by Colin Fraser.
I have no idea how the IT guys set up backups or how they handle this issue, I've not been a part of that. We actually don't delete courses quickly, the end Semester 1, all semester long courses are reset, then archived. At the end of each year, all courses are reset and archived to the same Category, e.g. Archive2019. (Our school year is the same as the calendar year in Oz.) Those courses to be repeated the next year are brought forward, those courses not repeating, and there are always a few, remain for future reference, or as resources for others to use. All teachers have access to all courses in the archive, they are set as non-editing Teachers at the Category level, I was lazy when setting it up. At the end of each year, the earliest Archive we have is deleted entirely so a course remains within the Moodle for 5 years. Works for our need.