hermie Posted April 14, 2006 Report Share Posted April 14, 2006 LaCie changed to Samsung in their external cases and because of the problems I have with my internal LaCie NEC I am thinking about buying one. But... I don't recognise the drive mechanisms for these Samsung drives in the Retrospect Devices Database. So, can anyone tell me if the LaCie external USB2 Firewire 400 d2 drives are any good or reasonable, please? And, if Retrospect 6 Desktop will recognise it? The LaCie Helpdesk guy doesn't know and I can't find it. Don't want to make the same mistake twice, though... LaCie article number: 300978EK According to the LaCie guy the drive built into the external USB2/FW400 case is a Samsung SH-W162L. The reason he said that from April this year they ditched NEC is that NEC still doesn't offer Lightscribe support and Samsung does. Don't know what to think of that one. Anyway, any help mucho appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msantos Posted May 6, 2006 Report Share Posted May 6, 2006 So far I've had mixed luck with Retrospect and this drive. I created a custom driver for DVD-R and DVD-RW media. The configuration was successful, and a backup to DVD-R succeeded (haven't tried to restore yet), but a backup to DVD-RW always fails with error 100: device refused command. I just deleted the driver and am going to try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msantos Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 After reconfiguring the drive, I've still been unable to use DVD-RW media with the drive. Although configuration is successful with that before type of media, whenever I try to use it for a backup, Retrospect invariably reports error 100 "device refused command" whenever it tries to write to DVD-RW media as part of a backup. The sad thing is that I tried to check the drive database before purchasing the drive, but since the boxes don't tell you what mechanism is actually inside, checking "LaCie d2" pulls up all sorts of records and you can't really find out beforehand whether its going to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pvision Posted May 15, 2006 Report Share Posted May 15, 2006 I think La Cie don't know what drive will be in the unit they sell you so won't commit themselves. Buying a CDRW or DVD-RW drive is very difficult because of this However, when you've found a "compatible" drive I suspect your problems are only just beginning. I gave up using CDR a while ago as it's so inconsistent. I will try again with DVD-R but suspect it'll be just the same Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hermie Posted June 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 OK, the forums are back up and my new external d2 LaCie drive has arrived. In it is a Samsung SH-S162L. Well, you probably guessed it, but exactly the same happens as with my internal. Trying to configure the new drive with Verbatim 16x Certified DVD-R hangs on the Writing Method screen. Nothing else happens and a short while later Retrospect becomes unresponsive. Pushing the Eject button on the drive brings it back to life though. It wants to know if I'd like to try some other type of disc and when I hit "no" it wants to send an error report. Sure, why not. So I still can't backup to DVD-R, which I have done so many times in the past. No idea where it all goes wrong and I'm chucking it in. Very disappointed in Retrospect... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kn.young Posted June 16, 2006 Report Share Posted June 16, 2006 Hi, I just bought a LaCie d2 DVD+-RW (unit # 300978U) and am having similar problems trying to back up to a Sony DVD-RW. The drive mechanism is a Tsstcorp CD/DVDW SH-S162L (that's Toshiba - Samsung). I was able to run the Custom Configuration OK, but every time I try a back up I immediately get Error 100. So far, no help from LaCie, and I've never known Dantz to offer any help except for $$$. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted June 16, 2006 Report Share Posted June 16, 2006 Quote: I've never known Dantz to offer any help except for $$$ Then you've never bought Retrospect. A new Retrospect purchase includes a limited time of FREE tech support. Some of their upgrades have included tech support, too. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kn.young Posted June 16, 2006 Report Share Posted June 16, 2006 Dave, I began using the predecessor of this product before Dantz owned it (can't remember what it was called the), and have paid for every upgrade for which there was a charge. For years I paid for 2 copies (with Retrospect client, dont' need to now, if I could get this running). And I may have missed some free tech support along the way. And ever since I've used optical media (at least several years ago), I've had endless problems, and when I tried to get tech support I've been told I would have to pay. I'm sure I'm not entiled to free support now. I guess the last paid update I paid for was 6.0, and that was some time ago. Sorry if this sounded like gross exaggeration. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 Actually, no one owned the product before Dantz. It began life as DiskFit, from Dantz Development when they were located in north Berkeley (near, I believe, Berkeley Systems, makers of the fabulous Flying Toasters screen saver). Dantz was recently acquired by EMC, who folded the Dantzers into the larger company (and didn't just buy the software). Optical drives have gotten cheaper in quality over the years, and in general suck pretty hard in performaing the packet writing that is necessary to avoid the wasteful overhead of writing mountable volumes. Sorry I can't recommend a particular hardware device that works better then what you have. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 While the free support in this forum by users to users (and occassionally Dantz/EMC/Insignia employees chime in, too) is excellent, like anything else in life, there's no such thing as a free lunch. I have found the Retrospect tech support to be excellent and the annual support/maintenance agreement to be worth it in my time (which costs money too) that is saved by the support. Building and training a good support group costs money. And thankfully, I've never had Retrospect report tell me that the problem is that I'm using a Macintosh computer, as has happened many, many times with other vendors. Retrospect is not perfect, but the support is excellent. Your mileage may vary. Regards, Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 Russ, Thanks for the kind words about support. For many years we offered unlimited free support but that didn't fit with a growing market space. All new purchase as well as upgrades come with 30 days of free technical support. Annual Support is a great way to go since it does come with free upgrades for 1 year. Thanks Robin Senior Manager, Technical Support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kn.young Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 I was wrong to make the gratuitous remark about the cost of support - sorry. All I know so far is that this LaCie drive doesn't seem to be able to back up to DVD-RW discs with Restrospect, and that so far, the response from LaCie has not been helpful. Would I pay Dantz $69.95 to help me solve the problem? Probably, because yes, time is money, and I've wasted lots of time on this so far - trying to get a piece of equipment and a piece of software to perform one task: backup. And I would really like this to work. But I turned to the forums for help because I don't want to waste more time and money paying for Tech Support to tell me 1) the problem is the drive, 2) the problem is Apple, 3) there is no fix for the problem, etc. Because of my remark about support, I deserve the lecture on the benefits of Dantz's paid support, but I would really appreciate some direction. Is this a lost cause? Thanks, Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kn.young Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Well, I thought I saw a tech support person in the vicinity the other day who might take pity and offer some suggestions. Predictably, LaCie says if the drive burns, etc, otherwise (which it does), there is nothing wrong with the drive and the problem is with Retrospect. I can exchange this drive within 30 days, so I'm wondering if anyone out there knows of a currently marketed LaCie drive that will burn to a DVD+/- RW disc in Retrospect. Thanks, Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kn.young Posted June 23, 2006 Report Share Posted June 23, 2006 A kind soul in another message thread in this forum offered the following advice: "Two brands are commonly recommended for use with Retrospect, these are TDK and Verbatim. It is also recommended that you use +R/RW rather than -R/RW. In most cases +R/RW will afford better performance. " I just tried a TDK +RW, had to run Configure, but it worked! Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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