Retrospect sent between 10.000 and 15.000 e-mails last night

[macpro]

Last night, Retrospect 9 had troubles with a backup disk.

And to make sure it wouldn't get unnoticed, I received between 10k and 15 k e-mail messages like these:

 

Script: Backup XServe

Date: 4/1/2012

!Trouble writing: "1-Backup XServe 3" (4013903872), error -102 ( trouble communicating)

 

Is this some kind of aprils fool joke?

 

Because I'm not amused.

Nor is my ISP, as they now have taken measures against us to limit our e-mail activities.

[Lennart_T]

Is the failing disk a server grade disk or a desktop grade disk?

The difference (among other things) is that a server grade disk will quickly return a write error, so the software (RAID software or the OS) will quickly assign another sector. A desktop grade disk will try very hard to write the sector, stalling the server in the process.

[macpro]

It's a server grade disk, a Western Digital WD2002FYPS. It was placed in a Freecom Hard Drive Dock, so I can change the disk every week.

I believe the problem is the combination of the used Hard Drive Dock and the disk. I've moved the disk to a Hard Drive Dock Pro and it's seems to be working more reliable now.

(I have had problems before where the disk would not be readable in the Finder or the disk would be read-only.)

 

Why Retrospect decided to send all those mails wonders me. Seems like the error it had trying to write backup data to this disk just wasn't enough to abort after a certain amount of errors.

[Lennart_T]

(I have had problems before where the disk would not be readable in the Finder or the disk would be read-only.)

Say what? Why would you trust a disk (or dock) that you have problems with to store a valuable backup????

 

Anyway, Retrospect tries very hard to finish the backup. Since the enclosure (dock) didn't report a serious error, Retrospect tries again and again. If a serious error was reported, Retrospect would have asked for a new member disk.

[dshimmyo]

I'm new to Retrospect 9. I'm a Retrospect user since 1994. I had a similar problem on March 31 at 8pm (a little early for April fools). My errors looked like this:

 

Script: Backup Assistant - 3/31/12 12:15 PM...

Date: 3/31/2012

!Trouble writing: "1-dks 2012 Disk Media Set C" (3523215360), error -106 ( data overwrite attempt)

 

I caught it as it was happening so I only had to delete about 5000 emails. I have since disabled emails for "failure and media requests". I also stopped using disk media sets and went back to using file media sets which produce fewer errors. By the way, I am backing up over a network connection to a drobo file server. I tried using a disk media set because of the grooming feature but it took so long to back up over a network connection and grooming was agonizingly slow, and then there were the errors and thousands of emails. File media works great but I will have to rotate media sets when they fill up. No problem, I've been rotating backups like this since 1994.

[Lennart_T]

I also stopped using disk media sets and went back to using file media sets which produce fewer errors. By the way, I am backing up over a network connection to a drobo file server.

I wouldn't trust a backup that produces any errors at all.

You should check your network connection and your Drobo.

[macpro]

Say what? Why would you trust a disk (or dock) that you have problems with to store a valuable backup????

I call it a "Calculated risk". If the disk goes south, I still have two other backup disks AND a TimeMachine backup.

[Lennart_T]

If the disk goes south...

You must mean "When...".

[macpro]

I always use "format disk4s2 crashes=no badblocks=no". Never had any problems.

[Lennart_T]

LOL

[prl]

You must mean "When...".

On a clear disk, you can seek forever.