Restoring from an alternate location

[Tazmir]

We have BackupExec 2010 and use iSCSI drives to backup our systems; from time-to-time, we copy backup folders from these locations to USB drive to safe archive keeping; our backups only go back to 2 weeks, and this way we can have an older backup. Once issue that I run into is when I start a restore, I could not find a way to change the default backup files path to this USB drive. Is there a Symantec document available to successfully achive what I am trying to do, e.g. what we will have to move/copy over to USB (backup folders and or catalogs), and how we can restore from that location.

[Donald_Eady]

When you say that you are copying the backups from one drive to another what exactly do you mean? Are you using the console and duplicating the set to another storage location or are you saying that you are just browsing to the storage location and copying and pasting to your usb drive location?

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You should never copy the B2D files to another location...rather create a duplicate job and duplicate the B2D files to another B2D. This maintains the catalogs and BE is aware of where the data is sitting, and allows you to do the type of restore you're currently trying to do.

As things stand BE isn't aware of this copy being done, and probably won't restore the data. You can try catalogging the B2D that contains the files you want to restore from and then try the restore, but this probably won't work either.

Thanks!

[Donald_Eady]

Agreed Agreed

Great posting CraigV thats where i was headed with my questioning..... 

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH24544

[pkh · Accepted solution]

See this document

Reasons why copying backup to disk data files is NOT recommended.

You should ALWAYS duplicate your backup sets and not copy them.

[Tazmir]

Thanks for the response, our backups are configured only to keep 2 week worth of backup (due to space issues) so is one-time-backup or duplicating an existing backup will be a solution to keep an old copy for restore purpose few months down the road?, and will a restore job be able to seek this older backup copy from its location?.

[CraigV]

...duplicating to disk is basically copying the data, through BE, from 1 location to another and maintaining catalogs.

There should be no reason to not be able to restore from tape in a couple of months time.

Thanks!