Tape Capacity/compression

[33b0a8c9-9f6e-4c12-a52d-808ec109cf55]

We just upgraded from Retrospect 7.6 to 7.7. We now find that our Ultrium 920 drive (LTO-3) no longer compresses data.

 

Under 7.6 we used to get approx 600GB on a 400/800G tape, now we are down to about 380G. Compression fails when adding tapes to an existing backup set created by 7.6 or on new backup sets created by 7.7.

 

System hardware hasn't changed (Windows XP Pro, 32 Bit, SCSI Ultrium 920 via Adaptec 29160). We have also tried a full system erase and re-load to ensure there were no leftover issues/complication from previous 7.6 or other software.

 

ROXIO have suggested adding tapes to a backup set via the Storage Devices window to enable drive compression, but this doesn’t work.

 

As an added irritation, if I click the Check Media button on exit Retrospect will crash with a “run.cpp-323” error.

 

This is particularly disappointing as we have been happy Retrospect customers for years and have come to rely on and trust this product. It has never let us down until now.

 

Any thoughts or even better a solution?

[johnnymacgo]

The compression issue is a bug in V7.7. There was very good topic on it in the old forum writen by wuchem and if it comes up it was located here:

 

http://forums.dantz.com/showtopic.php?tid/34329/pid/140914/post/last/m/1/#LAST

 

The work around was to recycle the tape backup sets and before you add new member tapes to the backupset, put them in the drive first so they can be read and the add them to the backup set. This should set the "DC" flag on the tape when you look at the properties on the tape drive.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Johnny Mac

[33b0a8c9-9f6e-4c12-a52d-808ec109cf55]

The compression issue is a bug in V7.7. There was very good topic on it in the old forum writen by wuchem and if it comes up it was located here:

 

http://forums.dantz.com/showtopic.php?tid/34329/pid/140914/post/last/m/1/#LAST

 

The work around was to recycle the tape backup sets and before you add new member tapes to the backupset, put them in the drive first so they can be read and the add them to the backup set. This should set the "DC" flag on the tape when you look at the properties on the tape drive.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Johnny Mac

 

Thanks for the help, couldn't access the old Dantz forum, think it's now been killed. After a bit of experimentation and assistance from ROXIO, I can confirm that the Tape Compression is now working ok (HOWEVER it is necessary to open "Backup Set Properties" window and use "Add" from "Members" tab when you need a new tape). However, I still get a crash if I Check Media on exit.

[Cygnis]

Thanks for the help, couldn't access the old Dantz forum, think it's now been killed.

It's still alive, just painfully slow. You can still access that particular thread (and most others) via Google's cache:

 

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XRCcrohBAcIJ:forums.dantz.com/showtopic.php%3Ftid/34329/pid/141113/post/last/m/1/

 

If Mayoff or any other staff members are reading: please consider upgrading the dantz.com server, or converting its content to a faster, more useable format! There is a lot of important information in there that is currently very cumbersome to access. (I'm relying on it a lot at the moment to help plan a large migration of data from old v2/v4 backup sets.)