DavidHoffman Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 I am unable to restore files from one drive using one specific backup set. I am running Retrospect 6.1.126 with RDU 6.1.3.101. Mac G4, backing up internal ATA drives and external firewire to an external LaCie DDS4 drive. Power Mac G4 running 10.4.5. Machine Model: PowerMac3,6 CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1) Number Of CPUs: 2 CPU Speed: 1 GHz L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB Memory: 1.75 GB Bus Speed: 167 MHz Boot ROM Version: 4.4.8f2 Serial Number: CK249HZGNLR Atto Express UL3D scsi card with the current firmware from the Atto site driver 3.2.0 Name: ATTO,ExpressPCIProUL3D Type: scsi-2 Bus: PCI Slot: SLOT-4 Vendor ID: 0x1000 Device ID: 0x0020 Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x117c Subsystem ID: 0x0007 ROM Revision: 1.6.6f0 Revision ID: 0x0001 The backup drive is a DDS4 LaCie. Manufacturer: SEAGATE Model: SX19171W Revision: 9D29 It's the only device on that bus and is properly terminated. I have no reason to believe it faulty. When I try to restore from this particular backup set I get the spinning pizza wheel and I have to force quit. If I do other things with the app it seems fine - all the menus and panes open and I can get the log, see the devices and run backups. I've run disk permissions, Disk Warrior and Applejack but there's no change and no significant errors reported. The crash occurs before the actual drive has been accessed or the actual tape has run - it's crashing on the searching stage so it can't be a problem with the hardware (I think). I have had some inconsistent failures to backup over this last week and I left the machine with the tape drive switched off. Normally if a scheduled backup starts with the drive unavailable I get an error message & Retrospect quits. This morning I came in to find Retrospect running and the drive off. I turned it on and a backup run began. There are 3 drives to backup and it copied the 12,000+ files (1.7 gig) needed from drive 1, got to the 'updating catalog' stage and then the app hung. Force quit showed it as 'not responding'. I did not force quit but just clicked the Retrospect icon in the dock and after a minute Retrospect picked itself up and carried on from where it had left off. This happened a couple more times but it did finish the backup. The log shows nothing unusual. Encouraged by this I again tried a 'restore' (there's one file I need to retrieve and which is only on this one backup set). Retrospect hung again (not responding) almost as soon as I began so I again clicked it in the dock and it continued for a while but this time when it hung again I could not restart it. I've copied Retrospect and the catalogs to another drive and started from that and I'm seeing the same behaviour. I've rebuilt the catalog. The behaviour with the rebuilt catalog (10 members, only the last of which has been written to recently) is no different. Any kind of restore from that catalog causes a crash. But other catalogs are fine. The rebuild log shows 1255 lines of the form Backup set format inconsistency (4 at 132061920) Backup set format inconsistency (4 at 132102880) Backup set format inconsistency (4 at 132143840) Backup set format inconsistency (4 at 132180192) which I assume must relate to the problem but the rebuild process appeared to run smoothly to completion. These errors appeared in the log over the whole rebuild period, beginning during rebuild of tapes that have not been written to for many weeks, long before there was any problem. I don't know what this error implies. If I try to use the data copying options from the tools tab to retrieve the file I need then I also get a crash just as with restore. If I try to use tools->repair->repair file backup set then I see all my back sets listed but they are greyed out and not available for repair. Any ideas? David Hoffman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twickland Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 David, in your original post, you said you had only one file to restore from the flaky backup set. Do you have any idea when that file may have been backed up? If so, try this workaround: Look at the list of members for that backup set, and find the member that includes the probable backup time window. Then try rebuilding the catalogue of just that member, as follows: as Retrospect asks for each member of the backup set, tell Retrospect that the member is missing until you reach the desired member. Before inserting the tape member, set the read-only flag of that member to permit writing to the tape; i.e., ensure that the white slider is closed (some Seagate DDS drives act flaky with read-only tapes). After that member completes, tell Retrospect that there are no more members in the set. If only some of the members are corrupt, this may enable you to build a usable catalogue. I don't think you ever said whether you tried a fresh reinstall of Retrospect from the original CD. If you didn't, you might try this (move the Retrospect folder out of /Library/Preferences before doing so). You may also be having problem with your tape drive that are preventing you from recreating a clean catalogue from the tapes. We had a LaCie/Seagate DDS-4 drive that had nightmarish problems reading tapes. The mechanism was replaced twice, incurring different problems, until it was finally replaced with a Sony mechanism. If there's any way for you to borrow another DDS-4 drive, it may be worth a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 >got to the 'updating catalog' stage and then the app hung. Force quit showed it >as 'not responding'. I did not force quit but just clicked the Retrospect icon in the >dock and after a minute Retrospect picked itself up and carried on from where it had left off This demonstrates that OS X tools will often show Retrospect as hung, crashed or not responding, when in fact is is not. Probably a thread thing (or lack thereof). It's always a good idea to let Retrospect alone for a good long while before deciding that it's actually hung. >When I try to restore from this particular backup set I get the spinning pizza >wheel and I have to force quit. - Do you get the same results using either of the Restore options (which work the same way) and the Search option (which works without Snapshots)? >The crash occurs before the actual drive has been accessed or the actual tape has >run - it's crashing on the searching stage so it can't be a problem with the hardware (I think). You could probably confirm this by physically removing the SCSI host adapter and seeing if the behavior remains the same. > If I try to use tools->repair->repair file backup set then I see all my back >sets listed but they are greyed out and not available for repair. That's because you have Tape Backup Sets, not File Backup Sets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidHoffman Posted February 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 Thanks Twickland & CallMeDave, those are useful ideas. I'll try them later today, see what happens and report back. On a different tack I asked earlier about "official" support and was pointed at the Retrospect website which led me to eurosupport@emc.com. They only provide support for the first 30 days after purchase which I find pretty shoddy. After 30 days this forum *is* the only support that there is. So thanks again! David Hoffman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 Quote: After 30 days this forum *is* the only support that there is. Hi. Not quite true. You should have written "After 30 days this forum *is* the only FREE support that there is." There is support that you pay per incident and support you pay per year. But I agree that 30 days is really bad. It should be at least 6 months. Who can get all gear delivered on time these days? Say the tape station is delivered 30 days late... Regards Lennart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidHoffman Posted March 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2006 I've used Retrospect for years but I won't buy another upgrade with that support policy. I'm looking at a terabyte worksation with a series of overnight clones of the important drives, around 40p/gig, better redundancy & faster restores. Though it won't go in my pocket. Which brings me back to tapes - I could pin the missing file down to one tape so I tried twickland's workaround. Nice idea and worked to begin with but then the tape restoire stopped after just 908 files - and my one wasn't among them I rtepeated this 3 times, always stopped at 908. The tape drive seems to backup and restore fine with other tapes so I *think* it is not the problem. The same for pulling the scsi card - I've got past the crash on access stage. >Do you get the same results using either of the Restore options (which >work the same way) and the Search option (which works without Snapshots)? Search quickly gives me a "not responding" but I still have the cogwheels turning so I click the app and it puffs back into life a couple of times. Eventually it tells me it has found 164,835 files - which is silly given the search terms. When I tried to see what they were by clicking in the dialogue Retrospect really crashed properly. There's lots of errors in the logs, previously I just had a *lot* of Backup set format inconsistency (4 at 132061920) Backup set format inconsistency (4 at 132102880) & like lines Now there are more errors: Bad backup set header found (0x61766520 at 128,856,800). Backup set format inconsistency (4 at 128857312) Bad backup set header found (0x3d74c709 at 128,898,272). Backup set format inconsistency (4 at 128898784) Bad backup set header found (0xfb4df801 at 128,939,744). Backup set format inconsistency (4 at 128940256) Trouble positioning: “10-Alt Day Backup L” (0), error 109 (unexpected filemark or FTP end of file). 28/2/2006 15:31:03: Execution incomplete. Am I flogging a dead horse here? David Hoffman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twickland Posted March 1, 2006 Report Share Posted March 1, 2006 The "bad backup set header" and "trouble positioning" errors point to media problems. Either the tape itself is defective (was improperly written to or has a physical defect), or the tape drive is unable to read the tape properly. A different tape drive may be able to extract the data from the tape. However, the sad fact is that DDS tapes do seem to incur more than their fair share of read/write errors. It is for this reason that we back up to three separate tape backup sets in rotation, so that we are not left hanging when a particular tape member fails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidHoffman Posted March 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2006 Thanks Twickland The drive does everything else fine, I'm pretty sure that it's Retrospect that has peed in my soup. It's old and while this forum has been genuinely helpful it's no substiute for proper tech support from the manufacturers. Given that Retrospect are only offering that at unrealistic prices with no promise (or even much likelihood) of success I think the only sensible move is to dump it. This file was not really crucial but it's loss is a good wake up call. I don't see Retrospect as being adequate for pro work any more. Time to move it to the dead software drawer. Quote: It is for this reason that we back up to three separate tape backup sets in rotation, so that we are not left hanging when a particular tape member fails. I do the same. Doesn't help much when a file goes bad after only one backup set has seen it... best wishes to you all. David Hoffman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tfrogh Posted March 27, 2006 Report Share Posted March 27, 2006 I am having the same problem but will all back-up sets. I was using retrospect 6.0.24 without incident. I even tried upgrading to the latest 6.1. Every catalog I choose to restore from, hangs during the sessions comparision window. I am so glad I have 6 months of incremental back-ups...they are quite usefull when I cannot access them. My machine is running Mac OS X.3.9 server. Every other function works flawlessly. There are 210 sessions and 118,000 files to the back-up set. I have left Retrospect spin the pinwheel for over an hour. The dialog remains at 0 of 210. I have restarted the Mac, repaired permissions. I will try reinstalling the software next. Nothing like spending all day saving a file. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.