Using the Microsoft Backup Program Using the built-in Backup program is the officially recommended method of backing up Windows registry. | Using the Microsoft Backup Program Using the built-in Backup program is the officially recommended method of backing up Windows registry. The Backup version supplied with Windows NT required a Windows NT-compatible tape device to be installed in the local system which represented one of the most serious shortcomings of this utility. Furthermore the list of supported tape devices that could be used with Windows NT Backup in Windows NT is also quite limited. Moreover this utility doesn t allow you to perform registry backup of remote systems even if the user attempting to perform this operation has all the required access rights to the remote system. The Backup version included with Windows 2000 has improved and extended functionality including support for various types of backup media. This allows the user to back up information using any media supported by the operating system including floppy disks hard disks floptical media or other supported devices besides streamers. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 in turn provide several new technological improvements and enhancements. Note Starting with Windows XP Microsoft has introduced volume snapshots a technology that provides a copy of the original volume at the instant a snapshot is taken. A snapshot of the volume is taken at the time a backup is initiated. Data are then backed up from the snapshot rather than from the original volume. The original volume continues to change as the process goes on but the snapshot of the volume remains constant. This is helpful if users need access to files while a backup is taking place since it significantly reduces the time required to accomplish the backup procedure. Additionally the backup application can back up files that are kept open. In previous versions of Backup including the one supplied with Windows 2000 files open at the time of the backup were skipped. Besides working with the integrated Backup application the Volume Shadow Copies function in Windows Server .
