Cannot create large files on USB drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill Smith
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Bill Smith

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We are using a windows sbs 2003 server. We are backing up to multiple
external usb drives that we rotate in and out. YES, the usb drives are
formatted with NTFS. There are approx 400GB of free space on each drive. We
are using Nova Backup to accomplish the backups. We are backing up approx
40gb. The issue we are having is that when Nova does the backup, it creates
several smaller files opposed to just one large backup file. The files are
approx 4gb each so I initially thought the external drives were formatted in
FAT16 or FAT32 but that isnt the case. I cannot find any setting in Nova
Backup that allows you to set it to create just one large file. So I'm
thinking it may be a function in the OS somewhere. I want to say that I
think in Backup Exec there is an option when backing up to a usb drive to set
the backup file size but I couldnt find anything in Nova. Does anyone know
how to do this? Is this a SBS option that can be set? If not, does anyone
know how to get Nova Backup to do it? Your help would be greatly
appreciated!

Bill Smith
 
Re: Cannot create large files on USB drive

Bill Smith <BillSmith@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> We are using a windows sbs 2003 server. We are backing up to multiple
> external usb drives that we rotate in and out. YES, the usb drives
> are formatted with NTFS. There are approx 400GB of free space on
> each drive. We are using Nova Backup to accomplish the backups. We
> are backing up approx 40gb. The issue we are having is that when
> Nova does the backup, it creates several smaller files opposed to
> just one large backup file. The files are approx 4gb each so I
> initially thought the external drives were formatted in FAT16 or
> FAT32 but that isnt the case. I cannot find any setting in Nova
> Backup that allows you to set it to create just one large file. So
> I'm thinking it may be a function in the OS somewhere. I want to say
> that I think in Backup Exec there is an option when backing up to a
> usb drive to set the backup file size but I couldnt find anything in
> Nova. Does anyone know how to do this? Is this a SBS option that
> can be set? If not, does anyone know how to get Nova Backup to do
> it? Your help would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Bill Smith

Try using SBSBackup (a wrapper for NTBackup) to the same drives and see
whether you have the same problem. It's best to post in
m.p.windows.server.sbs when you're using SBS - you'll get more expert help
that way.
 
Re: Cannot create large files on USB drive


"Bill Smith" <BillSmith@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:35C4F19E-16F2-438F-B4BC-5A8752EAD994@microsoft.com...
> We are using a windows sbs 2003 server. We are backing up to multiple
> external usb drives that we rotate in and out. YES, the usb drives are
> formatted with NTFS. There are approx 400GB of free space on each drive.
> We
> are using Nova Backup to accomplish the backups. We are backing up approx
> 40gb. The issue we are having is that when Nova does the backup, it
> creates
> several smaller files opposed to just one large backup file. The files
> are
> approx 4gb each so I initially thought the external drives were formatted
> in
> FAT16 or FAT32 but that isnt the case. I cannot find any setting in Nova
> Backup that allows you to set it to create just one large file. So I'm
> thinking it may be a function in the OS somewhere. I want to say that I
> think in Backup Exec there is an option when backing up to a usb drive to
> set
> the backup file size but I couldnt find anything in Nova. Does anyone
> know
> how to do this? Is this a SBS option that can be set? If not, does
> anyone
> know how to get Nova Backup to do it? Your help would be greatly
> appreciated!
>
> Bill Smith

To work out if this is a Nova or a Windows issue, open a Command Prompt and
type the following command:

fsutil file createnew U:\big.bin 4000000000

The command will create a 4GByte file on drive U:. If drive U: is an NTFS
partition then the file will be created almost instantly. If it is a FAT32
partition then it will fail, or take forever when try a smaller size.
 
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