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Tips and Tricks
Please follow the below guidelines to ensure the best performance of Firestreamer-RM.
General
- You need to select IBM 3480, as opposed to File, as the backup destination in the Microsoft Backup Utility. Firestreamer-RM automatically selects the first media drive with compatible media inside.
- A piece of Firestreamer-RM media (BD, DVD, HDD, Iomega REV or of any other supported type) appears to the Microsoft Backup Utility as a tape cartridge. Accordingly, you should treat it in the same way. For example, do not expect to see any files on the "tape" in Windows Explorer. Most of the Microsoft documentation on using NTBackup with tape drives applies as well to Firestreamer-RM.
- Firestreamer-RM writes data directly to media with no file systems involved. This allows faster backups and simplifies media management. You do not need to worry about drive letters and file names anymore. Microsoft Removable Storage automatically keeps track of Firestreamer-RM media and deletes old backup catalogs whenever a piece of media gets overwritten. NOTE: This does not apply to file media.
- During the backup and restore, do not run other software that may access your media drives.
- Test your backups periodically to make sure everything works as expected. If you are planning for bare metal restores, you should perform a test ASR restore on a separate computer at least once.
- Make sure you remember or write down the encryption passwords. There is no way to access encrypted data without a correct password.
- Firestreamer-RM does not need drive letters. You can use media drives with no drive letters assigned. NOTE: This does not apply to file media.
- To restore a backup on another computer, you need to catalog the media first.
- Always use high quality branded media.
- If you are experiencing problems with Firestreamer-RM, check out the Activity tab of the Firestreamer-RM Control Panel first.
The Backup Utility (NTBackup)
- Before clicking any buttons on the Backup Utility's messages prompting for media, wait until the drive finishes the media recognition process, which may take up to a minute. The messages automatically disappear once the media is recognized, provided you have the correct piece of media in your drive.
- To ensure your backups are successful, use the Backup Utility's Verify data after backup option. IMPORTANT: Do not use this option with unattended backups that span multiple media, as it will not work as expected; use the Hardware write and verify option instead, if available.
See Also
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