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I have Macrium 8.1 in Win 10.

My Macrium procedure has not varied for several years - AFAIK. But recently, I've been seeing the following error message after requesting a Full Backup to an external HDD.

--Backup aborted. None of the specified backup locations could be written to--

There is 800 GB free on the target location (S: ).

My last successful Diff ran 9 days ago, after I got the error. It was too big at 50 GB, but I had no other choice. Today, I got the error on a Full, and also on a Diff. I don't use Incrementals, but today I tried an Inc as part of the t/shooting. Got the same error.

I use two external HDDs in rotation. When I see the error on S:, I immediately disconnect S: (logically and physically) and connect the other drive (T: ). T: never gives the above error message. (The drive letters are hard-coded.)

BTW: Up till recently, before there were errors, I never disconnected S: or T: logically or physically. I simply edited the folders in "Folders", using the "Edit" icon.

I scanned S for errors. None.

I would be grateful for any advice.

Thanks
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Does the job log actually say that S: was an attempted destination while it was connected?

+x

 

jphughan - 14 November 2023 1:09 PM

Does the job log actually say that S: was an attempted destination while it was connected?

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No :-(
The logs says destination is T:

I'm giving this quick response to head off any folks who might want to help.

I'll need to figure out how all backups for last 5 months went to the correct destination S or T, despite using the same File Definition. I'll add to my reply.

Thanks
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Sounds like you might want to verify that your definition file configuration actually has both S and T as possible destinations.

+x

 

jphughan - 14 November 2023 3:00 PM

Sounds like you might want to verify that your definition file configuration actually has both S and T as possible destinations.

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The XML statement in the filedef is:
<directory>T:\Dell\Images\</directory>

I don't know how I survived for 5 months using a single filedef. My memory is now useless, but I don't recall editing the filedef on a drive-by-drive basis.

[In my OP, you can see that I did have ONE successful Diff more recently:
"My last successful Diff ran 9 days ago, after I got the error."
I was forced to run the Diff, because the Full failed.]

I will now start using two filedefs with "_DriveS" and "_DriveT" appended.

That's no problem to me. In, fact, exposing file details in the filename (Java style vs Ruby or Perl) is more natural for engineers, rather than hiding stuff inside a single filedef that needs to be edited for different drives.

Thanks for your help.
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+x

 

OldGrantonian - 15 November 2023 8:21 AM

<snip>
[In my OP, you can see that I did have ONE successful Diff more recently:
"My last successful Diff ran 9 days ago, after I got the error."
I was forced to run the Diff, because the Full failed. {Emphasis added}

Whenever I have a backup fail, after fixing what caused the failure,  I use the Scheduled Backups tab and seleect the one that failed, then use Run Now to rerun it in the same manner as the failed job.  There's no reason to skip a Full backup, especially since the full will be the parent of subsequent diff or incremental backups. So the diff you ran just extended the previous backup set that has an older full backup as parent.   Just sayin'.  


L.W. (Dan) Danz, Overland Park KS

You don’t need two definition files. Edit the existing one, and underneath the Destination field, click “Alternative locations” and add the secondary target. That way you avoid duplicating all of your definition file settings, and Reflect will always just use whichever drive is available at any given time.

+x

 

jphughan - 15 November 2023 3:25 PM

You don’t need two definition files. Edit the existing one, and underneath the Destination field, click “Alternative locations” and add the secondary target. That way you avoid duplicating all of your definition file settings, and Reflect will always just use whichever drive is available at any given time.

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I tried that with all combinations of drives connected physically and/or logically.

Works perfectly.

Thanks
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