USB drive as boot and storage device

[WhiskerBiscuit]

Is it possible to use a USB hard drive as both a recovery and data drive?

I have a Windows 2012 Server that I want to take a full backup of the OS drive (all partitions) so that if I ever have to replace the drive or something gets messed up beyond repair (such as a virus) I can use the external drive as a recovery and data drive.

Is VEEAM good for this type of situation?

[Mike Resseler]

Hi Hank,

First: Welcome to the forums!

Second: Are you talking about putting the boot media and the backup on a same USB device? In that case, it is possible but you need to create the partitions (volumes) upfront. Then you can create the recovery media first, and the other volume you can start using (after that) as storage for your backups.

Hope it helps
Mike

[Mike Resseler]

And before I forget: https://www.vladan.fr/how-to-create-mul ... t-systems/

Here is an interesting blogpost which could help you also

[WhiskerBiscuit]

Hi Hank,

First: Welcome to the forums!

Second: Are you talking about putting the boot media and the backup on a same USB device? In that case, it is possible but you need to create the partitions (volumes) upfront. Then you can create the recovery media first, and the other volume you can start using (after that) as storage for your backups.

Hope it helps
Mike

Thank you for the welcome, and yes — same device. How big should the recovery partition be?

[Mike Resseler]

The recovery partition (Again, I believe you mean the partition where you want to deploy the recovery media on right?) could be around 8 GB (even less but that is my personal size I use because I normally add a bunch of additional drivers with it...)

[WhiskerBiscuit]

Yes, I meant the recovery partition.

BTW, can you boot to the USB recovery partition and take a backup, or can you only do backups while running Windows? Products like Acronis allow you to do both, and I personally have more faith in the “recovery partition boot” backups as the OS is not involved whatsoever. I’ve always wondered what happens if you start an OS backup and then add/delete a file and how that gets accounted for during the backup.

[Mike Resseler]

Veeam can't do this at this moment but it has been requested before so consider that a +1 for this request