Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Sed posuere consectetur est at lobortis. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur. Cras justo odio, dapibus ac facilisis in, egestas eget quam. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Sed posuere consectetur est at lobortis. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Cras justo odio, dapibus ac facilisis in, egestas eget quam. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Sed posuere consectetur est at lobortis.
Nobody can tell me what "Show Versions" is supposed to do? I did check the documentation and it doesn't say. It just says:
1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Navigate to a file that you know is included in a file and folder backup.
3. Right-click the file, and then click Show Versions.
Does that mean that Show Versions can't be used for a normal full drive image backup with subsequent incrementals?
You cited this issue is with Outlook.pst, which our team is looking into the incremental imaging for this file. You are correct in your supposition that “Show Version” will show the other incremental images of the file. Are there any other files you’ve tried this with? What are the details of your incremental image backup?
I have an Excel spreadsheet that I keep track of my time each day, as a timesheet for work. I save it multiple times each day. I just went to it in Windows Explorer, right-clicked and chose Show Versions, and I got a dialog box that says:
Title: Recover My Files
Message:
Search is complete. There are no results to display. Try revising your search criteria, or use one of the other search options on the left.
I clicked on OK, and it brings me into a new dialog, also with the title Recover My Files, and a Search In pane on the left and a pane on the right that, presumably, would show me the files matching my search criteria. Under Recover Point, is shows the incremental that was created yesterday. I clicked on Explore and it lets me mount the incremental as drive G:.. I navigate in drive G: to my file and it does show a date/time of the day before the current version.
So, why didn't Show Versions show me a list of the different versions of my spreadsheet? It is stored in my My Documents folder (which is on my C drive).
Tony_Weiss wrote:
What are the details of your incremental image backup?
What do you want to know? It's an incremental of my C drive that was run in the wee hours of the morning of 7/11. It is 720 MB.
Show Versions is a quick search option to access your recovery points in case you want to restore a specific previous version of a file or sets of files. Do you have your storage location connected when you perform this action? If not, it won’t find anything.
Yes, my storage location is connected when I do this.
Hi StuartV,
I have sent you a Private Message, the yellow envelope (
)
in the upper right corner of the Norton Forums. This message is
requesting that you submit log files to us, so we can further analyze
your issue. Please send us the logs as soon as possible. Thanks!
OK, let's jump back to the beginning and answer a couple of questions.
- When I go to Windows Explorer, right-click on a file and choose "Show Versions", what is that supposed to do?
Show Versions is part of the File and Folder backup feature in Norton Ghost. If there are no versions showing, then it means that you are not using a File and Folder backup for that particular file.
- I noticed that my incremental backups are very small (e.g. 50 MB). My Outlook.pst file is well over 1 GB. It changes every day (I usually get at *least* 100 emails a day). So, it seems odd that an incremental could only be 50 MB and still contain a 1 GB PST file, but maybe the compression used is that good. I don't know.
The primary backup mechanism for Norton Ghost is sector based. This is what allows us provide superior protection and to restore a machine back to its exact state on a recovery. When you take a base recovery point you get every sector on the hard drive that contains data. When you take an incremental recovery point, you only get the sectors that were changed since the last backup. In order to restore a file from an incremental recovery point you MUST have the original base recovery point and any incremental recovery points since that base up to and including the incremental recovery point that would like to restore something from. This is because an incremental only contains changes, not the whole file. Recovery needs all the pieces to be able to restore a file. So, when you tell me that your Outlook.pst is over a 1 Gb and that the incremental was only 50 Mb, that tells me that the 100 emails and all other changes since the last recovery point amounted to less than 50 Mb of changes on the hard drive. And I also know that your Outlook.pst is fully backed up at that point.
- So, why didn't Show Versions show me a list of the different versions of my spreadsheet? It is stored in my My Documents folder (which is on my C drive).
Show version does not show different versions of your spreadsheet because it is not backed up by a File and Folder backup job so there is nothing for it to show. However, you can get to different versions of your spreadsheet by using the Recovery Point Browser, found in Start | Programs | Norton Ghost | Recovery Point Browser, and open up one of the recovery points you have created, then browse to the location where you keep your spreadsheet. If you need to restore it you can right-click on the file and get it back. Each incremental and each base will have a different 'version', if you will, namely that it will have a copy of the current (at the time of the backup) spreadsheet in it
It may sound like File and Folder backup is a little more convenient for displaying different versions and it is. However, if something bad happens to your system, the regular backups that Ghost does are by far the superior backup to have on hand because when you restore it, your machine is restored to the exact state at the time of the backup and that means everything, not just a few files. So, if you picked up a virus or your hard drive died, the state you are restored to is to what it was before the bad event happened, i.e. before you were infected with the virus or your entire system is restored onto a new working drive.
You may then say why not use File and Folder to backup the entire hard drive. That would not be a good idea since the regular backups are faster, they can be compressed to save space, and they are not as resource intensive. Plus the File and Folder feature was intended to give the user the ability to create additional backups of really important personal files like the My Documents folder or a sub-folder or a frequently changing spreadsheet.
For me personally, I always take the regular base and incremental backups. Others, may shoose differently based on their needs.