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Moving Retrospect backup set


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Hi, I have a proactive backup script set to backup my computers onto a couple of disk media sets (on external hard drives) which are rotated off-site. I'm wanting to move these to new, more portable disks for ease of use. I'd also like to retain my backup history, so would prefer not to just start with a fresh media set on the new drives.

 

The Retrospect 8 manual has a section on "Creating a Copy Media Set Script". Is this what I want to do? Can I just point Retrospect at the new copy & it will continue as if it were the old drive?

 

There's another section in the manual on "Creating a Copy Backup Script". I'm unclear on this, but I don't think this is right. Correct?

 

There's another section in the manual on "Moving Retrospect", but it seems to talk more about moving the backup computer rather than what I would like to do.

 

Alternatively, there is this thread from the Windows section of this forum: http://forums.dantz.com/showtopic.php?tid/33361/, but RM's reply talks about a "Backup Set Transfer" which I can't find anywhere.

 

Confused & dazed,

 

Thanks!

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I've done this dozens of times.

 

What you want to do (basically) is:

 

1) Stop the engine (so there's no chance the media set will be modified during this process).

 

2) Do a plain-old Finder copy of your media set container folder (the "Retrospect" folder) from one external drive ("OLD") to the new external drive ("NEW").

 

3) Disconnect the old drive and connect the new drive.

 

4) Start the engine. Go select your media set. Click the "pencil" icon to "Edit Member" to point the media set to the "NEW" drive so that the location of the member is now "/Volumes/NEW/" instead of "/Volumes/OLD" (using the example names above...)

 

 

That the basic concept.

 

 

It can be a bit more tricky if you have multiple disk media sets on the "OLD" drive and are only looking to move one media set to the "NEW" drive -- or if you have the "Retrospect" folder somewhere other than the root level of the drive...

 

But the concept is the same -- you "Edit Member" with the pencil icon to update the location of your Media Set member after you move things.

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  • 1 month later...

I have the same situation, only after I set up a second member, or AS I did so, the first (I realized) was no longer appearing to be active for some reason: it cannot be checked as "lost" and cannot be removed with the minus sign. Ideally I want to do the latter, since I have more room on the new drive onto which I've moved the media set. Perhaps nothing will matter if Retrospect thinks the old member is inactive, though I have no idea why it should: I haven't instructed it to think this; it ought to be backing up to both members until I tell it otherwise, right?

 

Thanks.

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I have the same situation...

 

Please provide your specific steps and observations; "the same situation" is often not exactly the same.

 

 

it ought to be backing up to both members until I tell it otherwise, right?

 

Backing up to two Members of the same Media Set? No.

 

When Retrospect moves to a new Member (by either filling the previous one or by a "Skip to new member" action) it will only backup to that one, until you move to another new one.

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As I said, I wanted to move my media set for a backup script from one drive to another, since disk one was getting full. I copied the set in the finder to the 2nd drive; then tried in vain to add a new member and to delete the old member to the media set (destination). Editing the member was not possible. I created a new member, but when I ran the backup, it backed up only to the old member. I finally deleted the entire member entity (as it appears in the Retrospect client) and also the media set on drive 1; and then rebuilt the member set from the new drive's backup set which was copied over from drive 1. I left this running at the office and assume it will succeed, and can then continue to use it for future backups. Perhaps this is the only way to go in such a situation. Using the pencil (edit member set) did nothing for me at all. Should it have?

Thanks.

JIP

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The best way to move a backup set from one location to another location is to quit the console, stop the engine, move the catalog file to its new location, start the engine, start the console, go to media sets, choose locate and navigate to the new location and select the catalog file. If done correctly it should make the media set use the new location and you should not lose any data. If it complains that the media set is already exists delete the old one and repeat the locate steps again.

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As I said...

 

I wanted to move my media set

 

I copied the set in the finder

 

I created a new member, but when I ran the backup, it backed up only to the old member.

 

I finally deleted the entire member entity (as it appears in the Retrospect client) and also the media set

 

the member set

 

the new drive's backup set

 

You must understand that a [color:purple]Media Set[/color] is the _set_ of a [color:purple]Catalog file[/color] and [color:purple]backup media Members[/color].

