laternser

Did you know you can use Blu-Ray media with Retrospect? I didn't. Seems to be Windows only. Retrospect advertising lists only CD / DVD for Optical Media. Storage Device Table: http://www.retrospect.com/en/devices?utf8=%E2%9C%93&manufacturers=&interfaces=&media_types=Blu-ray&commit=Search The above url produces the following table which shows Blu-Ray media for Retrospect Windows. Product Name Manufacturer Interface Media types Windows Date _____________________________________________________________________ Panasonic SW-5582 Panasonic ATAPI Blu-ray Qualified - Panasonic SW-5583 Panasonic Serial-ATA Blu-ray Qualified - Panasonic SW-5584 Panasonic Serial-ATA Blu-ray Qualified - Plextor PX-B900A Plextor ATAPI Blu-ray Qualified - I have two new LG WH14NS40 that show up on "Storage Devices" as"BD-RE Wh14NS40" but do not allow device configuration .... With BD-R or DVD+R. I have not tried BD-RE. These are "Devices visible using NT Passthrough...." The Retrospect manual suggests that any passthrough device could be used with Retrospect. Blu-Ray is quite afforable. The LG Drives are popular and inexpensive. I purchased mine from Newegg for $38 each. Verbatim 10 pack of BD-R single layer 25GB media was just a bit over $10 (for 10). I have not found any indication of anyone having success with Blu-Ray. Have you used Blu-Ray? Help? - laternser

Retrospect 9.5.3.103 Use Blu-Ray Drives - to backup to DVD+R or DVD+RW media? My LG Blu-Ray Drive (Shows as "HL-DT-ST-BD-RE WH14NS40" in Configure > Devices) The LG Drive will write to Blu-Ray BD-RE/BD-R etc. The drive also writes DVD's (DVD+RW or DVD+R etc). Apparently, because this is a Blu-Ray drive, Retrospect won't let you use this for DVD optical backup. Has anyone managed to use any Blu-Ray drive to burn DVD backups? Retrospect does not support Blu-Ray media for backup. Not sure why. Probably because Retrospect uses proprietary formats for writing to optical media and they have not been willing to spend the effort (money) to create a format for Blu-Ray. With a limited number of Sata connections in a computer, it would be very nice to be able to use this drive. == Why optical media? =============== Optical media, for me at least, has been very reliable. I use DVD+R media or DVD+RW media (never erased or reused!) I have optical media now over 20 years old that has not given me any errors. None of my Retrospect backups (made as far back as at least 2006) has given even one error on restores. At least I can keep optical media offsite, under my control, and pay no storage fee. I have perhaps 5 file storage boxes with optical media (thousands of disks). Stick with Verbatim DVD+R media made in Taiwan. Note: Panasonic Blu-Ray Media (BD-R) has passed tests (and is certified) indicating better than 20 years of reliable storage. But I am not trying to backup to Blu-Ray. I want to use a Blu-Ray Drive in DVD+R mode. - laternser

The release of Retrospect 9.0.1(110) has solved the issue of incremental backup selecting all files instead of just changed files when backing up to flash media. What a relief. I have not found any bugs or experienced any problems with this release. I can recreate catalogs from prior releases and restore prior releases (like 6.5). But I would again suggest and stress that the catalogs be 'Copied' (not backed up in a compressed mode) to removable media (a flash drive or optical drive). This is especially important for data sets on optical media. The time spent to recreate a catalog is substantial. Retrospect is still the best software I have found to protect the time investment in configuring a system. Use removable media like standard dvd (Verbatim high quality ... not the low end stuff purchased in your local store) ... or m-disc media. Don't rely on an on-line hard drive. I once serviced an Architectural company that had every system wiped by a cleaning staff with a floor machine with an excessive magnetic field. They had nothing left. I serviced an Industrial company whose building was hit by lightning on a gutter. Lost every computer in the place. I have now tested a stack of 9 year old optical media that has restored flawlessly with 9.0.1. Not found a failure yet. If you own Retrospect ... I recommend an upgrade .... the modest cost is worth it. ---- a happy camper

Retrospect has been my mainstay defense against the catastrophe of data loss for around a decade. Well over 1000 optical disks stored in multiple legal size boxes ... never a failure, file corruption, or accidental erasure where Retrospect did not save me. Store data in fireproof file plus offsite. Retrospect Rule number 1: Keep a backup copy of your catalog files on an optical drive. At least you will know what you lost. Recreating a catalog from optical media is just as time consuming as the original backup. Helps if Catalog filename includes Date. Optical media that is not easily erased. My Comments and Problems with Retrospect 9.0.0 (go to #5 for the problem.) ============================================= Platform: Windows 8.1 Dell multiprocessor quad core xeon. Have not gotten to Linux yet. Running Retrospect (runas /user:Administrator C:\...retrospect.exe) 1) Retrospect 9.0.0 easily recreates older (6.5) catalogs from optical media and restores data from previous versions stored on optical disks. I could not make 8.5 do this, and others had a similar experience. Retrospect 8.5 would just churn on my 6.5 media and failed for me even when I had the backup set catalog. 9.0.0 worked flawlessly on 10 year old DVD+R media. A great relief to me. What good is a backup if you cannot access it years later? Note that Retrospect 6.5 did not want to install on windows 8.1 but could be used to restore files. I kept a copy going to solve this problem. 2) Retrospect 9.0.0 removed my older versions of Retrospect while installing (to a different install location). Be sure you have the original install of your older media. 3) Retrospect 9.0.0 repeatedly placed the media80.dll file on a drive other than the boot disk. media80.dll his is a MS C++ redistributable. It (media80.dll) should be located on the boot disk, especially if you are going to expect a system recovery to provide you with an operable copy of Retrospect etc. Search your registry and be sure it points to media80.dll on the boot disk and that media80.dll is on the boot drive in the root directory. 4) Retrospect 9.0.0 backed up to an Asus DVD drive without having to be configured first. This was a real problem for me with Retrospect 8.5. 8.5 required sacrificing disks to a compatibility test ... which repeatedly hung until I learned to follow a DVD+R with a DVD-R and then a DVD+RW in compatibility test section of Retrospect. Why ... I don't know. Just know that I went through more than 10 disks of expensive media to get Retrospect 8.5 working on just one computer. ====================================================== Now, the problem: Incremental Backup of an entire volume onto a Flash Drive is not (always/ever) incremental for me. 5) Retrospect 9.0.0 onto a 32GB Kingston flash drive. Backup works great. Then when I rerun the backup OF AN ENTIRE VOLUME after a few or NO changes ... retrospect made a duplicate copy of every single file onto the backup set. I ‘forgot’ the backup set and created a new one with the same name ... same result. Ended up with 32GB from 16Gb of data. Quit Retrospect, started it up again and backed up to optical media (of a subvolume) and Incremental worked perfectly. So I ‘forgot’ the flash drive catalog and created a new one with a different name of a created ‘subvolume’ and ‘Incremental’ backup to flash seems to work. So I made again tried a new backup of an entire volume ... and the second time I backup (incremental) it again selects all the files. Any solution / explanation / comment? There must be an explanation.