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USB disk rotation with Veeam Agent for Windows

  • March 25, 2026
  • 9 comments
  • 41 views
J
  • JC-29
  • Not a newbie anymore

Hi all,

 

Sorry if this has been covered, I couldn’t find it in the search. I have a HyperV host and I want to use VAW to backup the D drive containing the HyperV VM files.  I have 2 USB disks I plan to rotate.  I’ve read the guides and I have registered both the USB disks as storage devices. 

 

Last night it failed and I am suspecting it was due to the drive letter not being assigned when it got reconnected.  In theory, am I OK to simply leave one disk plugged in and VAW will do the backup to that disk, if there is a drive letter assigned?  

 

Thanks.

 

 

Best answer by JC-29

Hi all. So it failed, as it seems VAW was not fooled by me changing the drive letter.  In the GUI the new disk had been assigned the E drive letter, but there must have been some disk ID lodged in there which VAW was specifically looking for, not just a drive letter.  

I’ve been convinced by a colleague to use the community edition of VBR, so I’ll be closing this thread and starting a new one, as VBR also is giving me grief!!  Maybe see you there….

 

Thanks all.

    9 comments

    coolsport00
    Forum|alt.badge.img+21
    • coolsport00
    • Veeam Legend
    • March 25, 2026

    Hi ​@JC-29 -

    Is there a reason why you aren’t using the “main” Veeam Backup solution to backup your Hyper-V VMs? You didn’t share much about your environment, but it appears you may have a small environment? You can use the VBR Community Edition (free) version to backup up to 10 VMs.

    Can you share more of what your backup goal is? We can then better assist.

    Thanks.

    Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
      matheusgiovanini
      Forum|alt.badge.img+8

      Hello!
      It sounds like you're rotating USB disks, but it's not fully clear how your rotation strategy works.

      Drive letter changes are a common cause of failure in this setup. You may want to use a persistent drive letter or a volume GUID path to avoid this issue.

      Matheus Giuliano Giovanini | Senior Backup Analyst | Veeam Legend | Blog: techdirectarchive.com
        Chris.Childerhose
        Forum|alt.badge.img+21

        Yes you are good to leave the USB drive connected for backups.  You registered it as a target so all should be good just space will become an issue based on retention.

        Chris Childerhose (Enterprise Architect) - VMCA | VMCE | VMCE-SP | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 7* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
          J
          • JC-29
          • Author
          • Not a newbie anymore
          • March 25, 2026

          Hi all, and thanks for the replies.

          My setup is one HyperV host and one VM to protect.  I did start with the community edition of VBR, but I also couldn’t see how I could make that work with 2 USB disks that have different drive letters.


          The customer is likely to only swap the USBs if they are in the office.  This doesn’t always happen.  The VM to be protected is about 900GB and the USBs are 4TB each.  I’ve currently setup 7 days retention and will see how much of the 4TB gets used. 

          A thought did cross my mind of setting a scheduled task/script to do a diskpart change/assign drive letter to E: ten minutes before the Veeam job runs.  

           

          Thanks v much!

            coolsport00
            Forum|alt.badge.img+21
            • coolsport00
            • Veeam Legend
            • March 25, 2026

            Oh, ok...yeah, that works ​@JC-29 . Running a scheduled task before the VAW job would certainly be beneficial imo to make sure your drive gets “seen”.

            Also...I assume you did read in the Guide how rotated drives operate?
            https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentforwindows/userguide/rotated_drives.html?ver=13

            Let us know how it goes.

            Best.

            Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
              Chris.Childerhose
              Forum|alt.badge.img+21

              Sounds like you have a good plan and time will tell if things work.  Let us know how it goes.

               
               
               
              Chris Childerhose (Enterprise Architect) - VMCA | VMCE | VMCE-SP | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 7* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
                J
                • JC-29
                • Author
                • Not a newbie anymore
                • Answer
                • March 30, 2026

                Hi all. So it failed, as it seems VAW was not fooled by me changing the drive letter.  In the GUI the new disk had been assigned the E drive letter, but there must have been some disk ID lodged in there which VAW was specifically looking for, not just a drive letter.  

                I’ve been convinced by a colleague to use the community edition of VBR, so I’ll be closing this thread and starting a new one, as VBR also is giving me grief!!  Maybe see you there….

                 

                Thanks all.

                  Chris.Childerhose
                  Forum|alt.badge.img+21

                  Sorry that you could not get this to work and good luck with VBR as similar principles will apply there too.  Check the help section about rotated drives.

                  Chris Childerhose (Enterprise Architect) - VMCA | VMCE | VMCE-SP | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 7* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
                    coolsport00
                    Forum|alt.badge.img+21
                    • coolsport00
                    • Veeam Legend
                    • March 30, 2026

                    Sorry you couldn't get this working but thank you for updating us. 

                    Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
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