Retrospect 6 Client use

[disteinborn]

I have installed Retrospect Professional on both my main computer (the full program) and my laptop (the client).

 

 

 

I have configured Retrospect to do periodic scheduled backups of the main computer but have not yet configured it to backup the laptop over my home network. Both computers use Windows XP as the operating system. The main computer is running XP Professional while the laptop is running XP Home Edition.

 

 

 

To backup the main computer, I simply leave the computer with no user logged in; that is, the Windows XP Welcome screen is displayed. Retrospect logs itself in as a process at the scheduled time, performs the backup and then logs out.

 

 

 

When I set it up to backup the laptop as well, using the client over the network, what "state" must I leave the laptop (client computer) in in order for Retrospect to find the client over the network?

 

 

 

Can I leave the client in the same "state"; that is, with no user logged in and the Windows XP Welcome screen displayed or must a user be logged in in order for Retrospect to find the client over the network?

 

 

 

Also, if the client computer is in a power saving mode, can Retrospect "wake" it with "wake on LAN?"

 

 

 

Thanks for your help!

 

 

[IrenaS]

An XP client may be left logged out, just like the main computer.

 

 

 

Neither the application nor the client can always wake a sleeping computer, so it's best to set the hard drives to never sleep. We do plan to incorporate better support for "wake on LAN in the future" though!

[awnews]

Just to clarify this, there's a difference between the *computer* sleeping and the *harddrives* sleeping/powering down. I never do the former but, with several harddrives in my PCs, do set the later (reduces power and noise). The PC will spin up the drive when it's needed. This works fine under W2K but doesn't seem to work (HDs never go to sleep) on my one XP PC (was working before W2K-XP upgrade, so I assume it's a bug in XP).

 

 

 

So do you really mean to not allow the HDs to sleep or do your comments only apply to allowing the entire PC to sleep? Wake-on-LAN only applies to the former.

[lv2ski]

You can't let anything go to sleep!

 

Retrospect can't wake anything.

[awnews]

I still wonder if powering down the HDs is problem. I think that it's the OS & BIOS that wake them up, not the app. I'm using Retrospect DB 5.6 on a system right now that backs up to a second HD, and I have the HD(s) power down after two hours of inactivity. RDB and the backups are working fine (according to the logs and other RDB reports). I can hear the HD power & spin up when RDB or other apps launch and attempt to access the drive--there's just a delay while the drive spins up.