Catalog problems

[Mark_B]

Hi, and thanks for reading my post.

 

I am routinely getting "BackupMyPC has detected an error in the catalog. ..."

 

There is no (real) choice but to let it fix the error, but the opportunity for an unattended overnight backup is gone.

 

I have many installs of the product (I am a reseller and service provider). I have noticed a pattern. One catalog error will come up, let it be fixed, then cancel the backup so the user can get to work. Things will be OK for a while, but the frequency of catalog errors will increase. Finally, there will be a catalog error every day.

 

In the old days Stomp suggested renaming the catalog folder, but that is not helping here.

 

Suggestions?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

[marlinsinger]

QUOTE (Mark_B @ Jun 14 2007, 02:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi, and thanks for reading my post.

 

I am routinely getting "BackupMyPC has detected an error in the catalog. ..."

 

There is no (real) choice but to let it fix the error, but the opportunity for an unattended overnight backup is gone.

 

I have many installs of the product (I am a reseller and service provider). I have noticed a pattern. One catalog error will come up, let it be fixed, then cancel the backup so the user can get to work. Things will be OK for a while, but the frequency of catalog errors will increase. Finally, there will be a catalog error every day.

 

In the old days Stomp suggested renaming the catalog folder, but that is not helping here.

 

Suggestions?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

 

When you rename the catalog, do you do just the one catalog or the whole directory? If just the single catalog, try moving the whole catalogs directory somewhere else. It should build a new one when you start up BUMP the next time.

How large are the catalog files? I am wondering if entries are never deleted and the catalog never compressed is possibly causing the problem. Currently the largest catalog file on my system is 11-12mb, but I never keep more than 3 generations of my backups and their catalog entries, and when I delete entries, I do a compress. So far I can say I have never had problems with the catalog except for my accidentally deleting them. You can still restore files, even without a catalog. As long as you have the media or file, you can use it to create a temporary catalog to restore from. Just use device view in the restore window and point to whatever device/file you want to restore from.

[Mark_B]

When you rename the catalog, do you do just the one catalog or the whole directory? If just the single catalog, try moving the whole catalogs directory somewhere else. It should build a new one when you start up BUMP the next time.

How large are the catalog files? I am wondering if entries are never deleted and the catalog never compressed is possibly causing the problem. Currently the largest catalog file on my system is 11-12mb, but I never keep more than 3 generations of my backups and their catalog entries, and when I delete entries, I do a compress. So far I can say I have never had problems with the catalog except for my accidentally deleting them. You can still restore files, even without a catalog. As long as you have the media or file, you can use it to create a temporary catalog to restore from. Just use device view in the restore window and point to whatever device/file you want to restore from.

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

When I rename, I am renaming the entire subdirectory to "catalogs.old" or similar.

 

The size of one sample catalog directory is 144 Mb. Others will have different sizes.

 

I routinely set the client up to have 5 to 7 backups saved at a time, one for each day of the working week. Some clients will backup as little as 5 to 10 Gb of data, others will backup 150 Gb of data per session. I do not know for sure, but I assume the size of the catalog is a function of the number of files backed up (not the size of the files).

 

I am aware of the "restore without catalog" idea and like it.

 

I do not know how to supress the creation of catalogs (but would love to) and am not prepared to teach clients to delete catalogs manually. I don't think that would be appropriate behavior for most end-users. I am not familiar with the "compress" you mentioned.

 

Interesting that I am having the problem all over the place & you are not having problems at all. I do have quite a few installations. It may have something to do with your "catalog management" and my lack of it.

 

Any others with similar experience?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

[marlinsinger]

QUOTE (Mark_B @ Jun 14 2007, 05:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for your reply.

 

When I rename, I am renaming the entire subdirectory to "catalogs.old" or similar.

 

The size of one sample catalog directory is 144 Mb. Others will have different sizes.

 

I routinely set the client up to have 5 to 7 backups saved at a time, one for each day of the working week. Some clients will backup as little as 5 to 10 Gb of data, others will backup 150 Gb of data per session. I do not know for sure, but I assume the size of the catalog is a function of the number of files backed up (not the size of the files).

 

I am aware of the "restore without catalog" idea and like it.

 

I do not know how to supress the creation of catalogs (but would love to) and am not prepared to teach clients to delete catalogs manually. I don't think that would be appropriate behavior for most end-users. I am not familiar with the "compress" you mentioned.

 

Interesting that I am having the problem all over the place & you are not having problems at all. I do have quite a few installations. It may have something to do with your "catalog management" and my lack of it.

 

Any others with similar experience?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

 

The compress is part of the catalog clean up process under tool. You do have be under a backup or restore window for the catalog clean up option to be available. Also, I should have said compact, not compress. I manually remove catalog entries, then hit the compress button. It does take a little while to do. Usually on my pc about 3-4 minutes.

I am just wondering, especially since you stated you still had problems after starting fresh, if there is not a registry entry being corrupted.