SharePoint Backup and Restore Utilities

Windows SharePoint Services is shipped with its own backup and restore tool, Stsadm.exe. Stsadm.exe is also widely used in SharePoint Portal Server deployments. The SharePoint Migration Tool is another tool that ships with Windows SharePoint Services; it is used to migrate sites. In addition to these Windows SharePoint Services tools, SharePoint Portal Server is shipped with another tool: the SharePoint Portal Server Data Backup and Restore utility. Finally, the Resource Kit CD will also contain a backup tool named SPBackup.exe, which can be used to back up site collections. 

Overview of BackUp and Restore Utilites:

Tool	Purpose
Stsadm.exe	Makes a full-fidelity backup of site collections.
SharePoint Migration tool (Smigrate.exe)	Backs up and restores sites and subsites. Does not make a full-fidelity backup; you might lose some customizations or settings during the process.
SharePoint Portal Server Data Backup and Restore utility (Spsbackup.exe)	Backs up and restores all databases, except the configuration database. Restores content indexes and content sources.