As we come across daily with this problem, I have decided create this blog so it will remain as a reference for anyone managing these types of backup devices.
Very frequently, we receive calls from Customers that, for one of the following reasons, have moved or copied the contents of their Backup to Disk folders to enother disk location or to tape:
- To have a safe backup copy of that data store.
- To free up space on a specific volume.
Although copying the contents to another location and rebuiding the Backup to Disk Folders onto the same or different disk or folder or device name is possible, it is not officially supported. Recovering the contents of a B2D Folder that have been moved from the original location is NOT the recommended way to protect the device's backup sets.
The officially supported and recommended method to backup the contents of a B2D Folder is to use DUPLICATE JOBS, to target the backup sets to another folder, or tape device.
If nevertheless it is needed to move the B2D Folder to another location, and then it is necessary to recover its contents, keep in mind that if the B2D Folder ONLY contains BKF files, this operation can be completed correctly, although again, not supported.
If the B2D Folder contains IMG subfolders, used by Backup Exec to store data mounts of GRT backups, then recovering the contents will be very difficult or jus not possible.
In summary:
- Copying the contents of a B2D Folder is not the recommended method to protect them.
- The recommended method is to use Duplicate Jobs.
- B2D Folders with only BKF files can be recovered.
- B2D Folders that include IMG subfolders may not be.
The recovery of a moved B2D Folder must follow a list of steps, that I will describe in a related article.
