SBS 2011 Backup to USB External Drive
I have a BlacX Sata HDD USB Docking station - with a Western Digital 2 TB hard drive plugged into it. I made sure that the drive was formatted NTFS. I plug the drive into the USB port of my server - run the backup wizard - it sees it as Drive 1 - I label it - pick the folders I want to backup - it throws a warning that the destination drive will be formatted - I hit yes - then boom it crashes with a generic error - cannot schedule backup.
I know once the drive has been designated as a backup - you can’t see it via the "computer" in the start menu, but its acting like it doesn't even exist on the server at all.
I tried the wbadmin get disks command - it lists it under the list of drives - I attempted to "addtarget" using the disk identifier as the target info and it states - backup schedule wasn't found. Configure the scheduled backup by adding backup location, volumes to back up, and times of day to run backups ..... Ahhhhhh ..... this is exactly what I'm trying to do!!
I have no idea what is going on here - I'm at my end trying to figure this out - this whole backup scenario is a giant catch 22 for my machine thus far. Any help here would be greatly appreciated!
Bill
I know once the drive has been designated as a backup - you can’t see it via the "computer" in the start menu, but its acting like it doesn't even exist on the server at all.
I tried the wbadmin get disks command - it lists it under the list of drives - I attempted to "addtarget" using the disk identifier as the target info and it states - backup schedule wasn't found. Configure the scheduled backup by adding backup location, volumes to back up, and times of day to run backups ..... Ahhhhhh ..... this is exactly what I'm trying to do!!
I have no idea what is going on here - I'm at my end trying to figure this out - this whole backup scenario is a giant catch 22 for my machine thus far. Any help here would be greatly appreciated!
Bill
ASKER
Well I reformatted to 512 - as the above link described - the IT writings link was broken so I never did go to this page. The result is the same - crashes the same error - no change what so ever.
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OK –Trials and tribulations of SBS2011. I have my server’s OS and File management in Raid array’s – the thought of a backup was always …. Yea I can wait. What is a Windows backup really? I mean when you have a raid array – what could go wrong … then enters our accountant.
She gave her password to her secretary while she went on vacation – so that she can “update files” on her computer. She did that – really, really badly. I get the phone call, “I’m sorry …. But I really need this folder from 2 weeks ago.” I couldn’t just go to a backup of 2 weeks ago and get it. What saved her was the fact she is prone to forgetting to save on her share folder. Her secretary was saving the file in her share … the same file on her local machine was from 3 weeks ago, so she was able to recover from there. Even though my budding IT skillset is growing – I learned the importance of backing up files. So, I get my stuff together and start down this path. I figure – this will be easy – I have SBS2011 and an approved backup drive from the Microsoft technet list – should be easy peezy.
Now enters Microsoft – and in their infinite wisdom – wants to take everything and make it an installation wizard. I love wizards – don’t get me wrong – but in this backup scenario – it has been screwing me for 3 days.
The backup wizard in the Windows SBS Console …. Is just wrong. All it gave me was the generic error … “cannot schedule backup” ... as stated in my original post. After trying to apply multiple avenues to get this wizard to work – I just stopped. My suggestion – never use it – use the administrative tool feature of the server to schedule backups … Start > administrative tools > windows server backup. When running the “Backup Schedule” in this area – it is more intuitive, and you can then piece together what part of the “Cannot schedule backup” error is actually breaking.
I’m using a 2TB external hard drive – formatted for NTFS. When you look at it under Start > Administrative tools > Computer management > Storage > Disk management … it is a generic drive labeled with the name you gave it during formatting … and it clearly states NTFS. When you schedule a “backup” ... using the "recommended" setting of the backup disk ... the wizard wants to reformat the drive and turn it into a backup only drive … at which time it will format – then crash almost immediately after stating that only a NTFS drive is supported. I go back into disk management and find that this wizard formatted the drive in “exFat”. This was my first hurdle to get around. Solution – reformat the drive with the server – this time assign it a drive letter – follow the advice of pgm554 and do only the 512 bytes a sector.
Next – go back into disk management and right click on this thing and make it “active”. This will give you something like … “Backup(E:) Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)”.
Now back to backing up – you can’t do a full backup …
1) It won’t copy system files and it throws an error.
2) The drives I’m backing up are over 2TB in size … even though I’m only backing up 300gig of information … the Microsoft wizard chokes with an error saying it cannot guarantee a backup larger than 2TB … even though the information is nowhere close to 2TB … the drives you are backing up from are … so it dies.
What you have to use a custom backup … pick only the folders you need backed up. So, no shadow copies or anything really cool – just critical data that you can’t live without backed up.
So, in conclusion – I can only “backup” essential files on a system volume … bummer.
I am defiantly no expert in the IT / server world. I was looking forward to being able to easily make an exact copy of my server in a few easy steps ... cause ... "Windows Small Business Server is an affordable, all-in-one solution to reduce complexity and increase manageability of server technology in a small business environment."
This has turned into a little bit of a rant – but my question can now be closed with this as a solution – I am able to now make “backups” I guess.
