Moving your backups to a bigger drive

When the backup drive fills up, or you buy a bigger one, point the job at the new drive. There are two safe ways. Both keep every restore point you already have.

This article is about drives and network shares. A cloud job's bucket stays where it is.

Before you start#

• Plug in the new drive and check it shows in File Explorer.
• Use NTFS or exFAT for a drive that will hold large files: FAT32 cannot hold a file over 4 GB.
• Decide which way suits you:

Way 1: Start fresh#

1. On the Jobs page, click Edit on the job.
2. On the Where step, click the new drive. The folder becomes <new drive>\Backups\<job name>.
3. Click Save changes.

The next run is a full backup on the new drive, and the job's schedule carries on from there.

Keep the old drive. Its sets stay listed under the job in Restore and Find, marked Drive not connected while it is unplugged. Plug it in to restore from them. The job no longer removes old sets there, so delete that folder yourself when you no longer need its history.

Way 2: Copy the job's folder#

1. Click the job's On switch to turn it off, so no run starts while you copy.
2. In File Explorer, copy the job's whole folder to the new drive: for example H:\Backups\Documents & Desktop to J:\Backups\Documents & Desktop. Copy the folder with everything in it: every set folder, the db folder and gbm-ai.json. An incremental point needs the sets before it.
3. On the Jobs page, click Edit on the job.
4. On the Where step, click the new drive. Check that Folder is the copied folder; use Browse… if it is not.
5. Wait for the test line, or click Test destination. It should say, for example, Reachable and writable (12 ms) · 30 existing sets. The count shows the copy was found.
6. Click Save changes.
7. Switch the job On again.

Wizard step 2 - the copied sets found on a new drive

With the copied folder in place, the job summary shows no full-backup warning: the next run builds on the newest copied set, and retention treats the copied sets as the job's own, as before.

Check the move#

1. Open Restore and pick the job. Its points in time are listed from the new drive.
2. Restore a few files from the newest point to a spare folder, and open them.
3. In Find, click Rebuild index so Find reads the sets on the new drive now. (It also catches up the next time the background agent starts.)

GBM AI has no button that re-checks sets already written; a test restore is the check. Keep the old drive until it passes. After that, reuse it, or keep it in a drawer as a second copy.

A new drive under the old letter#

The job knows its drive by the drive's serial number, not its letter. If you give the new drive the old drive's letter, still open the job and click Save changes. Until you do, its runs stop with E-DEST-004 rather than write to a drive the job does not know.

Related articles#

• Choosing where backups go
• Editing a job
• Retention: how long backups are kept
• The file index, and rebuilding it