Is there a way to convert/update Retropect 6 Backup Sets

[bhorv67]

Hi- I'm new to the forum.

 

I'm considering a update of Retrospect 6 to 9 for Mac server. This is being necessitated by issues in the way Retro 6 or the Finder in OSX 10.5.8 Server calculates file sizes.

Very briefly, over the last few months, I've noticed that the backup drive that my sets live on is a very different size than the source data. I've experimented with this extensively and tech support says it's an OSX issue. To conclusively test this, I formatted a new 4tb drive and tried to make a new backup set of about 2.5tb worth of data. The backup failed about 3/4 through and said the destination is full. Something is not right with Retro 6.

 

I installed a trial version of Retro 9 and now this problem doesn't exist. 2.5tb of data backs up as 2.5tb on the backup.

 

I'm not trying to fix Retro 6 as it's pointless.

 

My question is I have 8 external drives with active backup sets still running everyday with Retro 6. Is there a way to convert these to Retro 9 to keep using them or do I have to trash everything and start over? I've also noticed there's a new limitation in Retro 9 that the file backup sets can't be larger than 1tb- that is a potential issue. The disk backup sets seem to work ok with the trial of Retro 9, but not sure how that would affect the conversion from Retro 6.

 

Thanks for the help.

[Lennart_T]

There is no way to convert backup sets from version 6 and add to them in version 9: They will be read-only, so you can still restore from them. So keep your old hard drives and buy new ones for Retro 9.

 

The 1TB limit for file media sets is an old limit, it was the same in version 6 and older.

 

You should use Disk Media sets.

[bhorv67]

There was no 1tb limit to File Backup Sets in Retro 6. I've been and still do have backup sets larger than 2.6tb.

[Lennart_T]

There was no 1tb limit to File Backup Sets in Retro 6. I've been and still do have backup sets larger than 2.6tb.

They might contain 2.6TB of compressed data, but how large is the file (in the Finder)?

 

http://forums.retrospect.com/index.php?/topic/147700-cant-add-that-much-to-a-backup-set-error/

 

Please post a screen shot form Retro 6, the summary for the File Backup set.

[ghoff]

There is no way to convert backup sets from version 6 and add to them in version 9: They will be read-only, so you can still restore from them. So keep your old hard drives and buy new ones for Retro 9.

There is a way:

1) Rebuild to convert the Retrospect 6 backup set to a read-only version 9 set.

2) Copy Media the content of the converted set to an empty Disk Media Set.

 

I tried this as I had a number of Retro 6 sets that were not yet due for recycle. That said, I was not happy with the results and ultimately elected to simply start fresh Media Sets, meanwhile retaining the Retro 6 sets until their scheduled recycle. I fortunately had excess capacity on my external drives due to recent downsizing for my network.

 

There were two issues with this process:

1) It took a long time to run the Rebuild plus the Copy

2) It seemed like Retrospect 9 was not doing a good job of de-duping files. That is, if I ran a backup to the new Disk Media Set after no significant changes to the Source volumes, I saw a large number of files backed up.

 

I did not dig into the issues further, as I needed to get Retrospect 9 operational due to a forced upgrade to Mac OS X Lion.

[Lennart_T]

2) It seemed like Retrospect 9 was not doing a good job of de-duping files. That is, if I ran a backup to the new Disk Media Set after no significant changes to the Source volumes, I saw a large number of files backed up.

The reason is most likely the additional metadata that Retrospect 9 handles (that Retro 6 is completely unaware of). So Retro 9 thinks the file has changed when it compares the file's real metadata with the non-existent metadata in the Media Set.

[Don Lee]

I have also found that the rebuilt retro 6 backup sets lose some/many of their snapshots, so although you have access to the files in the backups, it is often not possible to do a "full" backup from them, or to restore in certain scenarios that require the snapshots.