Deleting recovery points within a set

The base recovery point and all of its incrementals that are taken up to a point-in-time are required whenever you want restore to a specific point in time. Depending on the duration of the backup, there can be a large accumulation of incremental recovery points. You can reduce the amount of needed storage space for the recovery point set by deleting multiple incremental recovery points within a set. (The base recovery point and the first and last incremental recovery points are required for a restore and cannot be deleted.) Deleting recovery points within a set consolidates the data only, it does not delete data.

If the backup you defined includes the assignment of a password (as specified in the Advanced Options dialog box of the Assign a New Backup Job Wizard), you may be prompted to type the password to complete the operation.

Creating a backup job

Depending on the number of incremental recovery points that you delete, additional memory may be required to restore or browse a consolidated incremental recovery point. Additionally, when you delete recovery points over the network, it may significantly increase network traffic.

Note:
Be careful about which recovery points you choose to delete. For example, suppose a user created a new document that was captured in the third recovery point in your recovery points list. The remote user deletes the file accidentally, at which time the fourth recovery point captures the deletion. The user could lose the file permanently if you delete the third recovery point.

About managing recovery points

You can also delete an entire recovery point set.

See Deleting a recovery point set.

To delete recovery points within a set

1. On the Manage page, do one of the following:

   • In the right pane, on the Computers tab, select one or more computer names in the table.

   • In the right pane, on the Groups tab, select one or more group names in the table.

   • In the right pane, on the Destinations tab, select one or more destination paths in the table.

2. On the Tasks menu, click Recovery Points > Delete.

3. From the list, select the backup destination where the recovery points reside.

   This step is only necessary if you selected multiple names or paths from a tab in Step 1.

4. In the list box, select a computer that has three or more recovery points in the list box.

5. On the toolbar, click Delete Points.

6. Do one of the following:

   • In the list box, select a recovery point set that contains three or more recovery points.

   • In the list box, select a computer name that contains three or more recovery points.

7. Do one of the following:

   • To delete all but the first and the last recovery point in the set, click Automatic, and then click OK.

   • Click Manual, and then click OK. Select the recovery points that you want to delete from the list, and then click Delete.

     The first and the last recovery points in the set cannot be deleted.

   • Click Delete all recovery points in the set, and then click OK. To confirm the deletion, click Yes.