Windows Backup 

Introduction to Windows Backup 

Key Topics 

Backups 

Microsoft Backup 

Backup file system 

Backup Media 

Backup Set 

Backup Types 

Normal Backup 

Copy Backup 

Daily Backup 

Incremental Backup 

Differential Backup 

Backup Strategy 

Normal and Incremental Backup 

Normal and Differential Backup 

Daily Backup strategy 

Questions 

Windows Backup

Introduction to Windows Backup

• Making backups is an important part of the system administrator  or the technical teams job.

• Windows 2000  provides a powerful backup utility, which allows you to make backups, restore files , and create emergency repair disks (ERD ).

• By combining different backup types, you can decide on a backup strategy for creating backup sets within windows 2000.

Key Topics

Backups

• Windows professional provides you with backup tools, which allow you to duplicate the required data from the hard drive  on to a different medium such as a floppy drive , CD  ROM , and tape drive.

• The windows 2000 professional backup utility is a far more powerful tool then the Windows NT  backup utility.

Microsoft Backup

• This Microsoft backup tool built in windows 2000 performs function including

• Backup  selected files  and folders

• Backup  remote storage data

• Backup  system state data

• Backup  domain services  such as active directory , certificate services, and file replication service.

• Restores selected files  and folders  from backup

• Schedule  automatic regular backups

• Create an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD ) for recovery .

Backup  file system

• When backups are made from NTFS  volumes, NTFS permissions  on files  and folders , EFS , and disk quota information  is also backed up.

• If the backup of an NTFS  volume is restored on a on a FAT partition, all of the NTFS file features will be lost and in some cases the data itself will be lost.

Backup  Media

• Backups  can be made on a number of mediums including tape, removable Hard drives, removable devices  such as zip disks, Jazz disks, CD  ROM  disks, optical disks etc. 

• Tape is the most commonly used medium for backing up data because of it large capacity which can reach above 100GB. The only downsides to tape are that it is slow when searching  and restoring data, and the tape has a very limited lifespan, which should not be exceeded, or the data backed up could be lost.

Backup  Set

• A Backup  Set may be thought of as a batch of backups made in a defined period of time.

• A backup set can be generated at different intervals depending on the size of the data that is generated and needs to be backed up.

• Small companies may choose to make a backup set once every several months, where as large companies may be making a backup set once a week or less.

Backup  Types

• There are several sorts of backups that could be made using the Microsoft backup utility within Windows Professional . These backups include Normal  backup, Copy  backup, Daily  backup, Incremental  backup, and deferential backup, which could be used in combination to develop backup strategies.

Normal  Backup

• Performs a backup of all the files  required irrespective of previous backups and needs to be done at the start of a backup set since it is highly time consuming.

• Normal  backup ignores file archive attributes when backing up files  but remove the archive attribute  from the files that it backs up on the medium.

Copy  Backup

• Makes a copy of all the files  selected on to the backup medium regardless of its archive attribute  and does not change the current archive attribute of the file.

• Copy  backup is particularly useful if you intend to backup files  which are of high importance regardless of any backup strategies currently in place.

Daily  Backup

• The daily backup copies the selected file changed on the day of the backup and does not change the archive attribute  of the files  copied.

• Daily  backup is particularly useful if you intend to backup files  that are of high importance having been changed that day regardless of any backup strategies currently in place.

Incremental  Backup

• Incremental  backup copies modified files  or new files since the previous normal or incremental backup.

• Incremental  backup only copies files  which have the archive attribute , and removes the archive attribute from the files which have been backed up.

• Incremental  backups can be used to make updates of data changes since the last backup that takes less time to complete than a normal backup.

Differential  Backup

• Differential  backup copies modified files  or new files since the previous normal backup.

• Deferential backup only copies files , which have the archive attribute , and does not change the archive attribute from the files which have been backed up.

• Differential  backups can be used to make updates of data changes since the last normal backup which takes less time to complete the a normal backup but could take more time than an incremental backup.

Backup  Strategy

• A backup strategy is basically a combination of the different backup types resulting in a plan balancing the requirements for the backup and the time consumed in the process and the data restoration in a catastrophe.

• These strategies include normal and incremental backup, normal and differential backup and finally daily backups.

Normal  and Incremental  Backup

• This strategy requires that a normal backup is made at the start of a backup set and then regular incremental backups are made thereafter until the next backup set.

• Since each incremental backup has only copied the data for that particular backup since the last backup, restoring the data would mean restoring the normal backup followed by each individual incremental backup, which will be time consuming.

Normal  and Differential  Backup

• This strategy requires that a normal backup is made at the start of a backup set and then regular deferential backups are made thereafter until the next backup set.

• Since each deferential backup copies all the data since the last normal backup, as the days progress the size of each differential backup increases resulting in a longer backup time. When restoring the data one only needs to restore the last normal backup followed by the last differential backup resulting in less time being spent in the data restoration.

Daily  Backup  strategy

• You could perform backups on a daily bases ensuring all of that days generated data is backup.

• This backup is based on the date and not on archive attributes used on the other backup strategies.

Questions

1. What is the task of the windows 2000 backup utility? (Choose all that apply)

1. Backup  selected files

2. Backup  selected folders

3. View registry

4. Backup  system state data

5. Backup  active directory  

2. What is the task of the windows 2000 backup utility? (Choose all that apply)

1. Restore  selected files

2. Restore  selected folders

3. Schedule  backup

4. Backup  other computer data

5. Create an ERD  

3. What are the features of incremental backup? (Choose all that apply)

1. Makes backup of all files  

2. Makes backup of all new files

3. Changes the archive attribute

4. Does not change the archive attribute

5. Uses date information  for backup

4. What are the features of normal backup? (Choose all that apply)

1. Makes backup of all files  

2. Makes backup of all new files

3. Changes the archive attribute

4. Does not change the archive attribute

5. Uses date information  for backup

5. What are the features of differential backup? (Choose all that apply)

1. Makes backup of all files  

2. Makes backup of all new files

3. Changes the archive attribute

4. Does not change the archive attribute

5. Uses date information  for backup

6. Which backup strategy takes the lest time to restore

1. Normal  and date

2. Normal  and incremental

3. Normal  and differential

4. Daily

5. Incremental  and differential

Answers

1.      A,B,D,E

2.      A,B,C,E

3.      B,C

4.      A,C,

5.      A,D

6.      C