Hi Ev007.
Opinions differ. I am in favor of using collections, but only for items older than 1 year. In addition, I also believe this should be used when moving the cab-files to 3rd line storage.
You need to keep in mind that a closed partition is in theory a static partition. No new data will be added. This means that if you have a succesfull backup of that partition, it is assumed ok to make a full once a week.
The advantage for backup is that you get bigger files (and less smaller ones) which probably speeds up backup. The disadvantage is that if users want an item which is in a cabfile, the cabfile needs to be extracted. also, if you run expiry on the store, this means that you have cabfiles with 'obsolete' files in them. EV will unpack and repack (uncab/cab) cab-files if they have (I believe) 15% valid dvsxx files. (ie when 85% of files in a cabfile are set to be deleted, EV will unpack that cabfile, delete the 85%, then waits to make a new cabfile with 100% valid files). I have been in environents where this is used, and have had no complaints with users about slow retrieving.
There is pro and cons. Check this article from JW3 on collections: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-collections-and-sparse-collections-work
That is a good one.
And to answer your question, yes you can enable collections on a closed partition :)
Regards. Gertjan
