Duplicate to DVD, simple complete backup to DVD, or what...???

[joaquin]

I'm still completely baffled, even after talking to the very nice lady at EMC.

 

I've been backing up a data only drive daily to an external hard drive, alternating between two backup sets, had no problem setting this up, and no problem with the scheduled execution. I've retreived a chosen backed up file, just to make sure I know how to do that. Again, no problem.

 

Retrospect seems very easy to use. So far.

 

I want also to make, every month, a backup of the entire drive to DVD. I've studied the manual, looked through the knowledge base, scanned this forum, tried Wizard and Advanced mode of both Duplicate and Backup, and I am defeated.

 

It seems that Duplicate will not use a DVD drive. Is that right?

 

Backup will, and all goes well the first time, but a month later, Retrospect seems to insist on doing an incremental backup.

 

My task, making a complete backup of an entire drive (or directory) seems like the simplest thing a person might want to do.

 

I can't figure out how to do it. Isn't there some way to define the task of doing a complete backup to blank media? Having done that, isn't there some way to do the same thing again a month later without having to do any change to that already defined task?

 

[i won't be surprised to feel a little silly when I read the answer. If I do feel silly, my guess is that I will have pointed out a serious lack in the Users Guide. Shouldn't this be explained in a few paragraphs and be easy to find?]

[jelenko]

Could you say what your objective is? I.e., with Retro making incremental backups it also creates a snapshot of all the files and folders at the time of the backup. So, you do have a complete backup of your drive each time you do a backup. Just Retro doesn't copy files that have already been backed up.

 

As for duplicating to DVD. I've not tried it, but, since Retro makes the target/destination folder exactly like the source, it can't do that on a write once media - i.e., you can't delete files on a write once media.

Not sure if DVD-RAM is supported.

[joaquin]

Thanks for the rapid response!

 

My objective is to comply with a requirement of the folks I work for, that I back up daily (done, using Retrospect) and once a month back up to removable media (I choose DVD, because I have about 7 GB ).

 

I do the daily backup to an external hard drive. I can back up to DVD, but not without starting over each month with a new backup definition. Otherwise, I am asked for the medium of the previous backup.

 

Put differently: my objective is to start Retrospect, click a few times, and walk away with a complete backup on DVDs.

[jelenko]

Quote:

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Otherwise, I am asked for the medium of the previous backup.

 

 

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OK. What is not meeting the requirements if you do an incremental backup? With the set of DVD's, you will then have a complete backup set - with a snapshot for each time an incremental backup is done. If you want to restore the complete set of files for , say the 5th week, you would choose the snapshot for the 5th week, choose all files in that snapshot and - voila - you will have restored the complete set of files that were on the disk that week.

 

Does this do what you're needing?

[joaquin]

Thanks for sticking with me on this.

 

Here is the basis of my problem: I am doing work for a government agency and they have specified these requirements:

 

1. Do a daily backup so that it is possible to recover from failure, losing a minimum of work.

 

2. Every month make a complete backup and keep each one.

 

There is no room for me to negotiate these requirements by explaining to someone how I have what amounts to the functional equivalent of a monthly backup.

 

I believe I meet the first requirement by alternating between two backup sets for daily backups.

 

The only way I can meet the second requirement is to make a complete backup every month and keep that.

 

Please understand that my question is not about how to achieve the functional equivalent of a complete monthly backup, but is about how to meet the literal wording of the requirement.

 

.......

 

Do I understand from your messages that there is no way to specify a complete backup to a set of blank DVDs and then reuse that specification each month to make another complete backup to a different set of blank DVDs?

 

Thanks again.

[jelenko]

Got it.

 

You have a couple options, all of which require some configuring, but you can stay with the basic set up.

 

Option 1: Each month, set up a new Backup Set - you could name the backup set for the month/date.

Since it's a new backup set, Retro will do a full backup. As you know, setting up a new backup set is 15-20 sec.

 

Option 2: Each month run the backup script as Recyle. This will force a full backup - but the catalogue will be erased and created anew for the latest execution. At the same time, if you do have to restore from a previous full backup, you would only have to recreated the catalogue from the backup set [which could take several minutes to many minutes]

 

HTH

[joaquin]

That does help. Thanks, much.

 

Later, I make take the liberty of asking you question on another topic that has come up for me. But that's it for now.

 

Cordially, Joaquin