NTBACKUP problem - taking ages!

ramon82 · 15th October 2008

NTBACKUP problem - taking ages!

Hi all.

I have a problem with NTBACKUP. I have so much data that the BKF file is around 111GB!! obviously I am not using a tape drive to backup all this data but another hard drive. NTBACKUP compiles all data to a BKF file from the host drive on to another hard drive. Problem is not that however. Its taking ages to perform this task and during this time the server is on its knees!! No wonder why considering the huge amount and the backup being NORMAL and not INCREMENTAL or DIFFERENTIAL. Policies say that backup should be NORMAL/FULL.

Is there a way or another software which would allow a better compression or does the job quicker? I want the backup to be performed from HARD DRIVE-to-HARD DRIVE and therefore there is no use of LTO tapes or any other backup media.

Awaiting your opinion

Many thanks

**ReggieB** · 15th October 2008

Symantec Backup Exec

CA Arcserve

Acronis server

All will backup to a hard disk and out perform NT Backup.

ramon82 · 31st October 2008

I decided to perform a backup to another HDD using NTBackup but now I am encountering these errors:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Ftdisk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 50
Date: 30-10-2008
Time: 7:18:31 AM
User: N/A
Computer: SERVER-A
Description:
{Lost Delayed-Write Data} The system was attempting to transfer file data from buffers to \Device\HarddiskVolume3. The write operation failed, and only some of the data may have been written to the file.
Data:
0000: 00 00 04 00 01 00 5e 00 ......^.
0008: 00 00 00 00 32 00 04 80 ....2..?
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0028: 9a 00 00 c0 ?..

On top of that what puzzled me more is that the drive had a capacity of 250GB and now its only showing half !! ie: 128MB and its saying unreadable drive. I performed a test on the drive using IBM Hitachi drive test (DFT) and it did not return a fail.

Can anyone suggest a solution to this?
Many thanks

**Steve R Jones** · 31st October 2008

Can anyone suggest a solution to this? -> Yep...Stop using NTBackup

To fix the 2nd drive issue, you'll probably have to zap the partition and add it back.

**ReggieB** · 31st October 2008

I think I'd be looking at faulty hardware. As the hard disk has passed diagnostics I'd first look at the cable, and then the controller. Swap the HDD data cable and try moving the drive to a different controller. If the fault continues, I think the next place to look is the hard disk. It may have a fault that isn't being picked up by diagnostics. Swap the drive out and try again.