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Multiple snapshot selection in backup sets is sorely needed


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When we change a backup source to be backed up to a different backup set we want to remove the up to 30 days of snapshots from the previous backup set. This is an extremely tedious job because Retrospect only allows you to select one snapshot at a time, click Forget, wait X number of seconds or minute, then select the next snapshot and so on.

 

Has anyone found a work-around for this? Otherwise I hope Retrospect gives this limitation some attention.

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The only work around (which may not save much time repending on backup set size) is to copy the snapshots you want to a new backup set using th e'transfer snapshot' option. If you want to use the original backup sets name then you'll have to recycle the original then copy the snapshot back, effectively filtering out all the 'not selected' devices.

 

I used this process recently to split a backup set into two as it was too time consuming to manually delete 2x snapshots for 30 machines, especially when some of them have D: drives or the odd USB drive backed up also.

 

Rich

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The only work around (which may not save much time repending on backup set size) is to copy the snapshots you want to a new backup set using th e'transfer snapshot' option. If you want to use the original backup sets name then you'll have to recycle the original then copy the snapshot back, effectively filtering out all the 'not selected' devices.

That requires you have xx TB of free disk space somewhere, preferably on a fast drive with fast connection.

 

 

 

especially when some of them have D: drives or the odd USB drive backed up also.

I always set the clients to "Backup selected volumes", to avoid backing up HP_Tools, USB sticks, iPods, smartphones and other crud.

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Yep, you need vast amounts of free space to do anything in Retrospect, like building catalog files as I found out recently (over 50GB of catalog was built up for a ~700GB backup set before compression)

 

I too choose to backup selected drives now, but went through the manual pain of removing snapshots/disks from the backup set whilst learning that lesson.

 

Rich

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Yes, having enough disk space to keep a "workspace" backup set that is at least as big as your largest production backup set is just about a requirement. And be aware that if the production backup set is set to retain, say, the 30 most recent backups be sure that you have specified that same number in the "workspace" backup set you are copying to; otherwise when the snapshot transfer finishes you'll examine the snapshots in the workspace backup set and only see one snapshot for each source that was in the original backup set. They're probably actually there in the workspace backup set but hidden.

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