Is original backup data always safe?

[TRMUpstage]

Hi,
Maybe this is a dumb question but I got bit recently by my previous backup plan (sync to a file server). some files were accidentally deleted and on the next backup, my older backup data was removed from the file server as well due to it being set to mirror. So, I'm not starting to use Veeam Endpoint Backup on desktop machines and I use Veeam B&R on our VMs. My question is this.
After making the initial backup, will I forever be able to go back to all the data from that first backup or is it overwritten at some point? I wonder that about B&R as well when the retention is set to 14 days, does the original data get overwritten after 14 days or just the last full gets rewritten? I looked for videos that could explain this but I struck out. I know there must be a paper on this somewhere.

Thanks for the help.

[JaxIsland7575]

Tom,
The full backup is not "overwritten" technically but it is injected with the oldest incremental to maintain your retention policy. What this means is if you set your retention to 14, then once the 15th incremental runs, the oldest incremental will be injected into the full backup to bring your restore points up to 14 to comply with your retention policy setting. There is some more information here on Backup Retention

Also, the backup retention policy counts backups not days. So if you set your retention to 14 take 3 backups, then turn your computer off for 15 days, when you run your next backup it would be restore point #4 and not inject the full or remove any incrementals until you created your 15th restore point, which then would inject the oldest and move the full forward. This is called the Forever Forward Incremental method.

If you have any other questions please ask!

Cheers!

[TRMUpstage]

Thank you very much! That explains it clearly to me. I was worried about losing data again. I can rest easier now. Thanks!

[JaxIsland7575]

Great, glad it helped!

Cheers!