Locating...takes ...forever

[PaulW]

I just purchased a DLT-1 drive. I installed Retrospect 4.3c that came with the drive, got the script organized and ran it no problem. I went to run the script last night, and the EasyScript back up window sat on the first drive to be backed up, in 'Locating...' mode. It sat this way for 8 hours (I went to bed).

 

 

 

I can restore a file from the first run of the tape, and that finds the file and restores it very quickly.

 

 

 

Nothing has changed from when I ran the first backup, other than re-starting the Mac. I'm backing up Retrospect clients and mounted network volumes. The first mounted network volume is from Mac OS X server. Could this be the problem? I have Retrospect 5, but I'm having the 'backup the entire server everytime' problem, so I went back to 4.3.

 

 

 

Running Mac OS 9.2.2, Retrospect 4.3c on a Mac G4-500, 1 gig ram.

 

 

 

Thanks. Paul

[AmyJ]

From what you've described it sounds like your tape drive is having trouble locating the correct spot on your tape. The way this works is that Retrospect tells the tape drive the place on the tape to look, then the drive tries to find that spot. In the rare case that it is not able to find that spot, it either returns an error or (as you've seen) "locates" seemingly forever.

 

 

 

This is usually caused either by trouble with your media, your drive, or some other problem along your Mac's SCSI chain. Does this happen when you try to restore from any other tape? If so, it's probably not a bad tape. To troubleshoot, first clean the heads on the drive. If you've never done it before, get a cleaning tape and clean them a few times. Then try again.

 

 

 

If this doesn't help, try isolating the drive on your SCSI chain. Take any other devices off the chain and try the restore with the drive hooked directly to the computer. If this doesn't work, use a different cable to connect the drive. If this doesn't do it, try using a different terminator. Finally, if you're still having problems, take the drive to another Macintosh.

[PaulW]

Thanks Amy.

 

 

 

1) the drive is brand new

 

2) the tape is brand new

 

3) the cable has been used once.

 

 

 

I will

 

1) clean the drive heads

 

2) try a new tape (I only had the one when I bought it) and do some local/network tests

 

3) change the cable (I have one ordered)

 

4) change the Mac if that still doesn't work

 

 

 

The directory seems fine on the tape, though, or why else would it restore so quickly?

 

 

 

I'll put the results of this back here, probably by the end of the week, so if you get a chance, please check in again.

 

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Paul

[PaulW]

Well, it's almost a week later, and everything is working just fine. Here's what I did:

 

 

 

Upgraded Retrospect Workgroup to Retrospect Server Backup. Installed the new clients on all my computers, including OS X Server. Ran a backup script, everything was fine. Opened one file only on the server, saved it, and ran the script again. Retrospect only backed up the one file. Everything has worked flawlessly since.

 

 

 

So if you're having the 'mounted volume' change date and time problem, you'll need to upgrade to the server version of Retrospect. Since I don't have to mount any volumes to back them up, I don't have any files that change the dates and times.

 

 

 

BTW, customer service was great on the upgrade. Because it had been fewer than 30 days from my upgrade from 4.3 to 5.0, they only charged the difference in price between the workgroup and the server versions, which was great.

 

 

 

Paul