Can I backup a Firewire External HD to an AIT-2 Firewire Tape Drive?

[kelsey71]

Hello all, this may seem to be a silly question, but I'm new to this whole "client" thing, I've always used Express or Desktop before so pardon my ignorance.

 

I just purchased a LaCie AIT-2 External U&I Tape Drive and have it connected to my G4 Quicksilver Tower, via Firewire (in the first of 2 available FW ports). I'm on OS 10.1.5, using Retrospect Workgroup 5.0.238. I was able to backup my internal 60GB (ATAPI) hard drive flawlessly. So, now I want to backup an External LaCie Firewire Hard Drive, which is connected to the 2nd Firewire port on the back of the G4 and everytime I try to do so, it hangs after 1.5GB of data transfer and I have to force quit Retrospect.

 

I've also tried to connect the External Firewire HD via the External U&I Tape Drive (in a chain, where it still appears on the G4 Desktop) and that hangs it up as well.

 

I tried to install Client on the Ex.HD, but when I went to install it, it didn't give me the option, only the G4 internal HD was an option. I obviously don't understand this "client" thing very well, as stated earlier.

 

Another interesting note, when I tried to find out the LaCie HD manufacturer using Apple System profile, what showed up under the Firewire 80.0 area was: LaCie 1394 Disk drive LUN 0, vendor ID: do4b. The ext. HD was not visible, as if it wasn't on there. When I turned the AIT off, that didn't help either, still no Ext. HD. When I unplugged the AIT and rebooted, the Firewire 80.0 info was the same, but now at the very bottom (of the Devices and Drives Tab, Apple Sys. Profiler) there is a box which now shows the Ext. HD (FireWire 117 GB, which is the name of the drive).

Any suggestions would be helpful. Maybe I'm missing a driver or firmware update that will make this very simple, or perhaps it cannot be done. If it's not achieveable, then i'll figure out a way to workaround this and not plan out backing up the Ext. HD routinely, but I'd at least like to know one way or the other.

 

I'd like to thank anyone who responds in advance for their time and effort.

 

Apologies for posting this in the wrong section initially!

 

 

[shadowspawn]

I don't know any specific problems with your setup, so some general suggestions and comments.

 

The Retrospect client is for backing up a separate computer. Backing up an external hard drive connected to the same computer that Retrospect is running on should just work, no client required. I regularly backup an external firewire drive to a VXA tape drive on firewire (so similar to your setup, but different).

 

Rather than a driver-type problem, you might just have a dud file on your hard drive:

1) use Disk Utility (First Aid) or something similar to check your firewire drive.

2) use subvolumes or similar to arrange a backup which only includes half your external hard drive. Does that work? Then try the other half. Does that work?