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Backup to Firewire CD-R


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My tape backup is temporarily out of commission. (It's out for repairs.) But while I'm suffering without it, I need to do some backups. The only viable option I've been able to think of is to make use of my CD-RW for important backups until I get the tape drive back.

 

 

 

But there's one small problem... Retrospect doesn't seem to be able to see the CD-RW drive, even though Toast has no problem seeing it.

 

 

 

Here's my configuration:

 

 

 

PowerMac 8600/300

 

VST Firewire/USB card

 

APS Technologies (LaCie) CDBP-161040A CD-RW drive

 

Mac OS 9.0.4

 

Retrospect 4.3

 

Toast Titanium 5.1.2

 

Firewire Enabler 2.5

 

 

 

The Retrospect SDAP Support extension IS installed.

 

 

 

I also have a PowerBook G4 I can try, though it's configured as a Retrospect client and I'm a little leary of moving the full version of Retrospect to it.

 

 

 

Any suggestions?

 

 

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I checked the list of supported drives. There are exactly three LaCie firewire CD-R drives in the list and they are all older 8x drives which are no longer available! Isn't there a better answer than "Sorry, you're SOL"? How about having Retrospect "preflight" an available CD-R drive to see if it will work correctly without having to wait for Dantz's overwhelmed compatibility lab to get around to adding particular models?

 

 

 

My experience with tape drives is that they're the most unreliable piece of computer equipment available. Unfortunately, there's no more reliable system available that can match the pure capacity of tape. Given tape's (apparent) inherent unreliability, doesn't it make sense to be able to have a backup system available for when (not if) the primary backup system goes down? CD-R seems to be the logical choice for temporary backups while a tape drive is being repaired. But in order for CD-R to be a viable emergency option, Retrospect's support for CD-R must be much better than only supporting drives which are no longer available.

 

 

 

End Rantcolor=red>

 

 

 

So what can I do about the fact that I need to do backups and my tape drive is temporarily unavailable? Buying more equipment is not an option right now.

 

 

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