Vista - Can't backup to external drive

I have an external usb hard drive which Vista lets me use as a destination
for automatic backups. However, when I mount a Truecrypt volume which is
stored as a file on that drive, Vista won't let me use the Truecrypt volume
as a destination for automatic backups. I've tried mounting the Truecrypt
volume both as a fixed and as a removable volume, but either way Vista's
backup won't list it as an available backup destination. How do I find out
what the problem is?

"Roof Fiddler" <fiddler@roof.com> wrote in message
news:%23M$fnE1QHHA.4404@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>I have an external usb hard drive which Vista lets me use as a destination
>for automatic backups. However, when I mount a Truecrypt volume which is
>stored as a file on that drive, Vista won't let me use the Truecrypt volume
>as a destination for automatic backups. I've tried mounting the Truecrypt
>volume both as a fixed and as a removable volume, but either way Vista's
>backup won't list it as an available backup destination. How do I find out
>what the problem is?

I found the answer to my question. The problem is a Vista design flaw.
http://www.tabletquestions.com/windo...ta-backup.html
Steve Drake
Re: Can't Backup to a Network Hard Drive using Vista Backup
You cannot backup to a mapped drive.
Your logged in users mapped the drive and the backup software is a service,
so it won't see YOUR mapped drivers.

My Truecrypt volume isn't a network drive but the point still applies; the
logged in user mapped the volume.
So this isn't a bug, but obviously it is a design flaw. What good is it to
run bitlocker on my laptop if a thief can grab my external usb drive instead
of the laptop and get my data from the backup? That's why I want to do my
backups to a Truecrypt volume on the external drive, but MS has designed
Vista such that it can't do this.