Brick Level backups. I've seen a few posts in the newsgroups recently which indicate that Brick Level backups are still being performed. This type of backup is not recommended for a number of reasons, including… reliability, backup time and greater media requirements. Reliability is probably the main issue, as this backup type has proven to be far too unreliable. This article from Charles Villa explains the reasons for not using brick level backups, both clearly and in some detail. Charles also explains what you should be doing instead… ie online backups of your Information Store and Directory using an Exchange aware backup application be-it NTBackup, Backup Exec, Arcserve (both with Exchange Agents) or whichever. Combine this with the Ed Crowley Never Restore Method and if your budget can stretch to it… Ontrack's PowerControls which'll enable you to extract data from an unmounted priv.edb, and you should be able to sleep much better at night… as long as you've got a tried and tested disaster recovery plan of course. [MS Exchange Blog]