DVD+RW NEW DISK problems still present in 7.0!

[GeneralEclectic]

Would you people please do yourselves and your user base a huge favor? PLEASE, go get yourself a spindle of NEW DVD+RW disks. Infodisk, Prodisc, Optodisc, RicohJPN etc. Try to run a backup to one. You will see that Retrospect will attempt to ERASE the NEW disk, and just sit there --- for an hour if you let it. Now why in blazes is this thing trying to erase a NEW disk? Worse, you can't interrupt it! To escape from this +RW "Erasing" hang, you have to do a hard-kill on the Retrospect process.

 

This problem has persisted for well over a year in version 6.5 and now 7. I've tried this on Plextor 708A, 712A, and a new NEC3520A. These are ALL fully supported in the latest driver set. And I've even tried custom configuring each drive separately. It doesn't help. Give the program a NEW +RW disk, and kiss that backup session goodbye. BTW, Retrospect has no problem custom configuring the +RW disk on any of these drives. Works like a champ. And ordinary +R disks seem to work fine too. I haven't tried -R disks. Once a +RW disk is "used" and Retrospect handles it like it should (quick erase), it verifies every time.

 

Look people, this problem should be a NO BRAINER to re-create since it happens EVERY damn time I try to run a backup to a NEW +RW disk! And don't tell me that you never heard of it before -- there are a handful of previous posts here, including my own, but also from others that describe the same behavior!

 

I've tried to get this to work on two separate machines, both with XPPro and both at SP1a and at SP2 (both of which were new, slipstreamed installations). All hardware is recent, P4 with Intel 865 or 875 chipsets. One GigaByte and one ASUS motherboard. All hardware fully functional otherwise with no known problems. No ASPI installed.

 

Now, once the disk has been used for a backup set, Retrospect sees it, asks about erasing it, and then promptly erases it and goes about its business. But with a NEW disk, forget it. Unless you don't mind having your 20GB backup run for several weeks, that is.

 

I guess you can tell that I'm pretty frustrated with this PERSISTENT and PREVIOUSLY DOCUMENTED problem! If you can't get the program to deal with a NEW +RW disk, then at least come up with some easy way to PRECONDITION the disk so that Retrospect doesn't grind to a halt when it becomes necessary to add a NEW disk to the backup set.

 

Better yet, SENSE the presence of a NEW disk and automatically PRECONDITION IT. Obviously the ERASE function ain't working for you. Think of something else.

 

Seriously people. This has gone on way too long. This needs to be fixed once and for all. And sooner rather than later. The upshot of this persistent problem is that I have yet to make a full backup onto DVDs. I get partway through and Retrospect just craps out on this "Erase" bug. 100% of the time.

 

I'd be happy to test some beta code for you. The email address in my profile works.

[natew]

Hi

 

It works perfectly for me every time with brand new DVD+RW media.

HP DVD 200e Firewire/USB. I believe that is a Ricoh mechanism.

 

I've spoken to many people who have no problem at all with new DVD+RW media. The issue you are seeing is not a general fault with the program.

 

It seems that this issue has followed you around to multiple machines and multiple devices. Is there something common on all of the machines? Software? Drivers? configuration?

Are you using the same burning software on all of the machines?

 

Thanks,

Nate

[GeneralEclectic]

I've tried this in three different hardware platforms, all Intel, with either W2K or XP both with latest SPs. It is possible that Nero V.6 was installed on each of these prior to Retrospect setup. To the best of my knowledge, there are no Nero processes running, and I've never had any kind of packet-writing software installed. I've tried it with and without ASPI.

 

I really can't figure it out. In all these various installations, it has worked as I've described it *every* time. Needless to say, it makes running a backup beyond frustrating. I have yet to complete a Retrospect backup on +RW media, which is why I bought the software and DVD writers in the first place.

 

I've tried everything I can think of to work around this problem. I'm convinced that there's a bug in there that's triggered by the right set of conditions, given that I'm not the only one who's reported the problem.

 

I'd really appreciate some suggestions on how to work around this. If I can find the time, I may pull one of these DVD writers out (right now I have three writers in two different machines. Retrospect, 6.5 or 7, exhibits the same +RW issue in both of them.) and stick it in a test machine that has nothing in it except a virgin XP installation.

