NTBackup Won’t Work?

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Scheduled backups are an important part of any data recovery scenario. In Windows 2000 and later, the NTBackup utility is integrated with the Removable Storage service and Task Scheduler to simplify media management and automate unattended backups. It's certainly an improvement compared with Windows NT Server 4.0's NTBackup utility, which doesn't have these features.

Although NTBackup, the Removable Storage service, and Task Scheduler are documented separately in the Windows online Help system, the interactions between these tools aren't adequately explained. NTBackup is simple to use interactively, but many people have expressed frustration when trying to get scheduled backups to work consistently. I've seen many small businesses purchase third-party backup software simply because they perceived NTBackup as too confusing and difficult to use. I'll show you how NTBackup, the Removable Storage service, and Task Scheduler work together and how to allocate tapes, create scheduled jobs, and remove failed tapes. Note that my instructions assume one standalone tape drive; the process might be different if you use other types of backup hardware, such as robotic libraries.

Understanding How the Tools Interact
The Removable Storage service (ntmssvc) manages devices that use removable media, including tapes. In removable-storage terms, a library is a device, such as a tape drive, that uses a particular type of media, such as a tape. A media pool is a logical collection of removable media. There are two types of pools: application pools (pools used by a particular application, such as NTBackup) and system pools (pools used by the Removable Storage service). There are three system pools: free, import, and unrecognized. The system pools hold media that aren't currently being used by an application.

You can view the libraries and media pools available to the Removable Storage service by opening the Removable Storage console. (On the Start menu, select Run, ntmsmgr.msc.) When you start NTBackup for the first time, it creates a media pool that matches the type of media used by the tape drive (e.g., the Travan media pool if a tape drive uses Imation's Travan tapes). This media pool will be under the Backup media pool in the console's directory.

When you insert a tape into a tape drive, the Removable Storage service determines whether the tape has been allocated to an application by attempting to read identifier information on the tape. If the tape isn't being used by any applications, the Removable Storage service places the tape into one of the system media pools.

Before creating scheduled backup jobs, it's important to understand that NTBackup requires tapes that have been allocated to it. You can see a tape's allocation by checking the Format column in the Removable Storage console, which Figure 1 shows. (Note that the Format column doesn't appear in the Win2K version of the Removable Storage console.) Alternatively, you can double-click the tape in the Removable Storage console, then click the Side tab. As Figure 2 shows, the Type field in the Identification label section identifies the tape's allocation.

In the Removable Storage console in Figure 1, notice that the Name column lists the tape's name as Friday 1 - 1, yet the Info field on the Side tab in Figure 2 lists the tape's name as Friday 1. Because the Removable Storage service supports media with more than one side, the - 1 after the tape's name refers to the first allocated side. The second allocated side of a writable two-sided medium would be appended with - 2. The Removable Storage service automatically appends the side number, which isn't used except when displaying the tape in the Removable Storage console.

When you start NTBackup, it checks the current tape's allocation information. If NTBackup recognizes that the tape is allocated to an application but the allocation isn't recorded in the Removable Storage database (e.g., because the tape was used on a different computer), NTBackup asks whether you want to move the tape to the NTBackup media pool on this computer. Figure 3 shows the dialog box that you receive in Windows 2003 and Windows XP. Figure 4 shows the dialog box in Win2K. As you can see, the wording differs substantially between the two dialog boxes, which might be confusing if you just migrated from Win2K to Windows 2003. If you want NTBackup to move the tape to its media pool, select the Allow Backup Utility to use all the recognized media check box (Windows 2003 and XP) or the Allocate all compatible import media to Backup check box (Win2K), then click OK. Alternatively, you can control this behavior by adjusting NTBackup's default options. Open NTBackup, select Tools, Options, then click the General tab. In Windows 2003 and XP, select the Always allow use of recognizable media without prompting check box. In Win2K, select the Always move new import media to the Backup media pool check box. Contrary to how NTBackup words this message, this operation doesn't actually allocate the tape to NTBackup; it merely moves the tape's entry to the NTBackup media pool.

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