 

So "moving a Media Set" does not really describe what you are trying to do. This is why the response above is likely not what you are looking for.

 

 

tried in vain to add a new member

 

 

If you want to move the data on a Disk Media Set Member from one volume to another, you wouldn't want to then Add a new Member, you'd want to simply replace the smaller one with the larger one.

 

- Copy the Retrospect folder to the new, larger volume, then select:

 

Media Sets->FooMediaSet->Members(tab)->1-FooMediaSet

 

- Click on the Pencil icon and navigate to the Retrospect folder you want to act as the Member of FooMediaSet.

 

- Note the displayed available disk space and edit as appropriate

 

- Click Save

 

- Confirm the Location column now displays the correct path.

 

Done.

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It might help us understand the issue if you provided a screenshot.

 

If you have difficulty attaching a screenshot, you might need to do the magic dance:

Forum Attachment Rules Change

 

However, that might be a bit difficult now since, due to sale of Retrospect to Roxio, the Forum Admin's email is not reachable by the email address given in that post.

 

I suggest you use the "Contact Forum Admin" link under the "Help" navigation bar at the top of the forum windows.

 

Russ

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Screenshots here:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3aVWM-j1YVHNGUwOGU5YWUtNzc3ZC00ZTkwLTk2ZjMtYjFlZmYyNzRkNTZh&sort=name&layout=list

3 Images

1 shows the media set in questio, highlighted; it is yellow, viz., approaching full. I want to change that value (I have 90 GB free on the new drive)

 

2nd shows the Members panel, and note that the "-" sign is greyed out. Why? I can't delete this member if I want to?

 

3rd shows the edit window and the error message I mentioned.

 

Thanks

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Correct URL:

 

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3aVWM-j1YVHNGUwOGU5YWUtNzc3ZC00ZTkwLTk2ZjMtYjFlZmYyNzRkNTZh&hl=en

 

Screenshots here:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3aVWM-j1YVHNGUwOGU5YWUtNzc3ZC00ZTkwLTk2ZjMtYjFlZmYyNzRkNTZh&sort=name&layout=list

3 Images

1 shows the media set in questio, highlighted; it is yellow, viz., approaching full. I want to change that value (I have 90 GB free on the new drive)

 

2nd shows the Members panel, and note that the "-" sign is greyed out. Why? I can't delete this member if I want to?

 

3rd shows the edit window and the error message I mentioned.

 

Thanks

 

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Ah, so do I need to move them to an enclosing Retrospect folder? I didn't know that. If that's all it is, I can do that. Will try once I get to the office. thanks. (That was not explained in any of the instructions, but would be good to specify in the "move backup files" instructions.) Jim P.

 

PS I hope I can do this either by creating a folder called Retrospect or by using an existing Retrospect folder (which happens to reside on the disk containing other backup media sets).

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It keeps giving me "An error occurred" when I try to select it.

 

Please re-read my steps up-thread, notably the first one.

 

Steve is right about the missing enclosing folder.

 

The folder contains a lot of .rdb files and a disk media set catalog file (.rbc)

 

Don't do that.

 

The entire idea of having a Catalog is for it (with the exception of File Media Sets) to be separate from the actual backed up data.

 

Put the catalog somewhere easy for the Engine to see it (Steve has noted here he keeps it in a folder at the root level of the Engine host). Don't keep it in a Disk Media Set Member folder.

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The folder contains a lot of .rdb files and a disk media set catalog file (.rbc)

 

Don't do that.

 

The entire idea of having a Catalog is for it (with the exception of File Media Sets) to be separate from the actual backed up data.

 

Put the catalog somewhere easy for the Engine to see it (Steve has noted here he keeps it in a folder at the root level of the Engine host). Don't keep it in a Disk Media Set Member folder.

 

Will do. Easy to see? What would be "hard to see"? Once you've identified the location for the Engine shouldn't it be visible to the Engine?

 

I'll have to see how to point the Engine to the new location, once I get in later today.

 

thanks, Jim P

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