How to reduce your backup cycles
Backup Cycles mean the number of copies of your files that we hold on our servers. So if you have a backup cycle of 30 set up and it's backing up once a day, we will keep 30 back copies of your files for you.
Having a backup cycle of more than 1 allows you the flexibility to go back to a previous date to recover a file that you may require. This is useful if you don't realise you have lost a document for a few days, you can go back to the day you need and restore it.
Having a backup cycle of more than 1 should not increase your storage with us, as TOTALcomputerbackup only backs up new or changed files. However if you are backing up continually growing files such as 'emails' or databases' we suggest that these are backed up by themselves (as a separate definition) and the Backup Cycle is reduced to 5. This is because databases and emails are single files, which tend to increase in size each time they are backed up.
If you would like to reduce the Backup Cycles for your 'database or email' definitions, please carry out these instructions:
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Open the TOTALcomputerbackup software by double clicking the padlock icon on your desktop.
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Left click on the definition you wish to reduce so it's highlighted.
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Overwrite the figure currently in your 'Backup Cycle' at the bottom right of the screen and reduce.
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Click SAVE
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Repeat for any additional definitions you wish to reduce
IMPORTANT: A backup cycle of 1 will simply overwrite the previous backup each time. TOTALcomputerbackup recommend definitions have a minimum backup cycle of 5, although customers are free to set this as they wish.