natew Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 wwhigginsjr, I would guess this is just a SCSI communication problem of some kind. Error 206 can also mean that Retrospect can't read the data off the tape - i.e. bad SCSI communication damages the data as it is sent to/from the tape drive. Have you tried the basic stuff - changing cables, changing terminators, putting the SCSI adapter in a different pci slot? Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwhigginsjr Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 Nate- Thought you'd abandoned me, but thanks for responding. I have not tried anything other than updating the ATTO driver (as detailed in my post dated October 3, 2004). That worked for 4 nights. The only other troubleshooting step I've taken is trying new media, which did not eliminate the error 206. The fixes you're now suggesting are somewhat frustrating to me because they involve spending money on a new cable or terminator that I'll never use again and which may or may not solve my problem. Remember, my existing cable and terminator worked without a problem--every night--from December 2003 to June 23, 2004. I can try to put the ATTO PCI card in a different slot (that doesn't cost anything), but that will have to wait until I can take the server off-line. I'm guessing that I'll wind up replacing the tape drive, SCSI card, cable, terminator, and media with a Firewire based backup system (tapes? removable drives?). That appears to be the only way to definitively eliminate SCSI communication problems. I'd like to get more mileage out of my SCSI based backup system, but I feel a bit silly having just bought a box of new tapes that Retrospect keeps stalling on (due to the error 206). As you can tell, I'm getting the sense that Retrospect will never work reliably with SCSI devices, so I'd just be trowing good money after bad in trying to fix my current SCSI based backup system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted November 18, 2004 Report Share Posted November 18, 2004 Hey, as a member of Technical Support I truly share in your frustration with the whole SCSI thing. When it works its excellent. When it doesn't its an expensive nightmare... You are right. Everything was working for a long time and nothing has changed in the hardware. The thing is nothing changed in Retrospect either. You could try a full uninstall and reinstall of Retrospect but I think you would have the same results. Hard to believe but I have seen cables go bad "just sitting there". The weight of the cable will pull on the joint where the cable and connector meet. Over time that can cause a wire inside the cable to fail. I have also seen PCI problems on the logic board cause problems similar to this. Changing PCI slots can indeed help with that. First things first - jiggle the cables. Make sure they are not kinked at all and that they don't have any sharp bends to go around. If you can try the SCSI card and tape drive on another Mac. If the problems follow you to the new machine you can bet its a hardware issue. Hope that helps Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregory Posted November 30, 2004 Report Share Posted November 30, 2004 I'm using the Pioneer DVR-A07XLB (ie, 107D) and have had constant problems whether the drive is installed internally via the ATAPI interface, or externally via FireWire 400. I have two backup sets of my 200GB drive which died a few weeks ago. one of the sets uses eBlue TAPE 8x DVD+R discs and the other (incomplete) uses Imation 8x DVD+R discs. the sets were verified on separate occasions after backup. it has been a very frustrating experience. the OS X Finder can always mount the discs from the backup set and I can always open and read the Retrospect RETRO_DATA_ files in Session 1 Track 1 (DVD data courtesy of Dragon Burn). I can even extract the backup data from Session 1 Track 2 using Dragon Burn without incident. in Retrospect, it's a different story. during Restoration, many times, the discs are listed as Erased or "incompatible". when the discs are correctly recognised, Retrospect begins to read the discs and restore the data. randomly throughout the operation, Retrospect will report a 206 error and stop the Restore. I scripted the Restore operation so I simply restart the Restore from the Run menu every time it stops. so far, I have managed to restore data from 34 of the 38 discs using this method. the data is there. Retrospect simply has difficulty seeing it. Retrospect reports a Pioneer Sense error each time, and the sense code is usually the same: Sense > 70 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 03 00 00 00 00 googling for tips, I've come across other reports of sense codes similar to this. it represents a COmmunications logic error. in the Windows world, people are advised to turn off "DMA" for the drive, or delete "LowFilters" and "HighFilters". I have no idea how to do this with OS X. so I am left wondering if Mac OS X is in some way involved. Retrospect generated far more 206 errors after I updated to 10.3.6. the errors were there for 10.3.5 but just not as many. all of my other DVD burning apps have no problems with the drive including iDVD (DVD-R), Finder (DVD-R), Dragon Burn (DVD+R) and Discribe (DVD+R). is it possible that Retrospect is using special writing techniques to write to the drive and these are being affected by OS X low level drivers? is it possible that FireWire 400 and ATAPI are not quick enough for the A07XLB drive, causing data buffer errors during writing and reading? one day, Dantz is going to announce to the world that it has solved the 206 problem and we'll all celebrate (although we'll have to pay for the resultant upgrade). I'd like to think it will happen soon but... Gregory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlee Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 I found this thread via google. I, too, am having major "error 206" troubles. I bought an Iomega REV FireWire drive recently, and it came with Retrospect Express. I downloaded the latest driver from Iomega and I checked Dantz's site for the latest version of Retrospect. I am running OS 10.3.8 on an 800 MHz iMac. I zeroed all my REV disks before using them for EasyScript backups. A lot of times, Retrospect hangs in the middle of copying files. I've had to force quit more times than I can count. Other times I'll get the dreaded error 206 message. In the four months that I've had this drive, Retrospect has probably only been able to successfully run a backup script about 4 times. That's pretty pathetic, and I'm getting really frustrated. I've read the threads on this post, but I'm not sure what I can do with my setup. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwilk Posted February 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Are you using it as a "Removable Disk" or as a "File"? Which version of OEM Express? 6.0.193? Does repairing permissions help any? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlee Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 I'm using a "Removable Disk". The Device Access Version is 1.0.105 and the Driver Update Version is 6.1.102. I'll try repairing the permissions on my hard drive and try running Retrospect Express again. I'll post the results. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwilk Posted February 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 Download the latest Dantz update. It should give you version 6.0.204 and Device Access Version 1.0.106. Also, even though it should work as you describe, give it a go with using a file on the drive. If it works that way, you know has a problem with the drive. Otherwise, it might be a problem with Retrospect as it crawls through your harddrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlee Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give it a shot and report back when I have this issue resolved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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