meangus Posted June 8, 2009 Report Share Posted June 8, 2009 I am using Retrospect 6.1.230 on an intel Macpro, running OS 10.4.11. I had previously used Retrospect 6.0 on a G4 and everything worked beautifully. I am using a firewire Sony SDX-520c AIT2 tape backup drive that I also used with the G4 before. The first problem I started having with the Intel Mac Pro was that in the middle of a backup, Retrospect would just stop backing up. The little gears would continue to spin, but no progress would be shown. I could press the "Pause" and then "Continue" buttons and it would appear to be responding, but it would still make no progree. I would get no error messages or anything. It would sit like this for hours until I finally attempted to quit, at which time the spinning beach would make it's appearance and then a Force Quit was the only option. After this I downloaded the driver update from Retropsect and it continued happening. Then Retropspect stopped recognizing the AIT Tape Drive. Usually I could power cycle the drive and restart the computer and it would show up. I tried going back to an older version of Retropsect (because this seemed to start after upgrading to 6.1. I can't get 6.0 to open in the Intel mac(it must not be compatible, which is probably why I ended up upgrading to 6.1.xxx. I installed 6.1.126 and it I attempted a backup. It started out fine but after roughly 120mg I got a "Bad media or dirty tape heads" message. I cleaned the tape heads and tried again. Same thing. I tried 2 different tapes...same thing. I gave up for the day. Today I launched Retrospect and not only does it not recognize the AIT drive, but it doesn't even see the internal DVD-R drive. The AIT Drive is listed as compatible on the Retrospect site. I have the most recent firmware available for it installed. So what is the problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 8, 2009 Report Share Posted June 8, 2009 (edited) What Retrospect Driver Update ("RDU") are you using? (the version will be printed in the Retrospect log, along with the version of Retrospect, each time the program is launched). Current version of RDU is available here: Retrospect 6.1 updates Is there anything else on this Firewire bus, such as a disk drive? If so, have you tried isolating the AIT2 on its own Firewire bus? Have you tried running the Sony diagnostics for this drive? Sony tape tool for Mac OS X Sure sounds like the drive (or perhaps the Firewire port on the drive or on the computer) is dying. Another thing to try would be a regression test, if you still have the G4 around, to see if this same drive still works there. Russ Edited June 8, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meangus Posted October 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2009 I'm having the exact same problem. Used to work fine on a G4, I switched to an Intel Macpro and it does exactly the same thing. I upgraded Retrospect to v. 8 hoping it would solve the problem. I don't know if it has because I need to restore data from tapes backed up with v. 6.1 and Retrospect 8 apparently can't recognize Retropsect 6 backup sets. Nice. btw, it's not the drive. I tried it on a friend's G4 and it worked fine. I desperately need an answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meangus Posted October 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2009 Sorry. Replied to my own post like an idiot from a few months ago. I'm in a bit of a hurry and a bit angry and frazzled at the moment. So.. Responses to what you suggested Russ: What Retrospect Driver Update ("RDU") are you using? I am using 6.1.16.100 Is there anything else on this Firewire bus, such as a disk drive? If so, have you tried isolating the AIT2 on its own Firewire bus? No. Nothing else is connected via firewire. Have you tried running the Sony diagnostics for this drive? Yes. I ran the Sony Tape tool and updated the firmware. Sure sounds like the drive (or perhaps the Firewire port on the drive or on the computer) is dying. Another thing to try would be a regression test, if you still have the G4 around, to see if this same drive still works there. I have tried every firewire port on the computer with the same result. The G4 that I used before is dead, which is why I switched to the macpro. I have tried the drive on a G4 and a G5 belonging to friends and it has worked fine. It's not the drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted November 13, 2009 Report Share Posted November 13, 2009 Ok. In your post above, you indicate that you have "updated to Retrospect 8". If so, that's your problem. You are trying to run Retrospect 6.1 with the Retrospect 8 engine running. Stop the Retrospect 8 engine from the system preferences pane, retest with Retrospect 6.1. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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