Seeking Alternative Snapshot Solutions Without VSS

[YiZixuan]

Hello,

I've come to understand that DrivePool does not support Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which limits my ability to restore files to a specific point in time when needed. I've made an effort to categorize my files, placing relatively static data like media files in DrivePool, but still struggle to completely segregate all types of files. I'm interested in finding out if there's a third-party software solution that doesn't rely on VSS to create snapshots or just periodically backup only the changed portions of my files.

I've tried using SyncbackPro, but it appears to require an initial full backup. Given that I already have three backups set up in DrivePool, and lacking additional storage space, I don't see the necessity of another full backup.

Can anyone assist me in designing a viable and stable solution? Also, I really hope that DrivePool will eventually implement a snapshot feature of its own in the future!

[Shane]

Hi! You can use VSS-based backup methods to snapshot the physical drives that form the pool instead of the pool itself, though you may end up with redundant copies of files if you are using DrivePool's duplication. If you just want the ability to restore a recent version of a file, you may wish to look into (if you are using Windows 10/11 Pro) the built-in Windows File History utility as it can take regular snapshots (e.g. hourly).

For non-VSS backup options, I use FreeFilesync to backup my pool (with versioning) to another machine; it can use but does not require VSS (except to optionally backup files that are in an open state). However I don't know how you would avoid a full initial backup with it.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

The main reason there is no VSS support for the pool, is that there is zero documentation on just how to implement it on the file system side (plenty on the API side, though).  So, at best, we'd have to completely reverse engineer it, do a bunch of testing (stress testing, compatibility testing, consistenty/integtrity testing) of that code, and hope it works right. 

While it's something I'd love to see, the main issue is resources. We're a very, very small company and simply don't have the resources to do this.

 

As shane mentions, there are other approaches that you could take to accomplish this.  Though, one that isn't mentioned, is that you could use the Local Disk provider from StableBit CloudDrive and create a drive on the pool.  This drive would be VSS compatible, since StableBit CloudDrive isn't emulating the file system, it's emulating the raw data, and Windows handles the file system and VSS implementation.  

However, backing up the individual pool drives, or using a file based solution are going to be much simpler, and less fragile (less complexity generally means less fragile).