This tool is really oriented towards disk-to-disk backups. Tape drives are not supported by Windows Server Backup (another potential dealbreaker for some shops), and neither are writeable CD drives, although writeable DVD drives are (and span sets are fine). I suppose the lack of support for writeable CD drives makes sense in the context of a full-volume backup; nobody's going to want to swap that many CDs. But how about the situation where you need a quickie backup of the System State and you want to throw it onto a CD?

On the plus side, USB external hard drives are supported targets, and so are network drives. Windows Server Backup works well in the disk-to-disk scenario.

On the minus side is the fact that (at least by default) you can't back up to the system volume, which the program calls a "critical" volume. So say that you have a C: drive and only a C: drive, and you need to back up the System State. This was no problem in NTBACKUP, but it is disallowed in Windows Server Backup, unless you hack the Registry (see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 944530 for details). Furthermore, you have to make such a backup at the command line using WBADMIN (or a PowerShell script). Why make a fairly common task into such a pain? Only the Shadow (copy) knows.

(If you're too young for that reference, look up Lamont Cranston on the Web.)

One more demerit for the fact that you can't back up the System State directly to a network share.

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