If you have a tape unit, you can use the backup utility that comes with Windows NT, NTBACKUP. You cannot backup your PC unless you have the back up files and directories user right. If you are the local administrator or power user, you will have this right or can grant it.
The types of backups NTBACKUP supports are:
Normal : Backs up the files selected and marks them as backed up.
Incremental : Backs up files that have changed since the last backup and once the files have been successfully backed up, the files are marked as backed up.
Differential : Same as Incremental in that it backs up files that have changed since the last backup but Differential does not mark the files as backed up
Copy : Same as a normal backup but does not mark files as backed up
Daily : Backs up files that have been modified on that day. Does not mark them as backed up.
The options available in NTBACKUP are:
tape name : 32 character description of the tape
append/replace : if you choose append, the new backed up files are added to the end of the tape. If you choose replace the contents on the current tape is overwritten.
verify after backup : once files are copied to tape they are verified against the file on disk, that is, tape is read and files on tape are compared to files on disk backed up.
Backup Local registry : Backs up the registry of the computer with the tape drive. You cannot backup remote computers registry's. You have to purchase a 3rd party backup utility if you need to do this.
Restrict Access to Owner or Administrator : Only the owner of the tape or a member of the Administrator or Backup Operators group can access the tape.
There are a set of standard backup schemes for production servers. For personal use, I recommend backup up full, normal backup, whenever you have created documents or made changes to your PC which are important. Take the time to back up your PC. Have a set of tapes which you rotate. Label each tape with the date and some idea of why the backup was made. Keep your old tapes and do not reuse them for a year or so. Throw away tapes which are 3 years old.
If NTBACKUP reports an error on the tape such as Bad Tape or Tape Drive Error Detected, reboot the PC and try again. If the error is consistent and it seems to be the tape and not the tape drive (ie you can use other tapes), erase the tape. Startup NTBACKUP with the nopoll parm:
ntbackup /nopoll
The nopoll parm is used to tell NTBACKUP to not check the tape. At this point you can erase the bad tape. Mark the tape as having been erased and if you have future problems, chunk it. If budget is no problem, don't bother and just chunk it. During a nopoll session, you can erase but not backup or restore.
A minor gotcha! can occur if you schedule ntbackup using the AT scheduler. If an error occurs, ntbackup will prompt and if you did not specify the /interactive option to launch ntbackup.exe, then there is no user console and no one to respond. The process hangs in memory until a reboot.