I swear, does anyone read release notes?

It’s not like we haven’t known this day was coming for a very long time now. Microsoft has continually stated that they are not a backup provider. NTBackup was to disappear. Now in Windows 2008 ® I am seeing more people post and inquire about how to backup their servers. I read in one blog where a reseller sold equipment to his SBS client to be shocked that he couldn’t run NTBackup for the server. Poor client.

What really set me on “ear” as it were was when one of my protégés and my boss both hit me in the same day. “What do you mean you can’t do a native tape backup in Windows 2008®?!?) My boss even went so far as to bring me an article (Dell Power Solutions Magazine, May 2008 ) entitled “Migrating Dell PowerEdge® Servers to Windows Server 2008®” pointing straight to page 21 under the heading “Backing up data” where he was concerned.

My new standard answer, before I keep sighing to loudly or losing my voice from giving this speech over and over again. Please go read here: Step by Step Guide for Windows Server Backup in Windows Server 2008.

If you find yourself in a bind and need to restore data from a NTBackup.exe from an earlier version of Windows you can go here. Please note it will only RESTORE the data. No backup capabilities there.

I also suggest some light reading here, and here.

Now stop whining! They warned us all long ago not their fault you forgot!