Internal consistency check failed: Assertion check at "elem.c-816"

[IBPeeved]

Well, beginning with Mac OS 10.4 and until 10.4.2, it was mostly "Piton protocol" errors. Those are history now, and the error of the moment is "Internal consistency check failed: Assertion check at "elem.c-816"." I back up my machine to a VXA-2 FW tape drive, a LaCie AIT-2 FW tape drive, AND a WiebeTech TrayDock FW HD. It's only when I tried to do a recycle backup to AIT tape that I got the elem.c-816 error. I get it over and over again each time I try that backup, and it seems to happen at about the time the drive should be ready to ask for the second tape in the series, i.e., while still copying data from my primary boot drive. I've tried the recommended fixes, i.e., adding a Retrospect selector to prevent backup of the Spotlight folder and also setting Spotlight so it doesn't index the Retrospect folders within my Library folders. I'm running Retrospect v.6.0.212 with Driver Update v.6.4.102. It appears that all my other backups still run fine, including incremental backups to a second AIT-2 backup set. In general, the AIT-2 and FW HD backups have proven much less problematic over the years than VXA backups. Looks like I'll just have to hope the current problems will be resolved by the next updates to Mac OS and/or Retrospect, unless anybody out there has some new ideas. Thanks.

[jclark]

Well, I'll chime in - I get the "elem.c-816" errors as well, but they are almost all on the last client of the script ( 9 of 9 ) but not always, can disappear if I run the script again right away( or not ), are ~50%if I reboot in between, and,of course, don't reappear for 3 to 5 nights in a row then bam! are back again.

 

Using Dual 800 G4, 10.3.9 on backup machine, 10.4.2 on all clients. Using latest Dantz software.

 

jeff clark

[IBPeeved]

Well, now that the new Retrospect Driver Update (v.6.5.102) has been released, I no longer get the "assertion check" errors. Instead, the application sometimes freezes when requesting new media during a backup operation (during the copy stage). There's nothing to do at that point (after many hours of patiently backing up) but force-quit the program and start over. Oh, what fun!

[natew]

Hi

 

Have you tried a backup with all other firewire devices disconnected? It sounds to me like there may be a FW communication problem somewhere along the way.

 

Nate

[IBPeeved]

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't notice any FW problems at all except when I back up to tape with Retrospect, and then only sometimes when I get a new media request. I could disconnect all my FW devices except for the AIT-2 drive but that drive was working perfectly with Retrospect for years prior to my installation of Tiger. At this point, I don't have any problem backing up to FW HDs -- the only problem is with tape backup, and the same thing just happened with my VXA-2 tape drive on the same machine. Since the AIT-2 drive also has a USB-2 interface, I am going to try that out and see if I have any better luck.

[moek10]

Same here at element -821 at the very end of the backup : macos 10.4.2 Retrospect 6.0.212 with updated driver 6.6.101 (I was using 6.3.102)

I tested all drives. Finally only backed up the user (not the whole disk) : ok, no problems. I am trying now to backup the whole disk again excluding cache files : ok no problem as well : some errors but no more assertion... also this back seems to have taken into account the previous backup with the errors so it only backed up only 1gb out of 20 and all files seem to be here !

 

to be continued with the script !