# Backup for every weekday on a dedicated hard disk (HDD)

**URL:** https://forum.duplicati.com/t/backup-for-every-weekday-on-a-dedicated-hard-disk-hdd/19774
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [December 25, 2024, 7:24am UTC](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/backup-for-every-weekday-on-a-dedicated-hard-disk-hdd/19774 "2024-12-25T07:24:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 6

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### Author: ![ts678](https://forum.duplicati.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@ts678](https://forum.duplicati.com/u/ts678)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2024, 1:09pm UTC](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/backup-for-every-weekday-on-a-dedicated-hard-disk-hdd/19774/6 "2024-12-28T13:09:44Z")

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> [@mepi0011](#):
>
> the backup will be made as soon as the hard disk is available again.

Duplicati is a general-purpose backup program, with general-purpose messages and docs.

The word “possible” there likely means many things. Examples may be:

- It’s been started
- Computer is not sleeping. Interestingly, Windows 3 A.M. update check doesn’t wake it.
- It’s not paused
- It’s not busy running another job (a frequent question is run order, if there is a backlog)

The word “run” is likely equivalent to pressing the “Run now” button. Doesn’t guarantee now, however it’s not a scheduled thing. In either case, the run may be delayed, or might not work.

One can set up jobs to bad drive letters, one can suffer network Source or Destination down. Problems like these are detected during the job run, and will likely give an error or a warning.

Avoiding such environmental problems can be done with a script that runs before the backup.

[Example Scripts](https://prev-docs.duplicati.com/en/latest/appendix-g-example-scripts/) (notice the power, and the ability to steer run continuation with an exit code).

[Windows Drive Letters](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/windows-drive-letters/17686) might give some relief, as it can tie a job to a specific drive plugged in, regardless of what drive letter Windows gave it. It also links to a claimed path for stable letter.

A downside of, for example, launching seven jobs and having only one succeed is noise IIRC.

Rolling your own scheme in a [script](https://prev-docs.duplicati.com/en/latest/06-advanced-options/#scripting-options) can make as much or as little noise as you like about this.

One exotic scheme that I haven’t tested (maybe your other respondent knows if it can work) is leveraging that drive letter detection in [File backend](https://prev-docs.duplicati.com/en/latest/05-storage-providers/#local-folder-or-drive) to let script set database drive letter using documented ability to change destination on the fly. The question is whether run order allows it.

Drawing from an old test to see what environment variables were around for script, I see these:

> DUPLICATI\_\_REMOTEURL=file://C:\Duplicati\duplicati-2.0.8.1\_beta\_2024-05-07\RUN\test 1\

> DUPLICATI\_\_dbpath=C:\Duplicati\duplicati-2.0.8.1\_beta\_2024-05-07\RUN\SWLFIUQNCG.sqlite

So if drive letter probing sets target URL soon enough, script can use it to set DB path drive letter.

> [@kenkendk](#):
>
> keep the local database on the removable drive.

is what this scheme has in mind. I do that to a USB drive, but it does get busy with database work. Rotation isn’t what I’m after. I just wanted to see how it would work, and for self-contained backup.

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