Can't kill Retrospect engine

[twickland]

I'm currently running Retrospect 8.2 (399). This morning I had a problem with my Mac Pro unrelated to Retrospect, for which I rebooted. I didn't have the Console open and so was not aware that Retrospect was running a tape backup at the time (backups are usually completed long before I arrive in the morning). I only realized this when the tape in the drive didn't rewind as usual during the shutdown, but instead began to write data. I left the computer alone and after about an hour, presumably when the backup finished, my Mac completed its restart.

 

Since that time, things have not been the same. Upon startup, two RetroEngine processes are launched (with consecutive PIDs), with predictably bad results, such as the inability to see the tape drive in the console. Stopping the engine in its preference pane kills the first process but not the second. If I try to force quit this second RetroEngine process in Activity Monitor or kill it in Terminal, a new RetroEngine process is immediately spawned, as is the case with all subsequent attempts to kill the process. The good news is that the newly-spawned engine, probably because there is now only one RetroEngine process, seems to communicate properly with the console, and backups seem to run normally.

 

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the engine (after Safe Boot), and reverting to a recent copy of Config80, all to no avail. At this point, I'm beginning to suspect either that there is some Retrospect-related file somewhere that is not being deleted in the uninstall or overwritten in the reinstall, or that something in the OS or Finder has gotten hosed (perhaps in relation to my other issue, which was that iTunes wouldn't fully launch after updating it this morning via Software Update). Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.