[Keda]

My backups have now overtaken most of my external drive. At this point, I do not need any of the old info in the previous backups. What is the bast approach to free up space?

Can I delete some of this incremental updates?

or

Should I delete everything and the do another full backup?

Any thoughts? I'd rather not buy another HD right now, especially since this seems like it will be a recurring problem.

TIA

[TETENAL]

You can delete incremental backups from the end (not having backed up those days obviously), but you can not randomly delete incremental backups from the middle (or in general any incremental backup after its full back up and before the last increment).

You should do a full backup and then start doing incremental backups again. You can then at some point delete the previous full backup and its incrementals.

[Keda]

Just a bit of clarification please...

Here is my (very typical) backup history

1) Started with a full backup
2) Subsequent incremental backups

Are you saying that I should delete the oldest incrementals, but not the original full backup?
After this, should I delete incrementals in chronological order (starting w/oldest)?
Then, at what point should I go back and delete the original full back up?

Thanks for the help.

[TETENAL]

No, I didn't mean the oldest incrementals. It doesn't make sense to delete the oldest incrementals (or any incremental between the full backup and the latest one). The idea of incremental backup is that all increments between the full backup and the latest incremental backup are there. So the only increment that make sense to delete from a logical point of view is the newest. At wich point the second newest becomes the newest and so on. That isn't too useful in a practical point of view though.

So if you want to delete backups you need to create a new full backup again and from thereon do incremental backups. You can then delete any backups from before the new full backup. Personally I keep the previous full backup, but delete all its increments.

[Atheist]

This is one area where I find Backup to be lacking. The software seems to presume that your backup drive is limitless in size. There is no accommodation for freeing up space by deleting old backups. I think what TETENAL was suggesting was to do another Full backup (e.g. Full Backup 2):

Full Backup 1
Incremental 1
Incremental 2
Incremental X (your most recent incremental)
Full Backup 2 (your new full backup)


Then go back and delete Full Backup 1 and Incremental 1-X. And as far as I can figure out, there is no one-step way of deleting. You have to manually delete the files from your backup drive and then go into the Backup app and clear the history. It seems the Restore tab will always show the backups... even the ones you deleted.

I usually don't have enough space to do a second Full backup before I clear out the old stuff (although I just ordered a 500GB drive today ), so I just wipe the backup drive and start over with a Full backup. So I guess if my hard drive craps out right while I'm doing the Full backup, I'm screwed. There has to be a better way. I'm probably just stupid and haven't figured it out.

[Keda]

Thanks for the help.

I hope that Time Machine will fix some of these issues. It would be nice to have an option/ability to manage this through software.

Atheist, what kind of drive are you getting for your backups?

[frdmfghtr]

When I do my backups, I use Synchronize! X Pro (Qdea) to make bootable backups. While I'm using a 40 GB HD in a USB enclosure which can't directly be used as a boot drive, I *can* restore from it after booting off the startup CD.

When I do the backups, it copies the files that have changed since the last backup, so in that sense it is an incremental backup; at the same time, the file structure on the backup is the same as the internal drive on my iBook; it's not a full backup+incremental 1+incremental 2+...etc. If needed, I can cherry-pick the files I need to recover (for instance, the Microsoft User Data or a Virtual PC data file) without using a particular recovery program; I just do a copy via the Finder.

The nice thing about it is that I don't have to worry about the backup growing in size with every incremental backup even though the actual amount of data on the HD remains constant.

[Atheist]

Originally Posted by Keda 

Thanks for the help.

I hope that Time Machine will fix some of these issues. It would be nice to have an option/ability to manage this through software.

Atheist, what kind of drive are you getting for your backups?

I'm getting the 500GB LaCie designed by Porsche. I've already got a 160GB. If found it at J&R for $189. (I would have given you a direct link to the product page but J&R's site it down right now for maintenance.)

[jasong]

Originally Posted by Atheist 

This is one area where I find Backup to be lacking. The software seems to presume that your backup drive is limitless in size. There is no accommodation for freeing up space by deleting old backups.

This is one of the most annoying things about Backup. Strangely enough, this feature exists for your iDisk. If you are backing anything up to your iDisk, there is a menu item to clear backups from your iDisk and Backup knows that you need to make a new full backup.

It sounds like Time Machine can handle this kind of system, since the demo of it at WWDC stated that you can designate how far back in time you want the system to maintain its state. I'm looking forward to seeing what time machine can do.