How do I schedule a weekly Windows Server Backup?

“I need to create a backup schedule for 3 of our servers, so they backup once a week. The Server Backup UI only allows daily backups. Can anyone please tell me how do you create this task on the Task Scheduler? Or how do to do it with the Server Backup UI?”

The Windows Server Backup is a built-in backup utility of Server 2012, allowing users to back up the operating system. If you have the same question as mentioned in the user case, let’s see why do we need a backup schedule and how to create a Windows Server Backup weekly.

Why do we need the backup schedule for Windows Server Backup?

Windows Server Backup only provides a Windows Server backup feature in the frequency of “Once a day” or “More than once a day”. For some users who do not want to create backups once a day, they need to schedule the Windows Server backup weekly or in a lesser frequency.

In general, the server is protected by a Database Availability Group. Besides, some disks like external hard drives are modified weekly so that daily backups will cause the “backup failed” issue six times a week.

However, you can do Windows Server backup schedule in other ways or backup Windows Server to OneDrive, Google Drive and other cloud drives. With the help of these methods, you could set up Windows Server backup weekly easily.

3 solutions to backup Windows Server weekly

We will list the common solutions to create a scheduled backup for Windows Server Backup. You could set up both Windows Server 2016 backup schedule weekly and Windows Server 2012 backup schedule weekly using such useful methods.

Way 1. Backup Windows Server with Task Scheduler

The first solution is to use Task Scheduler for a weekly Windows Server backup. If you wanna try, just follow these simple steps:

1. Go to Server Manager > Dashboard, and click the Tools option to select Task Scheduler.

2. In this window, select Create Task in the Actions section.

3. You can name the task in the General tab. Then, tick the box next to Run whether the user is logged on or not in the Security options part.

4. Next, go to the Trigger tab and press the New button. Configure the Windows Server backup performance settings as Weekly, and you can choose a specific day in a week to operate the backup.

5. Then go to the Actions tab to click the New button. Type the wbadmin commands in the pane beside Add arguments (optional).

6. After above, click on OK, and you will be asked to enter a user password.

Way 2. Backup Windows Server with PowerShell

To create a Windows Server backup schedule, you could also make a script batch file from Command Prompt (Windows PowerShell), then let Task Scheduler perform it.

For example, if you want to set a weekly backup on every Saturday at 18:00, just input:

SCHTASKS /CREATE /SC WEEKLY /D SAT /TN WeeklySystemStateBackup /RL HIGHEST /ST 18:00 /TR “Wbadmin start systemstatebackup –backupTarget:H: -include:C: -allCritial -quiet”

Way 4. Use Server Backup software - AOMEI Backupper Server

There is also an easier way to backup Windows Server weekly - using server backup software like AOMEI Backupper Server. It lets you backup Windows Server weekly directly. And the backup destination is not limited. You can back up your Windows Server to a USB flash drive, network drive, and local or external hard drive.

Let’s see how to use AOMEI Backupper Server to create a scheduled backup:

1. Download and install the AOMEI Backupper Server, and launch it.

2. Click on Backup to choose System Backup.

3. All the volumes are selected by default. You can choose the backup destination and name your backup task according to your need.

4. Then select the Schedule Backup option beneath to switch on the Enable Schedule Backup option. Choose Weekly and you can specify the day to back up. Finally, click on OK.

5. After the above, click on the Start Backup button to begin the backup task.

Tip: Best free backup service for your Windows files

If you back up your Windows Server for data security, we advise you to backup your Windows files to clouds once more. Then, once your Windows PC is attacked and your files are lost, you could restore them easily. To set up a cloud backup for your Windows data, we highly recommend you use CBackup.

CBackup is a reliable cloud backup tool, which allows you to add different cloud drives to it. Thus, you can backup files to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox for free. The files to be backed up are not limited in size and type so that you can back up your Windows files with ease.

What’s more, CBackup can use as a cloud backup space as well. Each CBackup account will get 5GB of free cloud storage space called CBackup Cloud. If your public cloud storage is not enough, you can choose to back up files to CBackup Cloud instead. CBackup also provides some useful backup features like scheduled backup, file filter, email notification to make your backup tasks much easier. Just follow these steps below to try it to backup files to Google Drive:

1. Download and install the CBackup desktop app. Sign up for a new CBackup account, then launch the client to log into it.

2. Select the Storage tab. If you want to backup files to Google Drive, select Google Drive > Authorize Now, then follow the step-by-step instructions to grant CBackup to connect your Google Drive.

3. Click on the Backup > Backup PC to Public Cloud. 

4. You can type in Task Name to name the backup task, then select local files on your Windows PC, then tick Google Drive as the destination.

5. You can set up a file backup weekly in Settings, which will help you run the PC auto backup task regularly, saving much time and effort for you.

6. At last, click the Start Backup button to backup files to Google Drive automatically.

Wrapping things up

If you are looking for a way to set up Windows Server Backup weekly, this article may be useful for you. After reading, you could consider backing up your Windows files to clouds for your data security. CBackup is a nice choice to help you protect your files for free. With the help of the free cloud storage sevice, you can back up and restore your files easily.