XP Backup Program

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kat
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K

Kat

I'm looking for opinions on the "Ntbackup.exe" program built in to XP Pro.
Has anyone used this?

I need to do more frequent backups for my business and I'm thinking of
purchasing an external hard drive and do the automated backups that XP Pro
provides. Has anyone got any experience with this program as far as
restoring from it? Or are there suggestions that might work better.

Thanks in Advance

Kat in WI
 
I use Acronis True Image and find that it works well.
I have also used Goodsync; it is more use for copying and then updating to
an extenal hard drive or to another computer.
 
I'm looking for opinions on the "Ntbackup.exe" program built in to XP Pro.
Has anyone used this?

I need to do more frequent backups for my business and I'm thinking of
purchasing an external hard drive and do the automated backups that XP Pro
provides. Has anyone got any experience with this program as far as
restoring from it? Or are there suggestions that might work better.

Thanks in Advance

Kat in WI
Click to expand...

Funny you should ask.

I am in process of setting up ntBackup for some of my "clients" - it
looks OK to me.

It uses the archive bit to determine what needs to be backed up, now I
think thats a good thing, but I also know that others will vehemently
disagree with me; prefering instead a timestamp based approach. It's
one of those interminable arguments, that bore me to distraction.

I suspect that one of the reasons ntBackup is not more widely used is
that it is said not to part of XP Home Edition, but it is - you just
have to install it by hand off the CD. Another case of US antitrust &
EU trade practices laws striking a blow against the interests of
consumers.

Restore is straight forward, fire up the wizard, select restore,and
follow the yellow brick road. You can restore everything or just a
single file it's all pretty straight forward.

There's a series of articles on MS Technet that are worth reading,
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windo...e68a-4276-8d82-a637a2f7ed871033.mspx?mfr=true


Don't be put off that its in the section on Windows Server 2003. Both
Windows XP and Vista are built on the original Windows NT operating
system kernel, which was primarily used as a server operating system.
Browse through the sections, some are probably more appropriate than
others -- e.g. the Best Practices section is probably "over the top"
for an individual user, but the principles are relevant.

I've also attached a couple of PDF's that I dug up for my "clients" -
you will need to get your head around the different backup types,
which are explained in the 2nd attachment.

What do I use - well actually I use an old version of Genie Backup
Manager (GBM). The reason I am using it is largely historical. In my
work I make use of the Alternate Data Stream (ADS) facility of NTFS,
I backup to rewriteable CD's using the InCD "driver" to create a
FATlike file system on the CD-RW, GBM is the only backup manager I
know of that will preserve the content of ADS's when in saves them to
non NTFS media. However I intend changing my backup media to a USB
disk, if ntBackup preserves the ADS's in the backup and faithfully
restores them then I'll be changing over to ntBackup.

If you feel you need something that's a step above ntBackup then I'd
recommend GBM - I think you'll find that it ranks as best of breed by
most serious sofware reviewers.

However given that you dont have a robust backup/recovery in place
today, I suggest you start with ntBackup and only think about handing
over your hard earned for something else if and when you run into a
brick wall. Changing backup software is not as challenging as say
changing mail systems, word processor or these days your cell phone.

Hopes this helps - rgds UT

Oh, is your WI the Wisconsin one or the West Indies one - im in sydney
 
Has anyone reading this thread used SyncBackSE? I used it on my old
desktop computer but when I built my new computer I didn't install it.
I am now searching for information/suggestions as to what to use.

I have a Western Digital 500 GB SATA hard drive on my computer, and
another one just like this in a detachable plastic case. It connects
to the computer by a SATA cable and is very fast. I would like to keep
the files on the backup caddy and those on the computer's hard drive
synched and safe in case of a failure on either of these drives.
Gordon
 
I'm in Wisconsin

I do have a backup system in place. I have a 4 Gig drive that I physically
transfer each week folder by folder and I'm really getting tired of the
cumbersome job of doing it that way. Plus we no longer can use the 4 Gigs
since I was told to also back up email folders containing email files. One
user alone has 2.5 Gig... yeah I know I've told the user they are looking
for failure keeping this many emailed in the email program rather than
moving them to their hard drive in folders but I digress (she's just looking
for failure and when it happens a big "I told you so"...) anyway.

I'm purchasing 2 external hard drives that are 120 Gig Each. They come with
backup software called "SafetyDrill". I will look at that software as well.
I just thought that since the Ntbackup was Microsoft and on XP (I have XP
Pro) that it might be easy to use. I haven't researched it very far though
and that's why I came here.

I plan on doing backups daily (at night) but probably swapping the drive
every week keeping one out of office at all times.

Thanks for your help and suggestions so far.

Kat in WIsconsin =)
 
NtBackup is not widely used because of its limitations, it was written when
5" floppys were still the norm, there are third party backup solutions that
are far more flexible
 
I had used Ntbackup until I discovered that it would not recover a crashed
system. I have installed Acronis True Image 10 and it backs up my system
weekly to an external HD. I can reboot the system from the Acronis disc if I
cannot restart the OS.

'Drew
 
Hi Kat,

Are the drives yiu're thinking of buying network drives or USB drives?

Your plan to have an offsite copy is an excellent one.

Re the DL's comment that ntBackup designed for floppies. The clients
I mentioned are a religious community. As of today they do their back
ups using ntBackup to a variety of media, including internal hard
drive, external USB drive and a, IOmega drive. I am trying to
convince them to share a network drive. The first time you use
ntBackup you are invited to insert a diskette into drive A: ignore
that and select the USB or network drive you'll be using and it
becomes the default for all your future backup jobs.

