BillWilliams Posted October 1, 2002 Report Share Posted October 1, 2002 I am not sure I am posting this to the best place, but I am having some trouble finding a better place... I use Retrospect Express 4.3 on a Beige G3 running OS 9.1 I back up to an external LaCie 4 x 24 which is in fact a Mitsumi mechanism CR-4804TE. This has always suffered from intermittent error 209 when I load a backup disk. If I stop express and try again it is almost always OK the second time. And once past the initial load I have NEVER seen a comparison failure, or had a failure to write or read a disk with toast. One of your faqs suggests that this error occurs if the file name has been changed, but I don't understand what the faq writer had in mind - anyway, no name has in fact been changed. Could it be that the Mac OS preloads the disk name using some other parsing and RE gets confused? It seems very like a software/timing error? Any help will be appreciated. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted October 2, 2002 Report Share Posted October 2, 2002 Are you getting Error 209 (media content damaged) or Error 206 (media damaged)? The troubleshooting is essentially the same for either error. All 200-series errors are generated by hardware and reported through Retrospect. The first course of action to attempt to isolate the problem by backing up to a new piece of media. If the new media works, then the previous one(s) may have failed. If you see the error on all media you try, use the following checklist: 1) Try using a different brand of media, if one exists for your backup device. Follow the manufacturer's recommended list of brands. If one is not available, try a name brand such as TDK, Sony or Verbatim. 2) Isolate the device. Another device on the USB/Firewire chain may be interfering with the backup device's communication. Turn off your computer and all USB/Firewire devices. If your backup device is connected to your computer through a hub or another USB/Firewire device, unplug it and connect it directly to a USB/Firewire port on the computer. If it is already connected directly to the computer, try changing ports. If the problem persists, do not reconnect the other devices, and continue down the checklist. 3) Cabling. You may have a bad cable. Replace the USB/Firewire cable that connects the device to the computer. 4) Update or reinstall the USB/Firewire adapter drivers and/or firmware. Corrupt drivers can cause issues that may not be otherwise detectable. Check the manufacturer's or vendor's website for updated drivers. 5) The system board or USB/Firewire adapter in the computer may be having a problem. Install Retrospect on another computer, if available, and try the device there as the only USB/Firewire device. 6) The device itself may be defective. If you have implemented all of the preceding steps and get failures on new media after changing cables, software/firmware and computers, then the backup device, being the only factor that has not changed, is the culprit. Contact your vendor for servicing or warranty information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillWilliams Posted October 2, 2002 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2002 Thanks for quick reply. I get Error 209 on the first and only disk of a set. But if I tell retrospect to stop the backup, and quit, and then try again with the same disk that I used before and reported the Error 209, it almost always works OK the second try, ( maybe 95% of the time or better) and this time reports no errors, backs up and verifies correctly. So the disk and mechanism seems to be basically OK. I have seen this behaviour with Maxell and Kodak disks. Anyway I will try changing cables and disconnecting other devices. Maybe one more question.. is there some automatic retry during backup which does not apply when first checking the disk, which would make that initial load more sensitive to errors? Because I am really puzzled that Error 209 can occur on a disk and mechanism that runs perfectly at other times. Bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted October 3, 2002 Report Share Posted October 3, 2002 It's up to the drive to handle the media properly, and report back to Retrospect the current status. From your post, if I'm understanding correctly, leaving the same disk in the drive, and restarting the program fixes the issue. The drive appears to be having difficulty resolving the media that was inserted. What if you put the media in the drive before starting Retrospect? I'd be curious to see if the same failures occur when the drive has had a chance to read the media ahead of time. Use the option to Prepare for Retrospect, should the Finder through up a dialog box asking to format the disc. Also, try downloading the latest Retrospect Driver Update from our Updatescolor=blue> page. If these steps don't work, continue on with the troubleshooting previously mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillWilliams Posted October 3, 2002 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2002 Yes you understand correctly. Minor detail, if I quit R E it is set to eject the disk, so I have to reinsert it when I restart R E. I usually wait for R E to prompt for the disk before reinserting it in this case, and as I said it almost always works this time. For the original insertion I have tried inserting before starting R E, or after, or not until the prompt, it makes no obvious difference. I have checked the log and found about 35 instances of 'content damaged' in about 150 launches of R E over about 18 months. All were OK on retry. Possibly the disk or the mechanism needs to warm up?? Swopping cables made no difference, I will try some different media next and let you know if I learn anything new. Thanks for the help. Bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillWilliams Posted October 7, 2002 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2002 Hi Amy: Did more trials over the weekend. Switched to using the second port on my USB card and problem went away. So this must have been a marginal hardware issue after all, possibly timing related. Sorry to have wasted your time. But it is interesting that the disk insertion and recognition sequence is apparently more sensitive to marginal hardware problems than any other disk operation, at least with this mechanism. So, anyway, useful background information if it ever happens to anyone else. Maybe it would be worth expanding the note in the error codes, which is a bit misleading as it stands. Thanks again for the help, Bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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