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    Resolve External Hard Drive Issues
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      Resolve External Hard Drive Issues

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        Article Summary

        This article provides instructions to resolve issues with external hard drive backups. If you complete all of these steps and you continue to have issues, contact Backblaze Support.

        If your drive was not connected to your computer at the time of the update to the latest version of Backblaze, then Backblaze could not create the hidden .bzvol directory and removed this hard drive from the backup.

        View the .bzvol Directory

        Backblaze creates a bzvol directory at the top level of every drive that is backed up. Inside this hidden directory is a tiny file that identifies this hard drive for the rest of time. You can view this directory on a Mac to see what changed.

        1. Click Finder.
        2. Press Command + Shift + G.
        3. Copy the following command, and paste it into the text input: /.bzvol.

        The folder is available for copying and modification.

        If you have an external drive, copy the following text: /Volumes/<volumename>/.bzvol. For example, if you had an external drive named "Media," enter /Volumes/Media/.bzvol into the text input.

        Edit Cloning Software

        If you clone a drive that you selected for backup, it clones the .bzvol directory, but now the two different hard drives have the same ID.

        Two hard drives should never have the same bzvolumeid.

        1. Edit your cloning software to exclude the .bzvol folder.
        2. Remove the contents of the hidden .bzvol folder that was already cloned.
          1. On a Mac, open Finder.
          2. In the Go to folder... field, enter /Volumes/ExternalDriveName/.bzvol.
          3. Click Go.
          4. Select all of the files, and move them to Trash.

        Alternatively (not recommended), you can suppress this warning dialog by creating a file called bzstop_clonewarn in the .bzvol folder of both the original hard drive and the cloned hard drive.

        Verify Your Drives

        1. Verify that all of your drives are plugged into your computer at the same time.
        2. Open the Backblaze Client Preferences Panel (Mac)/Control Panel (Windows).
        3. Click Settings, and select the Settings tab.
        4. In the Select Hard Drives for Backup section, select the hard drives for back up.
        5. Click OK.
        6. On the Preferences Panel (Mac)/Control Panel (Windows), click Backup Now to force an immediate rescan.

        Resolve a Missing External Hard Drive

        When a drive is missing for 14, 21, and 28 days, Backblaze emails an alert to the account email address on record. 

        1. Physically connect all disconnected drives (if any).
        2. Open the Backblaze Client for your specific operating system.
        3. Click Settings.
        4. Select the Settings tab, and review the list of drives that are selected for backup under Select Hard Drives for Backup.
          1. Deselect the drives that should not back up.
          2. Select the drives that should back up.
          3. Select the drives that say both "unplugged" and are unchecked which combines the two.
        5. Select the Schedule tab.
          1. Ensure that Backblaze Backup Schedule is set to Continuously.
        6. Run your computer for at least four hours with all of your drives connected simultaneously, uninterrupted by reboots, sleep mode, or shutting down.

        When you plug an external drive back in, it may take Backblaze two to four hours to schedule the files on the external drive to scan and back up.

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