How to backup to a file in Windows XP

A backup utility has been part of Windows NT at least since version 4.0, and so this utility is also part of Windows XP.

Now, I don't have a tape drive, so I'm most often backing up my data to a file on disk, and then copying it to DVD-RW disc, or whatever depending on the backup size.

With my new PC, I tried to schedule ntbackup.exe with a custom backup selection file (.bks). However, not matter what I tried, Backup only took a backup of some default files on the C: drive, and this resulted in a tiny 10k backup file. Not much.

I tried many different alternatives, but finally I found out the reason why my selection file was not used: I didn't put an "at" sign before the filename! This wasn't documented anywhere, and I only found out by looking at some examples of backing up with Windows 2000 Advanced Server...

So, if you wish to backup to a file with the ntbackup.exe utility in Windows XP, use a command line like this:

ntbackup backup "@C:\Backup\My Documents.bks"
/f "C:\Backup\My Documents.bkf" 
/v:no /l:s /m normal /snap:on

That should work okay.