NTBackup Won’t Work?

How to Allocate Tapes to NTBackup
If you're starting with tapes that NTBackup doesn't recognize (e.g., tapes that have been used with a different version of NTBackup), you need to allocate them to NTBackup before you can use them in a schedule. One simple way to allocate an unused tape is to use it for a small backup job. To do this, open NTBackup. In Windows 2003 and XP, the Wizard Mode starts by default. Click Advanced Mode to switch to the Advanced Mode interface. (To always skip this initial dialog box, you can deselect the Always start in wizard mode check box.) There's no Wizard Mode interface in Win2K, so Windows 2003's and XP's NTBackup initial screen in Advanced Mode is similar to Win2K's NTBackup initial screen.

Windows 2003's and XP's Advanced Mode interface is almost identical to Win2K's NTBackup interface, so the next step in all three OSs is to select the Backup tab in the NTBackup UI. In the left pane, highlight your system disk. Make sure you only highlight the disk. (Don't select it for backup.) In the right pane, select a small file, such at boot.ini, as Figure 5 shows. From the Job menu, choose Save Selections. In the dialog box that appears, enter a sensible name (e.g., Prepare.bks) and click Save. When you return to the Backup tab, make sure New (Windows 2003 and XP) or New Media (Win2K) is selected in the Backup media or file name drop-down list box. Click Start Backup to display the Backup Job Information dialog box, which Figure 6 shows. The default entries in the Backup Job Information dialog box are generic, so you need to edit them to suit the task. The description you enter in the Backup description text box appears in the backup log file and in the Description column of the Restore and Manage Media tab (Windows 2003 and XP) or the Restore tab (Win2K) in the NTBackup UI. The label you enter in the second text box defines the tape name that will appear in the NTBackup and Removable Storage UIs. A good strategy is to define the label according to the role the tape will play in your backup rotation scheme (e.g., Monday 1, Friday 2). For this example, let's use the tape name Friday 1 because the backup will run the first Friday of every month. When you're ready to begin the backup, click the Start Backup button.

If the tape isn't empty, NTBackup displays a dialog box that states the tape contains data that will be replaced with the current job. Windows 2003 and XP display a dialog box similar to the one that Figure 7 shows. Figure 8 shows Win2K's dialog box. If you're sure you inserted the correct tape, choose Yes. NTBackup then backs up the file and allocates the tape to itself. You need to repeat this process for any new tapes in your rotation.

You can see the list of allocated tapes by opening the Removable Storage console. In the left pane, expand Media Pools, then Backup. Under the Backup media pool, select the pool that matches your tape drive's media type (e.g., Travan).

In some cases, you might get one or more error messages when attempting to allocate a tape to NTBackup. In these cases, you might need to deallocate and free a tape before you can allocate it successfully. To remove the tape's allocation information, right-click the tape in the Removable Storage console and choose All Tasks, Deallocate (answer Yes to all prompts). Next, right-click the tape again, choose Free (Windows 2003 and XP) or Prepare (Win2K), and answer Yes to all prompts. This will move the tape to the Free media pool. After completing these steps, try running the backup job again.

How to Create Scheduled Jobs
After all your tapes are allocated to NTBackup, you can use them in scheduled jobs. For this example, let's create a scheduled job that performs a full system backup on the first Friday of every month and that stores the backup on the Friday 1 tape. To create the scheduled job, go to NTBackup's UI (make sure you're using the Advanced Mode interface if you're running Windows 2003 or XP), and select the Schedule Jobs tab. Click the Add Job button in the bottom right corner to start the Backup Wizard. (If NTBackup asks whether you want to keep your selections before starting the wizard, choose No.) Click Next to advance past the wizard's opening page.

On the wizard's What to Back Up page, you need to tell NTBackup the data you want to back up. You can choose to back up everything (i.e., all files and folders on all disks, and the system state), a selected set of files and folders, or the system state only. For this example, we're backing up the entire server, so choose Back up everything on this computer and click Next.

The Backup Type, Destination, and Name page lets you select your tape drive's media pool and the tape you want to use for the job you're scheduling. In the Select the backup type drop-down list box, select your tape drive's media pool (e.g., Travan). In the
Choose the tape you want to use drop-down list box, select the tape. For this example, select Friday 1, then click Next.

On the Type of Backup page, you further define the backup type and whether to back up migrated remote-storage data. In this example, you want to perform a full backup of the server, so choose Normal. If your server uses the Remote Storage service, you can also select the option to back up migrated remote-storage data. Click Next.

In the How to Back Up page, you can choose to verify the backup data and choose to use hardware compression. In Windows 2003 and XP, you can also choose to disable the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) if you're not backing up the system state. (Win2K doesn't have VSS.) It's not necessary to verify the backup data unless you suspect a faulty drive or tape. Using hardware compression is generally recommended because it can reduce your backup set size and the time needed to run the backup. It's also a good idea not to disable VSS (if available) without a good reason. For this example, disable the verify option, enable the hardware compression option, and click Next.