Deleting Files and/or folders from current backup tapes

[Mech820]

This might be a silly question, but our staff lawyer is asking whether it is possible to delete files or folders from our backup jobs that we have already run.  We backup a months worth of information, Full backups every weekend with differential backups during the week.  Thank you in advance for you time helping me!

[teiva-boy]

Not from a tape directly, no you cannot.

You either erase the entire tape, or not backup the data you want an ultra-low retention on.

I have a customer that doesn't backup exchange and users have a 30day retention in their mailboxes.  All they use is Exchange 2010 with DAG.  The Exch and storage admin love this policy.

[pkh]

You cannot delete individual files or mail from a backup set whether it is on tape or on disk.  I hope that your lawyer knows what he/she is asking for.  Deleting a file from a backup is equivalent to shredding a document.

[Mech820]

Thanks for the replies!  I figured this would be the answer.  Our lawyer is asking this in regards to Non Disclosure Agreements, the section called Return/Destroy.  We might be obliged to destroy our backups if we have such data that is covered in an NDA on our backups.  But, in the future, I am going to set an exclusion for a particular folder, that we will setup, so that it wont backup with our regular backup schedule.