Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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Bit of background...
One of my customers had an IT company install SBS 2011 with Exchange etc. and Backup Exec System Recovery 2010. They also sold them a couple of 1TB external WD drives to save the backups onto and were told to unplug one/plug the other in every so often to rotate the backups.
Now for some reason they didn't have backups successfully completed for over 3 months because the drives were full. From what I could see of the config the other day, it's meant to do 2 full restore points and what I assume to be incrementals from then on.
So I delete the old backups on both drives, one full restore point completed successfully on Friday but the other one that was supposed to happen last night didn't.
I can't even use the BESR console to see the status as it won't connect to the service or something. I tried stopping the BE service in Services and it complained about it not stopping properly, I restarted it (no errors on restart) but still I can't connect. Looking at the event logs there are loads of errors to do with that external HD ("An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\DR4 during a paging operation.") and in Windows Explorer it shows up as a CD drive... 
Tried doing the safely remove USB thing from the taskbar but it won't let me, saying the device is in use!
I now have to chuck them all off the system so I can remotely reboot the server 
Anyways, my questions are as follows:
1. Do I need to get them to log into the server and disconnect the drive first from the taskbar every time they need to unplug one drive to plug the other in?
2. Is BESR the best software to use for SBS backups?
I imagine the IT company charged them a fortune for this set up/ripped them off majorly - there are only 3 or 4 users at the most and they are a non profit organisation, I think it would have been cheaper/easier for them to have a NAS box with an external HDD for backups, and to use a hosted Exchange solution. 
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VrsTurbo
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Registered: 8th Jun 10
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Use windows backup. That is a great tool for backups! Backup exec is ok on sbs but i would recommmend windows backup
I've done it before when i worked full time in a previous company. spec something out so its cheap for the client but the company wants the £.
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Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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I don't think it's a case of them wanting the flashest setup, in my experience with this place they only go with what someone recommends to them.
So what do you reckon about the external drives, do you think they need to log in and 'safely disconnect' the drive?
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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I briefly trialled System Recovery and generally thought it was pretty clunky. Likewise with Windows Backup, for some reason it didn't want to backup onto a raid array (was a windows/software array; was a reason for this over hardware).
Ended up going with John's recommendation of ShadowProtect; pretty expensive but works, so far/touch wood, flawlessly. And I particularly like the ability to mount backups which has come useful when someone deleted something off the shared network drives.
SyncBackPro is another I use at home, might be worth trialling as it's reasonably cheap.
Have you checked the drives over to make sure they aren't faulty?
Could also try using Unlocker and ending what ever process is using the removable drive(s); then take it from there.
I would also get on the Sysmantec forums.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Sam
I don't think it's a case of them wanting the flashest setup, in my experience with this place they only go with what someone recommends to them.
So what do you reckon about the external drives, do you think they need to log in and 'safely disconnect' the drive?
Can't say i've ever done it on a Windows system, certainly not with my home backup setup - just a case of unplugging the external drive, plugging in another and SyncBackPro takes care of detecting the driving and doing a backup.
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Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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Well the server has been rebooted, BESR services are running OK but the drive was still showing up as a CD drive, and in Device Manager it had a yellow exclamation mark next to it.
I phoned up someone at the site and got them to remove it and plug in the other drive, now this other drive has been picked up fine on the server so I think the first drive is probably dead - have asked them to plug it in to one of their PCs when they get a chance to see if they show up on there or not.
Might look into this ShadowProtect. Does it work OK with Exchange (VSS)?
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
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I've not touched SBS 2011 yet, something i need to look at when i get chance.
Why have they changed from there previous IT Company? could it be they don't know what they are doing, or are they disputing costs.
I wouldn't worry too much about using the disconnect feature in Windows if the backup completes hours before you are going to pull out the USB cable.
Backups are first line where i work, i've not touched them for years. But what i can remember with older versions of Bacupo Exec is Backing up to disc does not work to well.
How much data have these guys got? Online backup not an option?
Backing up to hard disks is not the best of ideas. How often is someone going to drop a small USB drive...
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Shadow protect is brilliant, they've also got new monthly pricing and also a VM package with 4 i think licences for cheap.
I don't like windows backup, even the newer one. Backup exec is well outdated, ok if it's already in place but wouldn't be installing it on anything new.
Why would the USB drive be moving to be dropped?
