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dsnpevl's avatar
dsnpevl
Virtuoso
Jan 03, 2015
Solved

After backup: Destination is read-only?

I'm working on implementing a proper backup procedure as most experts on this forum recommend. But when trying to backup a large amount of data, I keep getting this error message:

Backup: Error backup job 'data to USB_HDD_4': destination is read-only.

The data, at first glance, seems to be copied to the USB drive.
I tried this on 3 different disks, 2 of which brand-new out of the box. So I don't believe they would all be faulty. This makes me think it is either a problem with my data on the NAS or a problem in the FrontView backup procedure.

When I connect the disk to the PC and remove directories manually, for some files with exteremely long names and a deep path, I get an error message "Source Path Too Long":


Therefore I'm currently suspecting very long file names and/or very long file paths, but I'm not sure if that is really what is causing this.

I removed some directories I suspected from the NAS, but in the next backup, the message keeps comming back. So now I'm stuck in a catch-22 situation. I'm not sure if my backup succeeds and don't want to remove any more data from the NAS, because it may not have been backed up properly. So I'm not able to implement a proper backup procedure at this time.

Has anyone found a root cause for the "Destination is read-only" message?
Is there any way that I can get more information on what went wrong during the backup (e.g. what file is causing the message)?
  • Have been looking for a solution for this problem for a long time, but never managed to find the root cause.

    In the end, I decided to remove the offending subdirectory that contained a file backup of a Windows system. This solved the problem with the backup procedure.

24 Replies

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  • StephenB wrote:
    The most likely cause of that error is that the "dirty" bit is set on the disk volume. Windows scan/fix should reset that.
    The dirty bit is often set when the disk is not ejected before removal, or if the NAS sees some other issue when mounting it.
    I back up over the network, and not to local disks - so I don't have direct experience on how often this occurs.

    I have adopted a strict "always eject first" policy ever since USB external disks and memory sticks became available and use the same approach when connecting via USB directly on the NAS. I use the Eject button always. So that can't be it.
    I do a chkdsk on Windows first to make sure there are no problems with the drive. Windows tells me that the disk is OK. If the NAS sees a problem when I connect it there, there should at least be some hint on what is wrong in the logs.
    I tried backing up via the network also, but with > 4 TB that takes forever and the network speed seems to decline the longer into the backup I get. So for me that's not an option.
    So this brings me back to my initial point: "This makes me think it is either a problem with my data on the NAS or a problem in the FrontView backup procedure". But still not closer to finding out what is at the hart of this problem.

    Has anyone found a root cause for the "Destination is read-only" message?
    Is there any way that I can get more information on what went wrong during the backup (e.g. what file is causing the message)?
  • StephenB's avatar
    StephenB
    Guru - Experienced User
    The most likely cause of that error is that the "dirty" bit is set on the disk volume. Windows scan/fix should reset that.

    The dirty bit is often set when the disk is not ejected before removal, or if the NAS sees some other issue when mounting it.

    I back up over over the network, and not to local disks - so I don't have direct experience on how often this occurs.
  • Yes, did that with every disk and the scan/fix (chkdsk) will fix system file errors if they exist. And after that, I can switch off the read-only bit on the affected directory. But that still doesn't ensure me if the backup is complete and valid. And next time I do another full backup on the disk of the same data, the problem occurs again. So I'm first trying to figure out what is causing the read-only to be set in the first place, so I can find a way around it.

    The logs in FrontView only offer one line of error message: "Backup: Error backup job 'data to USB_HDD_4': destination is read-only". But there I cannot find any root cause. This makes me distrust the whole quality of the backup. And if I cannot trust the quality of the backup, I cannot implement a proper backup procedure either, what is my goal to begin with and is strongly recommended here.

    Is there a way to figure out which file(s) on my NAS would cause the read-only flag to be set on the external NTFS disk, in order to get to the root cause of this problem?
  • StephenB's avatar
    StephenB
    Guru - Experienced User
    Try putting them in a windows system and if windows wants to scan/fix let it.
  • StephenB wrote:
    how is the disk formatted?

    They are all NTFS formatted. The two new disks came pre-formatted NTFS out of the box.

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