The user I am supporting is running out of space on her hard drive. Regarding the file backups (not the recovery point set), she is inquiring as to how to clear the old folders of these backups on her target drive. They are named "fbfFiles_nnn" and are dated starting at 6/10/2009.
There are hundreds of these folders on her target drive.
The manual doesn't really say how to properly manage all of these, other than "manually deleting files from your file and folder backups" or "limiting the number of versions that you keep".
1) Can the user just go into windows explorer and directly delete a number of the oldest folders?
2) If not, what is the best way to manage these old backups? The suggestions in the manual appear to me to be unworkable from a user's perspective.
Thanks for your help.
Message Edited by MossyRock on 11-28-2009 11:50 AM
Message Edited by MossyRock on 11-28-2009 11:50 AM
Message Edited by MossyRock on 11-28-2009 12:47 PM
I'll go ahead and include the procedure now, it is pretty much the same for different versions of the OS.
Access start menu and type in the word services in the Search box (Windows Vista/Windows 7) or services.msc from the start menu/run box (Windows XP). When the services window comes up please search for the entry for Norton Ghost. Highlight this entry and Stop the service; this option will be located near the top left of the screen.
Then go into Windows Explorer to the following path: C:\ProgramData\Symantec\FileBackup (Windows Vista) or
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\FileBackup (Windows XP)
Rename (do NOT delete) the catalog.dat file to something else.
Delete the files/folders as desired via Windows Explorer. Again, note of caution. Be careful to ensure you delete only what you want to get rid of.
From the Service window, click Start to start the Norton Ghost service again.
Bring up Norton Ghost and select Recover My Files from the Tasks tab.
Then from the File menu select Import Backup Destination. Browse to the parent directory where your File and Folder backups are located. Ghost will now import from scratch all the files and folders you have not removed. This will rebuild the catalog.dat file you previously renamed.
Thank you for the welcome and for responding. It's nice to find a forum where you find nice folks and good answers!
The OS is XP SP3 32-bit.
If I'm understanding Ghost's controls correctly, specifying the number of versions just affects the depth of backup at the individual user file level in the "file/folder backups" and does not affect the extent of recovery points backups stored in any way - they are two separate animals. Is this correct?
The versioning (page 155 of user guide) will limit the number of file versions maintained but I don't believe it removes the folders themselves.
You can use the procedure I outlined to do additional cleanup in the future if desired. Just always be careful to rename and not delete the catalog.dat file so that if anything ever does go wrong you can go back to your previous state. Other than that this procedure is safe.
Apart from that just make sure you don't do anything like a Shift+Delete when you remove the files or folders so that you can recover those as well from the recycle bin if you mistakenly delete the wrong thing.
You posted the solution at the same time I was answering your question, so they are out-of-sequence in this thread...
Anyway, I understand exactly what you are doing here system-wise and Ghost-wise, but I need to further understand this point you made:
"Delete the files/folders as desired via Windows Explorer. Again, note of caution. Be careful to ensure you delete only what you want to get rid of."
What we want to do is to get rid of the oldest versions of backups, not any particular file or type of file.
For example, in directory G:\File Backup Data, we have the following:
fbfFiles_315 File Folder 6/10/2009 11:13PM
fbfFiles_316 File Folder 6/10/2009 11:14PM
fbfFiles_321 File Folder 6/12/2009 11:13PM
fbfFiles_322 File Folder 6/12/2009 11:14PM
and so on and so on.......
These are the oldest in the file backup directory. As far as choosing what to delete as per your caution above, couldn't we just, say, choose to delete these first four folders (or however many we need) to recover the space we need?
Or are there complications or interrelationships/dependencies that I'm not understanding?
So if she has the versioning currently set at, say, 5 - and I change it to 2 - the system will then automatically delete the now-obsolete backup files stored in those all folders? If yes, does it do it on-the-spot or will it do it at some other time?
I misunderstood your intent a little bit. With the cryptic filenames that Ghost uses for file backups it is not easy to try and determine which filename belongs to which true file. Does this make sense?
This is why I feel it best to use the versioning configuration to enforce this as a normal rule as it gives you better control than the parameter which looks at storage space.
When you set the number of versions to keep (page 156-157 of Ghost user manual) there is a selection to Automatically optimize storage so you should set this so that you don't have to intervene manually all the time. There is also a selection to Delay changes until next backup. If you select this, file versions should be optimized each time Ghost runs the file and folder backup job.
Thank you - I now understand this. Brubaker has pointed out in one of my other related threads that since recovery points are being made, F&F backups are really redundant now.
Thanks to you and Brubaker, I understand now that my user's current backup approach is flawed.
I'm going to completely restructure her NG backup approach on a new, larger drive with Recovery Point Sets only (no F&F backups), keeping a specified number of sets and hopefully allowing the system to automatically manage (e.g., delete) the oldest set when this number is exceeded.
Again, I love this forum. You guys are great. I didn't get a single response asking, "did you try rebooting?"
Thanks for the update and you are very welcome. Happy Ghosting.
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The user I am supporting is running out of space on her hard drive. Regarding the file backups (not the recovery point set), she is inquiring as to how to clear the old folders of these backups on her target drive. They are named "fbfFiles_nnn" and are dated starting at 6/10/2009.
There are hundreds of these folders on her target drive.
The manual doesn't really say how to properly manage all of these, other than "manually deleting files from your file and folder backups" or "limiting the number of versions that you keep".
1) Can the user just go into windows explorer and directly delete a number of the oldest folders?
2) If not, what is the best way to manage these old backups? The suggestions in the manual appear to me to be unworkable from a user's perspective.
Thanks for your help.
Message Edited by MossyRock on 11-28-2009 11:50 AM
Message Edited by MossyRock on 11-28-2009 11:50 AM
Message Edited by MossyRock on 11-28-2009 12:47 PM