It should also be copied elsewhere, the same as you would do with any other type of backup but there's absolutely nothing wrong with backing up to a USB drive.
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VrsTurbo
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Registered: 8th Jun 10
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quote:
Originally posted by Andrew
I've not touched SBS 2011 yet, something i need to look at when i get chance.
Why have they changed from there previous IT Company? could it be they don't know what they are doing, or are they disputing costs.
I wouldn't worry too much about using the disconnect feature in Windows if the backup completes hours before you are going to pull out the USB cable.
Backups are first line where i work, i've not touched them for years. But what i can remember with older versions of Bacupo Exec is Backing up to disc does not work to well.
How much data have these guys got? Online backup not an option?
Backing up to hard disks is not the best of ideas. How often is someone going to drop a small USB drive...
Are you there current IT support company then?! 
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Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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Their initial backup of everything on the server is at least 300GB from what I remember. It takes about 6 hours to backup to a USB drive so I'm not sure cloud backup is an option for them.
John they have (or did have until one of them died last night) two USB hard drives so what they are supposed to be doing is taking one home every Monday and keeping the other one connected for backups Tuesday - Friday, then swapping on the following Monday etc.
The problem is, they tend to forget to take the drive home.
Not really sure what else to suggest to them TBH...
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Possible to have one on site and one copied to offsite? Even a cheap nas offsite? A normal ADSL connection is more than enough for the file delta during the day, even if it catches up at night. Takes the human out of the equation almost totally.
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Sack Backup Exec off and use Windows backup for a small company, works a treat to a NAS where I use it
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VrsTurbo
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Registered: 8th Jun 10
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quote:
Originally posted by Sam
Their initial backup of everything on the server is at least 300GB from what I remember. It takes about 6 hours to backup to a USB drive so I'm not sure cloud backup is an option for them.
John they have (or did have until one of them died last night) two USB hard drives so what they are supposed to be doing is taking one home every Monday and keeping the other one connected for backups Tuesday - Friday, then swapping on the following Monday etc.
The problem is, they tend to forget to take the drive home.
Not really sure what else to suggest to them TBH...
Cloud backup would work it wouldnt be cheap though. as it dont put up the whoile 300GB each night only changes
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Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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Well last night's backup worked successfully.
I wasn't really a fan of BE when it used to be owned by Seagate (backups on to DAT tapes from NT/NetWare - that was fun), not much has improved since those days lol
I'll have to find out what the deal is with their ISP, as they are in a massive building where everyone uses the same provider for phone lines and broadband so they might have limits on bandwidth and such.
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
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Is the issue that the USB drives are not formatting from Backup Exec?
Have a look at Windows Backup for SBS 2011, i've not used it since SBS 2003 which did work, you was just very limited with config.
300GB will cost you £30 a month using Online Backup. I can forward you on some details for that giving you the option to make some money yourself. Depends of how much of that 300GB changes regular.
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VrsTurbo
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Registered: 8th Jun 10
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quote:
Originally posted by Andrew
Is the issue that the USB drives are not formatting from Backup Exec?
Have a look at Windows Backup for SBS 2011, i've not used it since SBS 2003 which did work, you was just very limited with config.
300GB will cost you £30 a month using Online Backup. I can forward you on some details for that giving you the option to make some money yourself. Depends of how much of that 300GB changes regular.
shut up Andrew everyone knows you havent got a clue 
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Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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No comment 
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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quote:
Originally posted by VrsTurbo
quote:
Originally posted by Andrew
Is the issue that the USB drives are not formatting from Backup Exec?
Have a look at Windows Backup for SBS 2011, i've not used it since SBS 2003 which did work, you was just very limited with config.
300GB will cost you £30 a month using Online Backup. I can forward you on some details for that giving you the option to make some money yourself. Depends of how much of that 300GB changes regular.
shut up Andrew everyone knows you havent got a clue
This. There's a command line version of it that's far more flexable. Wouldn't expect you to get it though. The GUI for make for idiots.
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Richie
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Registered: 3rd Dec 02
Location: Newport, Wales
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If you dont have to use tapes then Windows can do what you need.
This year has been a funny one for backups for our firm. Quite a few customers have had Symantec Puredisk appliances combined with Netbackup, others have bought Ultrium 5 gear to go with BackupExec 2010 R2/R3.... and smaller customers have requested RDX setups (essentially USB backups but much cleaner and the drive is in a tape housing)
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