Backup fails with 'backup location was not found'
Along with many others I have posted this problem for earlier editions of TI but it seems no nearer a solution, even with 2018 current build 12510.
To simplify: a backup job takes full backups to a USB-attached external disk. It regularly aborts with “Error 0xb0428: The backup location was not found on the destination drive. Make sure the correct storage device is connected to the computer.”
Win 10 (current version 1803 build 17134 .228) has been told to use Z: when this external disk is attached and it does; Win File Explorer confirms it. So there is never any clash with other USB-attached devices.
On the ‘main’ screen, the destination drive (Z:) and folder for that backup job are shown correctly in the RH half of the screen.
If I select Change Destination, the folder tree displays the drive and folder structure correctly. And if I select the already-selected folder, the backup job works. In other words, to the user, nothing has changed at all and everything was defined correctly.
In his post in April 18, MVP Steve Smith commented that “this is a known issue and circumvention. ATI records the destination drive unique ID in its internal database, … some users could use multiple different drives which share the same drive letter - recording the drive UID means that only the correct drive can match the information held in the database. This is fine until MS decides to issue a new Windows 10 Update…, then it also creates a new Recovery partition, and in doing these actions, the destination drive ID can also be changed. Reselecting the destination location is normally sufficient to correct things until the next MS Update!”
Since, judging by the posts on this forum, this appears to be long-standing and widespread problem, perhaps Acronis could either change the way it uses drive UIDs or give the user the option to allow a drive letter alone (plus folder) to be sufficient.
I have many non-technical users taking such backups at different sites, and the simplification of TI some years ago to be a user-friendly product (as distinct from Backup/Restore which is aimed as IT people) was a positive step. But expecting such users to have to respecify the target drive and folder when these are already displayed correctly is unreasonable and bizarre.
Is anyone in Acronis listening?
If you want Acronis to listen you need to provide Feedback or open a problem ticket. This is a forum of and for users. Several people from Acronis occasionally appear on the forum so I assume there is some (at least casual) monitoring going on, but if you expect action you need to use one of the formal avenues.
In reply to Steve's question "Are you swapping the target USB HDD backup drive in this scenario?"
No Steve - same physical drive in all cases. This is what seems so bizarre.
In reply to Patrick: I did open a problem ticket ages ago (for V 2016) but it got bogged down in extraneous issues such as multiple HDDs and letting Win allocate drive letters automatically.
same physical drive in all cases.
There shouldn't be any problems if the same drive is used each time as the drive ID will remain the same. The only other potential issue that can come in play here is if USB selective suspend is enabled in the power options and this is making the drive unavailable temporarily when it is idle?
Thanks Steve. If we are both referring to the same thing, we have tried toggling USB Generic hub (and other Device Manager hubs) 'Power Management - allow the computer to turn off the device to save power' but it made no difference. But we didn't expect it to since the failure can occur if we start a backup within a minute or so of plugging in the drive and whether or not TI is started when plugging in.
And it happens on more than one machne
The option I was referring to is USB Selective Suspend which is in the Advanced Power Options settings. Shown below from my laptop power settings.
Tnx again Steve. All the machines are towers, and the chosen Power Plan Advanced Power Settings shows USB Selective Suspend as disabled - and (interestingly) mousing over the option gives the tool-tip 'do not enable USB selective suspend'. This could be the result of our Device Manager settings of 'Power Management - allow the computer to turn off the device to save power' being unselected.
I am interested in you original comment that when a new major Win 10 Update also creates a new Recovery partition, the destination drive IDs could be changed. DYK why would Win want to do this to USB-connected external drives?
I am interested in you original comment that when a new major Win 10 Update also creates a new Recovery partition, the destination drive IDs could be changed. DYK why would Win want to do this to USB-connected external drives?
This was more of an observation than a proven fact but based on the experience of both MVP's and users as reported in these forums. It is possible that future Win 10 updates will change this behaviour or else equally possible it will continue to be shown simply because a new recovery partition is created and an old one removed as part of the upgrade (otherwise recovery partitions would consume more and more disk space unless they get reused!).
In reality, USB connected external drives really shouldn't be affected by this type of change but it has again been obvious that some have been as evidenced by resolving issues by reselecting the destination drive. It makes me wonder if the updates are causing all partitions to be re-enumerated and identifiers updated?