drslocum Posted January 27, 2003 Report Share Posted January 27, 2003 I have Retrospect 6.0 installed on my machine. I recently upgraded from Windows ME to XP (I actually did a "clean" install and reinstalled all my other software). My backup strategy is as follows: do a recycle backup on Sunday, do normal backups every other day to the same tape volume, swap tapes on the next Saturday and start all over. This worked fine under ME. With XP, though, I get a "catalog file out of sync error" whenever I try to do the normal backups (the recycle backup works just fine) and I'm told to use tools to repair the catalog. The repair, though, doesn't seem to do anything, and the next normal backup fails with the same problem. I found an article in the Knowledge Base that describes this exact same problem for Retrospect 5 under XP, but nothing for Retrospect 6. I found one post in this forum that also mentioned this problem for Retrospect 6, but no solution was given. Has anyone else run into this, and is there a way to fix it? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 Try the lastest Retrospect Driver Update, available from: Updates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drslocum Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2003 Actually, I had already installed the latest drivers. They didn't fix my problem one bit. I have gotten things to work, though. First, I found a link to an update patch hidden away on one of Dantz's web pages. You can't find it on the Retrospect Updates page. I had to go to their support page, and then select "Retrospect 6 (Windows)" from the drop-down box. You can find the link in the sidebar under Downloads (it's the first one under Product Updates). The file that gets downloaded is a zipped version of patch.rpx. I copied this file to the folder containing the Retrospect program. There was already a file in that folder with the same name, size, and date, but a slightly older time, so I'm not sure if this is what fixed my problem or not. I also decided to delete my old Retrospect catalogs and to erase both of my backup tapes, so that I'd be starting over with a clean system (kind of risky, I know, but desparate people do desparate things). I tend to think it was this that finally got things to work. Anyway, I've done a recycle backup and a couple of normal backups to the same tape volume, and everything is working fine so far. I'll have to wait until I swap to the second tape this weekend and see if it also works before I'll feel confident that this problem is totally taken care of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drslocum Posted February 4, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 It's been about a week now, and my backups are still running fine. I was able to do a recycle backup and several normal backups to a single tape volume last week. I swapped to another tape on Saturday, and have completed a recycle backup and a couple normal backups to that tape volume thus far. No more "catalog out of sync" errors! So, if anyone else happens to run into this problem on Windows XP, I would suggest erasing their tape media. I assume that the reason this works is that it clears out the contents of the catalog files, so there's nothing to be "out of sync" with. Just another thought - When I upgraded to Windows XP, I also formatted my hard drive as NTFS instead of FAT32. Would have this caused Retrospect some confusion? I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjl Posted February 12, 2003 Report Share Posted February 12, 2003 I am having the same problem. I am running Windows XP Professional SP1 (clean install). I keep getting the "out of sync" error. I have tried un-installing Retrospect deleting all the preferences and catalogs. Re-installing, adding the latest drivers. But I still get this error. Everything had been running fine for a long long time. This all started when I added another computer (retro-client) to my backups. p.s. I am running the Server version with Open Files. Please help!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevering Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 I am having this problem too, also on XP. I have erased the tapes, recycled the backup, changed the source from "My computer" to the specific disks I want, and I still can't get rid of the problem. The inital full backup went ok. But the incremental backups always get the error. I have loaded the latest drivers, but they didn't help. Hopefully someone at Dantz has an answer for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awnews Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 This may lead you in the wrong direction or may be irrelevant, but I also had some "catalog out of sync" problems with RP6. But I was also noticing pop-up and messages in the XP Event Viewer log from XP telling me that "Delayed Write Failed." Application popup: Windows - Delayed Write Failed : Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \\RemotePC\r$\Backups\PC1_C_to_PC8_R.rbf.rfc. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere. {Delayed Write Failed} Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \Device\LanmanRedirector. