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Basic question (sorry!) Backup archive data not files

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Hi all, apologies if this is a basic question and I'm not quite sure how to phrase it!

I am running Acronis Backup and Recovery 11 on a Win 7 machine and backing up video files onto a Half Height Quantum DLTo4 tape drive.

The system all works fine but I notice that the Archives (not the files but the shell telling the machine where the files are) are all stored somewhere on my C: drive.

I'd like to make a backup of these Archives (again - not the video files that are on the tapes but the description of where those files are) so if my machine dies I can import those archives into a new version of Acronis and it will be able to browse the tapes.

I've tried doing an export of the Archives but the system starts calling for the tapes which it should not need since all I want to backup this time is the 'description' of the data, not the data on the tapes.

Does this make any sense?

Thanks in advance

Alex

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Hi, Alex!

Not sure what exactly you mean by Archives being stored on C: drive, but I guess you mean arsm.sqlite file which defines the contents of the tapes and archives residing on them. If so, you can just pick up that file and back it up to some network folder. By the way, I guess the contents of tapes are recoverable from the tapes themselves - by rescan/inventory operations. Will check and get you updated.

Hi Alex, I'm also not too sure what it is you are after but if you are wanting to restore indervidual files from your tape backup this is currently not possible. You need to recover the entire archive at which stage you can then recover files from within or browse the archive and copy/past the required files out...etc..

If you are after a solution to recover files from your tape backup archives, just wait a little longer as something is just around the corner and will be available for you very soon! (Just make sure your Acronis maintenance is up to date)..

If you mean you are wanting to catalog the contents of the tape to see what video files are included on that tape I would also suggest waiting a short period for the next ABR update as this should include the required feature.

If the points above are not what you are after please could you provide some additional details with screenshots if possible so we can get a better understanding of your needs to see if the forum community can recommend a solution.

Hi Guys, thanks for the responses.

Yes, Venticello, that's exactly what I mean, where will I find the arsm.sqlite file?

Datastor, sorry to disagree but I can actually recover individual files from the tape, not the whole archive - this was the main selling point of Acronis for me as other packages can only recover the entire archive as you say, I was very impressed with this but also gobsmacked when I found that the norm was recovering entire archives!

I won't be updating my Acronis though as it took 6 months to get this combination of Win 7, an LTO4 tape drive and some software to work and I daren't touch it now!

I use the tape backup to store P2 media shot on our cameras, and now AVCHD, and use tapes to back up since they are 'guaranteed' for 30 years and much cheaper than stacks of raided hard drives which have failed in much less time.

Hi Alex,
The file I am talking about resides in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\ARSM\Database" under Win2K3 and C:\ProgramData\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\ARSM\Database under Vista+. This file contains info on your tapes and archives residing on them. So, ideally, if you restore it on a cleanly installed machine (+Acronis Backup and Recovery Agent for Windows), list of your tapes and archives on them should be made available to you.

Hi Alex

Thanks for the restore.. Just to expand on what I meant so others can also benefit if needed:

If you are running ABR11 and performing a full system backups (eg, Disk level backups to tape) you can only recover the archive from the tape (entire backup file)... However if you are performing a file level backup (eg, selecting what folders to backups and not including the entire volume), you can then restore individual files from tape as mentioned.

ABR11.5 has since been released and with this new version you are now able to recover individual files from both a disk backup or a file level backup as before.

If you move to full system backups (disk level) you might be very interested in looking at ABR11.5, Another thing to keep in mind is disk/volume level backups are also generally faster than file level backups as well as giving you much better system protection in the event of disk or OS failure.

Hope some of this details explain a little better... All the best!

I guess you meant "now" and not "not", am I right to say so? (:

Datastor Australia wrote:

ABR11.5 has since been released and with this new version you are not able to recover individual files from both a disk backup or a file level backup as before.

Hi Emil

You are correct, sorry for that typo.

Just to be clear, "with ABR11.5 you are NOW able to recover individual files from both disk/volume and file backups that are saved on a tape"

Hope it helps and if this is a feature you can benefit from it might be worth checking into the new ABR11.5 build.

All the best!