Re-create deleted Media Set

[toshy]

In error I deleted a media set from the Media Set window. I still have all of the files that were backed up on my hard drives in their correct locations. Can I recreate the Media Set or are all of the backup files now junk?

 

Thanks

[Lennart_T]

The easiest way is to double-click the catalog file (in the Finder).

 

If you no longer have the catalog file, you can recreate it. Please see the User's Guide for instructions.

[DavidHertzberg]

I started to investigate this before Lennart Thelander wrote his post, but quit to take a shower while my "Sun.-Fri. Backup" script ran.  When I got back and saw his post, I tried what he suggested but it didn't work for me on Retrospect Mac 12.5 under OS X 10.10.5.  Anyway, here's what looks like it will work, assuming you know where all the Members of your deleted Media Set are and their sequence:

 

First, try to do an Add of your deleted Media Set from the Media Set pane of the Console.   If you have spelled it exactly as it was before—which you should, you will get a -2262 error because the catalog file for your formerly-cataloged Media Set is still in the location of its catalog.  Click the Choose button in the dialog for the -2262 error, and it will show you the hierarchical location of of that catalog file, which is probably boot-drive/Library/Application Support/Retrospect/Catalogs.  Write it down, just cancel the hierarchical location dialog but leave the dialog with the -2262 error message up, then go to the written-down location in the Finder and delete that .rbc catalog file.  Then go back into the Console, Add that Media Set again using the dialog that is still up, but cancel the Add a new member to this Media Set dialog.

 

Now go to page 220 in the Retrospect 13.0 User's Guide, and follow the "Rebuilding a Media Set" procedure.  Be sure to do each Add Member in the same sequence that member was created.

 

Finally, and very important, immediately put the re-Added Media Set back into all your scripts where it was used.  This means not only re-checkmarking the Media Set in the Media Set panel of each script that is supposed to use it, but also adding back any Schedules for a script that designated that particular Media Set—and adjusting other schedules for that script accordingly.  See the new third paragraph of my post directly below this for the consequences of not doing it.  

 

Good luck, and please post back to let us know how it worked.

 

P.S.: Revised last two sentences in second paragraph to make re-Adding the Media Set even more foolproof.

 

P.P.S: Added very important fourth paragraph about immediately putting the re-Added Media Set back into your Scripts.  

[DavidHertzberg]

I just (30 September) tested what I suggested in the post directly above this, on a Media Set that I will recycle tomorrow morning (1 October) with my "Sat. Backup" script.  The Rebuild ran on my 2010 Mac Pro "backup server" with Retrospect Mac 12.5 under OS X 10.10.5.  It ran at an average of about 6GB/min, rebuilding from a single member containing about 285GB on a USB3 disk.

 

It worked, creating a Media Set of around 265GB at the rate of 5GB/min..

 

However the consequences of my not cleaning up after that test were somewhat dire, and could have been worse had I not noticed them early this afternoon (1 October).  The Media Set I deleted was my "Media Set Blue", for which the final scheduled run of the incremental "Sun.-Fri. Backup" had been done two Fridays before.  It was due to be the destination of a "Sat. Backup" scheduled Recycle run this morning, so I thought there would be no consequences from using it in the test.  But I forgot to do the post-test cleanup of my schedules, as detailed in the new fourth paragraph of the post directly above this.  The result was that today there was a scheduled run of "Sat. Backup" to "Media Set Blue"—except that the run was a Normal backup of six drives instead of a Recycle backup (I'm not sure this makes any real difference), followed by a totally unintended second Recycle run early this afternoon of "Sat. Backup" to "Media Set Red"—which had previously been scheduled for a week from today.  I immediately canceled that because the drive for "Media Set Red" was not connected, but the "Media Set Red" catalog had already been Recycled.  I realized late this afternoon why that had happened, added back the schedules using "Media Set Blue" that had been automatically deleted from the "Sat. Backup" and "Sun.-Fri. Backup" scripts, re-adjusted the schedules that use "Media Set Red" and "Media Set White" back to the calendar weeks that they had previously next been scheduled, and did a Rebuild of "Media Set Red" from the single member on the drive—which I had retrieved from off-site storage because it will be used next Saturday.

 

P.S.: Put first paragraph in past tense, since I finished the test.

 

P.P.S: Added very important third paragraph about immediately putting the re-Added Media Set back into your Scripts.  

[toshy]

Thanks - it worked for me and the backup is running using this media set.

 

I have decided to make a new backup to another drive and created a backup set. The first source in the script backed up normally but I noticed that the second source (much larger) was treated differently. Retrospect created a snapshot of the volume in a matter of minutes but no files were copied to the media set. The log reported this:

01/10/2016 03:28:43: Found: 277625 files, 85321 folders, 852.6 GB

01/10/2016 03:28:48: Finished matching

01/10/2016 03:29:19: Copying: 0 files (0 and 0 hard links

01/10/2016 03:29:27: Building Snapshot...

01/10/2016 03:29:27: Checking 85,321 folders for ACLs or extended attributes

01/10/2016 03:29:50: Finished copying 79,972 folders with ACLs or extended attributes

01/10/2016 03:29:57: Copying Snapshot: 2 files (111.3 MB)

01/10/2016 03:30:01: Snapshot stored, 111.3 MB

01/10/2016 03:30:01: Comparing CRM CLM Boys

01/10/2016 03:30:03: Execution completed successfully

Duration: 00:02:03 (00:01:56 idle/loading/preparing)

 

I don't understand. Why were no files copied?

[Lennart_T]

It could be that your files were already backed up from source one.

 

More like it is your "Rules". Did you use a standard rule such as "All files except cache files" or did you make your own? In the latter case it is easy to (by mistake) create a rule that excludes all files.

[toshy]

Thanks. The only rule that is applied is no music and no caches. The source in question has never been backed up to this media set but is backed up to another media set (tuesdayThusrdaySatturday as opposed to Monday Wednesday Friday) but surely that shouldn't matter as they will have separate catalogs.

 

Something else I just noticed – one source has a black 'X' in front of its name (it's a client but it can be located in the sourcee panel etc). What does this mean?

[Lennart_T]

That isn't one of the built-in rules. You have created it yourself.

Is it used in another script and does it work there?

[toshy]

As far as I know - never had to do a restore - will investigate. Is there a list of files backed up anywhere so that I can check.

Thanks again

[Lennart_T]

If you perform the first steps of a restore without actually starting it, you can browse the files in each snapshot.

[toshy]

many thanks. You were right about the Rule being faulty and I've amended it now to ensure the volume is backed up. But it's not perfect and I don't know how to write it so that it works correctly.. Can you help please.

 

What I want it to do is backup all of the volumes in the script, ignoring caches and also ignoring Music Files except on one volume that I use as a server. How can I back up this music files while ignoring strays that may be on other disks? Or should I back up the server separately (that's the volume that's got an X next to its name in the Csript sources summary panel).

 

Many thanks

[Lennart_T]

Yes, you need a separate script for the server with another rule.