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere. I was getting these errors even though the remote PC (where the RP6 backup was being saved) didn't have write caching enabled on any drives. So it was enough for only the local PC (that was being backed up) to have write caching enabled on its C: drive. So my fix was to first repair the catalog using RP6, and then to disable write caching for the local drives (Device Manager->Disk Drives->Properties). And I haven't seen the "Delayed Write Failed" or "catalog out of sync" errors since. Note that *nothing* was or is wrong with my "computer hardware or network connection" (NIC, Cat5, 100M switch, etc.). Another comment. I was only able to disable write caching on my C: drive which is connected to a motherboard IDE. The system won't let me turn it off for my second (data) drive, which is connected to an expansion (SIIG) IDE card. However backups work fine from both. So this seems to suggest a) the problem is only with XP+RP6 when the caching is being handled by software and doesn't happen when the caching is handled by hardware or the problem is only with temp data being cached to the C: drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevering Posted February 20, 2003 Report Share Posted February 20, 2003 I checked my event logs but there are no error events. One thing that has changed recently. I have a USB disk that I occasionally connect to my machine so that I can duplicate my disks onto it. So, retrospect lists the disk as a volume even when it's not there. However, the disk isn't a source or destination of my backup set, and wasn't connected when the last re-cycle was performed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blub Posted April 17, 2003 Report Share Posted April 17, 2003 Same problem as others. Running XP, clean install. Yes I downloaded & installed the latest drivers. Erased my tapes as another user suggested. After weeks of trying this, that, and everything else I can think of, including repairing the catalog daily, etc., I am absolutely stuck. Getting ready to abandon the very features for which I bought this product - namely automatic backups to tape. Between the software, hardware, and media, this has been an expensive and frustrating dead end. Hope a moderator is out there with additional advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Catalog out of sync may be due to equipment failure or power failure, or was caused by a full disk (error –34) or by a lack of memory (error –108). A hang during backup will result in a “Catalog out of sync” message in a subsequent append to the same tape. This is because the catalog is written to in periodic increments, in which case a hang or freeze would create a discrepancy between what’s on the tape and what’s recorded on the catalog. This is why you need to update the catalog after such events. Generally, the format of a tape written in Retrospect consists of a header, chunks of data, and end of data markers (EOD). These EOD markers are crucial and must be written before a tape drive closes and finishes with a tape in the drive. During hangs or unexpected stoppages, the drive usually doesn't have a chance to write an EOD marker so the end of where the tape was left off is often left in this precarious state of missing an EOD marker. But due to the realities of EOD markers on tapes, a crash or hang on a tape backup is pretty severe and usually hard to recover from. If updating the catalog does not eliminate the “catalog out of sync” error Retrospect cannot add files to that tape. You have three options: • Perform a recycle backup, which resets the catalog and erases the media or Internet directory, removing its existing backup files. • Skip to a new medium with media control (page 148), forcing Retrospect to use a new piece of media for the next backup. • Create a new backup set and do a backup to new media. For tapes this usually means that the tape was damaged, used by an incompatible backup program, or used with an incompatible drive. First, determine if the errors are occurring with many catalog files, or only with one. If only with one, simply start a new backup set. If the problems affect more than one backup set, you may have a hardware or system configuration problem that is causing repeated corruption of the backup set catalogs stored on your hard disk. We have seen these problems caused by specific failing hard disk. Try running a surface disk check using Window's Scan Disk utility or another third party disk checking utility to verify that there are no bad blocks on the hard disk. Try storing your catalog files on a different hard disk. We have seen these errors caused by an unspecified hardware problem. Verify that you are using the latest or the recommended version of disk or interface driver for the hard disk you are using. For many systems, you should simply be using the hard disk and interface drivers supplied by Windows, but with SCSI, USB, high end ATAPI, and IEEE 1394/FireWire disks you may want to check for updated drivers on the drive or interface vendors' web sites. Try installing and using Retrospect on a different computer. If the problems go away, something was set up incorrectly in the original computer's hardware or system software that caused regular corruption of data. Regardless of whether or not you are seeing problems with other applications or even with Windows on the original computer, if moving Retrospect solves the problem, then something was not working properly on the original computer. You may not be able to determine the cause, given how complex computers are. If you still don't have any luck, I'd recommend the following hardware troubleshooting steps. Unfortunately you haven't said whether your device is SCSI, ATAPI or Firewire/USB, so I'll send troubleshooting instructions for the three possibilities: SCSI: Update the driver software for your SCSI card(s) at their manufacturers' websites. Next, do you have any other SCSI devices connected to this computer besides the tape drive? If so, disconnect them, terminate the drive, and try again. Then, have you tried another cable from the computer to the (isolated) drive? Another terminator? If you haven't tried both of these, do so. If you've done all of these steps with no results, try the drive connected to another computer. If you're still having problems after following all of the above steps, do the following: quit all other