Acronis does not handle swappable drives?
I'm having a very annoying problem.
My backup routine is this: I have two drives in my computer, a system drive (SSD) and a storage/media drive.
In addition to this I have 2 2TB drives used as a rotating backup. I do daily backups onto one of the drives, at the end of the week I remove the drive from the computer, take it to a safe deposit box, and pick up the other drive from the box. I then take it home and install it into the computer.
When I remove the drives from the computer (SATA internal hot swap) I use the "remove devices safely" feature in Windows 7. When I install them I have to power down the computer first or I get a BSOD.
The problem is that Acronis can't seem to cope with the drives not being in the computer ALL THE TIME. Once I remove one, even if I put it right back in, the associated backup cannot find any of the files even if the backup location listed is the correct one containing the relevant backup files, and I have to delete the backup and make a new one by opening the drive and importing the backup into Acronis, then remaking all of the settings.
This is ridiculous and really starting to get on my nerves. Is there any way to make Acronis just understand that "This drive is not in the computer right now, so IGNORE THIS BACKUP until the drive is present?" As well, if would be useful to know if there is a way to lock a drive letter to a particular drive, as due to the removing/reinstalling of drives the letters jump around a bit.
That's what I have already I believe. I have a backup entitled "Full System Backup A" and another "Full System Backup B." They were created independently with independent (but identical settings), each pointing to a different drive letter.
The problem is that once the drive is removed and then re-installed (typically a week later), Acronis cannot find the corresponding backup again on that drive unless I delete the backup settings from Acronis, import the files from the disk, and re-make the settings. This happens even if the drive letter has remained the same. Suddenly Acronis cannot find the backup even though it is exactly where it is supposed to be. Very strange and frustrating to have to do this...
Sergey,
Did you assign a fixed drive letter using windows disk management?
I did not, although that is a good idea. I should mention that on occasion this happens even when the drive letter remains the same, but I will give it a try.
Sergey,
I use the letters x or y or z on my externals and also include a volume name such as X-640 or Y-650, etc.
Have you checked the log file so see what type error message is being provided?
I use hot swappable but all I do is a normal cold shutdown--no safety remove. As a safety precaution, my power supply also has its own on/off button and I turn the power supply off before switching. I know this should not be necessary but I feel better safe than sorry. Using this method removes any internal power within the motherboard and hopefully reduces the changes of a jolt when drives are being switched.
Then I change the swappable boot drive and reboot with basically the same type drive except I have either 2010 or 2011 or 2012 TrueImage installed. When I return the 2012 disk back as the Sata active disk, my backups resume normally.
You might want to also consider the use of Drive Notify in conjunction with your backups. Drive Notify will act as a reminder to insert a specific drive just prior to a pending backup.