testperm.bin
Restore the NTFS permissions of the folder C:\test
restperm C:\test testperm.bin
The binary file containing the permissions is filled with NTFS security descriptor information. It's very important to note that the drive or the folder restoring the NTFS permissions should have EXACTLY the same folder and file structure possessed by the original drive \ folder. If it's the case of a system partition, failing to do so can lead to serious NTFS conflicts resulting in an unbootable operating system.
saveperm.exe records the following NTFS informations :
Owner security information Group security information DACL security information SACL security information
If you have a Win PE 1 \ 2 \ 3.x or a BartPE disc, you can easily perform a file-level backup of your Windows XP \ Server 2003 installation with the 7-Zip command-line tool and saveperm.exe
a) Get a copy of 7-Zip command-line version.
B) Place the 7-Zip and saveperm.exe \ restperm.exe tools to a location accessible from the Win PE \ BartPE environment.
c) Restart your system with a Win PE \ Bart PE disc.
d) Backup the system :
X:\7z\saveperm.exe C: X:\7z\C-NTFS-perms.bin move X:\7z\C-NTFS-perms.bin C:\C-NTFS-perms.bin X:\7z\7za.exe a -t7z -mtc=on -mx5 Z:\Srv2003DC.7z C:\* >backup.txt
e) To restore the system :
X:\7z\7za.exe x Z:\Srv2003DC.7z -oC:\ >restore.txt move C:\C-NTFS-perms.bin X:\7z\C-NTFS-perms.bin X:\7z\restperm.exe C: X:\7z\C-NTFS-perms.bin
X points the system partition of the Win PE system. You can specify a network drive ( Z in the example ) or another partition to perform the backup.
The above example backups and restores a Windows Server 2003 domain controller in a test network. The same procedure can be used for a Windows XP system. The installation having a size of 1596 Mb is compressed to 355 Mb with 7z.
Doing a backup of a Vista \ Server 2008 \ 7 installation is more complicated as another NTFS specific feature, symbolic links are introduced to those systems to maintain backward compatibility with older folder naming conventions. I didn't test those systems.
Download :
BackupNtfsPermV090.zip
