What changed?
Backblaze creates a ".bzvol" directory at the top level of every drive it backs up. Inside this hidden directory is a tiny file that identifies this hard drive for the rest of time. To view the .bzvol on the Mac you can:
1. Click on the Finder
2. Press the Command + Shift + G
3. Copy and paste the following text (ignore the quotes): "/.bzvol"
4. The folder should be available for copying and modification
If you have an external drive use the following text (ignore the quotes) "/Volumes/<volumename>/.bzvol".
For example, if you had an external drive named "Media" you would type
"/Volumes/Media/.bzvol" into the text input which appears after you press Command + Shift + G.
Why was my drive removed from the backup?
If your drive was not connected to your computer at the time of the update to the latest version of Backblaze, then Backblaze could not create the hidden ".bzvol" directory, and therefore had to remove this hard drive from the backup.
Do you Clone Hard Drives?
If you clone a drive that is selected for backup by Backblaze, it will clone the ".bzvol" directory. This confuses Backblaze, because now the two different hard drives have the same id.
RECOMMENDED SOLUTION: two hard drives should never have the same bzvolumeid. Therefore you need to do two things:
- Edit your cloning software to exclude the .bzvol folder.
Here is how to exclude .bvol on SuperDuper.
Here is how to exclude .bzvol on DroboCopy - Remove the contents of .bzvol folder that has already been cloned. The .bzvol folder is hidden. So on the Mac use the finder's "Go to folder..." menu item and type in "/Volumes/ExternalDriveName/.bzvol" and click Go. Then select all the files and move them to trash.
ALTERNATIVELY (not recommended) you can suppress this warning dialog by creating a file called "bzstop_clonewarn" in the ".bzvol" folder of both the Original hard drive and cloned hard drive.
Why am I Getting a Warning about Duplicate bzvolume ids?
See the above entry for "Do you Clone Hard Drives?"
How do I select my external hard drive again?
Easy! Just follow these steps:
1. Connect the external hard drive and make sure you can see the files on it.
2. Bring up the "Settings..." dialog in your Control Panel and select the drive.
Please note that exFAT volumes have a history of issues with both Mac and Windows operating systems. If you are having trouble backing up an exFAT volume, please contact Backblaze Support for assistance.
Articles in this section
- Disabling The "Locate My Computer" Feature
- Backblaze Maintenance Schedule
- U.S. East Data Region FAQ
- How to find your userPub.pem file on Windows
- Why is my hard drive listed twice?
- Why am I receiving a pop-up about a missing or duplicate .bzvol?
- Where are iCloud files located in my backup? (Mac)
- Migrate data from old computer to new computer with Backblaze
- Why does Backblaze need my private encryption key to restore?
- Version History: Stopping, or resetting progressive billing on the Forever setting.