External USB Hard Drive Information

Backup for Workgroups can store backup data on any single external USB hard drive or combination of external USB hard drives.

Items to Consider When Using External USB Drives:

• Use USB 2.0 hard drives
  Older USB 1.0 drives are not recommended due to a slower data transfer rate.
• Make sure the USB drive is formatted NTFS for optimal storage space
  Many USB drives are packaged pre-formatted in FAT32, because FAT32 is recognized by both Windows and Macintosh operating systems.  FAT32 drives can have problems storing large files (specifically files 4 GB and larger).   If you plan to backup files that are larger than 4GB, you will need to convert a FAT32 drive to NTFS.
  
  Windows comes with a utility that will convert a FAT32 drive to an NTFS drive without requiring you to reformat the drive first, so you do not lose any of your data that you may have stored on this drive.
  
  To convert a drive from FAT32 to NTFS
  1. Start this process at a convenient time when you can re-boot your computer and have it off-line for up to an hour.
  2. Open a command prompt (a DOS shell).
  3. Type the following, where X corresponds to the FAT32 drive identifier:
     
     CONVERT X: /FS:NTFS

  When you initiate the CONVERT program, it is typical for Windows to delay the conversion process until the next time you re-boot the computer. At that time, the conversion will occur, which will delay the boot process while the conversion process is running. During this time, your computer will be off-line.

• Make sure the USB drive is turned on and recognized by Windows
  If the external USB drive is not available at the time of the backup, then the backup will not be performed.  It sounds silly, but many times the USB drive is either not turned on or not properly connected through the USB port of the computer. 
  
  On occasion, you may have to force Windows to recognize a USB drive after it has been reconnected:

1. Turn the external hard drive off and unplug drive from the USB port
2. Plug the USB cable into the USB port
3. Turn the USB hard drive on

The Windows plug and play should auto-detect the presence of a new drive.
 

Rotating USB Hard drive notes

Many people like to swap out USB drives, much like tapes are swapped out, to provide for off-site storage rotation.  Backup for Workgroups supports USB drive rotation, but there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Each USB drive in your rotation will need to have the same static drive letter assigned to it by Windows.  If the first drive is "G:" then the second drive must also be "G:"
• Each USB drive in your rotation will have to have the Clients baseline first.  If you are rotating 2 drives, then the Clients will perform a baseline on the first drive, and then when you connect the second drive, the Clients will perform a baseline again.  This process is only needed to be done once for each drive in your rotation.
• Each USB drive in your rotation will have to have the License Number information entered.  If you are rotating 2 drives, then you will need to enter your License Number information on the first drive, and then when you connect the second drive you will need to enter the License Number information again.  This process is only needed to be done once for each drive in your rotation.
• After the initial baseline backup, Backup for Workgroups will perform whole-file incremental backups.  If you are rotating USB drives, certain revisions of a file will be on the first hard drive and other revisions will be on the second hard drive.  If you need to restore a file from a particular date and time, there is a chance that file may not be on the drive you have connected at the time.

Although you can store the Data Repository on any removable or external hard drive, because Backup for Workgroups uses incremental backups, we recommend using a hard drive that is not rotated or disconnected for the primary Data Repository.  This ensures that all of the backup data is in one place and available for any of the (4) different restoration options.  Also, if Backup for Workgroups detects that the Data Repository storage device is unavailable for any reason, Clients cannot perform backups. 

We recommend using the Backup for Workgroups Mirror feature to copy the entire Data Repository as a whole to a second (or third) USB storage unit, which allows you to have a second copy of the backup data.  The Mirror storage device can be removed, disconnected or rotated at any time, and Clients will still be able to send backup data to the primary Data Repository.  If Backup for Workgroups detects that the Mirror storage device is not available, it will simply stay in a holding pattern until it is detected again.  When it is available, the Mirror will start copying the Data Repository again.

However, the Data Repository drive can be rotated (on a weekly/monthly basis for example) if you so desire.  Click here to read a discussion of the pros and cons of rotating the Data Repository hard drives (versus rotating the Mirror drives).