The Backup Client reports it cannot login due to the storage is out of space

Have your backups stopped?  It could be due to very LOW or a complete out of disk space situation on your Backup Storage drive(s). When you notice that backup storage is getting low, or your backups have stopped and you are wondering why, you have several options on how to correct this situation.

The Backup Server periodically checks the free disk space at the backup storage drive(s).  If any of the primary storage locations drop below 1 GB of free space the Backup Server will stop the backup process and it will send you and "Out of Disk Space" email.  When this occurs you will need to free space on the backup storage drive.

To fix the low disk space at the primary storage drive you have several options:

How to replace your backup storage drive with a larger drive

When the hard drive that you are using to store your backup is full or nearly full a good solution is to replace the drive with a larger drive. 

Step 1 - Attach the large drive

The first task is to purchase a larger hard drive that you want to use and attach that drive to the computer that is running the Backup for Workgroups Backup Server.  For example if you are currently using a 1TB internal drive and want to replace this drive drive with a 2TB then you would purchase a new 2TB drive and install it inside the computer. 

The goal is to have both the original drive and the new drive accessible at the same time. You should make sure the new drive is formatted with the NTFS file system and that the new drive has a drive letter such that Windows can see the new drive as a normal drive through a drive letter.

Step 2 - Instruct Backup for Workgroups to transfer the existing backup data to the new drive.

At the Backup Server where you have just attached the larger drive, run Backup for Workgroups.

Go to the Storage Panel.

At the Storage panel press the Replace button for version 5.0 and higher or press the Move button for version 1.0 through 4.4

Backup for Workgroups will present a dialog allowing you to pick which of your existing storage paths you want to replace with the new drive.  On the left hand side of the dialog select the existing drive that you want to remove and on the right hand panel select the new drive that you want to use in place of the original drive.

When you begin the process, the backup data on the old drive will be copied to the new larger drive.  When the process completes the old drive is removed from the list of primary storage locations and Backup for Workgroups will now use the new drive in place of the original drive.

How to Add an additional storage drive to span your backup data across multiple drives

You can add more storage capacity to your Backup Storage group.  Please note that all storage devices listed in your Backup Storage Group must be online and accessible for your backups to occur. And all of them must have enough free space to hold backup data. 

In this case we will add additional storage and move some data from your full drive to the new drive to immediately free space on the drive that is nearly full.

Step 1 - Add an additional storage drive.

To add storage to your Backup Storage Group (by adding a second "spillover" drive):

  1. Go to the Backup Server > Storage panel.
  2. In the top half of the Storage Panel which is called the Backup Storage Group, press the "Add" button.
  3. At the Add Storage Device dialog, enter the path to the additional storage location.
  4. Save your changes.

Now write down the path to the very full storage drive and the path to the new empty storage location.

Step 2 - Stop the Backup for Workgroups Service

  1. At the computer running the Backup for Workgroups Serer, Right click on My Computer and select Manage.
  2. At the Computer Management windows, expand "Services and Application" and then highlight "Services".
  3. The right hand panel will now show all of the installed services. Scroll the panel on the right until you see the service named "Backup for Workgroups".
  4. Right click on the service and select Stop.

Step 3 - Move some files from the full drive to the empty drive.

Open 2 copies of Windows Explorer or go to My Computer and open the drives for the storage path.  In one window go to the storage path that is on the full storage drive and in the other windows open the storage path in the empty drive.

Under each of the two storage paths you will see a folder name "repository" open this folder named "repository" in both windows. 

In the drive that is full you will see 128 folders, each named with a 2 digit name.  Pick any of these folders at random and move it to the empty drive and place the folders contents under the same relative path. 

For example if the full drive is "F:\BFW Backup Data" and the empty drive storage location is "G:\BFW Backup Data". Then you would open two windows one showing the contents of "F:\BFW Backup Data\Repository" and the other showing the contents of ""G:\BFW Backup Data\Repository".  Lets assume you choose to move the folder named "00" from the full drive to the empty you would move the folder: "F:\BFW Backup Data\Repository\00" to the location ""G:\BFW Backup Data\Repository" thus creating the folder "G:\BFW Backup Data\Repository\00".

