How Long to Keep Files and Folders Backup

[Lorac]

I am doing a daily Files and Folders backup to an external backup drive (Smart Backup). I have the option set to keep 7 catalog versions. Does that mean that it will keep only the last 7 backups?

How long should I keep backups? I have 5TB of storage on my external drive.

Thanks you.

[Adrian (Softland)]

Hi,

Please note you cannot combine Smart backup type with storing a specified number of backups in destination.
If you use the Smart backup type, Backup4all will automatically determine which is the best backup type to use.

[Lorac]

Thank you for your reply. I should have already known this.

I am not sure what a "catalog" is. I see reference to it in many many places, but not a definition. Where is the catalog? Is it the same as a "log"?

What does it mean to keep 7 catalog versions?

[Adrian (Softland)]

Hi,

The "backup catalogs" is the .bkc file which stores information about the backed up files, backup numbers, versions, file size, paths, info etc
Keeping 7 versions of the catalog means you can have multiple previous versions of that catalog file, stored in destination.

[Lorac]

Thank you. That was helpful

[Hikari]

Hello, could you explain that in more details? Links to articles are fine.

I have a backup job called MailWasher. It uses a plugin as reference for 2 sources: its Registry entries and its AppData folder.

I see in destination I have a MailWasher.bkc file. I notice it's a SQLite file, but haven't looked for a SQLite manager tool to try to look on this file data. Could you detail what's stored in it?

Also in destination there's a MailWasher folder. Inside it I have 2 kinds of zip files, a set named Mail Washer and another set named Registries. I guess that when a backup is run it creates a zip file for each source entry, right?

This backup is set as Smart type. What exactly does this type do? Does it verify how much data had changed since last backup, and decides to use incremental, differential or full mode?

I currently have backup zips counting from 1 to 19. No number is missing, but for some of them I have only the Registries source and not the Mail Washer source. That's odd, because I'd expect its Registry entries to remain the same while its thousands of files, including cache files, to change very often during every day.

This backup is configured to keep 5 catalog versions. Does this mean MailWasher.bkc has 5 entries of its data, that last 5 full backup sets are saved, that 5 last backups of any type are saved, or anything else?

Let's say I have a backup job that's getting too big. I suppose I should create different schedules for it, in example do incremental jobs from sunday to friday, another schedule for differential jobs every saturday, and a monthly full backup. But either that or a unique smart daily backup, how can I delete old backups? I see no command for listing existing backups and selecting some of them to be deleted.

[Adrian (Softland)]

Hi,

1. The "backup catalogs" is the .bkc file which stores information about the backed up files, backup numbers, versions, file size, paths, info etc

2. Each source drive/type will be zipped in a separate archive.

3. Yes, the Smart backup will decide the backup backup type to use, according with the amount of changed data, available space in destination, previous backup types and sizes.

4. If you suspect the source files are not correctly "seen" as modified, please uncheck the "Smart file scanning mode" option from Backup Properties->Advanced page, then run again the backup.

5. It means the last 5 versions of the backup catalog are saved: MailWasher.bkc

6. You can use the Clean button from taskbar to list all backups for a job and you can also select them to be deleted. Please note the backup versions depending on the selected backups will be selected automatically too.