Re: More on backup options
- From: Janos <Janos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:07:03 -0700
Thank Owen, that explains it.
I ahve been using a USB drive for backup for some time now quite
successfully. I say "quite" because it invariably generates an error message
at completion of the backup about a "controller failure". According to
Microsoft you can ignore this.
It seems that the only way to use the Vantec EZ-Swap is to power the system
down when removing it. This means some regular weekend work which I was
trying to avoid.
I am still puzzled about the system not recognizing the drive when
transfered to the standby machine. Oh well, what are late nights for anyway?
--
Janos
(Any opinions expressed or implied are the result of total frustration -
please ignore them)
"Owen Williams [SBS MVP]" wrote:
In article <35077073-C272-4ECB-9E3E-A25610CDE40C@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,.
Janos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
I read with interest Owen Williams' answwer about having two hard drives and
swapping them regularly.
I installed two "Ez-Swap" removable IDE hard drives - one into a live server
and one into a stanby (offline) server. The idea is that I swap drives
regularly and thus keep the (off-site) stanby system ready to take over in an
emergency.
The drive swap I discussed was for external USB HDs on a single SBS used for
backup, using the SBS Backup wizard.
The Vantec EZ-Swap is a HD enclosure for IDE hard disks which fits in a 5.25"
bay and uses an IDE - not USB - connection to the computer. Given your
intended usage, I think you should be looking at using disk imaging software
with this device rather than SBS Backup.
The first problem I encountered was that if I remove a drive from the system
it dies. I could not find a "dismount" function other than to disable it in
Device Manager. That worked - to a point.
The second problem was that when I put the drive into the standby system it
is not recognized. In Disk Manager it shows up as "Foreign". When trying to
import foreign, it fails saying something to the effect that the names are
identical.
Is there anywhere a step by step "Idiot's Guide" on how to configure
swappable HDD's?
I was not familiar with the EZ-Swap, so I did a (little) reading about it. It
appears these are NOT hot swappable. According to one reviewer:
"And to the people who are complaining that they aren't a 'HOTSWAP'... an IDE
HDD is NOT hot swappable. SATAs ARE hot swappable. If you buy these for IDE
drives (which they are made for), YOU MUST SHUT YOUR SYSTEM DOWN BEFORE
REMOVING! Its ONLY SATA drives that you can pull out when your system is
running."
Given that the EZ-Swap is - from Windows' perspective - a non-removable drive,
I expect you will need to use Disk Manager to recognize a drive whenever it is
added to a system.
In contrast, external USB HDs [usually] CAN be disconnected and reconnected
while the computer is running _provided_ appropriate precautions are taken.
This means either manually using the Safely Remove Hardware tool -or- using the
DevCon command-line tool to disable the drive before removal. I use the latter
via a scheduled task to provide a time period during which my client knows they
can safely swap the drive.
In the preceding paragraph, I say [usually] because occasionally one finds a
USB controller which is - ahem - not as well-designed as it could be, so that
hot-plugging a device causes the server to hang or crash.
-- Owen Williams [SBS MVP]
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