Cannot Configure Backup Schedule – another reason…..

OK, so today I got this error detailed on this EMEA SBS Team blogpost

http://blogs.technet.com/asksbs/archive/2009/01/26/sbs2008-cannot-configure-backup-schedule-error-when-you-run-configure-server-backup-wizard-on-small-business-server-2008.aspx

Image_f0d43594-ae9f-474a-9af6-41e2baedf50a

It turns out however that my problem was not what the EMEA team were reporting, my issue was that my Dell OEM preinstalled SBS2008 server had a FAT32 Partition on it that looked like this:

Partition

The fix for me was to convert the FAT32 drive to NTFS using the convert d: /fs:ntfs command. 

I believe that the SBS documentation / support team are writing up some documentation on this right now

  13 Replies to “Cannot Configure Backup Schedule – another reason…..”

  1. March 6, 2009 at 4:17 am

    Brilliant!! This post made my day; same cause here… 🙂

    Thx, Nick

  2. Rocky Dezelle
    March 14, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    Looks like SBS backup Wiz does not like the FAT32 drive as a SOURCE so fails creating the schedule.

  3. Tim Sullivan
    June 8, 2009 at 8:23 am

    Any idea what the 2GB partition is on the Dell server? We just ran into this as well and during setup it established itself as the boot partition. I would like to get rid of it but don’t think I can.

  4. Jay Grady
    June 13, 2009 at 5:24 am

    I’ve got the same issue as Tim, Dell 2GB partion that’s rocking the boat for native backup. Anyone tackled this yet? It does contain data, and it’s labelled ‘Boot’. Got a sneaking suspision I’ll be rebuilding a server if I mess with it

    I’ll post this on Experts Exchange under ‘ Cannot Configure Backup Schedule on SBS 2008’ if anyone needs to track it.

  5. Rit
    June 19, 2009 at 8:43 am

    This 2gb FAT32 partition is actually only present from the factory on Poweredge Servers that were ordered with no OS. The partition breakdown on the “no OS” configured server is:

    partition 1: ~70mb Dell Utility Partition (type 0xDE)

    partition 2: 2gb Fat32

    During installation of SBS2008 at the “Where do you want to install Windows?” screen, you can see the pre-configured 2 gb partition. (NOTE: the actual ~71mb utility partition is not present on this screen; this is because the installer will not display partitions of type 0xDE.) You will want to delete the 2gb partition by clicking on “Drive options” from this screen.

    This partition layout is only present on servers shipped with no OS pre-installed.

    I hope this helps.

  6. RB
    June 30, 2009 at 1:23 am

    Aaaahhh! Thanks Nick! Exactly what I was looking for… Nothing like “Cannot Configure Backup Schedule on SBS 2008” to ruin a perfectly smooth new server setup… 😉

  7. July 6, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    Wish I would of found this before I ordered that 1TB USB drive. Thanks Dell!

  8. TH
    July 30, 2009 at 12:35 am

    I have experienced the same issue and discovered that if you re-configure/configure the backup using the Windows Server Backup console instead of the SBS console the backup configuration works fine.

    I would suspect that the issue is that the SBS console widget cannot handle the FAT32 partition but the Windows Server Backup console can (also more configuration options are available).

  9. Allan
    August 24, 2009 at 12:57 pm

    Thanks Rit! I was about to install Server 2008 R2 RC and came up on the 70Mb partition (which I’m assuming is dell diagnostics and what not) but then saw the 2Gb FAT32 partition and was stumped. Now I know I can wipe it clean (we’ll at least that’s what I’m about to do…)

  10. Dave
    November 27, 2009 at 9:46 am

    I had this also on about 30 servers, each shipped without the OS. I researched and found the steps and posted them at the link. To date I have only 3 servers left and everything is good with the backups. You’ll also notice that it really isn’t the ability not to backup it’s an issue with the VSS writers attempting to be found on this 2GB FAT partition which aren’t there. We found that by deselecting the System State that the backups would run successfully. Our backup solution is Commvault 8.0

    http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1566878&page=1

    Hope this helps.

  11. Dready
    January 27, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    TH, your tip helped me! It does work from the Windows Server Backup console. It just tells me that it cannot backup the FAT32 partition (which is fine with me) and then all works fine.
    After configuring the Backup from the Backup Console, it is also visible and monitored from the SBS Console.

    Great, you guys saved my night, i can go home now (-:

  12. Bastien
    February 4, 2010 at 9:38 am

    Thank you so much Nick ! Worked for me too, awesome !

  13. Mike
    June 1, 2010 at 5:05 pm

    Thanks!

    Microsoft should update the support KB.
    Dell is a relatively large manufacturer of servers and it seems that any “no os” server that comes from them will have this issue.

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