Is there any way to make NtBackup restore from a command line?

[Mark K Vallevand]

We are using NtBackup from a command line in a batch file to perform
backups. But, it does not allow restores when called from a command line.
This is by design, but in an embedded environment, I think it should be
allowed. Is there a way to make NtBackup do this?

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand (e-mail address removed)

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin


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[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Mark,

Until you try you will never know
I have just typed ntbackup /? and got chm help opened that give you command
line instructions

So answer is yes you can use it.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Mark K Vallevand]

The help says that NtBackup cannot be used to restore files using the
command line options.

Yes, you can run the GUI to do a restore, regardless of how the program was
started. But, I'd like to have a command line backup and restore. This
works from a batch file:
ntbackup backup c: d: /f "\\server\backups\backup.bkf" /v:yes /L:s /M copy
/SNAPff
but there is nothing like this:
ntbackup restore c: d: /f "\\server\backups\backup.bkf" /v:yes /L:s /M
copy /SNAPff
Too bad.

I was hoping that there was a secret feature in NtBackup to do command line
restores.

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand (e-mail address removed)

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin


THIS COMMUNICATION MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL AND/OR OTHERWISE PROPRIETARY
MATERIAL and is thus for use only by the intended recipient. If you received
this in error, please contact the sender and delete the e-mail and its
attachments from all computers.

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Yes you are right. I did not look deeper after I saw that it support command
line. I expected restore option to be there as well :-(

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[KM]

Slobodan, Mark,

Unfortunately it is a known limitation of the ntbackup that is does not support the "restore" command line switches. I think many of
us here stumbled on this unknown lack of feature :-(
For MS confirmation, please see the first remark at the bottom of this page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...home/using/productdoc/en/ntbackup_command.asp

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Konstantin,

Mark has seen this, and I have seen this also when he told me that, but
thanks anyway

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[KM]

Slobodan,

You are right. Mark even said "This is by design" in the original post
Well... having an official link always helps if someone is going to do a search on similar issues in future

 

[KM]

Btw, I think the problem with ntbackup not having the restore option comes deeper to VSS API. There is a function to make the
backups (CreateVssBackupComponents and http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/vss/base/ivssbackupcomponents.asp) but there is no
"easy" call to do the restore.

I have never done that myself but it seems that pretty much all the components of a system state
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/vss/base/backing_up_and_restoring_system_state_under_vss.asp) can be restored including
cluster database (BackupClusterDatabase/RestoreClusterDatabase) and SFC/WFP files.
And all information is in MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/vss/base/custom_backups_and_restores.asp

Also, just files can be backed up and restored with old APIs like BackupRead/BackupWrite/etc.