Retrospect 6.1 slow speed, constant errors

[ptrautwein]

I'll try to give all my pertinent info and then dive into what's happening (or not happening as the case may be):

 

I'm running Retrospect 6.1.230

I've downloaded the Driver Update 6.1.15.101

 

My computer is a G5 Dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC

1.5 GB Ram

 

I'm using the ATAPI-A:0:0 HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4165B DVD burner (that came with the machine) and have configured it to burn DVD-R disks.

 

OSX 10.5.6

 

I have a couple internal HD and one external I backup on a semi-regular basis. I should do it more, but it takes so long, and I've discovered that I can't do *anything* else while Retrospect runs without errors and problems. But now not even that works.

 

I just spent the better part of a day trying to back up about 20GB of data and only got as far as 2 DVD's worth with 4 misfires (and lost DVDs) before I gave up.

 

At first I kept getting bad disk errors, or read errors, and the drive would spit out the disk. I can't remember the exact wording before the disk would be ejected, and I'm a little bleary right now.

 

But I would put in another disk and try again and it seemed to proceed normally. But after 4 disks went bad on me, I saw the loading window start telling me that all I needed was one 1.6 T disk. Which was confusing because I'm using 4.4 GB DVDs, and I had never seen that message before.

 

I stopped the backup and tried to reconfigure the drive. (another lost DVD) I made sure I had the latest driver, and tried again.

 

It seemed to be working except the burn speed was only 14-20 MB per minute. Ugh!! I don't have the time to wait that long - I can't let it run all night because I have to keep feeding it DVDs. Unfortunately, like everyone, I can't afford not to have a backup. I like the idea of having portable media to store my backups, and so far it's worked okay, but after today's frustrations, I'm starting to think I should chuck Retrospect and buy an external and give Time Machine a go.

 

If anyone has any thoughts or advice, I'd appreciate it.

[rhwalker]

I'm using the ATAPI-A:0:0 HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4165B DVD burner

...

If anyone has any thoughts or advice, I'd appreciate it.

Your DVD burner does not seem to be a supported device:

Retrospect supported devices

 

Get a supported DVD burner and you should have better luck.

 

I'm starting to think I should chuck Retrospect and buy an external and give Time Machine a go.

Or use Retrospect with the external drive.

 

Russ

[ptrautwein]

I was going to append my post - now that I've had a little sleep - to say that the G5 I use at work had no problems with Retrospect.

 

I thought they were the same machine, but sure enough, the DVD burner on my work machine is a supported device, and the one on my home machine is not. Amazingly, they were both bought from the same vendor, although at different times. (within a couple months)

 

Weird that it would work for so long and then not... But I updated the software fairly recently. Could the new version of Retrospect have dropped support of my device? An unsettling though. I shouldn't have to go looking for a new DVD burner every time I update my software.

 

I'll look around for a new external. Thanks for the help.

[rhwalker]

Weird that it would work for so long and then not... But I updated the software fairly recently. Could the new version of Retrospect have dropped support of my device? An unsettling though. I shouldn't have to go looking for a new DVD burner every time I update my software.

Well, it has happened on rare occasions that support has inadvertently been dropped due to a bug (at one point, I think about RDU 6.1.10.100, support for DVD-R media went missing due to a bug, fixed in RDU 6.1.14.101).

 

After seeing your subsequent post, I went searching through the RDU version history:

Retrospect Mac RDU version history

 

and it appears that support for your DVD burner was added as of RDU 6.1.2.102. Appears that someone didn't update the Supported Devices list when that happened, and my apology for not checking that before I posted (no, I don't work for EMC).

 

So, with that in mind, here is my suggestion for how to proceed.

 

(1) quit Retrospect, move the .rdi (custom configuration file) to the desktop (it is in /Library/Preferences/Retrospect) so that Retrospect won't find it on boot. Try again to use your burner (this will use the preset parameters distributed with the RDU, which are more optimum than the manual configuration ones). I suggest this process because you can always move the custom configuration back if it doesn't work.

 

(2) try using an older RDU (see the RDU version history link above, which has links to older RDU versions) without using the custom .rdi file (see above). Perhaps your suspicions are correct, and that some issue has developed in a recent RDU for your device.

 

Of course, there is also the possibility that the drive has started developing problems just at the same time you did an update.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Russ

[ptrautwein]

(1) quit Retrospect, move the .rdi (custom configuration file) to the desktop (it is in /Library/Preferences/Retrospect) so that Retrospect won't find it on boot. Try again to use your burner (this will use the preset parameters distributed with the RDU, which are more optimum than the manual configuration ones). I suggest this process because you can always move the custom configuration back if it doesn't work.

 

The folder contains 2 .rdi files.

"device01.rdi" and "device02.rdi"

 

It also contains "Retro.Config (6.0)" and "RetroConfig.tmp"

 

Do I remove just the two .rdi files or the "config" files as well?

 

(2) try using an older RDU (see the RDU version history link above, which has links to older RDU versions) without using the custom .rdi file (see above). Perhaps your suspicions are correct, and that some issue has developed in a recent RDU for your device.

 

The download link for 6.1.2.102 is not working. Their FTP site is either down, or they've removed that file. I've tried to locate it elsewhere, but the earliest I seem to be able to find is 6.1.15.101. Later than the version that dropped my burner.

 

Any suggestions on where I can find it? Thanks again for all your help.

[ptrautwein]

Progress and steps taken in case it can help someone in the future:

 

I downloaded RDU 6.1.9.102 which according to research and expert insight, is the version previous to when my DVD Burner became incompatible.

 

I removed the .rdi files - also as recommended - and was able to format Retrospect to burn to both DVD-R and DVD+R disks. It seemed to recognize my Burner just fine.

 

Then I tried doing a backup.

I had 11gb to backup at this point and the prompts estimated 4 Disks.

 

Continuing with my last DVD-R disk the speed was again around 14mb per minute. After an hour and 500mb of data recorded, it asked for the second disk, so I tried a DVD+R instead. This worked a lot better. Speed worked it's way up to 100mb per minute. (still not as fast as my work computer but good enough to satisfy) However, when I added the 3rd disk it only recorded about a gig before it asked for a 4th. The last 6gb of data took about 5 disks to complete the process.

 

I tried both DVD+R and DVD-R for the remaining to see if there was any difference in speed.

 

Speed dropped with the -Rs, but after switching back to -R and then to +R again, it seemed to start recording at a proper speed and volume, but I was on my last disk by then anyway.

 

I'm suspecting that if I want to continue to use Retrospect as my backup client, I'll need to find a DVD burner that is compatible with the current version of the software. It's too slow and I'm going through too many disks to make it worth continuing. I could experiment with different RDU drivers, but again, I'm not sure it's worth my time when a new Burner could possibly solve the problem.

 

However, a Terabyte external and time machine might also solve the problem. As would a cloud based backup system. I've been pleased with Retrospect up until now, but there are other alternatives that might work better and be easier.

 

Thanks for all the help. Hope these posts help others that might also be having the same problems.

 

I haven't gone shopping yet. I welcome any other suggestions.