USB Hard Drives Won't Disconnect

I am having a problem with a Dell PowerEdge 1800. Intel 8280 chipset.

Backup Exec is running a backup-to-disk folder backup job to an external, USB attached hard drives. When the backup was running to 2.5" drives, the USB bus would often lose the drives in the middle of the backup job. When the drives were switched to 3.5" drives with their own power sources, the backup jobs ran flawlessly.

The problem now is that the Safely Remove Hardware wizard can never disconnect the drives. It always says the drives are in use. I have checked there are no handles or locks on anything on the drives. There is no I/O activity on the drives.

It is not convenient to disconnect the drives without running the wizard because if it is done this way, Backup Exec will see the backup-to-disk folder as being offline even when the next backup drive is attached, and then the backup job will not run. To get the job to run, you have to reboot the server or restart all the Backup Exec services.

I have never run into this problem before. I have seen lots of similar set ups that work mostly without problems.

This particular box is a total pain.

The only thing I have found in doing research is that some people have encountered USB problems resulting from IRQ sharing in 1800 series servers. Updating the bios and updating/reloading drivers seems to resolve the problem.

Any thoughts or suggestions?


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So if you stop the backup exec service, will it allow the drive to be disconnected? If so, the problem is that backup exec is holding the drive open.

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Originally Posted by NooNoo

So if you stop the backup exec service, will it allow the drive to be disconnected? If so, the problem is that backup exec is holding the drive open.

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I tried this. No difference.


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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

After the BackupExec has presumably finished its' job, can you look in whatever your system uses like Task Manager to see what is still running that might be accessing the Backup Drive ?

Maybe an antivirus program or something?

There's also the option I would think of a slower backup BUT using the 'configure for quick removal' option.

Is the indexing service running?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CCT

After the BackupExec has presumably finished its' job, can you look in whatever your system uses like Task Manager to see what is still running that might be accessing the Backup Drive ?

Maybe an antivirus program or something?

There's also the option I would think of a slower backup BUT using the 'configure for quick removal' option.

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I have used a multitide of utilities to examine processes, handles, file locks, disk I/O and there is nothing happening on the drive.

I suspect that there is something wrong with the USB controller/driver load. This particular box has been a royal PITA all along with anything USB. The same 2.5" drives that would habitually get lost during the back up work just fine on other servers.

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http://forums.windrivers.com/images/.../2010/07/1.jpg

It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

Checked for bios updates then? Thought about putting in a pci usb card?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NooNoo

Is the indexing service running?

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I will check. I didn't think of this. But again, utilities (Sysinternals, etc) that show process activity, handles, etc. show nothing happening with the drive.

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http://forums.windrivers.com/images/.../2010/07/1.jpg

It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!