dcadler
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How to keep the same drive letter for eSATA backup swap drives
I have a couple of 1TB Seagate FreeAgent external hard drives that I want to use as backup drives for backups on an SBS 2008 server. I want to swap the drive each week so that I can keep ony drive off-site at all times for disaster recovery.
Windows 2008 handles the removal and re-attachment of the drives just fine but it always wants to give the drive the next available drive letter. I want to have the same drive letter assigned to each of the eSATA drives when I plug them in so that the backup jobs see the same drive letter for the backup location.
I know I have seen this documented before but I just can't seem to locate it.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Dave
Windows 2008 handles the removal and re-attachment of the drives just fine but it always wants to give the drive the next available drive letter. I want to have the same drive letter assigned to each of the eSATA drives when I plug them in so that the backup jobs see the same drive letter for the backup location.
I know I have seen this documented before but I just can't seem to locate it.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Dave
Unsure if this is an option in your case - but this suggestion mimics what I have done in the past:
If you have a RAID option on the machine, Setup a RAID 1 mirrored array with 2 drives - and simply removing one drive from the mirror every time. That way drive letters are not a problem, you always have the most recent copy. And when you stick the next disk in it auto rebuilds.
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As for the auto assignment to the same drive letter - you can try to create a mounted folder on an existing drive that points to that specific drive - when re-attached it *usually* assigns the correct drive letter.
(ie - on C:\ create a mountpoint for Drive 1, then one for Drive 2 then drive 3 etc. - make sure the mount point is created *when* the correct drive letter has been assigned ) - this doesn't always work.
There is also a tool that works under vista (probably works under 2008 but I haven't tried it) that helps you retain drive letters - I haven't tried it with eSATA drives - but it works with USB drives - you might want to give it a shot:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/u
If you have a RAID option on the machine, Setup a RAID 1 mirrored array with 2 drives - and simply removing one drive from the mirror every time. That way drive letters are not a problem, you always have the most recent copy. And when you stick the next disk in it auto rebuilds.
-------------------
As for the auto assignment to the same drive letter - you can try to create a mounted folder on an existing drive that points to that specific drive - when re-attached it *usually* assigns the correct drive letter.
(ie - on C:\ create a mountpoint for Drive 1, then one for Drive 2 then drive 3 etc. - make sure the mount point is created *when* the correct drive letter has been assigned ) - this doesn't always work.
There is also a tool that works under vista (probably works under 2008 but I haven't tried it) that helps you retain drive letters - I haven't tried it with eSATA drives - but it works with USB drives - you might want to give it a shot:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/u
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Have you looked in Computer Management > Disk Management and considered 'fixing' the letter of each drive there? When the drive is connected you can right-click on it, choose the option to Change the Drive Letter and then use the tools to Add/Remove a drive letter as required.
This is the configuration I have at one of my clients, who uses removable USB drives for backup purposes, and it works well.
-Matt