Configuration of daily backup -append vs. overwrite

[Kim_Lund]

I do full backups Mon-Friday, I've always left the default "append to media, overwrite if no appendable media.." option selected.
The tapes I use should get up to 100GB. I was getting that for a while but all of a sudden the job asks for a second tape when it get to about 65GB-75GB (However it's not consistent, only some days this happens). I am wondering if the appending is not taking full advantage of all the space on the tapes. Can I choose to "Overwrite Media" as I do full backups daily anyway?? And would you suspect this would help with my space issue on these tapes.
I use a Sony external AIT device with the recomended tape media.
thanks

[Sharvari_Deshmu]

Hello,

1.We would like to know whether hardware compression is supported by the device, you can try using the same.

2. You can choose to overwrite media for the tapes on which you intend to perform overwrite operation.

3. Regarding append to media:
When you select the option "Append to media; overwrite if no appendable media is available" or "Append to media; terminate if no appendable media is available" in the backup job, Backup Exec will look for appendable media first and it will append the data to the eligible media.
If the same backup job spans to another media, Backup Exec will always overwrite the next available media (it will not perform the append operation in case of spanning). If it does not find any overwritable media, a prompt "Please insert overwritable media" will be generated.



Thanks,

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