My guess is that the drives you are thinking oif buying are from
Maxtor, I think they use the Safety Drill sofware for their "press
button" backup drives. There's an an interesting comment in this
review of the Maxtor drive -

http://www.smh.com.au/news/reviews/push-the-button/2007/11/25/1195962828131.html
"The supplied Maxtor backup software runs on Windows XP and Vista ...
and Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger... but we'd rather use Apple's snazzy Time
Machine backup software anyway... Ditto if you're running Windows
Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate, as Microsoft's backup software
outstrips the Maxtor program in features and functionality."

I stand to be corrected, but I don't think the differences between the
Vista's backup and ntBackup are that great. One of my "clients" has
Vista Business Edition, she uses it's backup program with an external
USB drive - other members of her community have XP (Pro & Home). I
implemented the same solution on all their systems including two group
"training" sessions where I used an XP/Home system as the demo
platform.

If you intending to use a network drive, I suggest you use that
supplies network backup software. I've not used any of the current
products, but the range that I'm attracted to is from IOmega

http://www.iomega.com/direct/produc...ast_id=26890319&bmUID=1207983317815#learnmore

IOmega use EMC's Retrospect Express backup sofware, I've not used it
either. EMC is a major player in the "IT Infrastructure Market", and
I have used their products on "big" computers, they are an
organisation for who I have considerable respect. IOmega is an
innovative company that's been around for a while. Your disaster
recovery strategy will still require two drives. Network drives cost
more than USB drives - the list price of the IOmega (360Gbytes) is
$US150, but you should be able to shop around and get two for say
$225.

Advantage of network drive is that you could put shared folders on it,
meaning such folders would be available even when the folder's owner
has their PC is powered down. Some network drive allow one to plug a
printer into them. then you've got a shared printer without necessity
of having someones PC turned on.

I've asked EMC to send me user manual for their sofware. If you send
me your email I'll pass it on with comments, I wont post here for
obvious reasons, you can mail at the address associated with this
post.

cheers UT
 
'Drew said:
I had used Ntbackup until I discovered that it would not recover a crashed
system. I have installed Acronis True Image 10 and it backs up my system
weekly to an external HD. I can reboot the system from the Acronis disc if
I cannot restart the OS.
...
Click to expand...

I'm an Acronis fan, having several times actually restored a C: partition
with it. It has the simplicity of completely restoring the partition, so
you
don't have to worry about special files of any type, or about the directory.
 
Has anyone reading this thread used SyncBackSE? I used it on my old
desktop computer but when I built my new computer I didn't install it.
I am now searching for information/suggestions as to what to use.

I have a Western Digital 500 GB SATA hard drive on my computer, and
another one just like this in a detachable plastic case. It connects
to the computer by a SATA cable and is very fast. I would like to keep
the files on the backup caddy and those on the computer's hard drive
synched and safe in case of a failure on either of these drives.
Gordon
Click to expand...


Yep, I use it for synching folders to a portable drive that I carry
around, but I regard it as a replication tool not a backup tool.

IMO backup needs features that SynchBack doesn't have (versioning,
locked file handling etc) But it's a good product, I've never had it
fail on me and that is major requirement of any backup software.
 
Hi Kat,
Click to expand...
Re the DL's comment that ntBackup designed for floppies. <snip> The first time you use
ntBackup you are invited to insert a diskette into drive A: ignore
that and select the USB or network drive you'll be using and it
becomes the default for all your future backup jobs.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry my experience is different. After sitting through an hour or
so of backing up "all information on this computer", the backup program
suddenly declares that it could not find a floppy diskette drive, hence
could not create the recovery start-up disk. End of story.

I'd appreciate if anyone could tell me how I can get back to pointing it
to a USB or an external hard drive instead of a floppy. (My PC does
/not/ have a floppy drive.)
 
occam said:
I'm sorry my experience is different. After sitting through an hour or so
of backing up "all information on this computer", the backup program
suddenly declares that it could not find a floppy diskette drive, hence
could not create the recovery start-up disk. End of story.

I'd appreciate if anyone could tell me how I can get back to pointing it
to a USB or an external hard drive instead of a floppy. (My PC does /not/
have a floppy drive.)
Click to expand...
Install a USB floppy. If all goes well, it will be recognized as the A
drive.
If not, then you cannot use ntbackup.
You do realize that you need an XP installation CD to restore a full backup?
If you don't, then you cannot use ntbackup.

ATI has neither of these problems.
Jim
 
I'm sorry my experience is different. After sitting through an hour or
so of backing up "all information on this computer", the backup program
suddenly declares that it could not find a floppy diskette drive, hence
could not create the recovery start-up disk. End of story.

I'd appreciate if anyone could tell me how I can get back to pointing it
to a USB or an external hard drive instead of a floppy. (My PC does
/not/ have a floppy drive.)
Click to expand...

Ah, but I dont use the "All Information on this Computer" option.

My assumption being that software is available on installation media
or from the 'net. So I use ntBackup to backup data, not the
operating system or application software.

You probably need to read this
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302700 if you want to use
ntBackup's (Automated System Recovery) features in XP Home Edition.

cheers PhilD
 
Purchase a decent third party backup program. NTBackup is an archaic POS.
Personally I use Acronis TrueImage. It hasn't let me down. I've used their
products for years.
 
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