Moving the Backup Storage to a New Location

Use the "Move" button under the Backup for Workgroups > Storage panel when you would like to move files from one storage device to another.

Typically, this feature will come in handy if you want to change your storage configuration or you want to move your storage from a small device to a larger storage device.

Why would I want to use the Move button?
You are going to want to use the Move button when you have purchased new equipment that is going to replace old equipment in your Backup Storage Group. The key word here is that you are retiring equipment and that you do not want this equipment to be a part of your Backup Storage Group anymore.

What is the difference between the Move and Combine Buttons?

• When you use the "Move" button, your backup data is copied from the old storage device to the new storage device and you plan to retire the old storage device. In other words, when you use the Move feature, you are replacing the old storage with new storage. When the Move process completes, the total number of storage devices is the same. If you had one storage device before you used the Move feature, you have one storage device after the Move, and so on.
• The "Combine" button allows you to reduce the number of storage devices that are in use by taking the contents of two storage devices and combining them onto one storage device. Please note that you will need enough storage space on one device to hold all the backup data from two devices when you use the Combine feature. The primary difference between the Move and Combine features is that after a Combine occurs, you will have one less storage device in your Backup Storage Group. So, if you want to reduce the number of storage devices being used and you have enough space to accommodate a combination, you will have one less device when finished.

To move your data from one storage device to a new storage device:

1. Go to the Backup Server > Storage panel
2. Highlight the name of the storage location in the Backup Storage Group that you would like to move
3. Press the "Move" button that is in the top half of the Storage Panel (which is called the Backup Storage Group)
4. At the Move Storage Location dialog, enter the path to new storage location. For example, you can move the contents of the F:\BackupForWorkgroupsRepository to a new storage device located on the J: Drive

After designating the location of the new storage drive, you can press the "Begin Move" button to being the process.  Backup for Workgroups will stop the Backup Server service, move the files, then restart the service using the path of the new storage location.

Below is a list of verification and retention options you can add to the move process, should you desire:

1. Verify each file after it is moved (optional) 
   
   You can verify each file after each has been moved. The verification process first copies the file from the existing storage location to the new storage location, then reads the file back from the new location and compares it to the original file. You should consider using this verification feature if your connection to the new storage device goes outside your company network. In other words, if you are moving storage over the Internet, you may want to consider checking this option. Note, it will almost double the time for the moving process, but in the event that data loss is experienced, the move process will catch this and correct it. Generally, if you are moving data within your own company network, you do not need to use the verification option.
2. Keep a copy or delete the original files after they are moved (optional) 
   
   After the file is moved from the old storage location to the new storage location, you can choose to keep the files or you can delete them after they have been moved. If you choose to keep a copy of the original files, the files will be moved to the folder called “MovedBackupFiles” under the old storage location you specified above. The purpose of moving the files to this predesignated folder is so that you can keep a copy of the files outside of the active storage location. If you choose to delete the original files after they are moved, each original file is deleted immediately after it has been moved to the new location. This process frees up space at the original location in tandem with the moving process
3. Throttle (optional) 
   
   The goal of using the throttle options is to give you control over the speed at which the moving process occurs. By default, the moving process will consume as much bandwidth as available between the Backup Server and the storage device. If you want to prevent the moving process from consuming all the available bandwidth, use the “Limit the transfer speed” option and specify a rate of your choosing. For example, you need to move the backup data storage from an internal hard drive to a recently purchased external NAS device. During the move process, you do not want all the bandwidth used by moving process, because you are going to start the move process while employees will be using your company network and NAS device. In an effort to allow the employee traffic and move traffic to coexist, you may want to “throttle” the move process to a few thousand KB (a few MB) per second