Why can't Retrospect read these rbc files created with Retrspect 6?

[x509]

I need to restore selected files from these backup tapes done years ago with Retrospect 6.  I'm running Retrospect 12.6.1.  I need to clear out closet space.  (Anyone interested in some old Exabyte tape drives.  Send me a message if interested.)

When I select one of these rbc files from within Retrospect, it doesn't do anything.  However, if I select the same rbc file from Windows file explorer, and double-click on the file, or if I select a file and right-click OPEN, I can get Retrospect to display the Backup Set properties, so I can read the contents of any one session.  (However, doing a print to text is unsatisfactory, as discussed in another recent thread where I am the OP.)

Edited May 30, 2018 by x509
make the post more clear

[DavidHertzberg]

According to this post, you need to recreate the Catalog Files from the .rdb files which are presumably also on the backup tapes.

You should be able to recreate the Catalog Files per step 3) of this post.  That post is in a Retrospect Express thread, so YMMV.

[Mayoff]

To be clear, tapes do not have .rdb files. The screenshot shows .rbc files, which are catalog files. Catalog files are indexes of backup data.  To access the actual backups you need access to the original backup media.  If you were writing to disk, then you should have disks with .rdb data files.  To rebuild the catalog from .rdb files or from a tape, you can start with these directions:
 

After the catalog rebuild from the original backup media, you can attempt a restore. 

[x509]

Mayoff,

Are you saying that if I have the right tape loaded into the tape drive, then I should be able to open up the rbc file directly from Retrospect?

That would be much nicer than needing to rebuild each catalog by having Retrospect read through the entire tape.

 

x509

[Mayoff]

If you have access to the .rdb files, then you can perform a catalog rebuild from that media and then perform a restore. 

[DavidHertzberg]

2 hours ago, Mayoff said:

If you have access to the .rdb files, then you can perform a catalog rebuild from that media and then perform a restore. 

According to your own previous post in this thread, "To be clear, tapes do not have .rdb files."  My impression is that x509 doesn't currently have anything on disk related to the backups on these tapes.

Therefore x509 must recreate a Catalog File from the tapes themselves.  Although I hate to second-guess the creator of the Tutorials, in the absence of a Tutorial specifically on how to do that I would guess that this Tutorial—which is "Catalog Rebuild of an Optical Backup Set"—is the best available one.

I really hope that the internal labels on the tapes themselves show that they are part of one or just a few Backup Sets.  That's because it's my understanding that, if you are rebuilding the Catalog File for Backup Set Whatever, you can only do it from tapes whose internal label is of the form "n-Backup Set Whatever" where n is an integer.

[x509]

Thanks all.  To retrieve files from the actual tapes, I have to rehab a really old machine that has SCSI support, etc.  Probably in July.