Scheduling Backups in Windows NT 4.0

Introduction
Windows NT did not include a very easy method for scheduling automated backups. In this tutorial, we will show you how to not only backup a drive, but your Exchange Server data as well.

In order to accomplish a scheduled backup, there are a couple of tools that you will need to be familiar with. NTbackup is the backup utility that can be accessed at start > programs > administrative tools > Backup. The scheduling utility is called AT.EXE and is used from a command prompt. In order for this utility to work correctly, you need to make sure that the scheduling service is set to started and automatic. This can be done in the "Services" Control Panel.

The AT utility allows you to schedule commands or batch files to be run on designated dates or times. When scheduling a backup, there will probabaly be multiple configuration options and commands that you will wish to use. For this reason, a batch file will need to be created.

Creating the Batch File
To get started creating your batch file, open up a text editor such as notepad. Below we will list some of the different options that you can configure in your batch file followed by examples. These options take the place of the configurable options that you would see when using the backup application in GUI mode.

Option Description
Path Indicates the folders that are to be backed up. Note: You cannot select individual files to be backed up using a batch file.
/a This switch tells NTBackup that you want to append the data from the next backup to the end of the last backup. If this switch is not used, the data on the tape will be overwritten.
/b This switch will backup the local registry.
/d "text" Provides a description for the backup set.
/e Only used if the /l parameter is used and indicates that the log should only include a summary of the backup rather than full details.
/hc:{on|off} Indicates whether or not you want to use hardware compression. If your tape drive supports compression, this option will compress the data and allow you to store more data on the tape.
/l "filename" Creates a log file with the filename specified that contains backup details. This is useful for troubleshooting.
/t {type} Specifies the type of backup to run. See the next table for more details.
/r Restricts access to the backup data.
/tape:{#} Tells backup which drive to back up to using the drive number when multiple tape drives are installed.
/v Verifies that the data was backed up to the tape.