SSR 2013 to External Drive - Drive is Disappearing

[SBE_User]

I have a large installed base of laptops and desktops, all with an external Western Digital 1TB USB drive.  I run SSR daily to send an image to the external drive as the backup destination.

However, frequently a handful of machines - not a consistent set - will no longer "see" the drive.  When viewing the SSR console, the backup destination shows "Not Available".

The computer itself still can see and access the drive.

If I disconnect and reconnect the drive, SSR will see it again and the task can run successfully.  Then some time later (days, weeks, months) the drive will disappear again.

There is no consistency to this error - all software is at the same version, all external drives are the same, all laptops and desktops are identical, all patches are managed through SCCM so all Windows patches are at the same version, and yet it's always different machines that come up with this issue.

Anyone else out there experiencing this or perhaps have a suggested fix?  (Besides finding a different disaster recover solution - which is definitely on the table at this point!)

Thanks!

[TRaj]

Are you swapping the drives ?

DO the external drive have a unique drive letter if not please provide a unique drive letter.

Hope  this help !

Please check : https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/sony-laptop-system-recovery-2013-not-seeing-drives#co...

[SBE_User]

Thank you TRaj for the response.

No swapping going on - just one drive assigned per computer.

The drives, when connected, pick up a drive letter - usually E or F.

I checked your link and while the problem is similar, it's not the same.

I'm beginning to think the problem is with the type of drives I am using - perhaps they are going to "sleep" and only showing the top level of connectivity (the drive letter) but not the drive contents - the folders.

[simon_the_compu]

I am having the exact problem that you described. I bought 6 Western Digital USB 2.0/3.0 Elemnts externa Hard drives and am starting to regret it. They are perfect for this application, small in size and powered by the usb port, but they keep dissapearing. The SSR installs that are pointing to internal drives are doing fine. I have tried every power setting that I can think of, but am convinced that at some point they must go to sleep and can't be found by SSR. Once SSR senses that they are not available the only a reboot will get them back. Very frustrating!!!

[SBE_User]

Hi Simon - I'm still having this issue, so no updates on my end.  I guess it's good to know that others have this same problem.

I'm wondering if we need to attack this issue from the other side.  Is there a setting either in device manager or somewhere on the host PC that would force the drive to stay active at all times?  If it's entering some sort of a power-saver mode, perhaps that can be disabled.

Thanks for the response.  If you figure anything out, please be sure to post it on this thread.