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Can I selectively delete files & folders from a backup?


haggis999

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I use a couple of 300GB external hard disks for storing my Retrospect Professional 7.0 backups and these disks are now both nearly full. I need to create more space for new backups by deleting some redundant large files and folders from previous snapshots. How do I do this?

 

My suspicions are that only complete snapshots can be deleted from a backup set, though I don't understand why and my attempts to do so have all failed with error -2249 (could not find session). I really would appreciate some urgent guidance as I am currently unable to run any more backups due to lack of disk space.

 

David

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Right. You can only delete snapshots - not individual files. That said, Retro only saves each file once. If the file's attributes are changed, Retro will save the new version. For example, if file A was backed up in the very first snapshot, even though it will show in each subsequent snapshot, there is just one copy of that file in the backup set.

 

Sorry, I can't help with the error message you're getting.

 

Another approach that might work is to use Snapshot transfer. If there's a snapshot or two that contain the files you want to keep, you could transfer those snapshots to a [new] backup set on DVD. You can then delete the backup set on your hard drives, then copy the new backup set to the hard drive.

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You say that Retrospect will only save each file once. By that, I assume you mean each file of a given name of a given saved date in a given folder. As I understand it, if there have been several versions of the file in that folder over a period of time, then Retrospect saves each version within the limits of the current grooming policy.

 

However, my situation relates to a large number of digital images that have been significantly reorganised over the past six months. Most of these files have not been changed, but they have all been put into more than one variation of folder structure. Does Retrospect still hold just one copy of the unaltered files in such circumstances, regardless of folder location?

 

David

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Hi,

 

Here is a KB article on how to manually groom files:

 

http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=7941&p=2

 

I believe the errors you are seeing "error -2249 (could not find session)" will occur with grooming large backup sets with 7.0.

Version 7.5 has greater support for grooming issues.

You can also rebuild the catalog file with 7.0 and run the grooming as a temporary solution but I would recommend upgrading to 7.5 at some point if you plan on grooming frequently with 300GB backup sets.

 

>>Does Retrospect still hold just one copy of the unaltered files in such circumstances, regardless of folder

>>location?

 

Yes, Retrospect will only backup 1 copy of that file if it exists in multiple locations (and they are identical).

This saves you on space for the backup media.

 

Hope this helps.

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Michael,

Thanks for the info about Version 7.5. Are you saying that the errors I am getting with Version 7.0 are caused by a bug in the software? Are the errors real or are the messages misleading?

 

You were mistaken in describing your KB link as providing a method for grooming files. It only tells me how to delete snapshots, not specific files. I find the inability to delete selected files and folders a rather strange and frustrating limitation of Retrospect.

 

As deleting snapshots so far has gained me no space, I tried changing my grooming options to keep only the last 3 backups of each source (it was originally set to 'Groom to Retrospect defined policy'). This change then set in motion an unwanted process to retrieve all the snapshots I had already deleted!! At the end of this process Windows Explorer told me that the backup folder contained exactly the same number of files as before, with the same folder size. I'm beginning to find Retrospect a little difficult to understand ...

 

David

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Michael,

I have just noticed that, while 'forgetting' snapshots in a backup set automatically initiates grooming activity (even if it then fails with a 2249 error, as previously mentioned), changing grooming options does not. In the latter case, you have to initiate grooming manually by clicking on the Action button (confusingly labelled 'Prepare media for next backup', which to me implies disk formatting) and then selecting the Groom option. It's not exactly an intuitive interface for the new user.

 

As a further confusion, the KB link you provided suggests that using the Action button is required even in the case of snapshot delection. No mention there of it being automatically initiated, as I experienced.

 

I have now started the grooming process to action the previous change of grooming option. It looks like it's going to run for a very long time, encouraging me to believe that some space is being freed up at last!

 

David

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1) The Windows temp directory is not something in Retrospect. It is an option in windows. Sorry, I was unclear by not saying "Windows" above. Retrospect uses the default Windows temp directory

 

2) Destination: "The storage medium to which files are being moved, copied, or otherwise transferred. When backing up or archiving, the destination is a Backup Set. When restoring or duplicating, the destination is a volume."

 

The destination is the disk containing all of your backup data.

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Robin,

I have unearthed some Windows environment variable settings within the System Properties dialogue box of the Control Panel that associate TEMP with a folder on my C: drive. Is that the setting you mean?

 

The specific external 300GB hard disk containing my backup data on which I was running my grooming session had just over 2GB free. Note that my backup set contains thousands of files, but two of them are very large. One file is 8GB and another is 21GB. Could this be relevant?

 

Unfortunately, I'm still no further forward after posting my plea for help three days ago and I'm still unable to make any new backups. An urgent response would be much appreciated. My panic levels are rising!

 

David

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Well, my catalogue rebuild has just completed (it's not quick!). I've now initiated a 'Groom to Retrospect defined policy' to see if that gets me anywhere in terms of space saving. If not, I'll try once again to do grooming with the option set to keep the last three backups of each source (the process that previously failed with a disk full error).

 

By the way, contrary to my earlier speculation, I have not fully rebuilt the catalogue from the disk before, so I'm hoping that this laborious process will eventually prove worthwhile.

 

The grooming looks like it will be an even lengthier exercise. After 19 mins it's only done 52 segments (whatever they are) out of 473. I think my PC will be left to run all night ...

 

David

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Success, at last! Grooming to keep only the last 3 backups of each source worked this time without any confusing errors. The catalogue rebuild solved the problem, though offered no clue as to why it was corrupted in the first place. My backup set reduced to 191GB, which was enough to allow me to run a new backup.

 

I guess the lesson must be that whenever Retrospect starts to behave oddly, just rebuild the catalogue.

 

Thanks to everyone for the assistance provided.

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Example: If you are backing up to tape or optical, it is impossible to delete individual items from the backup media

 

Example: If you backed up to a disk backup set, and deleted individual files, then the snapshot would be incomplete and result in problems when trying to restore based on a snapshot. Grooming keeps the snapshot intact.

 

Retrospect uses an archiving methodology, retaining older versions for restore in the future.

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Robin,

I understand your point about tape or optical backups. I am only raising the question in connection with disk-based backups.

 

The deletion of individual files or folders would indeed affect the restore process, but I can't quite see why such deletions could not be logged by Retrospect. This log could then be used to bypass the attempted restore of the missing files.

 

I'm not sure why you mentioned that "Retrospect uses an archiving methodology, retaining older versions for restore in the future". The word 'archiving' has no specialised technical meaning that I am aware of, and simply means to place records in a store. Obviously I am aware that Retrospect stores several historical versions of each file, since that has been the focus of the grooming discussion in this thread. Have I missed the point of your comment in some way?

 

David

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