Janrabbit Posted May 25, 2012 Report Share Posted May 25, 2012 Hi there I have been having a few issues with Retro in regards to backing up data and also restoring data. I have been trying for a few days now to fix this issue myself but I have been defeated at every turn and so I turn to you, the community for help. I am running Mac OS X Server 10.4.11 on a Xserve G5 RackMac (dated i know) that has 1 GB of RAM and it is using a ATTO ExpressPCI pro UL4S SCSI card and i have Retrospect 6.1.230 with Driver version 6.1.15.101. Ok so I hope that is enough information (please do say if not) now to the Issue I have been trying to get my Overland Storage LoaderXpress (which uses Ultrium 460 tape standard) to perform a backup of the contents on the server. This has been somewhat problematic as every time I run a backup, a small amount of data is backed up and then i get error 206 (the one about the dirty headers) and then the program seems to try and find another tape (which i find odd). I have cleaned the tape drive several times as it prompts me too every time i try and backup. The exact same error occurs when i try and recover data from a backup also. I am currently trying to verify the readability of the tapes so I am struggling to add more detail but hopefully you can give me some guidance on solving this problem from the information I have provided, if not i will be all to happy to provide you with more. Kind Regards The Rabbit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted May 25, 2012 Report Share Posted May 25, 2012 Does the Overland Storage LoaderXpress come with a test program? Or can a test program be downloaded from their site? What does the test program say? Maybe the Overland Storage LoaderXpress simply is worn out or broken? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janrabbit Posted May 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2012 Thank you for your reply Lennart This is the problem, the tape drive is a discontinued model. Whilst this may suggest it is a "buggy" model tape drives are damn expensive and I would prefer to try other means before hand. As far as I can tell there is no test program available but i appreciate the suggestion and maybe I will have to just accept that its done and dusted Thanks The Rabbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janrabbit Posted May 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2012 I also got an error message during the verify process. It is as follows: Trouble in Retrospect: Internal consistency check failed: Assertion check on "elem.c-918" I guess this may have something to do with the issue but that is the most un-helpful error message in existence. Anybody able to shed some light on this situation? Regards The Rabbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twickland Posted May 25, 2012 Report Share Posted May 25, 2012 I also got an error message during the verify process. It is as follows: Trouble in Retrospect: Internal consistency check failed: Assertion check on "elem.c-918" I believe that error can be caused when Retrospect receives an unexpected response from the tape drive. You can search this forum for "elem.c-918." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janrabbit Posted May 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2012 Thanks for the response twickland I have already searched this term and a lot of posts came up with various numbers except 918 but i assume it may be a general error in that case and so I cannot imagine it being the core reason for not being able to backup I feel the problem is to do with compression but i'm not sure if that is software side or hardware side as I have tried clean tapes. I suppose i could try making a new backup and make sure hardware compression isn't on but that would require many new tapes and a very large time window which i just don't have at the moment. Thank you for your suggestion though Regards The Rabbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twickland Posted May 25, 2012 Report Share Posted May 25, 2012 I have already searched this term and a lot of posts came up with various numbers except 918 but i assume it may be a general error in that case and so I cannot imagine it being the core reason for not being able to backup. An assertion error indicates that Retrospect encountered something unexpected in its own internal processes. These are often driver or hardware-related. In your case, the 206 error indicates that the tape drive reported a problem to Retrospect. The assertion error may simply be further evidence of this. I feel the problem is to do with compression but i'm not sure if that is software side or hardware side as I have tried clean tapes. With a 206 error, the problem is almost certainly not with the Retrospect software. You can get it with a faulty tape, but the fact that you've gotten it with several tapes strongly suggests a problem with the drive. The best way to dig deeper is to use the drive manufacturer's diagnostic software, as Lennart suggests. If you really can't obtain a copy somewhere, I'd suggest sending out the drive to be evaluated for repair. As a mechanical device, a tape drive is guaranteed to fail at some point, if only for worn heads. I suppose i could try making a new backup and make sure hardware compression isn't on but that would require many new tapes and a very large time window which i just don't have at the moment. No need to go that far. You could just create a new test backup set and see if you can back up and restore some representative and reasonably-large group of files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janrabbit Posted May 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 Thank you for your reply Twickland This was a very helpful post, I will send the drive off to be assessed and hopefully repaired. Thanks again for the help. Kind Regards The Rabbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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