subsea Posted April 8, 2002 Report Share Posted April 8, 2002 Is the VST SmartDisk Firewire CD-R/W that Apple gave away with the original PowerBook G4 undergoing compatibility testing? So far, the inability of Retrospect to recognize this drive is the only thing keeping me from upgrading to the latest version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lv2ski Posted April 8, 2002 Report Share Posted April 8, 2002 This drive is not supported with Retrospect at this time. Dantz goes through a rigorous qualification process with every drive we test. This means that not every drive will be qualified and we can never guarantee that a particular device will be supported. For a list of the drives that are currently compatible with Retrospect software, please check our device compatibility guide at: www.dantz.com/hardware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 10, 2002 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2002 I understand that this drive is not on the list of qualified drives. What I'd really like to know is whether that is because it failed Dantz' tests, because it hasn't been tested, or because it is still in testing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lv2ski Posted April 11, 2002 Report Share Posted April 11, 2002 Still in testing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 11, 2002 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2002 Thanks, that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsaddler Posted June 9, 2002 Report Share Posted June 9, 2002 I am extremely annoyed with Dantz in its response to this issue (support for VST SmartDrive Firewire CD-RW). I have exchanged several emails with tech support, every time getting the canned "rigorous testing, can't say when, just keep checking" response. I finally wrote a letter to the CEO, and eventually got a reply from him which said that the drive was still being tested and would be supported by the end of April and they would notify me then. Since then, I've heard nothing, and the drive still isn't supported. Dantz should understand that the worst thing they can do when people start asking legitimate questions is to clam up. I read through a bunch of posts on this list, and it's absurd... one "rigorous testing, can't say when, just keep checking" message after another, but no actual information. I bought Retrospect Express before verifying that it supported this drive -- like many others, I assumed that since Apple was shipping it and every other software package supports it, it would work. That's why I hadn't asked for my money back yet. But now, having been lied to for six months by Dantz, I'm going to. I'll let folks know what happens. Harry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted June 10, 2002 Report Share Posted June 10, 2002 This drive is in testing, still. Although we are trying hard to qualify it, please understand that not all drives will be qualified, and of those that are, some take a while. Yes it's frustrating. That's why we recommend that you check the compatibility list before making a purchase that may not immediately, or possibly ever, suit your backup needs. If we encouter a problem in the testing process that requires us to rewrite a driver, that can increase the time it takes for a device to be supported. If we run into a problem and we need to work with the vendor of the drive to help them implement standard packet-writing commands better and/or to write and release drivers, that can increase the time it takes for a device to be supported. If a company switches out the mechanism of a drive or changes the specs without telling us, it needs to be requalified from scratch, which means one incarnation of a drive may be supported well before others. That being said, during testing with this drive, Dantz has encounted multiple failures. We cannot release a driver for a device until we are sure that it is 100% reliable for backup and restore. This drive does not currently meet that requirement. You indicated that you wrote to the CEO with a request for information. It is our policy not to release potential dates of qualification. Because of the nature of drive testing, we can never predict when or if a drive will ever be qualified. We apologize if the information you received was misleading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimclt Posted June 12, 2002 Report Share Posted June 12, 2002 I second that...this is a tremendous CD-RW, and Firewire is the wave of the future -- Dantz, my check is in the mail as soon as you recognize the VST SmartDisk FIrewire!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stroft Posted July 8, 2002 Report Share Posted July 8, 2002 I purchased the VST FWCDRW-V8, which uses a Teac CD-W28E mechanism, on the basis of searching for Teac and FireWire CDRW in the hardware search engine, which sent me to this URL: http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=compatibility_list_detail&id=762 This page says the drive IS QUALIFIED for MacOS, and I upgraded my copy of Retrospect Express from 4.3 to 5.0 for compatibility. Nevertheless, I was unable to get the drive to show up in the available storage devices list. It appeared only under device status. According the the Dantz website, this is indicative of an unsupported drive. I finally turned to the support forums and the most recent post regarding this drive shows that it is NOT supported. I feel that I've been duped and that I should get a refund for my upgrade. I can return the drive to the vendor for a refund, but I'm out of pocket for shipping both ways, plus restocking. This is over and above the hours I wasted trying to make this work. The sour taste from this is in stark contrast to my many years as a satisfied user of Retrospect with SCSI tape drives. Listing this drive as supported is inexcusable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted July 8, 2002 Report Share Posted July 8, 2002 The VST SmartDisk FWCDRW-V8 is fully qualified for use with Retrospect. At the time of my last posting, 6/11/2002, this drive was _unqualified_. It has since passed all testing and is now supported with the latest driver update files, available from: www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=download_software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stroft Posted July 9, 2002 Report Share Posted July 9, 2002 Thank you. I was finally able to make a backup of my hard drive today. I'll sleep better tonight. I have a couple of suggestions that may improve your support and your customers' satisfaction. If a driver update plug-in is required for compatibility with a particular mechanism, there should be a notice of that fact on the result page returned by the hardware compatibility search engine. That page should also have a link to the plug-in. This simple change to your website would save many users many hours of frustration. The compatibility search results have to be updated when a drive is certified, so why not include the plug-in link? To be really cool and friendly, add the date of certification. Threads relating to a particular drive's (in)compatibility should be updated when a plug-in becomes available and a drive is certified as compatible. By the way, I see the driver update file was last modified on June 7. When was the testing completed on this drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted July 9, 2002 Report Share Posted July 9, 2002 Thank you for the suggestions. We do actually have all required information listed for qualified drives. Clicking on the link for the device from the search engine will take you to the following page (specific to your device): www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=compatibility_list_detail&id=766 You will see that RDU 2.8 is required for use with this drive. Our current RDU is 3.0. We don't have a link from the detail page to the actual RDU download, but it's a great idea, and one I will submit as a suggestion. This drive finished qualification testing on June 11th. In some cases, drives will pass qualification with existing driver update files, not requiring a new RDU to be released. However, until testing has been fully completed, we cannot anticipate or predict whether or not this will be the case or even whether the drive will ever be supported. Unfortunately, with hundreds of drives in question and thousands of threads, it is not possible to manage the forum in such a way as to update old threads. The Device Search Engine is always going to be the most up to date source of information as to whether a device is supported. www.dantz.com/hardware Thank you again for the suggestions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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