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Will Retrospect work with a G5 CD-RW?


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I'm about to buy a new Power Mac G5. Will Retrospect back up reliably onto CD-RW using this machine? I have searched the compatibility list without success, and Apple's site does not specify which device is shipped with current G5 models.

Is this a sensible backup strategy? Or should I buy (eg) a second hard drive to backup onto? Currently I use zip discs (just backing up a single machine).

Thanks

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Hi

 

There are so many drives that ship in Macs its hard to tell what works and what doesn't. Some superdrives work fine with Retrospect, others fail miserably.

 

Personally I am a fan of backing up to external HD. Its fast and easy and you don't have to manage tons of disks all the time. I do a montly backup to CD and then do my everyday backups to hard disk.

 

Thanks

Nate

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a 2.5 G5 with an LG superdrive.

 

I had to run auto-configuration to get retrospect 6 to see drive, but I still have problems.

 

It starts writing to the drive but gets stuck on the sixth file to backup, and just sits there pretending to work.

 

I am not a happy chappy, but dont know if this is an apple or dantz problem (I blame apple for changing drive types - my 2.0 G5 had a pioneer drive)

 

----

 

I am sure life use to be easier.... blush.gif(

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  • 1 month later...

This is my machines DVD-RW

 

HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4082B:

 

Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST

Model: HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4082B

Revision: C039

Serial Number: K2G496H5044

Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW

Disc Burning: Apple Supported/Shipped

Removable Media: Yes

Detachable Drive: No

Protocol: ATAPI

Unit Number: 0

Socket Type: Internal

 

Any help appreciated... or will this latest update work with this drive?

 

I am downloading now blush.gifI

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi

 

Even though the drive is still a 107D, Apple usually uses a variant of standard drive mechanisms in its built in drives. In other words, even though Retrospect supports a number of 107D devices for Mac, the one in your G5 may be just different enough to cause problems.

 

Some of the 107 drives Dantz supports do not work with CD or DVD+R/RW media. What brand and type of media have you used so far?

 

The 107 drives that are supported have native driver support in Retrospect 6.0 with the recent driver updates. It seems that the minimum required driver update changes depending on the drive vendor. That may mean there are a few versions of this drive out there.

 

Have you tried the trial version of Retrospect 6.0 to see if you have better results?

 

Thanks

Nate

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Hi

 

Dantz is no longer releasing updated drivers for Retrospect 5.1.

 

None of the device records I can find mention that revision number. The firmware revisions I see are 1.05 to 1.09. I have heard that there are even updates up to 1.5x but that must be a different version of this drive altogether.

 

Have you ever tried other brands of media? How about DVD-RW?

 

Thanks

Nate

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I needed to do a firmware upgrade on the 107D (I think it was that model) to get it to work with +RW media. The only catch is, you need to install the DVDRW drive in a PC, as Pioneer does not have Mac updaters. Then again, your firmware rev number sounds like it may be an Apple-specific rev which doesn't match the usual aftermarket drives. Check Pioneer's web site for firmware updates - that's your best bet right now.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Add me to the 4082b list. New dual 2.5 G5. Just tried to do a configure. Let it run "reading media type" for 5 hours, then forcequit which froze my machine....and brought me here.

 

I'm on retrospect 6.0 which I upgraded to so I could use it with Panther on my then quicksilver mac. My scsi drive was on an adaptec 2940b (mac oem) and invisible to retrospect after the OS upgrade. Couldn't find any way other than by a $350 atto scsi card (one of the very few dantz supported) that might work so I dropkicked, decided to back up only one working folder, and bought a $100 pioneer dvr107d....which occassionally burned the full 4.3gb on a 4x disk, but more often stalled "device busy" and burned less than 2gb per disk. At first I thought it was because I was running itunes (nothing else) and that may have reduced the stall incidents, but then I got more of them while running nothing else. That was my hobbled retrospect life till now.

 

OK...new day. Just got a new dual G5.... Just bought a new atto ld4s pci-x because it appears to be one of two scsi pci-x cards currently available, and now I need to figure how to get my external std5000 sony dds-3 tape drive connected. The external connector is 68pin, and my drive is centronics 50 pin. There are cables that make the conversion....but I saw in the compatible card section that there can be issues with that. Any advice there?

 

I currently appear to be worse off than my hobbled pioneer dvd-r days because my new drive is invisible. Should I swap if for the pioneer 107d I had in the quicksilver? Any help?

 

Thanks!

 

Dave

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Nate.....are upi saying that the G5 HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4082B drive is a variant of the pioneer 107d?

 

Quote:

Hi

 

Even though the drive is still a 107D, Apple usually uses a variant of standard drive mechanisms in its built in drives. In other words, even though Retrospect supports a number of 107D devices for Mac, the one in your G5 may be just different enough to cause problems.

 

Some of the 107 drives Dantz supports do not work with CD or DVD+R/RW media. What brand and type of media have you used so far?

 

The 107 drives that are supported have native driver support in Retrospect 6.0 with the recent driver updates. It seems that the minimum required driver update changes depending on the drive vendor. That may mean there are a few versions of this drive out there.

 

Have you tried the trial version of Retrospect 6.0 to see if you have better results?

 

 

Thanks

Nate

 


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Hi

 

This is where it gets really sticky...

Dantz doesn't test other ATAPI drives on macs, only the ones that come built in. There is a reason for this but I don't know it off hand.

 

If swapping the drives is easy and cheap then I would try it. Specifically, if you already own the other drive its worth a shot. If you need to go buy a drive to do this then I wouldn't.

 

It looks like the 107d is supported with DVD-R and DVD-RW media only.

 

Hope that helps

 

Nate

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