Automatic Backup in Retrospect 6.5 for Windows inexplicably requests a disk

[1891gigi]

During Automatic Backup, I get a window with this message: "Select a disk to add as storage to Backup Set A…". I back up my whole system onto my external hard drive. When I click on the Show Members button of this window, my external drive is displayed as 70% free. (Even if there was little space free on my external drive, as long as I am backing up something that is less than the total space on the external drive, my understanding is that Retrospect will overwrite what is already there.) I don't understand why I get this message or what I should do. In the past two years that I have been using Retrospect (which came with my Western Digital hard drive) this has occurred sporadically. I found that if I cancel the operation, the next day it works fine (or I might have to cancel two or three days running before it does). This time, the problem has occurred for a total of six days in a row. I am unable to back up my computer now. Help!

[lindahardesty]

I noticed that the "members" tab shows my backup media (also a WD drive) as 92% free, even though it is less than 1/2 free. The calculation is apparently the size of the drive that you have assigned for this backup set, minus the current size of the backup set. I think the default is to allow the entire drive to be used. If you have more than on backup set, or other data on the drive, it will still show the same calculation, though not all that space is free.

 

What I don't know is how and whether Retrospect can erase data not belonging to it on the drive. There is a preference you can set to "automatically reuse named media", and "minimal erase confirmation". I don't think I would want to check those options on a hard drive that wasn't totally dedicated to one backup set.

[1891gigi]

Thanks for the response, but I realized that my problem was on the order of how to put one foot in front of the other. I discovered that I had somehow turned off my external hard drive. (!!!!) Pressing the power button to turn it on solved my problem. Obviously, someone had not pushed the button on my head to turn on the power to my brain. Sorry to have wasted your time, but I appreciate your willingness to help a dolt like me.