Chickenhead Posted September 9, 2004 Report Share Posted September 9, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted September 10, 2004 Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickenhead Posted September 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 Thanks Nate. Useful info, even if it's not entirely encouraging! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwilk Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 My Pioneer DVR-106D used to work, but now it does not. Its listed as compatible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjroberts Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 My Dual G5 2.5 came with a PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D. Retrospect 6 with Driver Update 5.7.104 does work with it ... but V E R Y S L O O O O W L Y !!! because either the drive does not support packet writing, or Dantz does not know it supports it. Am I disappointed? Need one ask? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted September 28, 2004 Report Share Posted September 28, 2004 Hi Did you run the auto-configuration or did Retrospect see the drive on its own? The drive is not officially supported at the moment. You may have better luck with different media types. Thanks nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason3142 Posted September 28, 2004 Report Share Posted September 28, 2004 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.... ( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted September 29, 2004 Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 Hi Please post the details about this device as listed in the configure->devices->environment menu in Retrospect. We may be able to get some more information for you. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason3142 Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 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 I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_lunarcode Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 I just bought a Dual 2.0 GHz G5, and Retrospect 5.1 does not work reliably with the internal Pioneer DVR-107D SuperDrive, even though Retrospect was able to configure the drive. In the compatibility list, my drive shows up Qualified for Windows, but Not Tested for Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_lunarcode Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 I purchased a spindle of Memorex DVD-R media. I have not yet tried the Retrospect 6.0 trial. System Profiler reports that my drive is the Pioneer DVR-107D, Revision A707. Is Dantz continuing to update the driver for Retrospect 5.1? Thanks for your help, Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted November 18, 2004 Report Share Posted November 18, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsalda Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 I've got the 107D and it works fine with DVD-R, but not +R. I wish Dantz would hurry up and start officially supporting this drive, since it has shipped with so many G5s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgtyoder Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P15D24 Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 in a 2.5 G5. When will we see a driver update ? Both CD and DVD fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveseeley Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveseeley Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 Hi The HL drives are Hitachi I believe. The 107D is not a variant of this drive to the best of my knowledge. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveseeley Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 Nate....should I swap the new G5 drive Hitachi with my 107d 8x drive? Is that one blessed by Dantz for a G5? Thanks Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted December 9, 2004 Report Share Posted December 9, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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