Multiple Backups Rotating on a Single Removable Drive?

[JBAtKarel]

I'm using Backup Exec 12.5 to back up a server, and I've got something I'd like to do that FEELS doable, but the manual (clocking in at over 1700 pages) is using the words "media" and "media set" so much that the meaning gets lost.

My hypothetical server has 80GB of data, and my hypothetical removable storage drive has 600GB of space. I should easily be able to fit five separate backups onto this one drive.

I want to configure ONE backup job (called "Daily") that backs up the server, and keeps five days' worth of backup files available for restore operations. It SEEMS like this would be a job for Overwrite Protection Period - but the manual says that the *media* is locked for the specified period. I don't want to have the job run on Tuesday and tell me the drive's 520GB of empty space is locked for four more days.

Is this as straightforward a problem as I believe?  Or is this something that just isn't done enough to warrant inclusion on Backup Exec?

Appreciative of any assistance on this matter.

[Ken_Putnam]

yeah, the Admin Guide can be rather confusing, and BackupExec has it's own dialect of English

If you want to keep five sets of Daily backups on the disk, set the OPP (Overwrite Protection Period) of the media set to 6 days and make sure from Tools\Options\Media Management that the option to "reuse overwriteable media in the target media set before scratch media" is selected

but the manual says that the *media* is locked for the specified period

The "media" is either a specific tape volume or a BKF file  (or set of BKF files) belonging to that media set 

[Ben_L_]

So first things first, very basic definitions to help out
Media = Tapes or Backup to disk files (basicaly the media the backup is performed to.
Media Sets = Policies setup to define how long media is protected from overwrite and / or how long media can be appended to.

If you are backing up to disk, then this is very easy.
Create a Media Set with 4 Days Overwrite Protection and 0 Hours Append Period.
I say to use 4 days so that on the 5 day the first backup will be overwritten.  If you set it to 5 days then on the 6th day the first backup will be overwritten.
Since you're going to disk I really don't see any reason to append to the Backup to disk files, you are going to use the disk space regardless.

If you're going to tape then we will need to know how many tapes you are going to be rotating, but the basics will still be the same.