Database – the best way to backup the schema of a sql server 2005 express database

You can do this free. Create a maintenance plan to back up the DB, you can define the location you want to send the file, and add a clean up task.

If it's express and you can't use maint plans, use this tool to run the backup job automatically: http://www.codeplex.com/ExpressMaint and use a simple VB script to clean up the folder as a windows scheduled task

Then create a script to FTP the logs home nightly as windows scheduled task.

We do pretty the exact same thing in one of our setups.

If the offsite server is on a constant VPN with the DB Server, you could DFS the backup folder.

EDIT: If you are wanting to this as "extra" full backup along side local bks, you'll need to use a TSQL statement for the backup job in the plan, and throw in the "COPY_ONLY" for the backup, so differentials aren't using that as their reference, but your local fulls as planned.

yes you can backup db from sql server 2005 and restore it to sql server 2008. also you can import db from sql server 2005 in sql server 2008. for this create a new db on sql server 2008, then press right click of mouse on the name of created db. after that from task menu press Import Data... . in this step you can specify your source and destination dbs.