What is an RFC file?

[bcronin]

I've been running backups to an external USB 2.0 dirve recently (using "file" for the media). I've noticed that after I've done the initial full backup of a client machine and some days later, try to do a normal backup (to backup whats changed since the initial full backup) that Retrospect Desktop seems to go out to lunch for 20-30 minutes. It sits there all that time looking for all the world as if it were dead. Windows XP even says it is "not responding". Yet, the hard drive light on the external drive is on solid. When I use Windows Explorer to have a look at the external drive, I invariably see a file named client.rbf.rfc being written.

 

 

 

So, my question is, what is Retrospect *doing* all this time? What is this RFC file it is creating? More to the point, is it necessary? Can I turn it off somehow?

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer.

 

 

 

 

[bcronin]

Just to clarify, since I left this out of the original post and was unable to edit it, Retrospect spends all this time beating up the hard drive before I see any indication that it is actually backing up any files. In other words, there is no progress window displayed or anything. It just sits there (apparently) writing this RFC file for 20-30 minues before it actually starts backing up any files. What is it doing, and why is is so slow? I never noticed this behavior when I was backing up my clients to CDR.

 

 

 

Thanks.

[bcronin]

I'll answer my own question. It turned out that the long delay had nothing to do with the creation of the RFC file per se, it was just an innocent bystander. Rather, it was due to my not having disabled System Restore on the external harddrive. Not exactly sure why having System Restore on causes this problem, but I found a technote on the Dantz site suggesting that it be turned off and it did the trick. Hope this helps someone else.