applications and terminate any nonessential tasks (Ctrl-Alt-Del) and turn off software compression (under the Options button). ATAPI: Try straightening out the internal ribbon cabling. Try switching master and slave settings. Try new internal cabling. Try updating the firmware on the device if possible (see the drive manufacturer's website). Are the drivers for the IDE controller current? Try updating them with an approved update from your PC vendor. Finally, try bringing this drive to another PC and trying the backup. If it works here, you could be having a problem with either the ATAPI bus on the original machine or with the PC itself. FIREWIRE/USB: Update the Firewire/USB drivers for your operating system or card. Try connecting the device with another cable. Try connecting it to another port on the computer if available. Try the device on another machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blub Posted April 23, 2003 Report Share Posted April 23, 2003 Amy - Just a brief thank you for the extremely detailed reply. I have attempted most but not all of these fixes; will work through the balance. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaurban Posted August 5, 2003 Report Share Posted August 5, 2003 Hey there - I'm having the same problem - only mine started once I upgraded to ver 6.5 - been struggling with all the usually things but a tech today told me to try and run the aspinst.exe and have everything use aspi I did that and it seems to have fixed it - still working on testing it though and that takes time. I will let you know if that worked for me. Gerri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaurban Posted August 5, 2003 Report Share Posted August 5, 2003 *sigh* nope, no fix there - the stupid backup runs once, then on the next pass thru gets a catalog out of sinc. What a drag. Gerri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted August 5, 2003 Report Share Posted August 5, 2003 Hi, What drive is this again and how is it connected? Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaurban Posted August 12, 2003 Report Share Posted August 12, 2003 Sorry for the delay in responding - been trying to work with tech support and feeling that I'm getting the run around. My current setup is an ECRIX VXA-1 drive, running scsi, it's the only device on the scsi chain. Currently tech support now wants me to uninstall retrospect and reinstall it from scratch to try and get this to work. This is of course after approximately 8 hours of trouble shooting on my part with all of the other stuff I have had to do to..... Any advice is appreciated. Gerri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted August 13, 2003 Report Share Posted August 13, 2003 Hi Is the windows driver for the tape drive disabled in the device manager? If not, try that. Do you have another disk you could try saving the catalog file on? Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted August 13, 2003 Report Share Posted August 13, 2003 Can you provide some additional information about your environment? What is the make/model of computer and SCSI card? How much memory do you have installed? Do you have the disk capacity to try a Disk backup set of your local drive? Go to Configure > Backup Set and create a new Disk backup set (which will backup to hard drive). Do a few test backups of a small data set. This will help isolate whether the problem is with the SCSI bus or with something else in the system. Does the problem happen with tape only when you've backed up the entire system? What if you backup only a subvolume (folder)? To create subvolumes: http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=kbase&ACTION=KBASE&id=27527 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaurban Posted September 29, 2003 Report Share Posted September 29, 2003 hi - Well - since I have been completely blown off by support at this point (no answers to emails I have sent in) You guys are the last hope I have. I have spent over 40 hours testing various things on this. Here's my system: Windows XP, current patchs Asus A7v366 motherboard, 2ghz AMD processor 512 MB memory 30 gb hard drive 40 gb hard drive Adaptec 2940U SCSI card (also did the same thing with a DPT I20 card) Ecrix VXA1 tape drive with current firmware. I'll have to double check my notes (not with me right now) but the disk backup worked, the tape backup always fails on every *other* backup. (that is with open file backup enabled) I can start the backup, it will get a catalog out of sync error, then I can start the backup again and it works - I don't get it. So it doesn't matter if it's the full drive or just a folder it always fails on every other backup. The backup works just fine with open file backup disabled (no errors, no problems, everything works). I have tried it on a different computer and there were no problems - so there is some software interaction that is causing the problem and I have shut down everything and it still fails. I have tried another Ecrix drive and it failed also. So it's not the drive, it's not the tapes (I've tried it on my current backup set and wiped info from another backup set to try to see if it's the tape), its not the location of the catalog files (I have moved them all over the place, different drives etc). Thoughts, ideas or support would be greatly appreciated.... thanks! Gerri Urban Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted September 29, 2003 Report Share Posted September 29, 2003 Your configuration files may be corrupted. Try temporarily removing the configuration files (config65.bak, config65.dat) from C:\Program Files\Dantz\Retrospect Launch Retrospect, enter your license code and test the backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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