Help with wirelessly backing up laptop?

May 18, 2008 3:55 PM

Help, Backup-Filter: "Access Denied" error when using Memeo's AutoBackup Software to wirelessly backup a laptop HD to a password protected external hard drive that is directy connected to the wireless router via USB.

Asking for a friend:

I'm currently trying to use Memeo's Auto Backup program (v2.50.2785) to backup my laptop's Hard Drive to my external hard drive wirelessly.

The program is the Seagate branded version, and it came with the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 GB external HD. The external HD is currently attached via USB to my Linksys WRT600N wireless router. I have mapped the network drive and can access it normally through windows explorer.

The software is able to select the HD as a backup location but it cannot actually write any files to it, due to an "access denied" error. I think this is due to the fact that the router has a mandatory password on the HD, which seems impossible to remove. I haven't been able to "give" the password to the backup program, either.

Additional potentially useful info: Even though no backup files are written, the file structure and location linker files for the back are still written to the HD... How did it gain access for that?

This only happens when the external hard drive is connected to the router. If the hard drive is connected directly to the laptop, it works fine.

Any thoughts on how to get this to work properly would be appreciated.

posted by Phire to Technology (1 answer total)

The router is probably sharing the drive via SMB, and the backup software solution doesn't support SMB. Some routers with USB drive attach features can choose other mechanisms for drive sharing, such as ftp. But even ftp may not be supported by your simple, bundled personal back up software. You probably need a backup software solution that works with SMB shares, like Handy BackUp or Backup Exec.
posted by paulsc at 5:33 PM on May 18, 2008