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Windows Server 2008 R2 Troubleshooting: Backup fails with error - The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error

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We had an issue while running a backup using Windows Server Backup on Windows Server 2008 R2​ and the backup destination drive was an external USB drive of 3 terabytes.

Error: The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error

Please follow below mentioned steps to identify the cause of the issue.

  1. Run the command  "FSUTIL FSINFO NTFSINFO F:" (without quotes) in CMD (run as administrator) to check the "Bytes Per Sector" value and "Bytes per Physical Sector" value.

Please note that in the above command drive letter "F" is backup destination drive and it could be different in your scenario.

  1. We found that the value of "Bytes Per Sector" and "Bytes per Physical Sector" was 4096 (mentioned in below screenshot)

Below mentioned is the information for the different drive types:

  1. This drive was a 4K native drive which is not supported with Windows Server 2008 R2 / Windows 7 operating system and supported on Windows Server 2012 / Windows 8 and later versions of Windows and hence the backup failed:

  2. We upgraded this server to Windows Server 2012 R2 which made the the external USB drive (4K native drive) compatible with the operating system and the issue was resolved.

TIP: 4K native drive starts with 3 terabytes.