Jump to content

Combine Spanning Backup Set Into Single Set?


Recommended Posts

Hello.

 

I have a set alternating backups that backup the data from a series of servers to external drives for offsite storage. It runs once a week, alternating between two backups sets to two matching sets of external drives (ie. on weeks "A", it backs up data to backup set "OFFSITE A" on external drive "OFFSITE BACKUP A", and on the alternating week in the cycle, weeks "B", it back up data to backup set "OFFSITE B" on external drive "OFFSITE BACKUP B" — this is a "worst case scenario" backup which is part of a larger backup and archiving workflow (which includes alternating server and client machine offsite backups to tape, local backups to various internal redundant RAIDs, etc.).

 

Over the weekend one of these incremental backups contained an excessive amount of new data and resulted in the spanning of backup set onto a second external drive (which was in-place for just such an occasion). It's not ideal to have a backup set span across multiple drives (for a number of reasons) and typically, when it becomes apparent that a backup will require more space, the backup drive containing the Retrospect Data is cloned to a larger drive with much more available storage (removing the need to have the backup span across multiple drives). Unfortunately, on this occasion, it was unknown that such a large amount of data was going to be added to the backup and thus the schedules backup required a second drive to span across (again, a drive was in place for just such a rare occasion).

 

I am now attempting to combine this spanning set of drives back to a single drive. While not ideal (since it requires the creation of a newly-named backup set), I have made two attempts at using TOOLS > COPY > TRANSFER to copy all the files from the backup set spanning the two drives to a new backup set on a single, larger drive, but both times it has failed, after taking an excessively long time (I'm talking the transfer of about 500GB of data, via FireWire 800 taking 3+ days before the action eventually fails with a generic "bad media" warning.

 

So, my first question — is there a better way to combine the back data from these two spanning drives to a single drive, or is the TOOLS > COPY > TRANSFER via a new backup set the correct way?

 

My next question, assuming the way I'm doing this is the correct way (?), is there any reason for the process to take this long? That amount of data should only take a couple hours at FireWire 800 speeds, not 3+ days.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Kristin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, my first question — is there a better way to combine the back data from these two spanning drives to a single drive, or is the TOOLS > COPY > TRANSFER via a new backup set the correct way?

It's the only way.

 

My next question, assuming the way I'm doing this is the correct way (?), is there any reason for the process to take this long? That amount of data should only take a couple hours at FireWire 800 speeds, not 3+ days.

That doesn't sound encouraging.

 

If you're spanning two HD volumes, you must have enabled the option to use HDs as if they were removable disks. In 6.1 and earlier for Mac, this option was a kludge, and you may be running into one of the limitations of this feature.

 

How were the drives/volumes formatted and what is their capacity? What hardware platform and OS version are you using? Are you transferring to another removable disk backup set, as opposed to a file backup set?

 

If you mark the second member as missing, can you successfully transfer the data from the first member? If that works, try marking the first member as missing and the second as found; then see if you can transfer the data from the second member.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...