XADM: Error Message During Backup: Error Attaching to Device (255530)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
This article was previously published under Q255530

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to back up a Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server information store database, the backup fails with the following error message:
Error attaching to device SERVER\Microsoft Information Store\StorageGroup.
The following events are logged in the application event log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: ESE98
Event Category: Logging/Recovery
Event ID: 206
Description: Information Store (1548) Database D:\Exchsrvr\StorageGroup\DatabaseName.edb cannot be incrementally backed-up. You must first perform a full backup before performing an incremental backup.

For more information, click http://search.support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1.

-and-

Event Type: Error
Event Source: NTBackup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 8012
Description: The 'Microsoft Information Store' returned 'The database missed a previous full backup before the incremental backup.' from a call to 'HrESEBackupSetup()' additional data '-'

CAUSE

The backup type is set to "Incremental" or "Differential," and the database has never had a full backup.

RESOLUTION

Perform a full backup before you attempt incremental or differential backups. To change the backup type in Microsoft Windows 2000 Backup:
  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. On the Backup Type page, click Normal as the default backup type.

MORE INFORMATION

Incremental and differential backups only back up transaction log files for a database. The transaction log files alone do not provide recovery during a restore procedure. During a restore procedure, you first restore the last full backup (which contains database files, log files, and patch files), and then restore one or more incremental backups or one differential backup. When hard recovery runs, ESE will re-do contiguous log files through the last backup restored, plus any additional contiguous log files on disk. This recovers data up to the last log file played into the database.

You can look at the header of the database to see if this is, in fact, the cause. To dump the header, first dismount the database. Then from the Exchsrvr\Bin folder, run:

eseutil /mh full path\DatabaseName.edb

Towards the end of the output is a line that reads "Previous Full Backup:". If the database has never been backed up, the output looks like the following: 

Previous Full Backup:
        Log Gen: 0-0 (0x0-0x0)
           Mark: (0x0,0,0)
           Mark: 00/00/1900 00:00:00

If a full backup of the database has been done, the output looks similar to the following: 

Previous Full Backup:
        Log Gen: 37-43 (0x25-0x2b)
           Mark: (0x28,1086,12)
           Mark: 02/24/2000 13:23:30

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:7/17/2006
Keywords:kberrmsg kbprb KB255530
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.