back up freeze

[johncassel]

Hello,

 

I am trying to back up my 60GB Maxtor HD using Retrospect Express 5.6.127 on my OnStream 30GB (actually 13 GB) USB tape drive. This back up has run successfully in the past but it has also crashed in the past. Last night after tape #3 (of 4) the back up locked up and I had to use the Windows (2000 Pro, SP2) Task Manger to shut down the program.

 

 

 

As I mentioned, this has happened before and it is disappointing and troublesome. Last night it happend in the middle of the night while there were no other programs running.

 

 

 

I have three questions.

 

 

 

1) What can I do to prevent or minimize the chance of Retrospect Express from locking up?

 

 

 

2) Running a backup seems to slow my computer. I'd like to be able to stop a backup in the middle of the backup, work on my computer for a while and then resume the backup. It would be nice if I could run one backup tape per night and work on my computer during the day. Can I use the Stop Button on the Immediate Backup window to stop the backup, shut down Retrospect and then resume the backup later?

 

 

 

3) I'm running v 5.6.127. The last update that I ran was v2.7. I have downloaded v2.8. Is there any advantage to upgrading to version 5.6.132? How can I upgrade to version 5.6.132?

 

 

 

OK, that was four questions.

 

Thank you,

 

John

[lv2ski]

1) Make sure you are using the latest firmware for the Onstream drive. 1.09 I believe is the latest.

 

2) Yes. If you stop a backup, it will continue where it left off after you restart it....

 

3) 5.6.132 has a fix for Travan tape drives and how they work with XP. That is it. No other difference. The Trial is version 5.6.132. You could download that and then drop your config files into the trial version....to make it a full verison if you really want version .132.

 

 

[johncassel]

Yesterday Retrospect had frozen after ejecting a tape. None of the controls worked and I eventually used Task Manager to end the program and then I rebooted the machine. As the tape had been ejected before Retrospect froze I assume that the catolog had been updated as to what point the backup had been sucessfully completed.

 

 

 

After I restarted the machine I open Retrospect and started the backup using the next tape in the series. During the backup to that next tape the backup froze again. This was similar to the freeze that I had written about in my first post in that it was tape 3 of 4. It would seem that it was most of the way through the the tape when it froze. This time I was able to hit the stop button but after that all of the program controls are greyed out or not reponding. I am able to open the log and help menus but nothing else responds. It would seem that the program is frozen again. Task Manager reports that the program is running.

 

 

 

It would seem that I'll need to have to use the Task Manager to end Retrospect again.

 

 

 

1) Do I need to start the whole backup over again at tape #1 or is there a way that I can check the catolog to see where the backup left off and then resume the backup with tape #3?

 

 

 

2) Is there a way to diagnose why Retrospect is freezing up?

 

 

 

3) Can you tell me how to check the firmware version of my OnStream drive?

 

 

 

Thank you,

 

John

[lv2ski]

1) Do I need to start the whole backup over again at tape #1 or is there a way that I can check the catalog to see where the backup left off and then resume the backup with tape #3?

 

 

 

It will resume on #3. (Provided it can continue on that tape, otherwise it will continue where it left off on tape #4).

 

 

 

2) Is there a way to diagnose why Retrospect is freezing up?

 

To show that the error is related to you hardware you can do a file backup set. If you do a file backup set, without any problems, then it shows that it is a device commutation issue with your tape drive. If you don’t have any issues doing the file backup set to the local hard drive then continue with the error 102 troubleshooting steps (same as a freeze or hang) found at www.dantz.com/knowledgebase.

 

If you do have issues doing both a file backup set and a tape backup set then run disk utilities on the source volume that you are backing up. There may be some drive corruption that is causing the commutation problem. As a last resort - there is most likely a hardware configuration issue or hardware communication issue going on with-in your OS.

 

 

 

3) Can you tell me how to check the firmware version of my OnStream drive?

 

Configure/Devices/Environment tab. Under there - the Version column is the Firmware.