Windows Server Backup - Drives with 4k sectors

[BadBoy House]

We've got a number of clients running SBS 2011 and they all use the in-built Windows Server Backup program, backing up to external USB hard drives on rotation.

We discovered recently that Windows Server Backup on SBS 2011 and SBS 2008 doesn't support external drives with 4k sectors. It requires drives with 512 byte sectors.

This is fine for the backup drives they've got, as they're 512 byte sector drives that were purchased 18 months ago. However we have a client that has had one of their two drives fail.

It seems that all external usb hard drives now have 4k sectors and will therefore not work on Windows Server Backup.

This is annoying as we've always found Windows Server Backup to be extremely reliable.

Has anyone else come across this and been able to find a solution? What do other people do when they need to replace or purchase backup drives for use with WSB?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Used to love NTBackup in the NT 4, 2k, 2k3 days....but when it went to 08 I started not liking it's quirks.
You can find a list of compatible drives out there, granted most lists are probably old and you can't find those models anymore. But I do recall a WD brand drive that came with a drive-overlay that "emulated" 512 b size. I recall reading a few other drive makers offered that tool too.

 

[AndyM]

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard allows you to format using various cluster sizes, and it's free

l

http://www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.htm

Andy

 

[freedomit]

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard allows you to format using various cluster sizes, and it's free

lView attachment 4472

http://www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.htm

Andy

This doesn't work unfortunately, it's nothing to do with the partitions but the sector size that isn't changeable. Some 4k drives can be made to emulate 512 but not many. If you google around some forums you can find compatible drives people mention. I have even contacted some manufactures for confirmation but few have a clue what I'm talking about.

 

[BadBoy House]

Windows Server Backup we've found has always been really good. We use it on our own servers and clients use it on theirs as well.

Your comments are in line with what we're finding from research online - the list of compatible drives is pretty old now and the drives on it have all been discontinued and replaced with 4k ones.

Western Digital supposedly have a tool which lets you reformat their drives to 512 e although this seems very hit or miss from what we've read.

It seems like a crazy situation to me - it's as if all of a sudden anyone wanting to use new external drives to back up Server 2011/2008 can't because they're not compatible. What do they do instead? Not back up?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

WD's tool
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/search/1/a_id/3868/c/130/p/228,209,316

Believe the enterprise drives (such as the RE series) natively have the legacy sector size.....put 'em in a caddy.

 

[mr m]

Either move to a 3rd party bkup utility or use the 512 sector size Re drives like YOSC suggests.

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-800044.pdf

 

[marley1]

Wd elements work

Or go with shadow protect

 

[BadBoy House]

Are there any server backup packages that you would recommend for small business use?

Key features would be the ability to perform bare metal restores and quick individual file restorations.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

StorageCraft
//end thread

 

[marley1]

I'm an msp partner I'd you want to rent

 

[PaulTech]

I just went through this. I've been using Terabyteunlimited Image For Windows (IFW) and BIBM solutions for years so I contacted their super responsive support team. IFW creates copies, full or differential images based on the full image that you choose once it has been created. It allows you to create batch jobs (create the job in the IFW GUI and near the last part you can save off the cmd to use for the batch job and cancel out of the process). If you need multiple partitions on different drives use the wait command to sequentially run the next IFW job, most likely at night. The key to IFW is once the "tbi" image is created if you need to restore any particular file(s) or folder(s) start up TBIview, and you can drag drop explorer style or choose to restore to original location as needed.

When the backup drive filled up I noticed the C: drive free space started dropping due to the Exchange Server 2010 mail log files. There are two ways to deal with this, change the logging and/or run a backup that uses VSS. If you are in a critical situation enable "circular logging" (at your own risk so read up on it!);

xchange Management Console > Organization Configuration > Mailbox > work pane > right-click the storage group > Properties > Management > Select or clear the Enable circular logging check box > Click OK. (To make your changes to the circular logging settings effective, restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service, or dismount and then mount all of the databases in the storage group, or restart the Server if an option) Note: the bolded is the correction for the link you will likely find in your searches that states the incorrect path.

The final piece of the puzzle, in this case, was understanding that VSS initiates the trimming of these mail log files so in the IFW setting options be sure to choose to use VSS for the image creation process.

I hope this helps.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

When the backup drive filled up I noticed the C: drive free space started dropping due to the Exchange Server 2010 mail log files. There are two ways to deal with this, change the logging and/or run a backup that uses VSS. If you are in a critical situation enable "circular logging" (at your own risk so read up on it!);

Infostore (and company data) shouldn't be on the system volume in the first place. Bad bad bad.

 

[CTL]

All of my clients with a server get a Datto device. Not an option.

 

[PaulTech]

Infostore (and company data) shouldn't be on the system volume in the first place. Bad bad bad.

Could you clarify this comment? By Company Data do you mean shared folders?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Could you clarify this comment? By Company Data do you mean shared folders?

Yes...shared folders, users folders, folder redirection folders, applications, etc.

 

[PaulTech]

Thanks for the clarification, in the case I mentioned above only the log files are on C: and the other data is on a separate volume.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Came across a client who's servers internal RD1000 drive is now too small from their backup. She picked up a few WD external drives, and for now was going to do a sneaker net with them to take offsite. SBS08 box. Fired up the windows server backup...got error about backup. Used WD's tool to pave the drives....backup flew no problem!