Windows 2000 Backup software

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

I have an OnStream 30GB tape drive that supports drive letter access (drive T <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">. I came with a backup program called Echo that keeps different versions of all the backed up files. I prefer the Windows 2000 Backup software because it has a progress bar, and tell you how much time is left. But I can't use the driver letter access if I use the drivers for the win2k backup software so I just set the win2k backup software to backup to file T:\Backup.bkf. Are there any dissadvantages to save to a file on the tape?

Also, with the win2k backup software if I set it to make a full backup once, then a daily incremental backup (new/modified files), how can I then do a full restore (wouldnt all the different backups be seperate)?

Thanks

[Student^2]

I don't follow how your recovery process would work, then. If you have to boot into Windows to access the tape (assuming your not quite Hoyle setup won't work right via ERDs), aren't you shooting yourself in the foot?

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

What does Hoyle and ERD mean?

Anyway my tape drive only works in Windows so I don't have to choice to re-install windows when my PC crashes. I have already restored this way (format, install windows, restore backup) and it works fine.

BTW, how do you restore an entire backup (first full backup and all following incremental backups) with the win2k backup oftware?

Thanks

[Student^2]

Hoyle - Search for a more complete answer, but he was an English gentelman who wrote one of the first (and the first to be widely used) collections of rules for parlor games. Thus, if something isn't 'according to Hoyle' it deviates from standard practice.
ERD - Emergency Recovery Disk(s). Those disks that form the front line of your recovery strategy, and allow you to recover some or all of your backups without reinstalling the OS.

So, as to the how to question, I couldn't tell you. Kind of an apples and oranges thing. I get the feeling that your tape drive is more of a backup for easy storage than a part of a disaster recovery plan. It should include instructions to make a bootable disk with drivers that would allow you to access it and restore your OS, files, etc.
I've never used Microsoft backup programs for their legendary unreliability. Sorry.

[Ron Prestenback]

This is a limitation to Microsoft's backup utility. It is only truly functional enough to backup data. While there is an option to backup system state data, which consists of the default, SAM, security, software, and system registry files, I have never been able to get it to work reliably, and Windows still won't backup files that are in use. I was hoping they would change this in Win2K. No such luck. As for assigning a drive letter to this tape drive, I didn't quite understand if you *could* or *could not* access the tape drive through drive letter T:

There should be a setting in the properties of the device driver itself (something along the lines of "phantom drive" or something that will enable you to assign a drive letter.

As far as the backup sets are concerned, the online documentation is a little vague, so let me paraphrase. In case you don't know, backup uses the archive bit (or attribute) to tell it which files to backup. On means this file should be included with the next backup, off means it shouldn't.

Full Backup - This backup changes all files on the system to enable the archive bit, backs up all files, then removes the archive bit from all files.
Copy Backup - Same as full backup, except that upon completion, instead of removing the archive bit from all files, it will only remove it from the ones that didn't have one set to begin with.
Daily Backup - Removes archive bit from all files, then sets archive bit on all files changed today, backs up said files, and returns all archive bits to previous state.
Differential Backup
Incremental Backup
I put these two together, because these are essentially the same thing. These are your maintanence backups. The difference between them works like this:

You perform a full backup on Monday, at which point, all archive bits are set to off. The archive bit is set to "On" if the file is modified in any way after the full backup. In scenario 1, you perform an incremental backup each day, until Monday, when you perform another full backup. Every day, only the files that have changed since the day before will be backed up. In other words, on Tuesday, the incremental backup will run, and let's say 100 files have changed since Monday. It will backup only these 100 files and reset the archive bit to off. Then wed, same thing...

Differential backups, on the other hand, will backup the same 100 files on Tuesday, but won't reset the archive bit, so that on
Wednesday, it will still backup all files that have changed since the last full backup. In our scenario, assuming 100 files per day were changed, Tuesday's backup would be 200 files, then Wed - 300, and so on. You can set it to overwrite yesterday's data or not.

Restoring - For both scenarios, you will have to load Monday's backup first. Then, with an incremental backup, you would then need to load Tuesday's backup, then Wednesday's backup, and so on. With the differential backup, after the full backup restore, you could skip right to the day with the latest backup without having to load every day in between. All of this is pretty useless however, because as of yet, NTBackup STILL cannot be run via Task Scheduler!!! No use setting up a backup set like this unless you have third party scheduling software, and even then, a full backup once a week should probably be sufficient. (I would run two week alternating backups, in case one got corrupted)

[Ron Prestenback]

Wow, that one was kinda long huh? I must getting long-winded in my old age.... <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Ron - Thanks for the detailed info! I Think I'll keep Echo backup (the software that came with the tape drive) because I can make a full backup, then incremental backups everyday and it mixes all the backups as one and keeps all the different versions of the files. So, if I want to restore, all the full backup and following incremental backups are all restored in on step! I guess the win2k isn't that good after all...

BTW - Yes the win2k backup has a backup scheduler, you prolly just didn't see it.

Also, YES, my tape drive supports drive letter access (set as drive T: ). I think this is the only tape drive that support driver letter access and is by far the best tape drive I saw (quiet, fast 1MB/Sec transfer, cheap $200 for drive, large 30GB-50GB tapes, motorized load.eject mechanism similar to a VCR). It's also good as a HUGE removable media, I use one tape to store full lenght 2GB movies I capture with my TV tuner card and I can watch the movies streaming from the tape! The manufacture says you can store 7 full DVD movies on one tape!

For more info on my tape drive see: http://www.onstreamdata.com/

Thanks again for your help