Backing up .mdf's and .ldf's using hard drive backup utility deleting SQL Server backup devices...

Question

I am a software developer using Windows 8.1, Visual Studio 2013, and SQL Server 2014. I have a number (30+) of SQL Server databases that I use in my development and support activities.
Every time I run a backup (full or incremental) all of the backup devices in my instance of SQL Server 2014 are being deleted. I can add them all back in (a time-consuming and irritating process after about the 5th time), and the very next time I run either
the Acronis Backup and Paragon Hard Drive Backup against the volume (D:) that contains all of the .mdf and .ldf files, all of the backup devices are again deleted.
I hope someone can give me some idea of how to get around this problem or how to eliminate it completely.  Should I not be using these types of backup utilities to copy the .mdf's and .ldf's?  I've just never seen backup devices be deleted from SQL
Server.  I have dumped the contents of the backup devices data within SQL Server and the rows are definitely gone after the either of the backups run.
Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this problem. It is very time-consuming and seems pretty silly to me -- but it's happening nonetheless.

Answer 1

The last backup location you use is never stored in sys.backup_devices.  That's an instance-wide table for registering shared backup locations, mosly for tape backups in the old days.
Per-database backup history is stored in msdb, and AFAIK the database backup dialog in SSMS is pre-populated with a location from msdb.  It looks like it runs this query
exec sp_executesql N'SELECT
bkpmf.media_family_id AS [ID],
bkpmf.family_sequence_number AS [FamilySequenceNumber],
bkpmf.media_count AS [MediaCount],
bkpmf.logical_device_name AS [LogicalDeviceName],
bkpmf.physical_device_name AS [PhysicalDeviceName],
CASE WHEN bkpmf.device_type > 100 THEN bkpmf.device_type - 100 ELSE bkpmf.device_type END AS [BackupDeviceType],
CAST(CASE WHEN bkpmf.device_type > 100 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END AS bit) AS [IsBackupDevicePermanent],
bkpmf.physical_block_size AS [PhysicalBlockSize]
FROM
msdb.dbo.backupmediaset bkpms
INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.backupmediafamily bkpmf ON bkpmf.media_set_id=bkpms.media_set_id
WHERE
(bkpms.media_set_id=@_msparam_0)',N'@_msparam_0 nvarchar(4000)',@_msparam_0=N'3'
So it's possible that your backup software is purging that table, eg by runningmsdb.dbo.sp_delete_database_backuphistory. 
Or perhaps more likely, your backup software is adding data to the SQL Server backup history that prevents SSMS from pre-populating the backup dialog with your last TSQL backup location.
In any case, you don't need to manually take the bakcups through SSMS every day.  You can just save a script of your backup commands (by hitting the Script button on the backup dialog) and run that.  Or create a SQL agent job to run the script
or use a database maintence plan.
David
David http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dbrowne/