diff --git a/start-cassandra.sh b/start-cassandra.sh
index 3bc62e4..5fd644e 100755
--- a/start-cassandra.sh
+++ b/start-cassandra.sh
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@
 
   # Run cassandra 
   echo "Starting cassandra"
+  echo "[31;48m[WARNING] This script copies conf/cassandra.yam to $CASSANDRA_DIR/conf/cassandra.yaml (overwrites)[0m"
+  echo "[31;48moriginal cassandra.yaml was backed up as cassandra.yaml.backup[0m"
+  cp $CASSANDRA_DIR/conf $CASSANDRA_DIR/conf.backup
   cp ${ONOS_HOME}/conf/cassandra.yaml $CASSANDRA_DIR/conf
   $CASSANDRA_DIR/bin/cassandra > $CASSANDRA_LOG 2>&1 
 }
diff --git a/start-zk.sh b/start-zk.sh
index 4e1134e..a3be04a 100755
--- a/start-zk.sh
+++ b/start-zk.sh
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@
 function start {
   # Run Zookeeper with our configuration
   echo "Starting Zookeeper"
+  echo "[31;48m[WARNING] This script copies conf/zoo.cfg to $ZK_DIR/conf/zoo.cfg (overwrites)[0m"
+  echo "[31;48moriginal zoo.cfg was backed up as zoo.cfg.backup[0m"
+  cp $ZK_DIR/conf/zoo.cfg $ZK_DIR/conf/zoo.cfg.backup
   cp $ZK_CONF $ZK_DIR/conf
   echo "cp $ZK_CONF $ZK_DIR/conf"
   $ZK_DIR/bin/zkServer.sh start