panders Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 I have been backing up my PowerMac G4 (Quicksilver) daily to an external Sony DRU-710A DVD+-RW drive mounted in a FireWire enclosure for close to 2 years with no problems. The drive needed to be manually configured by Retrospect, but that was no problem. Last week, I updated the OS to 10.4.7 from 10.4.6, and that night when I tried to back up, Retrospect would not recognize the disc. The first time it tried to write, it got an Error 100 - Device Rejected Command; after that, the status of the disc became "Unknown Status" and Retrospect would not try to write to it, since it did not consider it the correct disc. Trashing the kernel cache files and restarting let Retrospect recognize the disc again, until it tried to write and got the same error. Reinstalling the OS update using the Combo updater (instead of Software Update) gave the same results. Reinstalling Retrospect made no difference at all - the disc was not recognized from the start. I am using Retrospect version 6.1.126, Driver Update 6.1.5.102 when problem first encountered, 6.1.6.100 after that (before all other attempts to solve the problem). According to the log, the manual configuration of the drive after reinstalling had no errors. I installed OS 10.4.6 on a separate hard drive and installed Retrospect, and everything worked fine, so there is no hardware problem, and the apparent culprit is something in the 10.4.7 update. Anyone else encountering this problem? Any suggestions for trying other approaches to solving it? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Well, I'm not seeing your problem but a different one - Retrospect 6.1.126 with RDU 6.1.6.100 hangs on the startup splash screen after 10.4.7 Server update on Xserve G5, both on autolaunch and on manual launch. Only change was 10.4.7 Server update from 10.4.6. Support request has been filed. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Looks like my issue (Retrospect Hangs on Launch after 10.4.7 Server update) was caused by corrupt Retrospect preferences. Manually deleting /Library/Preferences/Retrospect/retrorunfile, /Library/Preferences/Retrospect/LaunchRetroHelper, and /Library/StartupItems/RetroRun folder, and rebooting, fixed everything for me. I only back up to tape, not DVD/CD or disk files, so I can't confirm or deny your issue. Sorry for the noise. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panders Posted July 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 I know mine is not a Preferences issue, since I re-installed Retrospect from scratch (except for the config and log files) on both 10.4.6, which worked fine, and 10.4.7, which didn't work. I suspect that Apple changed something in the driver area that is interfering with Retrospect, but since the drive is not officially supported by Retrospect, I don't really expect anythine will be done to correct it. Right now, I have three choices: Re-boot to do backup; restore my system to 10.4.6 and hope that 10.4.8 will work when it comes out; or buy a new internal DVD+-RW drive that is supported by Apple & Retrospect. I'll have to think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 4, 2006 Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 Quote: I know mine is not a Preferences issue, since I re-installed Retrospect from scratch (except for the config and log files) on both 10.4.6, which worked fine, and 10.4.7, which didn't work. In your original message, it _sounded_ as if you'd done a good job of regressing the testing, confirming that it worked in one version of the OS but failed in the other version. But, your comment above implies that in the setup that fails, you are not using completely fresh configurations. When you use the term "config" file, are you writing about your preferences (Retro.Config (6.0)) or is it the custom optical drive configuration file that you've been re-using? A test using 10.4.6 and _totally_ clean preferences/configurations would go a long way to identify that it's an OS related problem, or a local application configuration problem. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 Quote: I know mine is not a Preferences issue, since I re-installed Retrospect from scratch Paul, your reply doesn't rule out Retrospect preferences. Here's the fix for that, from my answer above: Quote: Quit Retrospect Manually delete: - /Library/Preferences/Retrospect/retrorunfile - /Library/Preferences/Retrospect/LaunchRetroHelper - /Library/StartupItems/RetroRun folder Launch, then quit, Retrospect, and it will re-create these files. Let us know what happens if you do that. Something unknown occasionally causes the Retrospect preferences to become corrupted. The fix (above) is known, the cause is not. We can only hope that the Retrospect programmers eventually track it down. There are only a few places where these files are updated in Retrospect, so one would hope it could be analyzed and fixed, might be some sort of a race condition. It's repeatable, but only happens to us about once every month or two, so we just live with it. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 Quote: It's repeatable, but only happens to us about once every month or two, so we just live with it. Russ, I think you're talking about a different issue then what Paul is reporting. The thread is about a device problem, where his optical drive was working before, and now is not. His report implies that at least some part of his program configuration was reused, either the preferences themselves, or the optical drive configuration file. Having a clear picture of the steps he took to debug/test/reproduce would be helpful to others with similar setups. The problems with retrorun and retrorunfile lead to the program not auto-launching, which is a different kettle of fish. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 Quote: The problems with retrorun and retrorunfile lead to the program not auto-launching, which is a different kettle of fish. Agreed, most heartily. I was trying to address the confusion (at least, mine) regarding what had been done with the reinstall and your suggestion of needing totally clean preferences (with which I agree). I don't quite understand from the description above just what was involved in the reinstall. Now, if the OP would do a Retrospect uninstall that gets everything clean, followed by a new install of Retrospect, we might have a baseline for comparison to figure out what changed. