How to delete files?

[pfiltz]

I'm running ver. 6.5 in Win 2K prof. How do I delete files on the external USB drive via Retro?

[awnews]

Can I ask why you want to do this with Retro? Why can't you just grab the file you don't want and drag it to the trash or do a DELete from the command line?

[pfiltz]

Lack of knowledge is the best answer I can give you. I bought this USB drive, which had retro bundled with it right after a major hard drive crash that cost me $1200.00 to get data back. Since then, all I've done is just back up every other day to it, then take it home with me. I haven't taken the time, due to lack of it, to find out what my options are with respect to deleting data from the external drive.

 

I didn't know if I just drag files from it, to the recyle bin, if that would corrupt the image file or not. I don't want to just start trashing data and not know, how it will effect things down the road. This is a business system. Studio Photography.

[awnews]

Let me asking you a bit more since you mention an "image file."

 

Are you doing a "Backup" or a "Data Duplicate?" That is, are you ending up with a Retrospect backup file (or set of files), e.g. *.rbf file(s) on the USB drive? And are these files getting big and you want to "Recycle" out the old data?

 

Or are you ending up with a copy of all the files that your backing up (folders, *.doc, *.txt, *.exe, *.pdf)?

[pfiltz]

There is a data set file on my local hard drive in a folder called, "retrospect catalog files". I'm doing incremental backups.... Only files that have changed or been added. I'm choosing the button called "backup" from 2 other choices which are, Duplicate & Disaster Recovery.

 

When I click on the Backup button, another screen appears, which shows 5 buttons.

 

SOURCES

DESTINATION

SELECTING

PREVIEW

OPTIONS

 

I am getting individual files, and directories on the external backup. I know this, because I've had to do a restore, and got folders back along with files within them, and files outside directories.

 

What I don't see anywhere "WITHIN" retrospect software, is the option to remove or delete files from the external drive, or any drive...? This is what has me puzzled. Is it called something other than "delete"?

[awnews]

I'm sorry, but we're still not on the same page and maybe natew needs to chime in. I don't think you're asking the right question, or at least the question you *think* you're asking.

 

First of all, what version of Retrospect are you running (Express, Pro, etc.)? Since you said "6.5" I assumed it was Retrospect Pro. In that case, when you create a backup set, you have the option of a File backup (to a single .rbf file), a Disk backup (to several smaller backup files) or a Data Duplicate. A File backup packs all files and folders into a proprietary file format that archives *every* version of a changed file (Normal incremental backup) on each backup until you clear out all the old files (Recycle backup). A Disk backup does about the same thing but breaks the backup file into a bunch of smaller proprietary file (same note about Normal and Recycle). A Data Duplicate works differently, copying files in an unchanged non-proprietary "Windows" format but it only maintains a 1-1 mirror image of the source (no incremental--you always get the same source files you have at the moment).

 

The fact that when you "had to do a restore, <you> got folders back along with files within them, and files outside directories" doesn't tell you anything about the format of the backup since any of these methods will allow you to recover your folders and files in their original state.

 

In the case of Backup (File or Disk), you *never* (i.e. you can't) "delete" files. You only incrementally add (changed) files to the backup set. If you want to clear out all the old files and "start over" with the state of the files "now," you do a Recycle of the backup set which wipes *all* copies of all files and makes a new backup file with the current copy of all current source data. In the case of the Data Duplicate, you can manually delete files from the destination location but that's pointless. If you do that, the next Data Duplicate will recreate the files if they're still at the Source location and you don't have any incremental versions of the file--if you want to delete the files, delete them at the source location.

 

As far as deleting files on the USB drive, from *Windows* you can manually delete the File backup file (.rbf) or Disk Backup (folder) but this will delete the entire backup (and Retrospect will get confused/complain if you try to run that backup again since it can't find it's backup destination file(s). You'll want to delete/disable the Backup script as well). As mentioned above, from *Windows* you can also manually delete any or all files within a Data Duplicate collection but this only makes sense if you're not going to run any more Data Duplicate backups.

[pfiltz]

Ugggg. I think I'm going to get another 200 gig internal drive to throw in my system, and just drag and drop directories to it for backup purposes until I get DVD's burned. This will be so much easier than dealing with backup sets, images, and the such.

 

This is way to complicated just to create a working copy of data until it can be burned to DVD for archieval purposes... This way I can just bypass Retrospect, and just deal with windows explorer to drag and drop, and *delete* files or directories. Sure this hard drive could quit, but so could the hard drive that Retrospect is writing to....

 

BTW, I'm running Retrospect Express v 6.5.342 It's an OEM version.

[awnews]

OK. Some downsides to the "drag stuff around in Windows" method of "backup" is that a) *you* have to keep track of what's changed (or keep recopying that stuff), it's generally manual rather then scheduled and run automatically by software and c) you don't have archives (multiple copies in files as they change over time). With enough space, the issue of "deleting" files from the backup isn't a big deal (and that's what a periodic Recycle is for in Retrospect).

 

It's fairly rare to have two HDs die at the same time, but I once had my C: drive die in the middle of a backup and it caused the running Retrospect to mangle the backup on my backup drive. So having multiple backups, even on the same backup drive, is a good idea. And throwing in multiple backup drives, CDR/DVDRs and some off-site backups is good idea for the truely paranoid... :-)