I would like to use QRecall to archive the contents of many drives I have accumulated over the years.

I will be using a Retina Macbook Pro with a 2.7 Ghz Intel Core i7 processor and 16 GB RAM.
The archive will be on a 4TB external drive via USB3.

I will attach each of the drives to my MBP and capture them interactively, one at a time.

I want to set QRecall settings such that the searches will be as fast as possible (considering that I have 16 GB RAM).

I want to be able to perform the following searches:
1. Search across ALL drives using the most recent layer of each (i.e. the most recent capture of each drive which will be in different QRecall layers)
2. Search across ALL drives using ALL layers so that I can find deleted and modified files
3. Search across one or more drives using the most recent layer of each
4. Search across one or more drives using ALL layers so that I can find deleted files

How would you suggest I go about achieving the above goals (QRecall settings, Archive settings, capture workflow and search workflow)?

James,

After updating my production copy of Qrecall to the latest beta (1.2.0 Beta 6) one of my archives got corrupted. I'm not sure if it is directly related or just a coincidence.

During the required "repair" operation I have received multiple "Transient data read error; re-reading the same data was successful" errors.

Do you automatically re-write the data to a new location on disk to prevent future transient data read errors? If not, is there an option to force you to as those areas on disk are not most likely to go bad so I would like to have the data relocated to a safer place.

Regards,
Wayne

James Bucanek wrote:I'm working on a new "Keep Last Version" feature that will preserve the last version of a deleted file (limited to some user-defined amount of time). I think that will give you what you're looking for.

As long as you have an option to specify an infinite amount of time, that would fit my needs

Wayne

Hi James

Currently the "merge" operation will remove files that only exist in the older layer.

There are times when I would like to merge two layers preserving those files (e.g. only remove the older version of files that exist in both layers).

Regards,
Wayne

James Bucanek wrote:So now you know.

Thanks for the description. Now it makes sense why it would be "difficult". I would still love to have the feature though!

In the mean time, you can set the search options to "Only show matching files", enter you search string, then start moving the layer shade backwards (Command-up arrow). The lost file should appear pretty quickly.

That's exactly how I do it now but when you have > 50 layers, it isn't so "quickly"

It would be nice to have an option to automatically open all disclosures to show the matching files rather than having to do so by hand which can take awhile.

Even better, it would be nice to have an option that shows the filename in 1 column and the path in another column so one doesn't have to deal with the disclosures at all during a search.

Regards,
Wayne

Hi James,

At times I need to search for a file that is no longer on my hard drive (I may have deleted it days, weeks or months ago). Is there a way to search for that file across all layers?

Regards,
Wayne

I didn't think about merging of layers. That would complicate things just a little

A "capture log" would be a good compromise.

Wayne

I would guess that you currently have a layer index that has an entry for each file in that layer. Assuming that to be true, it would seem that "Delete Item" for just one layer would only entail removing the appropriate file entry from that layer rather than removing it from all layers.

I must be missing something here. Would you explain why removing a file entry from one layer would be "difficult to implement."?

Hi James.

Currently "Delete item" deletes the item from all layers of the archive.

There are times I would like to selectively delete an item from just one or more layers in the archive.

For example, I may have a large VM and to save space, I would like to delete older versions of the VM while preserving newer ones.

Regards,
Wayne

Hi James.

Currently Qrecall has columns for: Layer, Date, Size and Items.

I would like to have the ability to have columns for the information contained in the "Captured n items, n KB (n% duplicate)" section of the log file.

For example, I would like to add columns for: Captured, Written, Duplicate, Files, Folders and Rate.

It would also be nice to have a comments field to describe the reason for the capture (e.g. "Before applying Mac OS X 10.5.8 update"). This would also be a column field.

If you feel this would be too much information out-of-the-box, then an option to turn it on could be added.

Regards,
Wayne