I use Spideroak to backup my files. A positive and a negative of Spideroak is that it saves everything you delete. It also saves versions of everything you create. This way if you delete or overwrite something by accident you have copies.
Why is this a positive and a negative?
First, if you have a document destruction policy, as you should, then the fact that Spideroak keeps everything around forever could be a problem.
Second, if you, like me, do a lot of work on videos, you will often find yourself producing and deleting large files. Spideroak thinks I am running out of space somewhat frequently. This means I need to go into the deleted files portion of Spideroak and delete the deleted files. It isn’t a very big deal, but if you run out of space and constantly find Spideroak telling you to upgrade, it can be annoying if you don’t know how to resolve the issue.
Here’s how.
1. Launch the Spideroak application on your computer.
2. Click on View
3. Click on the recycle bin (it will also read deleted items) next to the appropriate computer.
4. Double check to make sure you have clicked on the right thing. Don’t click on the name of the computer. Be sure you click on the recycle bin. It will be a disaster if you delete the wrong thing, like your entire backup.
5. Click on the folder or file you want to delete. If you want to delete everything it will be a file drive, such a c:/
You may delete specific files instead of everything, if you so desire. Use the Spideroak application to navigate to the file(s) just the way you would on your computer. The file tree (how your computer files are laid out) look the same in Spideroak as they do on your computer.
6. Click on the red X. If you cannot click on the X it means Spideroak is working on something else. Just wait until it is finished and then go ahead and delete your files.
7. Click yes when you are asked to confirm.
That’s it. Space restored. Deleted files permanently gone. But remember, versions of files that you haven’t deleted still remain, so if you have a document destruction policy about versions of files, please be aware of this issue.
