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External Drives Not Coming Online

jrichards1
Level 2

Hello all,

We have Backup Exec 2012 version 14.0 rev 1798 (32-bit) running on Windows Server 2003 SP2. We use a rotation of 5 external USB hard drives as backup media. Since the server that runs Backup Exec does not have USB 2.0, the external drives are shared from a Lacie Ethernet Disk. Once I set up the drives with their own drive letter on the Lacie, there had been no issues with hard drive rotation for over 8 months. Every morning I would unplug the previous days disk and plug in the current days. Then a simple right click on the drive in the storage tab to remove the check from 'Offline', and everything would be ready to go.

Until recently, that is. About a week and a half ago, this procedure stopped working. Now, when I uncheck the 'Offline' for any drive, I immediately get a 'Drive is offline' error message. Restarting the services will not recognize the drive as online. Restarting the Lacie, then trying to uncheck 'Offline' produces the same result. I must restart the Lacie, then restart the Backup exec services in order to get the drive online. What was once a 1 minute job every morning has now turned into 10 minutes. Nothing has changed in any way that would cause this, that I know of. 

I was wondering if anyone else had run into this problem, or may be able to help me in any way at all. I learn a lot from these forums, but was unable to find any situation similar to this. 

2 REPLIES 2

Nasharat_Maner
Level 4
Employee

Before unplugging the drive, try disabling or pausing the drive. Insert new drive and un-check pause/disable option.

Un-checking the offline option, never guaranties if storage device is actually online and can function properly. Recent release of backup Exec gives a warning message about the same.

 

 

 

 

 

jrichards1
Level 2

Thank you very much for the response. I will try that when I switch the drives today and report back.