Can I merge backups?

[angelo_lopes]

When I configured my Incremental backup job I did not change the "Save Storage Space".
Now I have 157 Zip files occupying more than 650GB.
Is it possible to merge these Zip files, and then limit the Number of Versions or the Number of Backups?

And which of these two options do you recommend? Thanks

[Support]

Hi,

You can set a limit for the number of backup versions in Backup Properties->Type->Storage page.
On the same page, you can select the "Merge backups" option.
When you run again the backup, the old backup versions to be deleted will be merged.

[angelo_lopes]

It tells me "If you choose to continue independent zip split will be enabled" and I do not know what this is.
Does it mean I will have much more zip files on the destination path?
As long as Backup4all can manage this and I am able to Restore in case of need, this is not a problem, or am I misunderstanding something, please?

[Support]

Hi,

Backup4all informs you another option has to be selected and it will be selected if you want to continue. The restore will be properly handled by Backup4all.
Only the type of zip split is changed. The number of splits will be the same.

[angelo_lopes]

Hi

Excuse me that I do not understand at all. And my Backup4all "speaks" portuguese what makes even more difficult to find where to configure. To save space I have two options.
- To limit the number of file versions to "n"
- To limit de number of backups "n"
maybe in English it is not written like above, but the idea must be the same.

Making n=3, I do not want to keep 3 backups because if I make three backups in 3 days in a row, I will not be able to restore a file in the previous week's version. So what I want is to keep 3 versions of the files.

That said, to use "number of file versions" option I must create a new backup job with this option selected from the first backup?
Or is there a place within the configuration where I can configure another type of zip files?
I never heard about standard zip splits

[Support]

Hi,

If you select the option to limit number of file versions to "n", on Backup Properties->Compression page, the "Create independent splits" option will be also selected.
You don't have to create a new backup job. The current backup job will have the "Create independent splits" option selected. Backup4all only informs you in case you did not want to use that option for some reasons. Otherwise the message is not important for you so you can continue the backups with the same job.

[angelo_lopes]

OK. Understood. Thank you very much for your help

[angelo_lopes]

[quote="Support"]Hi,

You can set a limit for the number of backup versions in Backup Properties->Type->Storage page.
On the same page, you can select the "Merge backups" option.
When you run again the backup, the old backup versions to be deleted will be merged.[/quote]



Hi,

I set a limit for the number of backup versions and "Merge backups" was selected.
Today I went to destination folder and I saw there that this number continued to increase. They did not merge.
I found that only when I select a limit for the number of backups the "Merge backups" checkbox is available.
It is not available with number of versions selected.
Is there any thing I can do to overcome this? Thank you.

[Support]

Hi,

It seems you selected a different limit option: Limit the number of file versions. That is another type of limit and it works totally different. That is why you see multiple backup files in destination, than the limit you set. The limit is for the number of file versions and it applies to each file. When the limit is exceeded, the older file version is deleted from the zip where it resides. The rest of the files in zip remains there. The merge action cannot be applied in this case.

As per my indications, you need to select the following limit option than the one you selected.

[angelo_lopes]

Hi,

I understand the difference between Number of backups and Number of file versions.
I prefer Number of file versions because if a file gets corrupted, I have more chances to recover a good version.
If I select to limit the number of backups to 3 and I backup daily, on the 4th day I only have new versions of a given file.

A friend asked me for help because he had problems with dozens of folders containing photos in jpeg format. We only could see black lines and grey areas. The older backups he found were also corrupted. If he had file versions, this will not happen. Photos do not change a lot. You transfer your pictures from de camera to your PC, give a folder a good name, and forget. To have 3 file versions is more than enough.

If you read again Support's 2nd post on this topic, it is not the same thing compared to what you write now.