incremental recycle?

[arloctw]

Hello,

 

I'm using Retrospect Workgroup 6 to back up several computers to a file-based backup set. Eventually, this backup set will fill the volume where it resides. It seems that at that point, my only option is to recycle the set, which would remove all the past versions of files and would also leave me with no backups until all my computers have run a full backup again (which may take more than 24 hours).

 

Is there any way to remove the oldest versions from a backup set to reduce its size, rather than recycling all of it? It would be great if Retrospect could automatically remove the oldest versions when it runs out of room for newer versions. I can imagine this as sort of an "incremental recycle."

 

Or perhaps there's another approach for solving this problem? I'd file this under feature request, but it seems like a problem that others would have encountered and I'm hoping there's an obvious solution that already exists.

 

Thanks,

-Arlo

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

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Is there any way to remove the oldest versions from a backup set to reduce its size, rather than recycling all of it?

 

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No.

 

> It would be great if Retrospect could automatically remove the oldest versions when

>it runs out of room for newer versions. I can imagine this as sort of an "incremental recycle."

 

This exists for the Windows version; called "Disk Grooming"

 

>Or perhaps there's another approach for solving this problem?

 

Have more then one Backup Set, and "load balance" them.

 

Best if you have multiple Backup Sets on multiple physical media stored in multiple locations. But even if you have just one large hard drive you can have two File Backup Sets and trade off which you recycle.

 

Compared to the value of your data, hard drive space is very, very cheap.

 

Dave

[arloctw]

Thanks, Dave. In fact, I was thinking of doing exactly the solution you suggested ... alternating between two backup sets, and possibly rotating them off-site. I appreciate the confirmation that this is the best available approach.

[arloctw]

By the way, a search for "grooming" in the OS X product suggestions forum returned no results. Is there a reason that hasn't been suggested, or should I add it there?

[rhwalker]

Feature parity of Mac Retrospect with the Windows version is often requested. Backup set grooming is not high on my list; D2D2T is so that the backup window can be shortened, as are some other things. Put in your request.

[deborahlevoy]

Hi,

I am new to using Retrospect. I have a simple setup: 2 source HDs (one is my laptop HD and the other is an external LaCie HD) and one destination: an external HD. I have run out of space on my destination, alas. I currently have been backing up as 2 scheduled "duplicate" backups (not sure why I chose this over a "normal" backup, to tell you the truth) and each backup directs one of my 2 HD sources to a separate folder on the destination drive. (ie, folder"laptop" and folder "laCie".

 

I thought that I should just schedule in a "recycle" backup once in a while (and gee, it wouldve been nice to have the option of the incremental recycle, but I can see from a prior thread that that is not possible). But when I try and schedule in a recycle backup it won't allow me. It doesn't consider my backup hard drive available (because it already has archived backups?) I thought the whole point of recycling was to replace current huge archived files with new ones and get a "fresh start"...

 

I'm wondering if I should start all over again - wipe out the whole destination drive and see if scheduling normal backups would work w/the recycle option. Maybe it's because I chose a duplicate backup that the destination hd is not available for a recycle?

 

I appreciate any suggestions!

thanks

Deb

[rhwalker]

Deb,

 

Your question really doesn't relate to this thread. Regardless, to answer your question, you've got the wrong model for what is happening. "Duplicate" isn't really using the power of Retrospect; it's just a "copy", selecting those files you have chosen in your selector. If that's all you want, well, there are simpler (free) tools to do that as a standard part of the Unix install. But you can get a lot more than that if you use the power of Retrospect.

 

I'll be the first to admit that some of the terminology used by Retrospect is confusing and daunting to the new user (and to some of us old users, too, because it sometimes changes just as we begin to understand).

 

I suggest that you read chapter 4 of the Retrospect manual, which explains the different operations. Short answer, "recycle" is only available with backup sets, and "duplicate" doesn't use backup sets. See chapter 2 of the Retrospect manual for a discussion of the various fundamental concepts and terminology.

 

Regards,

 

Russ