When will the problems with 6.0 be fixed?

[WNewall]

I'm evaluating Retrospect 6 for MacOs X. I've found quite a few problems, some of which I've reported to this forum.

 

What I can't see anywhere is some information from Dantz that they are actively working on fixing the problems I've found (or what seems to be the fairly large number of problems that others have found).

 

It looks to me from my experience, and from the other reports on this forum, that 6 is really at the Beta stage at the moment as I've found some basic flaws that you would have expected to have been found before release. Given that, I'm reluctant to go ahead and purchase it and trust my backups to it.

 

How hopeful should I be that Dantz will fix the problems soon? The impression I have of their track record of releases (i.e. not very frequent) and the 'official' response on the forum, would seem to indicate that I shouldn't hold my breath.

 

Can anyone else with a longer experience of using Retrospect, and seeing the kind of support they give, comment on how quick they think Dantz will be to react and release a fixed version?

[Mayoff]

Can you list which specific problems you feel are bugs?

 

Dantz will be releasing an RDU (hopefully next week) which will address several problems, including the reported VXA hangs during backup as well as a problem with backup server changing tapes.

[WNewall]

The problems are as follows:

1) Can't unhide if hidden when Backup Server is running. Only way to proceed is to Force Quit

2) Hangs before writing to 2nd DVD (when backing up client?). Only way to proceed is to toggle the client or Force Quit the server.

3) Media request window doesn't appear

4) Backup server doesn't give name of which media it is trying to find

5) Icon doesn't bounce when media is required

 

The first 2 are pretty bad: number 1 because the only way out seems to be a Force Quit; number 2 as it means that Backup Server doesn't work without manual intervention (which rather negates the whole purpose of Backup Server!).

3 & 4 are just annoying in the "Why on earth doesn't it do that?" category.

5 is just an inconsistancy with the docs, but I'm guessing could start to become annoying if I started to use it in earnest.

[mbizer]

1. For one thing, how about performance and reliability equivalent to Retrospect 5.1? Will, when we complained about how long it was taking to get the fixes included in R6, you wrote that "quality software takes time." Do you call this quality?

2. Performance when backing up to an aftp server. Backing up to a file residing on an afp server using incremental backup has proven to be excruciatingly slow, much slower than under R5. The app basically freezes for long periods of time (spinning system cursor), with very high network activity.

3. Performance when backing up to a firewire hard disk. I've also seen the same behavior doing an incremental backup to a firewire hard disk.

[Mayoff]

A new RDU was released today to fix some VXA problems in Retrospect

 

Macintosh RDU version 5.2.101 (Retrospect 6.0)

http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=kbase&ACTION=KBASE&id=28135

[ivanskydean]

I've been following the many many threads about poor performance with interest, because I am having horrendous problems with v6 on OS X.3.3. For some weeks I have been unable to backup my client Powerbook because it fails after the "Net Retry" error message. I thought I would take one last shot at Retrospect, and upgrade to v6 since I am running Panther. For my first test I tried to backup the server, to my DAT tape drive. I am averaging 1MB/min. Yep, ONE MB/min.

 

I have applied the latest software update to 6.0.193 and the driver update, with no success at all. I haven't even tried to backup my client, it hardly seems worth bothering.

 

I'll freely admit that my DDS4 drive is connected via a Firewire-SCSI converter, possibly an unusual setup - But when I was running version 5 I could backup the server at around 100MB/min. Now I basically can't back up anything. Retrospect would have to be without question the most unreliable software I have ever used on OS X. Killing the pitond process was a regular requirement, and even then it would often complain "Client not visible on network" for no apparent reason. Dantz support would always just recommend I reboot my laptop.

 

Here's hoping Dantz or someone can come up with a solution - other than the already mentioned fix for duplication, because I think there are plenty more problems than that at the moment. I am very disappointed that I think I will have to give up altogether on this software, and probably just do document backups using rsync with no disaster recovery options. I just can't afford the time to waste anymore.

[CallMeDave]

>I'll freely admit that my DDS4 drive is connected via a Firewire-SCSI

>converter, possibly an unusual setup

 

Not only unusual, but an unsupported hardware configuration.

 

>But when I was running version 5 I could backup the server at around 100MB/min.

 

- Was this Retrospect 5.1 under the same version of the OS? Or did this change in speed occur after you upgraded to Panther, too?

 

>Killing the pitond process was a regular requirement, and even then it would

>often complain "Client not visible on network" for no apparent reason. Dantz support

>would always just recommend I reboot my laptop.

 

- Is that the only suggestion that Tech Support provided?

 

- Did you describe your physical network configuration to them?

- Did they suggest you test on a modified or simplified setup?

- Did you try with a single cross-over ethernet cable?

[mdelapa]

Is anyone else getting this error message:

 

Couldn't write CD/DVD header to “Backup Set A ”, error 206 (drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.)

Device trouble: “Backup Set A”, error 206 (drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.).

 

 

I've gotten it between 1/3 and 2/3 the way through almost every backup.

 

I never had great luck using Retrospect 5.1 for backups but 6.0 is proving even worse.

[natew]

Hi

 

What drive make/model is this? What type/brand/speed of media are you using?

 

Thanks

Nate

[kvasnam]

Hi,

 

With regard to the message posted on 4/7 by mdelapa, I not only get the same error message, but after about 3 head cleanings, and a backed-up disk or two later, I now also get the "Trouble writing: “14-Backup Set A” (706740224), error 203 (hardware failure)." After wasting about 10 CD-Rs because of these two errors, I'm wondering if there really is something wrong with my Super Drive or if it's the application? I thought I'd check here first before going to Dantz tech support and then perhaps even Apple. I've managed to back-up most of my hard drive, but am now stuck with 6.9GB left to back-up.

 

I am running 6.0.178 on an iMac G4, OS 10.2.8, which has built-in Super Drive (records the whole gamut of discs).

 

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Marti

[natew]

Hi

 

In my experience error 203 can be taken at face value. The drive is failing to do something Retrospect asked it to do so the error occurs. You can try creating a custom driver with Retrospect which may at least work arounc the problem by using a different write method.

 

Thanks

Nate

[kvasnam]

Thanks Nate,

 

That was my worst fear. I thought that perhaps since I get the "dirty heads error a lot" (error 206) in conjunction with this error 203, then it wasn't a hardware issue, but looks like it is after all. I will likely contact Apple support for more help, since I'm not very technically savvy when it comes to creating custom drives. Thanks for the feedback.

 

Marti

[natew]

Hi

 

The custom driver configuration is really easy. Just click the configure button on the configure->devices-device status window in Retrospect and follow the instructions.

 

Thanks

Nate