rfajman

I would like to have something that, given a filename or list of filenames, would tell me in which Backup Set and Snapshot each of the files is backed up in. This could save me a lot of time playing snapshot roulette trying to find the right one. Also, it would be very nice if the results of scans of the disks and Backup Sets, were saved for later use in the session.

I guess that I don't understand, or perhaps don't remember, while Retrospect can't find files, directories, and even whole devices even when it's running on the same PC that has the files, directories, or device it's trying to access. And whether it's the client or server being backed up, nothing else seems to have any problem accessing the file, directory, or device. It seems to me that Retrospect could at a minimum give error messages that contain some understandable explanation of the problem. I'm currently using Retrospect 17.5 on Windows 10 Pro, but this has been happening for years, decades almost.

Sorry about the delay in replying. I haven't been here in quite a while. Run documents work well for this purpose, but it's necessary to set one up for each different backup. I did that and put shortcuts in my Start menu for them.

Something I've been getting for years is -1104 errors (device not ready). They happen with both server and client backups. Simply rerunning the backup fixes the problem. I don't understand how the device can not be ready when the machine is working fine, especially if it is the system disk. Any ideas? Right now I am running Retrospect 17.5 on Windows 10 Pro v2004. The message looks like this: Backing up 16 out of 25 files using block level incremental backup, storing full backups for remaining 9. 10/1/2020 4:36:08 AM: Copying: 9,347 files (53.1 GB) and 0 hard links Trouble reading files, error -1104 (device not ready) [*] --ERR-- (12504) BackupReadCloseAsync: err=-1104

Recently I've started getting -643 errors with my client (at the moment I have only one). They happen consistently with every backup to every one of my 4 local hard disk backup sets, but never with my cloud backup sets, but only the client backups, not the backups of the server PC itself. The local backup sets do get many more files (system and program files, as well as user files) than the cloud backup sets (user files only). I just installed 17.5, which made no difference. I'm not sure if there is a correlation with the upgrade to 17.0 or not. I've tried doing CHKDSK on the disks being backed up (no errors), rebuilding some catalog files, and, in one case, resetting the backup set, none of which made a difference. I'm using Windows 10 Pro v2004 on both the server and client. Here are the error messages: + Normal backup using Backup LG Gram 17 to Backup Set 1 at 9/30/2020 6:33 PM (Execution unit 1) 9/30/2020 6:33:30 PM: Finished scanning backup set data files To Backup Set Backup Set 1... - 9/30/2020 6:33:29 PM: Copying Programs Disk (C:) on LGGram17 Scanning incomplete, error -643 (not a chunk file or badly damaged) [*] lvtrScanBad: @ fileCount=393,563 folderCount=92,482 treeMemSize=137,326,204 normSpaceCount=2 spanSpaceCount=0 dirMemSize=25,333,308 - 9/30/2020 6:36:59 PM: Copying Data Disk (D:) on LGGram17 Scanning incomplete, error -643 (not a chunk file or badly damaged) [*] lvtrScanBad: @ fileCount=1,607,505 folderCount=40,915 treeMemSize=491,855,520 normSpaceCount=2 spanSpaceCount=0 dirMemSize=14,457,360 9/30/2020 6:45:26 PM: Compressing catalog file 9/30/2020 6:45:26 PM: Execution incomplete Total duration: 00:11:56 (00:11:55 idle/loading/preparing) Any thoughts?

The "WHATSIS" is a small Gigabit Ethernet switch. I'm not really clear on what your point is, but I haven't really been following this discussion here.

Are you suggesting that I open a formal support case? I don't have a support contact. I'm not sure if the limited support that is included when Retrospect is purchased is still good for me. I have 16.6 and have not asked for support since I upgraded (or long before that).

I know about run documents. It's an interesting idea, I'll give it a try.

Recently I was trying to create a disaster recovery disk with Retrospect Desktop 16.6 on Windows 10 Pro. The WinPE documentation says that if you want to have files larger than 4GB on a larger USB disk (mine was 32 GB), then you should create a 4 GB FAT32 partition first, then an NTFS partition on the rest of the drive, if you need to have files larger than 4 GB.. The first problem I ran into was that Retrospect would not accept the 4 GB partition, so I increased it to 4.25 GB, which seemed to be acceptable. But then it said that it could not use the disk, perhaps because it's GPT. It's not, it's MBR. It gave no other explanation. Then I tried making an ISO file, which went OK. Then I tried to use Rufus to put the Retrospect DR ISO file onto the USB disk. Rufus insists on changing the USB disk to a single partition. I guess I'll just give up. I don't know what I'd use the other partition for anyway, at least for nothing very big. So all FAT32 should be OK. Anyway, the USB disk is only 32 GB, so FAT32 is fine, as long as no file is larger than 4 GB. I was just trying to keep things as flexible as possible.

I've had problems with clients not found with many versions of Retrospect (most recently 16.6) currently on Windows 10 Pro Build 18363. In our small home office, I have a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet dedicated to communication among our PCs. We have pretty high speed wireless Internet access provided by the place where we live. I use static IP addresses because long ago I had problems with multicast. My setup is pretty static anyway. My problem is that occasionally the IP address, subnet mask, and default route will disappear from the Gigabit Ethernet interface. This happens both on the "server" and the clients. Finally I gave up and wrote a command file that runs in the background, periodically checks the Gigabit Ethernet interface, and reestablishes the proper configuration when necessary.

Does anyone have any idea of how many of the numerous fixes listed for v17 also apply to earlier versions of Retrospect, rather than being for bugs introduced in v17?

Yes, of course. However, the reason that I asked the question is that new features can be added that would be useful to me. For example, I am using the cloud backup that was added relatively recently. It's also possible that important bugs could be fixed.

It's not clear to me what's in Retrospect 17 for me, a simple user of the Desktop/Professional version with just two clients in my own office. I'm on 16.6 now. I think I asked the same question about 16.0 (maybe it was 15). I held off upgrading for quite a while. Eventually I did upgrade after some upgrades added things that I could use. Right now, though, I don't see it with 17.

Another small item: it seems to me that how Retrospect flags errors and warnings in the log could be improved. For example: * File "C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\DeliveryOptimization\Cache\2ac3ce7c582a3dab4663c700b7a6ee798b09349b\2a60267e790942dfdf2fe4407cee93ef8039457339704e44726bae6683da5335": didn't compare > Trouble reading files, error -519 (network communication failed) In the first message, "*" is really a yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside. In the second message, the ">" is red, but the yellow triangle stands out far more to me. Also, a warning that occurs a thousand (or whatever) times should be considered to be an error.