Bill
She gave her password to her secretary while she went on vacation – so that she can “update files” on her computer. She did that – really, really badly. I get the phone call, “I’m sorry …. But I really need this folder from 2 weeks ago.” I couldn’t just go to a backup of 2 weeks ago and get it. What saved her was the fact she is prone to forgetting to save on her share folder. Her secretary was saving the file in her share … the same file on her local machine was from 3 weeks ago, so she was able to recover from there. Even though my budding IT skillset is growing – I learned the importance of backing up files. So, I get my stuff together and start down this path. I figure – this will be easy – I have SBS2011 and an approved backup drive from the Microsoft technet list – should be easy peezy.
Now enters Microsoft – and in their infinite wisdom – wants to take everything and make it an installation wizard. I love wizards – don’t get me wrong – but in this backup scenario – it has been screwing me for 3 days.
The backup wizard in the Windows SBS Console …. Is just wrong. All it gave me was the generic error … “cannot schedule backup” ... as stated in my original post. After trying to apply multiple avenues to get this wizard to work – I just stopped. My suggestion – never use it – use the administrative tool feature of the server to schedule backups … Start > administrative tools > windows server backup. When running the “Backup Schedule” in this area – it is more intuitive, and you can then piece together what part of the “Cannot schedule backup” error is actually breaking.
I’m using a 2TB external hard drive – formatted for NTFS. When you look at it under Start > Administrative tools > Computer management > Storage > Disk management … it is a generic drive labeled with the name you gave it during formatting … and it clearly states NTFS. When you schedule a “backup” ... using the "recommended" setting of the backup disk ... the wizard wants to reformat the drive and turn it into a backup only drive … at which time it will format – then crash almost immediately after stating that only a NTFS drive is supported. I go back into disk management and find that this wizard formatted the drive in “exFat”. This was my first hurdle to get around. Solution – reformat the drive with the server – this time assign it a drive letter – follow the advice of pgm554 and do only the 512 bytes a sector.
Next – go back into disk management and right click on this thing and make it “active”. This will give you something like … “Backup(E:) Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)”.
Now back to backing up – you can’t do a full backup …
1) It won’t copy system files and it throws an error.
2) The drives I’m backing up are over 2TB in size … even though I’m only backing up 300gig of information … the Microsoft wizard chokes with an error saying it cannot guarantee a backup larger than 2TB … even though the information is nowhere close to 2TB … the drives you are backing up from are … so it dies.
What you have to use a custom backup … pick only the folders you need backed up. So, no shadow copies or anything really cool – just critical data that you can’t live without backed up.
So, in conclusion – I can only “backup” essential files on a system volume … bummer.
I am defiantly no expert in the IT / server world. I was looking forward to being able to easily make an exact copy of my server in a few easy steps ... cause ... "Windows Small Business Server is an affordable, all-in-one solution to reduce complexity and increase manageability of server technology in a small business environment."
This has turned into a little bit of a rant – but my question can now be closed with this as a solution – I am able to now make “backups” I guess.
Bill
ASKER
I've requested that this question be closed as follows:
Accepted answer: 0 points for wewhitt's comment #a38378319
for the following reason:
I was able to figure out a work around to the original fault.
Accepted answer: 0 points for wewhitt's comment #a38378319
for the following reason:
I was able to figure out a work around to the original fault.
I gave you the answers to your issue.
You either need to get smaller drives <2TB that still use a 512byte sector count or get a 3rd party backup.
You CANNOT change the sector size so that a vhd file(the default windows backup file) can use the external drive.
If you want to make a backup image and would like to do a restore ,then you need to get something like Acronis 11.5 for SBS ,Symantec System Recovery for SBS or Storagecraft Shadow protect for SBS.
They're all in the $500 buck range.
And they all have free evals.
Without the correct backup software,you cannot get reliable backups for Exchange,AD or Sharepoint.
If you value you data,do not rely on your work around.
I think that M$ should have fixed this with a service pack or patch as they have known about the issue for quite a while.
You have a legit rant,but dealing with M$ is a bit like dancing with the devil.
They have proven over the years that all MS cares about is MS.
You either need to get smaller drives <2TB that still use a 512byte sector count or get a 3rd party backup.
You CANNOT change the sector size so that a vhd file(the default windows backup file) can use the external drive.
If you want to make a backup image and would like to do a restore ,then you need to get something like Acronis 11.5 for SBS ,Symantec System Recovery for SBS or Storagecraft Shadow protect for SBS.
They're all in the $500 buck range.
And they all have free evals.
Without the correct backup software,you cannot get reliable backups for Exchange,AD or Sharepoint.
If you value you data,do not rely on your work around.
I think that M$ should have fixed this with a service pack or patch as they have known about the issue for quite a while.
You have a legit rant,but dealing with M$ is a bit like dancing with the devil.
They have proven over the years that all MS cares about is MS.
See:
http://gadgets.itwriting.com/998-why-your-new-2tb-or-3tb-drive-will-not-work-with-windows-backup.html
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1780.external-backup-drives-compatibility-list.aspx