The reason backup exec is a scary backup device is that the default file system backup exec
will not backup SQL Server files. There is a version for using on SQL Server files but I know nothing about it. If he was not using that then you could be without a single viable backup. (my experience is a couple of years out of date - dunno if things have changed). If you can prove that then you will really be proving your worth when you get your backups set up
