How to backup to hard disk?

[justCharlie]

I have three hard disks. They are all named similar to my tapes. However, when I backup to the disk, it does not show the name of the current disk like tape. Therefore, I have bunch of problems or confusion. First of, here are my settings for the tape. The attached picture, backupExecDisk_setup.jpg, shows the Gernal tab. The picture, backupExecDisk_Advance.jpg, shows the Advance tab. The picture, backupExecDisk.jpg, shows the number of backups that's been Inventoried compare to the actual backup files that are in the hard disk itself. And finally, the picture, AdvancementMediaSet.jpg, shows the "Advancement" Media Set property.

Question 1: Why is BackupExec Inventory of the disk does not matched what's on the disk? See picture: backupExecDisk.jpg
Question 2: Why can't I setup BackupExec to recognized the disk similar to tape instead of the folder name "FLDR000007"  for all of my three hard disks which does not make any sense to me? See picture: backupExecDisk.jpg
Question 3: The Advancement Media Set is setup for 3 days overwrite protection but all the files in the hard disk are all passed three days and BackupExec isn't able to overwrite or append. Why is it kept asking for a new media insert? See picture: AdvancementMediaSet.jpg

Any help is much appreciared.

[RahulG]

1. Well that is how it is desinged to Show.
2. When you configure a Removable backup to disk folder the drive which you inser in the removable b2d will show up as a folder FLDR000007" but each drive would get a different name for each dirve .
When you run the backup to the B2d or a removable b2d it created number of bkf files which acts like a tape In your case on the FLDR000007 folder there would be bkf files 10 gb each as you have specified in the 1st screen shot backupExecDisk_setup.jpg

3. Make sure you have the following option selected under tools --Options --Media mangement ---Overwrite recycleable media before overwriting the scratch media .. so that backup exec writes to overwritable media 1st instead of creating a new bkf file every time untill the drive is full ...

[justCharlie]

Thanks, RahulG. I'll give your "Overwrite recycleable media before overwriting the scratch media" suggestion a try and see what happens. So, what's the advantages/disadvantages of having large/small BKF file?

[RahulG]

Well it just helps you in manging your media for eg if you are running abackup of  40 gb and you have set the max size of b2d as 4 gb then it would create 10 b2d files  so when restoring you need all the 10 b2d files in place . On the other hand if you set the max b2d file size as 20 gb it is will create 2 bkf file...

[justCharlie]

Okay, tried your suggestions but still BackupExec asked for Media Insert. What else should I be checking?

[justCharlie]

I see. Thanks for the explanation.

[Ken_Putnam]

Some thing else to keep in mind re: BKF file size

If you have setup all OVERWRITE jobs for B2D (my recommendation), are backing up just under 40GB, and set your file size to 40GB, if the data grows to just over 40GB, you are wasting 39+ GB of disk space  the unused space in the second BKF file  each time you run the job

[justCharlie]

My backup is close to 200GB. Should I set it to 200GB or what size so I don't waste space?

[Ken_Putnam]

As long as you let BackupExec manage the BKF files, there is no reason not to leave it at the default (1GB)  You could go slightly larger, say 10GB, but I would stay away from a BKF file size much larger than that 

[justCharlie]

Well, this is absoutely rediculous! It does not work. I delete all the .bkf files off of the hard drives and retired/delete all the associated B2D---- files in the Media Set. Still, it does not backup. It kept asking for Media Insert. Please tell me what did I do wrong or is this a case crappy software.

[justCharlie]

Okay, it's both my fault and the MS OS issue. Since it is a hard disk is connected via a USB docking station, everytime when I put insert the dirve, it gets assigned a drive letter. This time, it was assinged to an incorrect drive letter that's why BackupExec kept asking for media insert.

Anyway, my question is, is there a way to change the Path without re-create a New Remove Backup-to-Disk folder?

[Ken_Putnam]

You can use Disk Manager to change the drive letters of mounted drives.   

If you do use Disk Manager to set a drive letter, then the next time  it is mounted, the drive should get assigned the same letter, if it is free