backups on removable hard drives

[Mike Brearley]

I'd like to setup a server with 10 removable hard drives (20+ drives total
to swap in/out of the 10 drive bays) and use a backup program like Veritas
or ARCserve to use those drives as backup media.

Anyone with experience doing this? Would it work seemlessly or would each
and every drive need to be mounted in and set-up before it would work
properly (as in not being able to mount a new/unused drive and have it see
it as 'blank media')?

--
Posted 'as is'. If there are any spelling and/or grammar mistakes, they
were a direct result of my fingers and brain not being synchronized or my
lack of caffeine.

Mike Brearley

 

[Bjorn Landemoo]

Mike

I use a single external hard disk at a time (five in total), and a diskpart
script to assign the same drive letter to them, and then use ntbackup as
backup software.

Perhaps, if your disks get disk numbering from their positions/drive bays,
it might be possible to develop this to something that works for you. This
is how my script works:

In a batch file, I use this syntax:

diskpart /s assign.txt

where assign.txt contains

select disk=1
select partition=1
assign letter=L
exit

You will, of course, need to edit the disk number, partition number and
drive letter to fit your configuration.

You will find more about diskpart here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=300415

Probably, a solution with a single larger disk would be easier to handle.
La Cie's BigDisk, or Bigger Disk might be an option.

Best regards

Bjorn