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Qualified Dvd Drive Not Recognised


kmcmahon

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Following a PC upgrade, Retrospect wouldn't recognise my DVD drive. So I swapped it for a Pioneer DVR-106D. The DVR106 is listed as qualified. I still don't see the new drive in the Storage Devices list. I tried installing a trial version of retrospect on my MacBook and after a lot of messing around got it to recognize the SuperDrive, but it can't read the data on my PC backed up DVDs. I've even tried running Retrospect for Windows on my MacBook using Parallels Desktop, but no joy there either - the DVD drive doesn't show up in the Storage Devices panel.

 

I'm getting pretty desparate now to access this archived data. I think the simplest solution would probably be to buy an external USB DVD drive. Can somebody recommend one that works? There are no USB 2 DVD writers listed on the device support page.

 

I have to say I think Roxio's support for this product, for which I paid £129 for v6 plus upgrade to v7 is poor. It shouldn't be necessary to search Ebay for 7-year old DVD drives to work with current software. At the very least, why can't they update the help links to point to relevant info rather than moribund EMC, Dantz and Iomega websites?

 

Any help much appreciated.

 

Ken

 

PC setup

Intel P4 2.0GHz

Windows Vista Business

Pioneer DVR-106D

Retrospect 7.6.123, Driver update and hotfix version 7.6.3.102

 

Mac setup

MacBook Pro 2GHz Intel Core i7

MacOs Lion 10.7.1

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898 (SuperDrive)

Parallels Desktop 7.0.14920

Windows 7 Professional

Retrospect 7.6.111

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(Note: I am not familiar with v7.6 specifically, but will try to help based on my experience with v7.7.)

 

Have you tried clicking the "Environment" tab in "Storage Devices"? Does either drive show up then?

 

If so, try selecting the device, then clicking the "Configure Optical Drive" button above the list. You'll need a blank disc of whatever media you intend to use (e.g. DVD+R) to run the configuration process. As far as I know, you'll need one of each type if you intend to use multiple types (e.g. DVD+R and DVD-R and CD-R). This process isn't supposed to be necessary for qualified drives, but from memory, some users have had to do it to get theirs working.

 

If the drive doesn't show up in "Environment", then there may be a deeper problem. Is it showing up and working fine in other software (and the Windows Explorer)?

 

Did your PC upgrade involve re-installing Windows and/or Retrospect?

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Hi Cygnis,

 

Thanks for the quick response. No the drive doesn't show up in the Environment tab either, but it's visible in Windows Explorer and works fine otherwise. The upgrade PC has a different Case, motherboard, processor and DVD drive, The Hard drives are from the old PC, so same OS, applications etc.

 

Ken.

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The next thing I would try would be to start Retrospect with a new set of preferences. Here is the process:

 

(1) Write down your Retrospect license code (found in Configure -> Licenses), then exit Retrospect.

 

(2) Find the Retrospect settings folder. On my computers, it is a folder called "Retrospect" in one of the following locations:

- Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\

- Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\

- (I don't know about Vista, but I assume it would be the same as Win7)

 

(3) Move this folder to somewhere else, e.g. your Desktop.

 

(4) Start Retrospect, entering your license code when prompted.

 

(5) Try looking in "Storage Devices" again (including the Environment tab), and see if the drive is now visible.

 

If the drive is now visible, you'll unfortunately need to re-configure your Volumes, Scripts, etc. and re-add your Backup Sets, as these settings were all defined in the Retrospect folder we moved. But at least you'll (hopefully) be able to use and access the drive. (Note: There may be a better alternative, involving moving only a specific preference file so that you don't have to re-do everything, but I'm not familiar enough with the inner workings of the program to know which file(s) that would be. You could wait and see if someone more experienced chimes in with a suggestion, if you'd rather not go through the process of re-configuring everything.)

 

If the drive is still not visible, you have the option of restoring your previous settings by shutting down Retrospect, then copying the original "Retrospect" folder back to its previous location (over-writing the new one that will have been created). Or, you could try un-installing and re-installing Retrospect, to see if the drive will show up then. If you do this, I would suggest leaving the backed-up "Retrospect" settings folder on your Desktop, then copying your folder of catalog files to the Desktop as well (usually a folder called "Retrospect Catalog Files" in my Documents), before proceeding to uninstall.

