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Always Safe

Safe for Backup or Cloning

U-Move is always safe to run on the source computer. When U-Move backs up or clones Active Directory it will never modify or change the contents of your Active Directory database in any way.

To back up Active Directory, U-Move creates a temporary snapshot of the C: volume and backs up AD from the snapshot. The backup operation is done in the background and typically takes only 1-5 minutes. There is no interruption of AD service. The operating system will automatically drop the temporary volume snapshot as soon as U-Move terminates. (It will drop the snapshot even if U-Move somehow crashes or you kill the process with Task Manager.) This is exactly the same procedure that Microsoft uses to back up the System State.

The backup operation will take longer if AD is large (10,000+ users), or when backing up a large associated database such as Exchange.

No Interruption of AD Service

During the backup there is no measurable delay or interruption of AD service.

Upgrading Active Directory

When upgrading Active Directory to a new computer that is running a newer version of Windows Server (“swing migration”), U-Move will always ask you for confirmation before it begins. It will offer to back up AD on both computers before it makes any changes (moving DNS settings, moving FSMO roles, etc.) All changes can be rolled back by restoring the backup.