NTBackup (atau Windows Backup) adalah aplikasi cadangan bawaan yang diperkenalkan di Windows NT 3.51 dan disertakan di Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, dan Windows Server 2003. NTBackup terdiri dari utilitas baris perintah dan sekumpulan antarmuka wizard yang menyediakan banyak opsi untuk membuat, menyesuaikan, dan mengelola pencadangan, dan terintegrasi dengan Shadow Copy dan Penjadwal Tugas. NTBackup membuat cadangan dalam format file BKF eksklusif ke sumber eksternal termasuk floppy disk, hard drive, tape drive, dan drive ZIP.
NTBackup digantikan oleh Pencadangan dan Pemulihan dan WBAdmin dimulai dengan Windows Vista, yang menyediakan fungsionalitas serupa dan alih-alih menggunakan format file Hard Disk Virtual untuk mencadangkan konten; namun, di Windows Vista, dimungkinkan untuk memulihkan NTBackup dengan menyalin file yang diperlukan dari Windows XP. Pencadangan Server Windows menggantikan NTBackup yang dimulai dengan Windows Server 2008; baik Backup and Restore maupun Windows Server Backup tidak mendukung penggunaan tape drive.
Untuk membaca/memulihkan cadangan lama, Microsoft telah menyediakan utilitas NTBackup Restore untuk Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 dan untuk Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 yang hanya dapat membaca file BKF.
Ketika digunakan dengan tape drive, NTBackup menggunakan Microsoft Tape Format (MTF), yang juga digunakan oleh BackupAssist dan Backup Exec dan Veeam Backup & Replication dan kompatibel dengan BKF.
Features
NTBackup supports several operating system features including backing up the computer’s System State. On computers that are not domain controllers, this includes the Windows Registry, boot files, files protected by Windows File Protection, Performance counter configuration information, COM+ class registration database, IIS metabase, replicated data sets, Exchange Server data, Cluster service information, and Certificate Services database. On domain controllers, NTBackup can back up Active Directory, including the SYSVOL directory share.
NTBackup supports Encrypting File System, NTFS hard links and junction points, alternate data streams, disk quota information, mounted drive and remote storage information. It saves NTFS permissions, audit entries and ownership settings, respects the archive bit attribute on files and folders and can create normal, copy, differential, incremental and daily backups, backup catalogs, as well as Automated System Recovery. It supports logging and excluding files from the backup per-user or for all users. Hardware compression is supported if the tape drive supports it. Software compression is not supported, even in Backup to files.
NTBackup can use removable media devices that are supported natively by the Removable Storage Manager (RSM) component of Windows. However, RSM supports only those tape devices which have RSM-aware WDM drivers.
NTBackup from Windows XP and newer includes Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) support and thus can back up locked files. In the case of Windows XP Home Edition, NTBackup is not installed by default but is available on the Windows XP installation disc. Windows XP introduced a wizard-style user interface for NTBackup in addition to the advanced UI.
An expert system administrator can use the NTBackup scripting language to create a functional backup system. Scripting enables the system administrator to automate and schedule backups of files and system state, control the RSM to follow a media rotation strategy, reprogram the RSM to work with external HDD and NAS as well as tape, send email reminders to prompt users to insert the media and compile backup reports that include logs and remaining capacity. An alternative to scripting is GUI software such as BackupAssist, which automates NTBackup and can perform automatic, scheduled backups of Windows-based servers and PCs using NTBackup.
Third-party plug-ins can be used with the deprecated Removable Storage component in Microsoft Windows to support modern storage media such as external hard disks, flash memory, optical media such as CD, DVD and Blu-ray and network file systems exposing the pieces of media as virtual tape to NTBackup which is based on Removable Storage.
NTBackup can be used under Windows Vista and up by copying the NTBackup files from a Windows XP machine. To use tapes or other backup locations that use the Removable Storage Manager, you will need to turn it on in the Turn Windows features on or off control panel, but in Windows 7 and up, the component was removed.
Corrupt or damaged backup files
Due to the large size typical of today’s backups, and faulty data transmission over unreliable USB or FireWire interfaces, backup files are prone to be corrupt or damaged. When trying to restore, NTBackup may display messages like “The Backup File Is Unusable”, “CRC failed error” or “Unrecognized Media”. Third-party, mostly commercial solutions may recover corrupt BKF files.