 

If this still doesn't work, you could try installing a trial version of Retrospect 7.7.

 

I hope one of the above suggestions works! Good luck.

Edited by Cygnis
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Thanks again, but no luck with that. I did discover something though. When looking for the preferences folder I found an older install of Retrospect 6.5. When I run this it still says no backup devices found in the Status panel of Storage Devices, BUT the drive is there on the Environment tab with ID 1:0. However, when I try to configure it I get 'Retrospect has encountered a serious error: Assertion failure at "module.cpp-457".

 

One thing I didn't mention before, though it now appears it might be relevant is that in the Envronment tab of Storage Devices in Retrospect 7.6 I get a listing of device ID 1:0:0 but the Vendor, Product and version columns are filled with bullet points (like a password field). The configure option is greyed for this.

 

Might try and re-install 6.5 and see if I get anywhere with that.

 

Ken

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No problem. Glad to hear you've made some progress by finding the v6.5 install. :)

 

I did a quick search of the Retrospect hardware database for "106", and found two entries:

Pioneer DVR-106

Pioneer DVR-106 (Apple version) (not qualified under Windows)

 

Maybe the drive you bought was the Apple version? Not sure what the difference is, but if it's just firmware, you might be able to flash it to a non-Apple version.

 

Also, did you check the "Environment" tab when you had the new DVD drive installed? Or only with the DVR-106? Maybe the new drive can be auto-configured from the Environment tab.

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I think it's impossible to tell which version of the drive I have and with it being a relic, I've also not been able to locate any trustworthy firmware updates. Tried re-installing 6.5 but get the same error. I think that 6.5 install initially ran under XP and is a bit wobbly on Vista.. At least it can see the drive so the only option for me now is to back everything up on that PC (not using retrospect, obviously) and do a fresh install of XP, then install 6.5 and see if that works. I've got no confidence whatsoever that 7.7 will make any difference, but might be worth a try first. Another interesting thing I've discovered is that the same bulleted info appears for the DVR drive on my mac as on the PC. Who knows?

 

Ken

 

BTW Yes, I tried everything with the new drive, but no luck. All I'm interested in doing now is getting this data off the DVDs so I can forget about Retrospect forever!

Edited by kenmcmahon
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So I downloaded the Retrospect 8 for Mac trial to see if I could get anywhere with that. The readme says

 

Optical device support is deactivated in this release. Optical device support will be reactivated in a future release. To enable optical device support, understanding that the user interface for interacting with optical devices may not be polished or complete, please refer to the Retrospect Knowledgebase. http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=9720&p=2.

 

So $129 for a backup program that can't use optical disks. But wait it says you can re-activate, nope that link is broken. If anyone from Roxio is reading this do you have any comment? Or is this the usual standard of support your users can expect?

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Yeah, a backup and re-installation of Windows seems like the logical next step, albeit a pretty big one to have to take. :( Maybe a 'repair' installation would help, as a potentially less time-intensive alternative to a full re-installation (unless you already repaired after changing the motherboard). But there's no guarantee that will work either. In any case, backing up the current system first (as you have suggested) is a sensible idea.

 

I wonder if the presence of both v6.5 and v7.6 could be causing some sort of conflict?

 

There are USB DVD drives listed as being compatible, but unfortunately the search function of the Hardware database is broken, making them hard to find. I complained about this last week; no response so far (although admittedly, I have only complained on this forum, and not to Roxio Support directly):

http://forums.support.roxio.com/topic/77047-device-support-database/

 

Anyway, I have no idea whether such a drive would help.

 

Well, that's about all I can think of. I hope you get it working! If you do, it would be great to hear what did the trick, if you have the time/inclination.

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Success! The 7.7 update can see the drive and works fine. End of problem. What would be great is if I could get Retrospect working on the Macbook under parallels. 7.7 can see the Matsushita (Panasonic) drive, but won't configure it, at least not with the DV+RW media I've been using. Anyway, I'm very pleased to be able to access all my archives and that'll do for now. Thanks for all your efforts Gygnis.

 

Ken

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