Backup drive issue:

[Slott]

Here's the issue, had acronis true image setup on someones computer at work to backup to his external drive letter f:. At some point he probably unplugged his laptop, rebooted it, went unnoticed for months and the external hard drive was changed to e: Therefore, the backup hasn't been happening since drive f: didn't exist, and therefore when he lost some crucial data by accident, we couldn't restore it to a current date. Is there any way to avoid this (drive letter changing) from happening, or possibly some backup option i'm not looking at properly?

[liamsom]

I believe if you go in to disk management in Windows you can assign a drive letter to the external drive. I'm unsure it if retains this once it has been disconnected but it's worth a shot.

[SephYuyX]

Actually check backups if they were completed?
Change the letter to X so nothing overrides it?
Dont use shitty software and just use batch/schedule?
Use Windows backup?
Tell the user he's an idiot and shouldnt use a computer?

[rezn0r]

i use BackupExec 2010 R2 at work with 5 1TB usb drives rotated weekdaily - for it to use external disks correctly i had to manually set a letter for each one (E-I) like liamsom said and it has had no problems for a year and a half. of course BE needs a bunch of batch files scheduled daily for this to work but that has nothing to do with your situation.

[Mafai]

Here's the issue, had acronis true image setup on someones computer at work to backup to his external drive letter f:. At some point he probably unplugged his laptop, rebooted it, went unnoticed for months and the external hard drive was changed to e: Therefore, the backup hasn't been happening since drive f: didn't exist, and therefore when he lost some crucial data by accident, we couldn't restore it to a current date. Is there any way to avoid this (drive letter changing) from happening, or possibly some backup option i'm not looking at properly?

I think you can reserve the drive, heres a quick rip from a site:

http://www.astahost.com/Reserving-Dr...re-t16388.html

It is as simple as this (As long as it is Windows XP):

1.) Click on the Windows Start Button.
2.) Click on Control Panel
3.) Click on Performance and maintinance
4.) Click on Administrative Tools
5.) Double Click on Click on Computer Managment
6.) Click on Disk Managment
7.) At the Bottom of that screen, right click on the drive that you want to assign a letter to, and select Change Drive Letter and Paths..
8.) Click on the Drive that you are assigning in the pop up dialog.
9.) Click Change
10.) In The drop down box that is shown, select the letter that you would like assigned, then Finaly,
11.) Click on okay.

You have just reassigned the drive letter for that drive..

I am a pro DJ, and have my computer that I use in show set up with ten USB external HD's that are all assigned this way, so that when I start the machine up, they are still the same drive letters....

-William

edit: that post might only cover reassigning it, but go to the link and look at the last post, it allows you to assign drive letter by hardware ID. I would suggest using a higher letter and allowing that software to assign your device to it so the backups happen as needed