Differential backup failed because old backup does not exist

Question

Hi,
We scheduled the backups of TFS through the TFS Administration console.
* Full each sunday at 18:00
* Differnetial each evening at 22:00
* Transactional each hour
* rentention time 8 days
The differential back-ups of Monday (20-4) and Thuesday (21-4) did go well. But for some reason the differential of Wednesday and Thursday didn't work out.
Start of log file of 21-4:
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Requested Backup Job: Differential
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] -------------------------------------------------------------------
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Jobs Requested: Differential. Completed:None. To Run:Differential.
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] RunDifferentialBackupJob
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Scanning configuration for new DBs
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] BackupSettings changed ? False
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Starting differential backups
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Database Tfs_Configuration parent is 9859022596859328236
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Starting Differential Backup server:RDSQL11\TFS database:Tfs_Configuration filename:\\RDSQL11\Backup$\Tfs_Configuration_9859024468858452975D.bak
[21-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] BACKUP DATABASE [Tfs_Configuration] TO DISK = N'\\RDSQL11\Backup$\Tfs_Configuration_9859024468858452975D.bak' WITH DIFFERENTIAL, NOFORMAT, NOINIT, NOSKIP, REWIND, NOUNLOAD, STATS = 10
[21-4-2015 20:00:01] [Info] Backup Complete for database Tfs_Configuration
On 22-4 the log looks like this:
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Requested Backup Job: Differential
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] -------------------------------------------------------------------
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Jobs Requested: Differential. Completed:None. To Run:Differential.
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] RunDifferentialBackupJob
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Scanning configuration for new DBs
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] BackupSettings changed ? False
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Starting differential backups
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Database Tfs_Configuration parent is 9859022596859328236
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] Starting Differential Backup server:RDSQL11\TFS database:Tfs_Configuration filename:\\RDSQL11\Backup$\Tfs_Configuration_9859025332862172100D.bak
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Info] BACKUP DATABASE [Tfs_Configuration] TO DISK = N'\\RDSQL11\Backup$\Tfs_Configuration_9859025332862172100D.bak' WITH DIFFERENTIAL, NOFORMAT, NOINIT, NOSKIP, REWIND, NOUNLOAD, STATS = 10
[22-4-2015 20:00:00] [Error]
Exception Message: Cannot perform a differential backup for database "Tfs_Configuration", because a current database backup does not exist. Perform a full database backup by reissuing BACKUP DATABASE, omitting the WITH DIFFERENTIAL option.
BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally. (type SqlException)
SQL Exception Class: 16
SQL Exception Number: 3035
SQL Exception Procedure:
SQL Exception Line Number: 1
SQL Exception Server: RDSQL11\TFS
SQL Exception State: 1
SQL Error(s):
SQL Error[1]: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlError: BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
    Class: 16
    Number: 3013
    Server: RDSQL11\TFS
    Source: .Net SqlClient Data Provider
    State: 1
    Procedure:
    Line Number: 1
Exception Data Dictionary:
HelpLink.ProdName = Microsoft SQL Server
HelpLink.EvtSrc = MSSQLServer
HelpLink.EvtID = 3035
HelpLink.BaseHelpUrl = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink
HelpLink.LinkId = 20476
So this is the same parent and the the file is still present on disk.
Can someone point in a direction to solve this issue?
Thanks!!

Answer 1

Hi RemkoP,
Based on your description, you can check whether you have a full backup file in your backup folder. Differential backups are backups of the changes that have occured since your last full database backup. If there no full backups, then we cannot perform a
differential backup.
You might do a full backup for the database, then do the differential backup. If you have any other concerns, please elaobrate more details about your scenario and reproduce steps.
Best regards,