cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Backup to Removable Disk Drive Problems

zalco
Level 3
 am having trouble with my backup and would like some help. 

Specs:
Windows Server 2003 SP2
Backup Exec 12.0 SP4
Backing up an exchange store and about 150GB of folders and files in two jobs
Media: I am using Startech enclosures with Seagate 250GB SATA hard drives installed connected with a USB cable

Problem:
The problem is that i am getting an Access denied error during the backup of the exchange server and in the event log i am getting Disk Write failurs to the drive.  When i arrive at work I cannot access the External HDD that i am using.

History:
I orded the software and the drives and set everying up about 2 years ago.  Soon after setting it up I began getting, about once every two weeks, the Access Denied failures to the exchange store and I find a message on the server "disk write failure".  The fix was a registry tweek that modified the Memory pool value and also i unchecked the "allow the computer to turn off this device" in the USB root.  The problem went away for about 10 months.  

Again the problem returned about one month ago.  I get the same issues as before, but it started happening every other day.  I ran SP4 on the servers and updated all the remote agents and again the problem went away for about one month.    

This morning again the same issue, Disk Write failure, could not write page file is in the even logs and access denied to the message store is in the backup log.  

I suspect it is the External hard drives, they are not of high quality, but they test just fine in most cases.  A few have tested bad and one day I was on the server and just accessing the drive and boom, Disk Write failure while not even using the backup.  

I have replace a few drives with Antec enclosures and WD Green HDD drives and they are working,  But not sure if I should replace all the drives or is there another issue.  My vendor says the Startech enclosures do not last long and he has quite selling them.    

If anyone can help please let me know   

2 REPLIES 2

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited
Oops...if your vendor has stopped selling them, it is an indication that all is not well with that make.
Are you at all able to move any more backups onto your newer storage? Could be that the type of throughput and work being done on the drive is overwhelming it, and causing the hardware to fail a lot quicker than it should.
Cost is obviously a factor...if you can replace the drives now, and use the current devices for something else, I would suggest that!

zalco
Level 3
I called the symantec technician and they suggested a external hard drive that has been tested and on the HCL. 

I looked at the Hardware Compatibility list and did not find any External Hard drives.  All i saw was a note on the first page that says anything that Windows will recognize will work for the software.  The list contains about 500 tapes and tape drives to use, but no hard drives.  

What External Hard drive should i use for this application or should i go back to using tapes again?  Please let me know

Also I may consider two options to resolve the issue:
1: backing up to the higher quality WD drive then move the backup to the STARTECH drive daily
or
2: Install a 500 SAS drive on the server, run the backup to that drive then daily move the backup to the external hard drives

Let me know what you think. 

thanks,
Jeff