So the goal is to move the contents of the folder 00 from the repository folder on F: to the same relative location to the folder repository on the G: drive.  Make sure when you move the files, the files are removed from the full drive and copied to the empty in order to free space on the full drive.  So when you are complete the contents of the folder "F:\BFW Backup Data\Repository\00" is now located at "G:\BFW Backup Data\Repository\00".

Repeat the above until a few gigabytes of space is free on the full drive.

Step 4 - Restart the Backup for Workgroups Backup Service.

Repeat step 2 and choose start.

Next open the Backup for Workgroups Admin and go to the storage panel.  You should see that the list of storage locations are all listed as active.

You can now go to the backup client and resume normal backups.

How to Rebaseline a Single Backup Client

Re-baselining a Client will completely remove all of that Client's backup data from the Backup Server.  This process will free the disk space consumed by the backup files for a selected backup client. 

Note:  Deleting a Client will remove all of that Client's data from the Backup Server, this includes all of the backup history for this backup client.  You will not be able to restore past versions of files after backing.

  1. Go to the Backup Server > Clients panel.
  2. Highlight the Client you wish to re-baseline.
  3. Use the "Delete" button to remove that Client.
  4. All of of the Client's backup data will be deleted from the Backup Server.
  5. Use the "Add" button to add that same Client back again.
  6. Create the exact same Client name and password, all of the Clients preferences will remain and no reconfiguration is necessary.
  7. The next time the Backup Client logs in the Client will purge its backup history and perform a new baseline backup. 

Rebaseline ALL Backup Clients by Deleting ALL Backup Data History (Starting Over)

Follow these instructions when you want to effectively start over from scratch with your backups.  When you do this, you are going to make note of the Backup Primary Storage path, then temporarily take Backup for Workgroups offline by stopping the BFW Service (this will keep backups from running while you work on these steps); you will delete your "old" backup data; then you will restart the BFW Service.  When your next backups run, they will perform a first-time, or "baseline" backup for all of your Backup Clients.

Step 1 – Make note of the Primary Storage Path

Go to the computer that is running the Backup for Workgroups Backup Server and run Backup for Workgroups. Go to the storage panel to make note of the current location of the Primary Storage path.  If you have more than one storage location write down all of the storage location.  For example if the storage location is "G:\BFW Backup Data", then write that down.  Then close Backup for Workgroups.

Step 2 - Stop the Backup for Workgroups Service

  1. At the computer running the Backup for Workgroups Server, Right click on My Computer and select Manage.
  2. At the Computer Management windows, expand "Services and Application" and then highlight "Services".
  3. The right hand panel will now show all of the installed services. Scroll the panel on the right until you see the service named "Backup for Workgroups".
  4. Right click on the service and select Stop.

Step 3 - Delete the "old" Backup Data

Go to each location listed in Step 1 that is used as a primary storage location and delete all of the files at that location.  Be careful that if you have any files that are for any other application other than Backup for Workgroups, then do not delete those other files.  Just delete the files and all folders that are at the primary storage locations you listed in step 1 above.  For example if your backup data is stored at "G:\BFW Backup Data", then go to the folder "G:\BFW Backup Data" and delete all the files in this folder and delete all of the folders beneath this location.  Make sure that you empty the recycle bin to make sure you free the disk space consumed by these files and folders.

Step 4 - Start the Backup for Workgroups Service

Repeat Step 2 and start the service.

At this point Backup for Workgroups should detect that the Primary Backup Storage is EMPTY.  The Backup for Workgroups Server will repopulate your Backup Client Account list, preferences and license key info. As each Backup Client logs in to the Backup Server, they will be informed that their backup data has been deleted and the Backup Clients will start over by performing a new baseline backup. Note that you will not need to go to each Backup Client computer individually to do this, it will be done for you by the Backup for Workgroups Server.
 

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