Intelligence With Error Reporting

[Chief Technician]

Hello. This is not a bug in a functionality sense, yet if it can be addressed, I would appreciate it.

 

In my time using Retrospect, I have found that if error 206 is reported (drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.) when using DVD-RW discs that the disc is useless and must be replaced. What I don't like is the catch-all nature of the error message. The text associated with error 206 is too vague. It's Retrospect's way of reporting "something is wrong with your media, but I don't know what kind of media you are using, so here's a list of what could be wrong". Could we get some intelligence in this error message? Is it not possible for Retrospect to realize that if I am using DVD-RW discs, and error 206 occurs, that "dirty heads" does not apply?

 

Catch-all error messages like these may make the life of the developers easier, but it makes end users confused, especially if they are new to backup and find themselves thinking "How do I clean the heads on my SuperDrive?".

 

Thanks for reading.

[rhwalker]

Is it not possible for Retrospect to realize that if I am using DVD-RW discs, and error 206 occurs, that "dirty heads" does not apply?

But it does. Have you never had a dirty lens on an optical drive?

[Mayoff]

Thanks for the post but this one falls outside the scope of the beta. No code changes have been made to Media Failure or device drivers in this release. You will need to wait until Retrospect X before we make changes to devices or error codes.

 

This beta is only for the Universal Client.

[Chief Technician]

But it does. Have you never had a dirty lens on an optical drive?

Every time I have received this error using optical media, the use of a laser lens cleaner has not resolved the problem with the media. If I use the same physical media after a laser lens cleaning, the error 206 is still reported. For me, this is enough evidence to indicate that the error message is somewhat misleading.

 

Besides, even if the pickup were the problem, Retrospect should detect that I am using an optical drive and display an error message that has the text "dirty pickup", not "dirty heads". Tape drives have heads, optical drives have pickups.

[Mayoff]

This really isn't a beta issue, I am moving the thread to the normal support area.

[rhwalker]

Besides, even if the pickup were the problem, Retrospect should detect that I am using an optical drive and display an error message that has the text "dirty pickup", not "dirty heads". Tape drives have heads, optical drives have pickups.

Well, you can put in a feature request to change the language, but, to me, what you seem to be wanting is a Wikipedia article discussing all of the possible causes of data errors. One cause could be an aging LED in an optical drive (they do lose intensity over time), another cause could be dirt, another cause could be marginal media, etc., etc., etc.

 

Having written numerous device drivers over the years, I think that such a dissertation is outside the scope of what can be provided in a device driver, but that's just my opinion.

 

Russ

[jetdog9]

For those who are more technically inclined than average users, most times when an error -206 is reported, there is sense data that triggered the error in the operations log.

 

So when the log says:

Sense > 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00 00 00

 

Byte 2 is the sense key, in this case 05h corresponds to "illegal request"

 

Bytes 12 and 13 are the ASC/ASCQ (additional sense code and additional sense code qualifier), in this case 24h 00h is "invalid field in CDB"

 

So basically 05-24-00 is "illegal request, invalid field in CDB".

 

Translation is basically a command that's not supported was sent. But in the case of hardware failures with optical drives, you'll often see something like 03-11-00 which translates to "medium error, unrecovered read error". Unfortunately, as in this case, the error the drive is reporting is still pretty vague. So you can see why the Retrospect error isn't any clearer.

 

Sense keys and standard ASC/ASCQ errors can be found a www.t10.org.