Proper Use of Microsoft Backup

[Phil M.]

I have never completely understood Microsoft backup, and
I need to get it straightened out so I can make sure
backups are correct. Here is the problem:

Basically, I do not understand how Windows, and the
Removable Storage Service handles your Tapes.

I simply want to do the following:

Erase out all previous backups and references to tapes.
I essentially want to re-create the backup routine from
scratch.

I want to have a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
and Friday tape. The Friday tape will backup everything,
and the other tapes will backup only certain important
directories on a nightly basis. (There isnt much more
than 2gb of data, so I'm gonna just do a full backup each
night).

I know how to make the selections, etc. I just need to
understand how Windows Manages the tapes. I keep getting
errors saying "The specified media cannot be found", and
other ones.

Please Help! Maybe there is an article or walkthrough
available?

Phil

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

If you want to reuse tapes, you'll need the /um switch.

I have my server backups set up the same way you wish, and generally prefer
to use a batch file to run the backup, and schedule *that*. If you want a
copy of the batch file I use, email me offline (unmunge my addy first, of
course).

Why not just do a full backup of everything every night? Makes disaster
recovery a *lot* easier....

 

[Scott Harding - MS MVP]

It can be a pain in the A#$! You basically have to create the jobs for each
day and then put in the specific tapes for that day so that particular
backup job has the correct tape for that day and initialize each tape before
actually running any of the backups. I wish it would just take the tape and
use it but it doesn't because it wants to catalog ..blah, blah....this has
always made me crazy This article should help

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;239892&Product=win2000