Pruning Back the Amount of Data Stored - The 10 Step Solution
Instructions for moving from a full disaster recovery backup set to a selective backup set
The Big Picture
When you set up your customer to do a full disaster recovery backup, all of the data on their local drives is encrypted, compressed, and securely stored on the DataPreserve remote backup servers. If any files are deleted on your customer's computer, DataPreserve keeps them for the number of days you specify in Tools > Preferences > Retention rules. The current default retention rule keeps deleted files for 30 days, which allows a month of recovery time should you or your customer need to get deleted files back. After the defined retention period has expired for each file, it is permanently deleted from the DataPreserve remote backup servers, freeing up the associated storage within your customer's DataPreserve account.
However, if you change your customer's settings from a full backup to a more selective backup - either by de-selecting files and folders or by excluding ones that were previously backed up - no files are actually deleted. Since no files are deleted, the system keeps these unwanted backup files on the DataPreserve remote backup servers indefinitely. So, how do you reduce the amount of data stored for your customer and remove the unwanted backup files in a timely manner?
Instructions:
1. Open the DataPreserve Account Manager and create a new client by clicking on the "Add" button and entering a new client name and password for your customer's computer. Do not delete the original client yet!
2. Close the Remote Backup client software (if it is running) by clicking File > Exit or click the X icon in the top right corner of the application window. In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files\DataPreserve\Remote Backup\Client and change the name of the "data" directory to "old data". This keeps the old settings "just in case".
3. Run the Remote Backup client software and go through the Client Setup wizard using the same account name with the new client name and password you just created. Verify the login details by clicking the "Test Login" button and then click "Next".
4. After the Client Setup Wizard synchronizes with the DataPreserve Remote Backup Server, you are prompted to select your default backup set. Select the option "Custom - Backup files and folders that I define using Tools > Manage Backup Sets" and then click "Next".
5. Select the "I will perform the first backup at a later time" option and click "Finish".
6. Review and modify Revisions and Retention rules as appropriate using Tools > Preferences. Your customer may only want to keep the last 5 revisions of changed files and only 14 days of deleted items.
7. Delete or un-schedule the default All Local Drives and/or My Documents Backup Sets by going to Tools > Manage Backup Sets.
8. Create and schedule a new, more selective backup set (or multiple Backup Sets, if required) for your customer's computer using Tools > Manage Backup Sets. There are several ways to be more selective when creating a Backup Set:
- Select "Backup only the files and folders selected" and pick only those files and folders that you want to include in the Backup Set.
- Select "Backup only the files that match the following rules" then define custom rules based on specific folder names, file names, and/or file extensions that you want to include in the Backup Set.
- Select "Backup all local hard drives and system information" then Exclude all the items that you do NOT want to include in the Backup Set. Note: using this option, the System Files (Registry) cannot be excluded.
9. Run the new Backup Set you just created by clicking the "Backup Now" button. This should go quickly since the redundant file elimination feature will automatically reference any files previously backed up within the same Account, including those from the original Client's full backup.
10. After the new Backup Set completes, open the DataPreserve Account Manager and delete the old Client by selecting the old Client Name and then clicking on the "Delete" button. This will delete the old Client device and any unwanted files from the original full backup. Please make sure you delete this old Client as soon as possible to insure that the unwanted data and the extra Client device are purged before the next billing cycle date.
If you have any additional questions or if we may be of further assistance, please contact us at (866) 707-SAFE support@datapreserve.com.