How to (safely) remove File and Folder backups from a drive

Archive
1

Norton recently lost track of one of my backup destinations' label and consequently stopped recognising the used File and Folder Backup storage space on the drive as used backup space. In an effort to fix this I decided to restart the File and Folder Backup from the beginning, and to do this I formatted the drive.

 

Realising that I probably shouldn't have done this (Norton seemed to think that the file backups still existed) I went about fixing things by stopping the Norton service, deleting the catalog.dat file, restarting the service and re-running the backup.

 

So basically I'm looking for the "clean" way to remove my File and Folder backups from a disk. Deleting the backup job doesn't do it, and there's no entry for Files and Folders when I try to manage the backup destination.

 

Also, what is the "Show Previous Versions" Ghost item in the Windows Explorer context menu meant to do? I try using it on files and folders and nothing happens.

2

THIS is a good post by Allen M about F&F history.

 

The "Show Previous Versions" is strictly for F&F backup. If you do not see entries for files that are included in F&F backup, you may need to rebuild the catalog.dat file by re-importing the F&F backup location. THIS post also has good information.

 

I'm not a user of F&F backup because I use Backup My Computer (image of the drive letter). This is what Ghost was originally intended to do. I run a base Recovery Point at the beginning of the month with incremental Recovery Points every evening. If I'm going to install software or make changes, I run a backup right then. I can restore a file or folder or entire drive letter from a Recovery Point way faster and easier than using any File and Folder Backup.