www.aiscl.co.uk

Greetings,

I have the backup automated, which stores everything on a separate drive {i.e., my "L" letter hard drive}. As that drive is now getting full, I want to move all backups to CDs, with the automation still scheduled to use that "L" drive. Would you kindly advise of the best way to handle this, procedurally?

Thanks in advance.

PG

Hi

Sorry for the delay answering this question.

I guess you have already used the Manage Backup / Copy to CD option to copy the backup to CD.

The real problem is keeping a consistent backup over time, where you have to regularly have to prune the disk based backup. Unfortunately there is no really simple way to do this.

After making the initial copy to CD mark the last CD ‘Contains Sessions 1 to xxx’.

Next we need to reclaim some disk space from the existing disk based backup, do this by using the Manage backup / Edit Script Parameters option and then set the retain sessions to a number other than ALL, for example, if this is set to 3 the last 3 sessions will be retained. A backup must be run for this change to take affect. After running the backup change the number of retained sessions back to ALL. This process will be simplified in the next version of AISBackup by enabling the Manage Backup / Undo Backups option to undo backups from the first session to the chosen session; the disk space will be reclaimed immediately.

When the disk based backup next needs to be purged use the Manage Backup / Copy to CD option but Add CD’s rather than appending to the last used CD, this is because we must preserve the <script>.bdb file on the previous last CD. After copying the backup to CD mark the last used CD as containing Sessions xxx to yyy, the actual session numbers can be found by clicking the Sessions Tab.

The only reason to use the first marked CD (last CD of the first set) is if you need to restore a file that was deleted prior to the last retained session. (If somebody can explain this better than me please do)

I do not know the content of your backup, if it is mainly system files plus data then consider creating a backup of this on CD only (Although more than one backup of the same data is preferable). And change your disk based backup to data files only and use the ‘Retain x Generations’ option. This will keep up to the specified number of copies of each file on the backup even if the file is deleted. If you need to run a disaster recovery restore, restore the Operating System and programs from the CDs and then restore the data from the ‘Data Backup’. The CD ‘system’ backup need only be updated after major system changes, more often if you have time.

Barry

Thank you. That "consistency" you mention is what stumped me. I became so frustrated that I started looking for a replacement app. I'll try your suggestions, but the difficulty associated with such a thoroughly predictable task, together with the lack of feedback (until today) has soured me on the program. Since I've paid for it, I will try again.

What is probably a better solution is a hybrid backup where files that only belong in earlier sessions are archived to CD this way the backup will remain intact.

I want to be absolutely sure I follow you here. In essence, I move only the earlier zip files to CD, taking care to leave most recent zips and all other related files on the hard drive. Correct thus far? Plus, I should make the revisions that you outlined above. Correct?

TIA

Pam

Hi Pam

As AISBackup is now you need to follow the instructions in my first reply i.e. copy the whole backup to CD. After trimming the earlier sessions (the beta version that can do this via Manage Backup / Undo Backups has been uploaded - Choose the Delete from First Session to Selected Session option). This will remove files from the zip files, as each remaining session must look like a ‘full’ backup. If you prune sessions 1 to 16 only sessions 17 to Latest session will remain on the disk backup.

You could demonstrate this to yourself by backing up the AISBackup program folder a few times (files here always change) Copy to CD and then Undo the sessions from the disk based backup:

Barry