Symantec Backup Exec backup to USB Disk – 546 The log file sector size does not match the sector size of the current volume – Microsoft Exchange Information Store (IS) using Granular Restore Technology (GRT).

Scenario:

You are backing up Exchange 2007 Information Store running on Windows Server 2008 R2 with Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 and you have selected to use Granular Restore Technology (GRT) in order to be able to restore individual mailboxes and email items. Backup is failing with the following error:

Backup- \\Email-Server\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group V-79-57344-759 – Unable to complete the operation for the selected resource using the specified options. The following error was returned when opening the Exchange Database file: ‘-546 The log file sector size does not match the sector size of the current volume. ‘

Solution:

In my case I was backing up MS Exchange server into a 3T Byte USB disk that had Bytes Per Sector format of 4096, while Exchange was on a server with Bytes Per Sector disk of 512… The backup software didn’t like that! My solution was to use a 2T Byte USB disk which by default had the same 512 Bytes Per Sector matching the Exchange Server disk.

To find out the Bytes Per Sector for Exchange server disk, type the following on the Exchange server:

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c:

To find out the Bytes Per Sector on the USB disk, type:

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo F: (assuming that F: is the USB disk drive),

The following article has more workarounds:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH50820

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