Certain HFS backup service routine tests are performed on a daily or weekly schedule. The outcome of these tests will result in emails being sent to some individuals. Upon receipt of these emails, the user will normally have an action to perform.
Why have I received this email?
You have received this email because you exceeded one of the limits set for the Storage Protect backup service. The email will specify which of the two possible limits has been breached:
- Backup duration limit
Backups running for many hours (the exact number depends on the service but will be shown in the email) are automatically cancelled.
- Slow transfer speed
Backups transferring data at a very slow rate (under an average of 10kB/s for an hour) are automatically cancelled.
When will I receive this email?
You will generally receive this email immediately after breaching a limit.
Action required
If your node exceeded the backup duration limit then it may be that you were transferring a very large amount of data. Alternatively, as is the case if your node exceeded the slow transfer limit, it may be that there is a problem with backing up your machine. General advice would be to review your filespaces in the HFS Backup Services Portal and exclude any drives you don’t intend to back up. It's important to note that Storage Protect automatically backs up all drives by default.
Why have I received this email?
You have received this email because a Storage Protect node registered in your name:
- MISSED its backup schedule.
- FAILED its scheduled backup while backing up.
- SEVERED its scheduled backup before it could complete.
When will I receive this email?
You will generally receive this email in the morning after the night when your backup was scheduled to run.
Action required
If you do not wish to use scheduled backups, then please use this email as a reminder to run a manual backup. Please note that if you wish, you can also disable scheduled backups for your node. Otherwise, please troubleshoot the MISSED/FAILED/SEVERED backups.
Why have I received this email?
This email notifies you that the data on a Storage Protect node, for which you are the contact, has not been updated in several weeks. This email may refer to a whole system or just a particular drive/partition within a system.
Such emails warn about two different types of issue:
- Node not being backed up
No data has been received at all for your computer since the date specified.
-
Filespaces not being backed up
No data has been received for one or more of your computer's filespaces since the date specified. Filespaces typically represent separate disks or partitions on your computer. In Windows these might be C: and D:, which are backed up under the names \\machinename\c$, \\machinename\d$ (the latter format is known as the UNC path). On a Mac, the main drive is referred to as /, and extra drives have the name /Volumes/Name.
When will I receive this email?
- "HFS Storage Protect backup reminder": no backup for four weeks
You will receive a warning message if your system or part of your system has not backed up for four weeks.
- "Warning: HFS Storage Protect backup reminder - impending data deletion": no backup for ten weeks
You will receive a warning about imminent data deletion if your system or part of your system has not backed up for ten weeks. At this stage you will be told that you have 28 days more in which to run a backup.
- "Final warning: HFS Storage Protect backups are about to be deleted": seven days left
You will receive a final warning when your computer or data is seven days from deletion. Then, if no action is taken within the next seven days, the backed up data will be deleted.
Action required
Actions will depend on whether it is the node, the file spaces, or both that are being reported on. Both may be listed in the same email.
- Node (computer) not being backed up
If the email which you received contains a paragraph that begins These nodes have not used the HFS Storage Protect service as shown below, this means that the node has not backed up at all since the date specified.
These nodes (computers) have not used the HFS Storage Protect service for over 4 weeks. They won't be deleted yet but we encourage you to back them up! Node name Last accessed ----------------- ------------- MYPC.IT 2022-04-09
If the node is no longer required or no longer exists, please deregister it and remove the Storage Protect software.
Otherwise, if possible please attempt a manual backup across all partitions required.
If the manual backup is successful and you wish to use scheduled backups, please troubleshoot the failed scheduled backups.
If the manual backup is unsuccessful then you should search for the error that you see on our knowledgebase.
If the problem persists then please contact hfs@ox.ac.uk.
If you are unable to run a backup for reasons such as you are out of Oxford or away on leave, please contact hfs@ox.ac.uk to ask for your data to be retained until you return.
- Filespaces not being backed up
If the email which you received contains a paragraph that begins The backups of these individual filespaces have not been updated, this means that your machine has been connecting to the Storage Protect server but a particular filespace (drive or partition) has not been updated.
WARNING: The backups of these individual filespaces have not been
updated for over 10 weeks. If they are not updated in the next 28 days
these filespaces will be DELETED.
(Note: the node itself won't be deleted unless explicitly stated in
this e-mail or in previous emails.)
Filespace name Node name Last accessed
----------------- ----------------- -------------
C: on MYPC MYPC.IT 2022-04-09
E: on MYPC MYPC.IT 2022-03-30
Firstly check if the filespace listed was not backed up by accident - it may have been an external disk drive that was only plugged in once and that therefore you did not mean to back up. For example, in the case given above, C: and E: were not last backed up on the same date, so perhaps E: was only backed up as a one-off by accident. If this is the case then please inform us via hfs@ox.ac.uk to delete the particular partition from the specified node.
Alternatively it may be that your machine, or a drive, has been renamed. In Windows, a renamed machine will cause a resend of data under a new name: the backup software will see C: on NEW-MACHINE-NAME and will back it up, even if the data is identical to that already backed up as C: on OLD-MACHINE-NAME (you can check the filespaces currently held for your account in the HFS Backup Services Portal). In this case too, please inform us via hfs@ox.ac.uk to delete the partition from the node.
If the filespace is legitimate and you expected it to be backed up by the scheduled backups then firstly perform a manual backup across all partitions required.
If the manual backup is successful and you wish to use scheduled backups, please troubleshoot the failed scheduled backups.
If the manual backup is unsuccessful then you should search for the error that you see on our knowledgebase.
If the problem persists then please contact hfs@ox.ac.uk.
If you are unable to run a backup for reasons such as you are out of Oxford or away on leave, please contact hfs@ox.ac.uk to ask for your data to be retained until you return.
Why have I received this email?
You have received this email because you are the registered contact for a Storage Protect node that has no data backed up even though it has connected to the Storage Protect server in the last month.
When will I receive this email?
You will receive this email once a week whilst you are the contact for one or more Storage Protect nodes that is/are empty. A node can be empty either because it has never been used, or because its contents were deleted after it was left unused for over 90 days.
Action required
If you wish to resume backing up, then how you proceed depends on whether your empty node is unlocked and usable or locked. This will be mentioned in the email that you receive from us. Alternatively, you may wish to stop using the service. For each of these situations.
- If your account is not locked:
If the e-mail that you receive asks you to run a backup, then you may fix this problem by running a manual backup at any time.
Additionally you may wish to run scheduled backups. The e-mail which you receive from us will tell you if you already have a scheduled backup slot.
- If the e-mail states that you have no scheduled backup slot, then you need to add one for scheduled backups to run. For how to add a schedule slot, see our page on adding and removing backup schedules.
- Once you have checked the day and time of your backup schedule, you need to ensure that your machine is left on for scheduled backups.
- If your account is locked:
If the e-mail that you receive states that your node is locked, then you need to contact hfs@ox.ac.uk so that your account can be unlocked.
- If you no longer wish to use the HFS Storage Protect backup service:
Please remove the backup software and deregister your account.
