Patent ID: 8463753

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, the method comprising: creating a full backup of data elements; creating a plurality of incremental backups of the data elements; storing the created full backup and the created incremental backups to at least one removable storage media; accessing the full backup and the incremental backups via the at least one removable storage media device, wherein the incremental backups comprise data elements that have been modified since creation of the full backup; and managing retention of data files stored on the at least one removable storage media device to prevent overwrites of the full backup and the incremental backups while the full backup and incremental backups are within defined periods of retention, wherein the data files comprise the full backup and the incremental backups, wherein the managing includes — accessing an aging preference for each of the data files, wherein the aging preference defines the periods of retention for each of the data files for the incremental backups and the full backup, retrieving data indicating dates of creation of the data files for the incremental backups or the full backup; comparing the retrieved data with the accessed aging preference; determining if the dates of creation of the data files for the incremental backups or the full backup exceed the period of retention based on the comparison; and allocating the at least one removable storage media device to a set of media devices after all of the incremental and full backups exceed the period of retention, wherein the set of media devices includes a set of removable storage media devices dedicated to be overwritten.