What Is NTbackup? Is There an NTbackup Alternative for Windows?

What Is NTBackup?

NTBackup is a built-in backup application in Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. You can restore backups made on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to computers running Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. But in later operating systems like Windows 11/10/8/7, it has been replaced by Windows Backup and Restore.

NTBackup consists of a command-line utility and a set of wizard interfaces that provide multiple options to create, customize and manage backups, and it integrates with Shadow Copy and Task Scheduler. NTBackup allows users to back up data to external sources including floppy disks, BKF hard drives, tape drives, and ZIP drives.

NTBackup supports a variety of operating system functions, including backing up your computer’s system state.

• On domain controllers, NTBackup can back up Active Directory, including the SYSVOL directory share.
• On computers that are not domain controllers, it can back up the Windows registry, startup files, files protected by Windows File Protection, performance counter configuration information, etc.

NTBackup supports encrypted file systems, NTFS hard links and junction points, alternate data streams, disk quota information, mounted drives, and remote storage information. It can create normal, replica, differential, incremental, and daily backups, backup catalogs, and automatic system recovery. It supports logging and excluding files for backups per user or for all users.

What Is Backup and Recovery & How to Do Backup and Recovery?

What is backup and recovery? How to do backup and recovery? This post provides detailed information for you.

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How to Use NTBackup?

Many users have used the NTBackup tool to perform backups in earlier versions of Windows. After upgrading to Windows 11/10, they discovered that the NTBackup tool does not exist on Windows 11/10. Additionally, Microsoft has removed the Windows NT Backup and Restore utility from their servers.

Some users still want to use NTBackup since they have the BKF files.

Here, this part introduces how to back up and restore data with NTBackup.

Back up Data with NTBackup

Step 1: After downloading and installing NTBackup, double-click the exe file to run it.

Step 2: In the Backup or Restore Wizard page, click Next to continue.

Step 2: Choose what you want to do. There are 2 options for you – Back up files and settings or Restore files and settings. Then, click Next.

Step 3: Now, you can specify the items you want to back up. There are 4 options available:

1. My documents and settings
2. Everyone’s documents and settings
3. All information on this computer
4. Let me choose what to back up

Then, click Next to continue.

Step 4: Now, you can choose the items to back up. Check the boxes and click Next.

Step 5: Click Browse… to choose a location to store the backup files. Then, type a name for this backup. Click Next to go on.

Step 6: If you want to specify additional backup options, you can click  Advanced….

1. Select the backup type. There are 5 five types. Choose one of them and click Next to continue.

• Normal – Back up selected files, and marks each file as backed up.
• Copy – Back up selected files, but does not mark any as backed up.
• Incremental – Backs up selected files only if they were created or modified since the previous backup.
• Differential – Backs up selected files only if they were created or modified since the previous backup, but does not mark them as backed up.
• Daily – Back up only files that were created or modified today.

2. You can specify verification, compression, and snapshot options. Check the Verify data after backup option or Disable volume snapchatot. Then, click Next.

3. You can specify whether to overwrite data, and whether to restrict access to your data. You can choose Append this backup to the existing backups or Replace the existing backups.

4. Then, you can choose to run the backup task Now or Later. If you want to back up later, click Set Schedule… to set the specific time.

Step 7: You can click Finish now to start the backup process right now.

Restore Data with NTBackup

Here are the steps for restoring data with NTBackup.

Step 1: Launch the NTBackup.exe again. Choose Restore files and settings and click Next.

Step 2: Double-click the backup identification label and check the box. Then, click Next.

Step 3: Click the Advanced… button. Then, click the drop-down menu to choose a location to restore files. You can choose Original location, Alternate location, or Single folder.

If you choose the Alternate location, you can click the Browse… button to choose the location by yourself.

Step 4: You can choose how you want to restore files that are already on your computer. There are 3 options – Leave existing files (Recommended), Replace existing files if they are older than the backup files, and Replace existing files.

Step 5: Then, you can choose to restore security or special system files. Here, select the options you want to use:

• Restore security settings
• Restore junction points, but not the folders and file data they reference
• Preserve existing volume mount points

Step 6: Then, click the Finish button to start the restore process.

NTBackup Alternative – MiniTool ShadowMaker

Microsoft has officially removed the official download link for the Windows NT Backup and Restore utility for Windows 10 and beyond. Therefore, this is not a recommended method for data recovery from Windows backup BKF files as it may result in data loss.

Speaking of backup and recovery, MiniTool ShadowMaker is a great tool for you. The following are some main features of this program.

• It can back up OS, individual files and folders, hard disks, and partitions to hard drives, external hard drives, USB drives, network drives, etc.
• It offers two methods for data protection: backup and sync. These two methods both support automatic backup and schedule backup.
• You can use this free Windows recovery tool to restore Windows 10 system to a previous state from an external drive by using a backup when needed.
• You can also do the universal restore when restoring to a different computer with dissimilar hardware.

How to use NTBackup alternative? Let’s see how to back up and restore your data with MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Backup Data with MiniTool ShdowMaker

Step 1: Download and install it on your Windows computer.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 2: Choose Keep Trial. After entering its main interface, go to the Backup page. Then click the SOURCE module to choose the backup source. As for data backup, please choose Folders and Files to continue and choose the files you want to back up.

Step 3: Return to the Backup page, and click the Destination module to select the destination path to save the backup image. It is recommended to choose an external hard drive.

Step 4: After having successfully selected the backup source and destination, you can click Back Up Now to perform the data backup action immediately.

When the process is finished, you have successfully backed up files and have protected your data.

Restore Data with MiniTool ShadowMaker

Then, let’s see how to restore data with MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Step 1: After entering the main interface, please go to the Manage page.

Step 2: Then you will find the backups listed here. If not, you can click the Add Backup button to add it here.

Step 3: Click the Menu button on the right side, and then you will get the context menu.

Step 4: In the context menu, click Browse or Restore.

Step 5: Next, you are required to select the backup version. Then click Next. In the pop-up window, you can expand the folder and choose the individual file to restore. Then click Next.

Step 6: Next, choose a location to save the restored file. Then click Start. The selective file restore process will begin. When the process is finished, you can click OK and Finish. Then close MiniTool ShadowMaker.

When you have finished all steps, you have successfully restored the individual file. You can find that it is convenient to recover files from a specific folder with MiniTool ShadowMaker.

In addition to MiniTool ShadoaMaker, the MiniTool team also has another recovery software – MiniTool Power Data Recovery.

You can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to easily recover permanently deleted documents, videos, photos, audio, etc. from Windows PC or laptop, SD/memory card, USB flash/pen drive, external hard drive, solid-state drive, etc. If you have lost some data you need, you can use this program to easily restore them.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery features an intuitive interface and simple operation. It is clean and free and lets you recover data in 3 simple steps.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 1. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery. Choose a device category and select the target location or drive in the right window.

Step 2. You can choose the file type you want to scan and recover by clicking Settings. Then click the Scan button on the main interface to start scanning.

Step 3. When the scan finishes, you can check the scan result to find your data, check them, and click the Save button. Continue to choose a new location to store the recovered files.

Bottom Line

Here are the all details about NTbackup and its alternative. Compared NTbackup with MiniTool ShadowMaker, you can find that NTBackup isn’t compatible with Windows 11/10 while MiniTool ShadowMaker supports that. So, MiniTool ShadowMaker is the better backup software. You can download it right now!

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe