af554a29-ffce-4f87-af32-920c2ead3f23 Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 I just started using Retrospect 8 for Mac last week. The first several back ups have gone off without a hitch. I'm using a single workstation for all back ups - there's no server. I'm wondering, however, where Retrospect is storing the Media Set information and whether that is a file I should be backing up? What happens if my back up workstation crashes and I have to re-install Restrospect? Can it create new Media Set information off the tapes (if so I'm guessing that would be a very slow process)? Lastly - is the information written to the tapes in a proprietary Retrospect format or will other applications be able to read and pull the data off? If 10 years from now there's another backup program that is light years ahead of Retrospect - will I be able to switch to it and still read the data off my tapes without re-backing up every single tape? Just curious. Thank you. Don Hertz AC Media Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve Maser Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 All the primary information about your Retrospect configuration is located at: /Library/Application Support/Retrospect/Config80.dat It's strongly recommended you back up that file every so often (to an external drive is a good idea) in case you need to restore your configuration. And, yes, the backed-up data is written in a proprietary format. If you switch programs, you will likely be unable to read the data off the tape (I guess, hypothetically, if "Retrospect" wasn't around in 10 years and the assets were sold of and some other company bought the intellectual property, etc, then *maybe* there might be a way to do this.) But I wouldn't count on it. You could always restore from the tapes to external drives and then rebackup what you restored to new tapes with your other program, I guess... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 I'm wondering, however, where Retrospect is storing the Media Set information I think the answer is "where you saved it". I can't remember where Retrospect suggest you save it. whether that is a file I should be backing up? Yes, that is a good idea. You need another media set for that: You can't backup to "itself". What happens if my back up workstation crashes and I have to re-install Restrospect? Can it create new Media Set information off the tapes (if so I'm guessing that would be a very slow process)? Yes, you can recreate from tapes. In the Windows version you can select "Fast catalog rebuild" and I think there is a similar option on the Mac version. That way you can recreate the whola catalog file from just the last tape. Lastly - is the information written to the tapes in a proprietary Retrospect format Yes.I don't know of any backup software that does NOT use a proprietary format. If 10 years from now there's another backup program that is light years ahead of Retrospect - will I be able to switch to it and still read the data off my tapes without re-backing up every single tape? 10 years from now, you can probably not even get the hardware to read your tapes. So you must move the contents to the future backup format of choise anyway. Example: I had a lot of reel-to-reel analog audio tapes. Digital was the future, so I got myself a DAT (Digital Audio Tape) recorder. As sson as I transferred all my analog tapes to DAT, the DAT recorders vanished from the (home audio) market. Luckily, my DAT player is still working, so I have now transferred all contents to audio CDs. Now the audio CDs are (more or less) an endangered spieces, so I will have to make a move again in 5-10 years time. But to what? I don't know yet. Probably I will rip them and keep on a large hard drive. But in which format? AIFF? Apple Lossless? FLAC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f30e6e60-a263-4d69-8f60-c92703669308 Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 where Retrospect is storing the Media Set information and whether that is a file I should be backing up? A Media Set is the "set" of Catalog file and media Member(s). As Lennart points out, all the information about a Catalog is also written to the media Member(s), so can be recreated if necessary. You can also use an old copy of a Catalog as a starting point for a rebuild, which only then needs to update the file to be current. Default save location is (IIRC) /Library/Application Support/Retrospect/Catalogs So yes, backup your Catalog file(s) often. There are lots of ways, such as a Copy script, which is not a Media Set and needs no Catalog of its own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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