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Veeam backing up volumes without a drive letter assigned


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I just this month have started setting up and playing with Veeam Backup and Replication Community Edition.  I have two desktops and two laptops I’m backing up with it.

 

I’m trying to use just a single backup job for all of the machines because I understand that dedup only works for backups done as part of the same job.  Am I wrong on that?

 

Anyway, my issue is that I have configured the backup job to exclude “E:”.  This is because my main PC has a DrivePool that contains backup data from my NAS and the drive pool is E:.

 

The issue is that there are 4 drives that make up that drive pool.  They are not configured with their own drive letter.  But Veeam wants to back them up - which surprised me - I want Veeam to ignore them too since everything except the DrivePool software ignore them otherwise.  I’ll attach a screenshot of my disk management so you can see what I’m talking about.

 

Is this a bug in Veeam that it will back up volumes without a drive letter assigned or intended behavior?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

 

9 comments

Chris.Childerhose
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  • Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
  • 8506 comments
  • January 30, 2025

Which backup method did you choose for the job?  There is entire computer and also volume level.  Maybe this will help - https://veeamcookbook.com/vbr/Backup/AgentBackup/AgentBackupWinServer.html

 


coolsport00
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  • Veeam Legend
  • 4146 comments
  • January 30, 2025

Hi ​@APK17 -

“I’m trying to use just a single backup job for all of the machines because I understand that dedup only works for backups done as part of the same job.  Am I wrong on that?”

> Nope..you are indeed correct, as stated in the Guide here.

“Is this a bug in Veeam that it will back up volumes without a drive letter assigned or intended behavior?” 

> Good question...never really thought about this before because 99% of the time this is the case. In looking at the VAW Guide on Volume Backup, it appears this is the case. I wonder if you can try and exclude folders (root folder of these) to see if that works.

Best.


  • Author
  • Not a newbie anymore
  • 4 comments
  • January 30, 2025
Chris.Childerhose wrote:

Which backup method did you choose for the job?  There is entire computer and also volume level.  Maybe this will help - https://veeamcookbook.com/vbr/Backup/AgentBackup/AgentBackupWinServer.html

 

I’m currently using a Volume level backup because that method allows for excluding a volume, E: in my case, and allows for BMR.

Before configuring the job to exclude E: I tried using the other “Backup the following volumes only” option.  I put C: and D: in the list, two of my computers have a D: drive, two do not.  This did work, meaning that it didn’t try to backup the drivepool drives, but Veeam would throw an error on the two computers that did not have a D: drive.  


  • Author
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  • January 30, 2025
coolsport00 wrote:

Hi ​@APK17 -

“I’m trying to use just a single backup job for all of the machines because I understand that dedup only works for backups done as part of the same job.  Am I wrong on that?”

> Nope..you are indeed correct, as stated in the Guide here.

“Is this a bug in Veeam that it will back up volumes without a drive letter assigned or intended behavior?” 

> Good question...never really thought about this before because 99% of the time this is the case. In looking at the VAW Guide on Volume Backup, it appears this is the case. I wonder if you can try and exclude folders (root folder of these) to see if that works.

Best.



Unless I’m mistaken you can’t exclude file/folders when you use volume based for your job, no?


coolsport00
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  • Veeam Legend
  • 4146 comments
  • January 30, 2025

Hi ​@APK17 -

Yes, that is correct. I think it may be best to switch to the file/folder backup option

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentforwindows/userguide/backup_job_folders.html?ver=60


  • Author
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  • January 30, 2025
coolsport00 wrote:

Hi ​@APK17 -

Yes, that is correct. I think it may be best to switch to the file/folder backup option

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentforwindows/userguide/backup_job_folders.html?ver=60

The issue with that is you lose the ability to do bare metal restores.


coolsport00
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  • Veeam Legend
  • 4146 comments
  • January 30, 2025

Ah yes...as you stated earlier that’s also what you wanted. Hmm...I’m out of suggestions at this point.


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  • Not a newbie anymore
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  • January 30, 2025
coolsport00 wrote:

Ah yes...as you stated earlier that’s also what you wanted. Hmm...I’m out of suggestions at this point.

 

Either way thank you for the discussion, I appreciate you taking the time to reply.  I’ve opened a support case with Veeam to see what they say.  

 

Anyone want me to update this thread with their determination?


coolsport00
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  • Veeam Legend
  • 4146 comments
  • January 30, 2025

Good deal. Yes..please give an update when you have one. Appreciate it.