Advice for Data Backup on Windows XP

[TekkieFreak]

Hey guys.

So far, we have no regular backup method for our PC's.

We recently migrated our "old ***" server to a Windows 2000 server that runs ARCserve on a daily basis. I would like to get the contents of everyone's "My Documents" folder backed up daily during the nightly backup. It's only 4 PC's for now. 2 PC's running Win 2000, and 2 PC's running XP Home.

So you know, we are running as a Workgroup, and I'm trying to avoid passwords and what not. If I can't fully automate this process, the users won't do it. (I've tried)

So far, here is the best that I can come up with. I have the 2 Win2000 PC's running daily scheduled ntbackup.exe sessions onto a shared folder on my PC. (WinXP). From there, I can just have ARCserve grab anything in that same directory after it finishes backing up the server.

My problem is that the 2 XP home machines don't have ntbackup.exe, so I don't know how to make regular, tiedy backups of the files in those users' "My Documents" folder.

I know I can just copy and paste the users "My Documents" folders to a directory on the server, using my PC. But what a pain in the *** to do that EVERY DAY!

Any ideas would be appreciated.

I've got to do something soon. I can just see one of these PC's dieing, and loosing all the data.

[shamus]

Stab in the dark....have you tried just copying ntbackup.exe to the machines and seeing if it runs?

[craigmodius]

Shamus is probably right for your first try.

Google gave me this...

"To Manually Install the Backup Utility in Windows XP Home Edition
Insert the CD Rom and navigate to CD-ROM Drive:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP

Double-click the Ntbackup.msi file to start the wizard that installs Backup

When the wizard is complete, click Finish. "

because why would the home user want to backup their data


cheers

[TekkieFreak]

Thanks guys. I found the same solution on google. It's actually on the Windows XP CD. You just have to dig for it. (see link below if anyone's curious.

http://www.ntfaq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=24413

Thanks again to a great group of guys.

Brian

[silencio]

Another option here, one that might be simpler than NTbackup, is scheduling an xcopy of the My Documents folder to a share on the 2000 machine (like a home folder). Then you can backup all the docs with one instance of arcserve instead of multiple instances of NTbackup. It's less to schedule. I have this setup running on a few xp home machines so far it works pretty well.

[TekkieFreak]

Another option here, one that might be simpler than NTbackup, is scheduling an xcopy of the My Documents folder to a share on the 2000 machine (like a home folder). Then you can backup all the docs with one instance of arcserve instead of multiple instances of NTbackup. It's less to schedule. I have this setup running on a few xp home machines so far it works pretty well.

I'd be willing to give that a try. How could I do that without needing passwords? Or, can use somehow have the xcopy program remember a password?

Thanks.