I use the backup function of the Norton Security Suite to backup my data to a USB flash drive.
The data being backed up is 3.6 GB. But, it has completely filled a 16 GB USB flash drive. I have the system set for automatic backup. The system must be duplicating the backup copies of files.
How do I set up the system to only copy files that have changed and to delete older copies of files whne new versions are coped and savd?
jgnovo wrote:I use the backup function of the Norton Security Suite to backup my data to a USB flash drive.
The data being backed up is 3.6 GB. But, it has completely filled a 16 GB USB flash drive. I have the system set for automatic backup. The system must be duplicating the backup copies of files.
How do I set up the system to only copy files that have changed and to delete older copies of files whne new versions are coped and savd?
Welcome,
It sounds like you are asking for functions that are not present in 360. A program like SSR will make monthly full backups and incrementals on a schedule until time for the next full backup. It also has the ability to limit the number of full backups being kept.
I think that @yank uses NSS and can better advise you
Stay tuned
Hi jgnovo.
Welcome to the Norton Community Forums. 
I am not sure that I agree completely with dickevans on this. I believe that the functionality of NSS is the same as N360 when it comes to backup. I believe that N360 backup is only supposed to backup any changed or added files (that fit the conditions set for backup) when additional backups are run. The only time I am aware that N360 should make a full backup is when it is first run.
That said there appears to have been a problem with N360 backup in the past, in that for reasons unknown to me, it appears to have done additional full backups on occasions and added them to the backup file (without giving access to the earlier backups). However I have not been aware of this happening recently and had hoped that the issue was resolved. It is possible that in your case the backups grew because of this historic problem but it is only recently that you noticed that the size was exceptional.
I would suggest that the best thing to do is to delete the old backup files and run a new backup. Then watch the size of it. If it starts to grow again post back here, and we can arrange to monitor the growth and track down the problem. I must point out that this will briefly leave you without a backup and so you may wish to make a temporary backup to another drive.
To delete the current backup either format the USB or use windows explorer to delete the N360_BACKUP directory.
The next time N360 backup runs it should create a new N360_BACKUP directory and do a full backup. After that they should only be incremental.
I hope that helps.
Thanks for the response. I have two questions.
I see the N360_Backup FIle. I will be delte it. There is also a file named ARestore. It is 5.4 GB. Should that file also be deleted ?
You state that the first backup will be a full backup and the following backups will be incremental. Will the incremental backups delete previous versions of backuped files when new versions are backed up ? If not, the backup file size will continue to grow.
I appreciate the support.
Hi jgnovo.
I think if you check you will find that arestore.exe is around 5 MB not 5 GB. The files arestore.exe and arestore.loc are two files which can help you restore the backup without even having N360 loaded. These mean that if you had a total system failure you can get back key files without having to fully restore your system. I believe that if you delete the N360_BACKUP directory and start again the directory and these two files will appear again.
I do not know if old backups of changed files are retained or deleted. What I do know is that I am not able to access earlier versions of files on my of line backup. I suspect that the old files remain and that as you suspect the size of the backup will slowly grow. However I believe that this growth should be slow and rarely cause a problem. Personally, to get around this and similar potential issues I run two backups (each of which is supposed to back up the same files) then if there is a problem with either backup (such as getting too large) then I can just delete it and start again, knowing that in the interim I am protected by the second backup.
Does that help?
Thank you. That definitely helped.
According to Norton, I'm backing up 8400 files taking up 3.6 GB.
When I deleted the N360_BACKUP directory, I removed 47,000 files and 13GB from the USB drive. I now have 14.8 GB of 15.6 GB available for backup.
I'll run the backup and see what happens.
Appreciate the support.
Good luck jgnovo.
If the backup, once run, comes to much more than 3.6 GB lets know.