 

What kind of +RW media are the people using who have had it work correctly? I've tried maybe a half-dozen brands with the same results.

[bcart]

I am sad to say that I too have experienced this problem, but I think it is broader than just the specific media used. I just bought vers 7 with blind faith that it would work after the trial version created the automatic driver for my drive. It said that it was successful! I am using DVD-RW media, but I tried +RW with the same result. It attempts to erase a blank new disk and takes hours to do so. In my case, it does seem to complete the erase after a couple of hours and start copying data, but I then get "error -203 (hardware failure)" after between 600 and 800 MB are copied. Interesting that during the erase, there is very limited DVD disk access. Seems Retrospect is in a loop. I'm sure it takes so long because it is doing a very low level verified format of the entire disk, but there should be some way to get around this or speed it up. The worst is that it doesn't actually succeed!!! Help!!!

 

I now remember that a couple of years ago, I set up Retrospect 6 for a client. They wanted to use their CD +/- RW burner. I remember that we had the same problem with incredible slow CD erasing. This was a totally different drive and was using CD rather than DVD technology and it exhibited the same problem. In that case, I just bought them a tape drive and all was well. However, I now need backups for my personal laptop and all I have is a burner. Of course, I also bought a big pile of DVD-RW disks to get this back-up problem fixed once and fopr all. Now I am in trouble and Dantz just tells me it's my drive. Hmmm, seems it is a lot of drives and not just mine. It also seems to me that if the Retrospect software configures the drive and says it is ok, that it should be. What can I do???

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Bob

[natew]

Hi

 

How long do you wait for the erase to complete? Retrospect does a long erase on RW media. That can easily take an hour or two.

 

When you say "hang" is the computer completely frozen? Do the activity lights on the front of the drive stop flashing?

 

Thanks

Nate

[bcart]

After a couple of hours my erase does complete and my computer never hangs. However, just like "GeneralEclectic", it definateley hangs after attempting to stop an erase. You cannot interrupt it with out killing the Retrospect process.

 

More questionable is that even when the drive is "successfully" configured and the erase completes, I get an error "error -203 (hardware failure)" that causes it to pop up a dialog asking to send a trouble report to Retrospect and then the application exits.

[natew]

Hi bcart,

 

Can you post the make/model/firmware of your drive as listed in the configure->devices->environment window please?

 

Also does that window say you are using ASPI or NT Passthrough.

 

In my experience error 203 can be taken at face value. The drive failed to do something Retrospect asked it to. The 100 and 200 series of errors are all reported directly by the drive to Retrospect. In other words, the drive is sending out the error message.

 

That isn't to say we can't find a workaround/solution.

 

As far as stopping an erase - yes, that won't end very gracefully. Although thats often the case with other burning software too. Once you start an erase you should plan on letting it finish even if you choose to cancel the backup job.

 

Thanks

Nate

[PeterSwiss]

I too run recently over this problem, being a retro-DVD starter, but now I know of it (as per this thread), I will simply erase the disks with Nero before retro use.

 

Oh, I do have Nero installed. Interestingly, Nero did not like to quickerase or fullerase several new disks today, I had to write something to them before it did successfully. Thats Sony DVD+RW 4x and Verbatim DVD+RW 4x media. And a Sony ..D56A.. DVD+- DL .. notebook drive.

 

[knokworst]

Hi all, I have recently setup a system using DVD+RW as the backup media. In my troubleshooting efforts (including removing any form of non-Retrospect 7 burning software) I came across a removal tool for Nero on their website - which seems to indicate some components may be left behind after uninstalling the Nero software. Not sure if Nero was causing a conflict anyway.

 

I had issues with detecting media on an unattended backup launch - solved by using ASPI (check my other posts for more detail)

 

The erase phase on new DVD+RW is taking only 18 minutes for this system (timed) - surely the 1 hour duration is a setup issue

 

Thanks - good luck

[nembot]

Hi,

 

Could you provide the link for the removal toll?

 

Thanks.

[knokworst]

Sure - website has changed since I was last there but here tis:

 

http://www.nero.com/nero6/eng/General_Clean_Tool.html