1% compression!

[WisdomPubs]

Hello,

 

 

 

Has anyone else experienced dismal software data compression in Retrospect 5? I'm running Version 5.0.201 on a MacOS X 10.1.3 machine using a Travan "20" Gig drive (uses 10 gig tapes which should hold 20 gigs at full compression). The Travan does not have hardware compression but relies on Retrospect. Under Retrospect 4.* on MacOS 9 I could fit about 17 Gigs on a tape. Now I can fit 12 Gigs on a 10 gig tape. I've tried two tapes, one of them brand new! Here's the dismal summary:

 

 

 

3.2 Gigs of a MacOS X user machine at 30% compression

 

9.0 Gigs of a MacOS 9 user machine at 20% compression

 

1.7 Gigs of a MacOS 9 user machine at 22% compression

 

8.0 Gigs of a MacOS 9 server at 27% compression

 

2.3 Gigs of the MacOS X Retrospect Server at 1% compression

 

 

 

Yuck. Anyone else experience this?

 

 

 

Ben

[Slaroye]

I have encountered another very perplexing issue... it appears that either the data being written to my LaCie AIT Autoloader (via Adaptec 39160 dual channel SCSI card) is not being compressed or there is an error occurring making Retro think the tapes are full. I ran a new script with recycled tapes and after one full run and one additional incremental backup, all four 35 gig tapes are full. Each 35 gig tape gives me 72 compressed storage which used to give me 1 month worth of data backup with Retro 4.3.

 

 

 

If it did not take many hours to revert back to 4.3, I would do it at this point as I am getting a lot of "Bad Backup Header" errors.

 

 

[Slaroye]

UPDATE!!

 

 

 

After following a lot of the threads here in the Forum, I now am able to run (somewhat) fast, reliable backups of my OS 9 and OS X clients with my LaCie AIT Autoloader on an Adaptec 39160 SCSI card. I began with reverting back to the Apple supplied Adaptec v1.0 driver which cleared all the bad backup header errors (I had installed v1.1 previously) and my autoloader weirdness, and I deselected compression in my scripts as my hardware has built-in compression. I still have very poor compression compared to what I had with Retro 4.3!! I also - still - cannot backup my ASIP Server... I know Dantz, Apple and the gang are all working on this.

 

 

 

I must admit that after a lot of frustration (especially lost $$$ and time) Retrospect remains the best backup software for the Mac. I have used it reliably for years without issues, at all. Obviously with Mac OS X, much has gotten more complicated especially the number and types of user system configs... I would not want to be in Dantz's shoes. Keep up the good work!!