Re: Run scheduled bckup while logged off

From: Pegasus \(MVP\) (I.can_at_fly.com)
Date: 12/18/04 

Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:33:07 +1100

"Mirth" <Mirth@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3D405A69-F4F2-464B-AE23-ED726FF61E30@microsoft.com...
> Running Win2K Pro. Want to use the standard Windows 'Backup' utility to
back
> up a single Excel file nightly, that is located on a network share. I am
> wanting to back the file up to a 'file' in a sub-folder called 'Backup'
> (within the network folder the original file itself is located in), so no
> tape or other media.
> The problem I am having is, if I am logged off as I do nightly(not shut
down
> of course), the scheduled backup runs but is unsuccessful, the log file
shows
> "The operation was not performed because the specified media cannot be
> found". I suspect this is happening because the location of the file to be
> backed up is on a network directory (as is the location where the backup
file
> should be created), and when I am logged off, my network drive mappings
must
> be disconnected, so the backup job, which still triggers even though I am
not
> logged into Windows, cannot find the file to backup. Is there any way to
get
> this to work while logged off? I work at a large corporation and am not
part
> of the IT team, so using a third party utility, or a hardware solution is
not
> an option. I just need to know if there is a way, from the end user
> perspective, I can use Windows Backup to run a scheduled backup nightly
while
> logged off the PC.
> Btw, the scheduled backup runs great when I am actually logged in, so I
know
> I have the backup task setup right, it just appears my network drive
mappings
> are disconnected when logged off, so the backup cannot find the file to
back
> up. My drive mappings are of course connected and fine when I log back
into
> Windows, though these drive mappings are not part of a logon script, I
mapped
> it (the one in question) myself. I thought the path is retained in my user
> settings in some way, so when the backup task ran even while logged off,
> thought it would still be able to read the path and find the file on the
> network and perform the backup. Thanks in advance.
>
> Mirth

A few comments:
- Your suspicion is probably correct: your backup job runs most likely
   under the "System" account, which has no access to networked resources.
- The problem is easily avoided by using the Task Scheduler to run the
   backup job. It lets you specify the account to be used.
- It seems you're making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself by using
   ntbackup.exe to back up a single file. The xcopy command would be
   far easier to use, and is perfectly adequate for this job:

@echo off
xcopy "d:\My Documents\SomeFile.xls" \\SomeServer\SomeShare\SomeFolder\"