Questions...

[Shy-Guy]

Sorry i'm so new to the whole Retrospect backing up. Im just used to burning 2 DVD's of data of the same thing and then deleting the source so it doesn't take up space! Old school!

 

So anyway to answer the questions...

 

1. What are the sources for your backup (i.e., the data you want backed up and where this data is located)?

 

2 folders on my Desktop on my Macintosh HD.

 

2. Where is your destination (Backup Set A) located?

 

It is located on my External hard drives. I do multiple backups onto 2 hard drives so i have a Backup Set A HD1 & Backup Set A HD2.

 

3. Why do think you may want to delete the folders on your desktop?

 

I want to delete the folders because the 2 folders are getting to about 50 GB each and i want to start freeing space on my computer hard drive. The thing is where i'm a music producer im constantly adding new project to the 2 folders so i never delete it on my desktop i just leave it in them. And then over night Retospect backs up whatever i've added during the day to Backup Set A. So really it's neverending and the 2 folders on my computers desktop will just get bigger.

 

So what im asking is should i delete the folders on my desktop then start a new Backup set put the stuff i do from now on in the new backup set, so i can free space on my computers HD?

 

Thanks,

 

Guy

Edited July 31, 2008 by Guest

[twickland]

I can't see that you gain anything by deleting the two desktop source folders unless you no longer need ready access to any of their contents. Might it not make more sense to trash just those projects that are no longer active?

 

If you did want to completely trash both source folders, there is no need to start a new backup set unless you wanted to do that. You could simply create a new folder or two, define them as subvolumes in Configure> Volumes, and use them as new sources in your backup script.

 

The advantage to creating a new backup set is that it would be smaller and potentially more manageable, while allowing you to archive your old backup set. If this is something you wanted to do, I would recommend performing a manual New Media backup (or going to Configure> Backup Sets> Configure YourBackupSet> Options> Media Action> and selecting New Media). This will create a new backup set called 1-Backup Set A which will then automatically be assigned as the destination for your existing scripts. You would, of course, need to use a new removable disk member for your new backup set.

 

I would also recommend that you take a look at what you're retaining in your backups to make sure you're comfortable that you would be able to retrieve any data that might be important to you in the future, and that you would be able to retrieve that data in the event of some disaster such as a fire, destruction of one of your destination backup set members, etc.

 

We back up to three backup sets in rotation, so that each backup set is used once every three days. Sets A and B are on tape, with one tape set rotated off site. We do a new media backup of these when the number of tape members becomes cumbersome, and we save the old backup sets for a number of years. Backup set C is a File Backup Set on a FW 800 drive that we recycle when the volume becomes full, and is used mainly for convenience in being able to quickly retrieve files.

 

You might want to consider, for example, creating a couple of DVD backup sets for long-term storage of important files. You could either back up to these directly, or you could use Tools> Copy> Transfer to copy selected important files from your existing Backup Set A to the new backup set(s).