Recovering LTO4 Archived Data that was created with Free Trial Retrospect

[I am the Backup]

Hi,

A while back I created a few Test archives onto an old trusted LTO4 system with a copy of Trial version of Retrospect ( V14 ). Now I need to recover a part that archive data as the original harddrive has crashed. The trial period has been long expired. If I purchase a Desktop version ( Mac ) of retrospect, can I run the recovery process of that archive?

 

[DavidHertzberg]

Sure, I am the Backup, I don't see why not.  The only possible glitch I can see is that what you can now purchase is Retrospect Mac 15; Retrospect Mac 14 is obsolete.  The cumulative Release Notes for Retrospect Mac 15.0 say "New: Support for LTO-8 tape devices", so the chances are the support for LTO4 devices is still there.

In case it isn't, I imagine you can go through Retrospect Sales to get a license code for Retrospect Mac 14.6, which can still be downloaded.

The one thing I would caution you about is that the Desktop Edition only supports a single non-autoloader tape drive.  If your LTO4 tape drive is fancy-shmancy, you may have to purchase the Single Workstation 20 Client Edition—which is substantially more expensive.  You can probably negotiate this with Retrospect Sales, with whom I have no connection other than as a customer.

[I am the Backup]

Thank you @ DavidHertberg. I will proceed as you directed. FYI, I do have access to non fancy-shmancy single tape external drive LTO also. So, we are in the safe zone.

Thank you again for taking time to reply to my nooob question.

[DavidHertzberg]

8 hours ago, I am the Backup said:

Thank you @ DavidHertberg. I will proceed as you directed. FYI, I do have access to non fancy-shmancy single tape external drive LTO also. So, we are in the safe zone

.....

I am the Backup,

If you used your "old trusted LTO4 system" with a trial copy of the Desktop Edition of Retrospect Mac 14, and you weren't trialing the Advanced Tape Support add-on, everything may be fine using that drive with Retrospect Mac 15's Desktop Edition so long as you don't use any autoloader capability.

Good luck, and backup regularly with some product or other.

P.S.: Back when I was using tape for Retrospect backups, from 1995-2010, it was considered a good idea to restore with the same drive that wrote the backups.  However maybe LTO has changed that.