Summary
On a Windows server, a data drive is included in Block backup jobs, though the drive was not selected for backup. This condition can result from a BMR or EXpressDR object included in the backup. The object may be causing an unselected drive to be included in the backup, even though the unselected drive it is not a system drive. You can generate a listing to determine services that are installed to non-system drives.
Symptoms
You have a server with one or more data drives. In the Block backup window, you attempt to unselect a drive that you no longer want to protect. Upon running the backup job, you observe that the unselected drive is still included in the backup.
Resolution
Backing up the BMR or ExpressDR object of a client server causes the job to include all drives that are important for a BMR recovery.
The dependency is usually caused by something on the server that was installed and registered with the system as a system startup dependency. For Windows 2008 and 2012 servers, you can use the diskshadow command with the sub-command list writers to generate a comprehensive list of what VSS believes each writer includes. Relevant dependencies can often be found in the System Writer area. One such example is given below. On this system, the list of paths was hundreds of lines long, most of which are removed here for brevity:
* WRITER "System Writer"
- Writer ID = {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
- Writer instance ID = {6e227b0e-77f0-4098-aee2-da1b727ab061}
- Supports restore events = FALSE
- Writer restore conditions = VSS_WRE_NEVER
- Restore method = VSS_RME_RESTORE_AT_REBOOT_IF_CANNOT_REPLACE
- Requires reboot after restore = TRUE
- Excluded files:
+ Component "System Writer:\System Files"
- Name: System Files
- Logical path:
- Full path: \System Files
- Caption: System Files
- Type: VSS_CT_FILEGROUP [2]
- Is selectable: FALSE
- Is top level: TRUE
- Notify on backup complete: FALSE
- Paths affected by this component:
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto
:
- c:\windows\web\wallpaper\windows
- e:\program files (x86)\sap businessobjects\sap businessobjects enterprise xi 4.0\\subversion
- e:\program files (x86)\sap businessobjects\sap businessobjects enterprise xi 4.0\win32_x86
- e:\program files (x86)\sap businessobjects\tomcat6\bin
- h:\program files (x86)\intergraph\iexec\bin
- h:\program files (x86)\intergraph\ism
- h:\program files\microsoft sql server\100\dts\binn
- h:\program files\microsoft sql server\mssql10_50.mssqlserver\mssql\binn
- Volumes affected by this component:
- \\?\Volume{9e39b874-edd4-11e2-8ee1-806e6f6e6963}\ [C:\]
- \\?\Volume{9f4ae4bb-2a24-46b6-8802-65e802e52a4c}\ [E:\]
- \\?\Volume{ae7abc02-3329-434d-a48a-8fc411de4ddc}\ [H:\]
On this system, it was discovered that an SAP related service was installed to the E: and H: drives, causing VSS to include them on system state backup.
Windows requires the drives, therefore BMR backs them up. If you need BMR, in most cases it is best to let the job back up the unselected drives.