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Copying v4, v5, v6 tapes to a modern version of the app?


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Hmmm. I guess there's more to figure out here. I'm fairly certain, though not 100%, that v6.1 asks you to make a new tape media set when doing a copy/transfer TO a new tape media set. In my case I'm hoping that I can transfer some of my v6 File sets to an LTO tape, and in that process, Retrospect v6 is going to ask me to name the new media set. Can anyone clarify if this is correct? I don't have the LTO connected to the v6 machine yet, so I can't test it very easily. I could do it with my AIT drive, but I don't have any blank tapes at the moment. 

I've transferred a lot of old catalogs to v6 file sets because It seemed like a convenient step towards the end goal; no SAS card for the 2,1 Mac, and I really needed to get data off the slow media. Time is also a very big aspect here; old tape systems are loathsomely  slow.

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On 1/10/2021 at 9:20 PM, oslomike said:

Hmmm. I guess there's more to figure out here. I'm fairly certain, though not 100%, that v6.1 asks you to make a new tape media set when doing a copy/transfer TO a new tape media set.

I tend to play it safe, and create the new media set myself rather than relying on the software -- mainly because it gives me extra chances to check the name, settings, etc!

Finally got to go in to work this week, so I've fired up the old v6 server and I'll do some test wrt snapshots and the v6 set conversion.

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13 hours ago, oslomike said:

Thanks Nigel,  I'm interested in learning more about what works best.

I won't claim it's best -- but it's what works for me!

Meanwhile, I've run some tests -- and I am getting snapshots transferred in a v6 File Set conversion. Couple of wrinkles:

  1. The File Sets were created in RS v6.1.230 rather than transferred from tape
  2. The conversion was done with RS v13.5 -- the closest I have to v10 on hand
  3. Only one snapshot is shown in the rebuilt set until you go to "Media Sets", select the rebuilt set, select the "Backups" tab, and use the "Retrieve..." button to show the others. Alternatively you can use the "Restore" wizard, select the single-snapshot set, and use the "More Backups..." button to show the other snapshots.

So the snapshots are transferred. Whether that's because I'm using a different converting version of RS, a different workflow, or just delving deeper into the end result to find them -- who knows?

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Hi Nigel,

You got me thinking. Are you native 6.1 Files Sets showing up in the Retrospect app as a Folder, or a single file. My File Sets that I transferred from tapes show up as a Folder in Retrospect and that's probably because the File set consists of two files, a catalog file and then all the data in another file. On my 10.5 system, when I rebuild a 6.1 File Set, I'm only able to rebuild by selecting the Data file; the catalog file seems to be ignored. I just wondered if you experience the same?

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13 hours ago, oslomike said:

I just wondered if you experience the same?

Exactly the same (I deliberately created them with separate catalog files, to match your situation).

The v6 catalog file will be ignored -- this is a "rebuild", which starts from scratch and reconstructs the backup using only the data file, rather than a "repair".

Try the alternate route -- attempt a "Restore" operation on the v10 set and use the "More Backups..." button to see if they are shown.

Or, simply give up 😉 Do you really need to do a "point in time" restore of a whole volume from x years ago? If not, you can likely do what you'll need by simply using filters on the whole set -- eg "all files and sub-folders in the Important Project folder last modified in 2010" then manually selecting what to restore from the results.

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Hi Nigel,

Thanks for doing that test. I tried your suggestion where I attempt a Restore and then select More Backups, but the results are always empty. The RS console shows me the rebuilt Media set has over 300 backups in it, but the program will now show me any of them. Strange. Maybe it's actually better in later versions of the program? I couldn't find a MacOS v13 of the app that you mentioned. Are you using a PC? Could that be the difference? I would rarely need to get to the older snapshots, but once in a while, it can be a real lifesaver.

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21 hours ago, oslomike said:

I couldn't find a MacOS v13 of the app that you mentioned.

You'll find all older versions here. Licensing may be an issue -- if you have a license for a newer version, and that key doesn't work with the old, you could try asking Support for a downgrade license. But if you've got a newer version, why not use that for the rebuild instead and see if that transfers the snapshots?

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Hi Nigel!

Once again, thanks! I'll try and have a look at the 13.5 version over the weekend. I did try to rebuild a v6.1 File set using RS 17 but it came out the same as 10.5. I'm hoping that 13.5 will be magic. OR, can you think of some simple setting somewhere that might affect the rebuilds that I'm doing? Maybe even the way my File Sets were created in v6.1?

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