1) On the machines you wish to backup the appropriate folders from, insure that you set the sharing up to share those folders.
On the backup server, share the folder you wish to use for backup (unless this is the command machine.)
Then on the command machine, write the batch file using xcopy and set the overwrite automatically option. Use "quotes" to let the DOS command shell recognise the network path specifications for each network path, "//workstation-name/shared-directory\filespec-grep.typ" might work where it gives an error without quotes. When the batch file is run (either manually or by a cron app - a timer utility), it will copy the desired workstation directories to the appropriate subdirectories in the backup server.
2)On each workstation, create a batch file that specifies a directory in the backup server as the destination of its copying the desired data directory. Run this from a cron application or manually. You can CALL it from Autoexec.bat (or use it as the last line) if you want.
On the backup server, set the backup directory as a sharred directory.
This distributed method allows each user to backup with a manual command to his own backup directory, if he wants, as well as minimising share need. It also eliminates the need to run the command from a central command machine.