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacWright Posted July 6, 2006 Report Share Posted July 6, 2006 http://macfixit.com/ lots of 10.4.7 issues with external drives, dvd's etc. I think I'll wait a bit on this update..... j Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panders Posted July 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2006 I've been busy and haven't had time to do anything more on this problem for a while. To address some of the posts from others: I re-created the device configuration from scratch each time; the configuration file that I saved was the Retro.config (6.0) file, which I didn't want to lose since it has all of my remote client and volume configuration data, as well as all of the backup scripts I use. When I get a chance, I'll try moving that file out and just running an immediate backup of something to try things out, but I don't really expect that to make any difference. Another test I can try is to update the bare-bones 10.4.6 system to 10.4.7 and see if it causes the problem. Maybe next week some time. Thanks for all the input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panders Posted July 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 Tonight, I tried moving the Retro.config, LaunchRetroHlper, and retrofunfile files out of the Preferences->Retrospect folder and running a backup. I used a Configuration Test Disk as my target DVD, and Retrospect initially recognized it as such, but after erasing it, it immediately changed to "Unknown Status" and ejected it. Re-inserting it, Retrospect still showed it as unknown, but the Proceed button was enabled; when I clicked it, it asked for confirmation to erase it, then said that it couldn't erase it because it was unknown. I may still try updating the bare-bones 10.4.6 system to see what happens, but not until I have more time. In the meantime, I'm re-booting to the 10.4.6 system to do my backups before shutting down each night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 Quote: I used a Configuration Test Disk as my target DVD, and Retrospect initially recognized it as such, but after erasing it, it immediately changed to "Unknown Status" and ejected it. This is the first indication that the problem is happening with RW disks. - Does the problem also happen with R disks? - What other optical media types have you configured for, and tested with? Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctj Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Has this issue been resolved yet? I'm facing the same issues Paul is (was?) and I've just resorted to using the internal drive only. I'm running Retrospect 6.1.126 and the newest driver update (6.1.7.101) under OS X 10.4.7. Again, like Paul, the external drive worked fine until this 10.4.7 update. I use DVD-R, not RW (though I don't think that makes a difference). Any word or help from EMC-Insignia-Dantz would be fantastic. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Quote: I'm facing the same issues Paul is (was?) While you may be, the best way you can contribute to the knowledge of the Forum would be to post your individual experiences, including a complete hardware/software description, and some history of what you have done and what you saw when you did it. There's also a newer RDU that's been posted since the thread was first started. Are you using it? Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctj Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Thanks, Dave. I mentioned in my post that I was using the newest driver update (6.1.7.101), but here's the full HW/SW rundown: PMG5 1.8GHz/DP, 4GB RAM Pioneer DVR-109 (internal) Pioneer DVD-110D (in external firewire case) OS X 10.4.7, all current updates Retrospect 6.1.126, driver update 6.1.7.101 I run an archival script every week that writes to a series of DVD-Rs. This has worked rather well for quite some time now. I'd be able to put in two DVD-Rs (one in each drive) and Retrospect would dutifully write to both drives. Sometime recently (I don't know exactly, but I'm pretty sure it coincided with the 10.4.7 update) I'd go to put in a disc in the external firewire drive, and Retrospect would list the disc as (unknown) with "unknown status". I'd put the same disc in the internal drive, and all would be fine. I know the drive is good because Toast and the iApps have no problems reading/writing to the drive. So, back to my original question... is there any news on this issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Quote: back to my original question... is there any news on this issue? Here on the Forum, the news is what the contributors make. This is not an EMCInsignia support area, and while announcements are posted here, there isn't much in the way of "we're working on it" type information provided by the company. The fact that you're external drive is not the same make/model as that owned by the original poster is relevant. Might be helpful to compare the FW bridgeboard chip, to further isolate if it's a specific hardware configuration issue, or a more general FireWire issue (or something else). It would be interesting to know how your 110D works on the internal ATA bus, but you may not be able/willing to crack the FW case and move it into to the G5. Other tests I'd try, if this were happening to me: - Disconnect the internal drive from its ATA bus and test with Retrospect seeing just a single device. - Pull the internal 109 device and put it in a FW case and hang it off the G5, to see if it works there. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctj Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Quote: This is not an EMCInsignia support area, and while announcements are posted here, there isn't much in the way of "we're working on it" type information provided by the company. Well, that about sums it up right there. My main question was if EMC had any news on this or not (and likewise, if any other user had any info). Clearly not. If it were just me, I'd probably go through the hassle of reducing all the variables. But, when another guy (the OP) has the same issue I have, it makes me take a strong look at the software interaction with the OS. I know my FW controller didn't go bad; I know my drive didn't go bad. Pretty much nothing except the OS changed, which makes me believe that it's Apple's fault, not EMC's (since Retrospect didn't change). As it stands, I will just continue to use the internal drive (stupid as that is when I have two drives available to me), and hope that 10.4.8 fixes the issue (unless anyone here has some insight that might help, that is.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackvr Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 Using a Lacie AIT-2 tape backup. Worked fine pre 10.3.x Now have to use Lacie Update Tool to do a firmware update (1.34). That makes drive show correctly up in System Profiler and can read it in Retrospect. Loads tapes, rewinds. All good. Then you run archives it goes to the drive and send it off into a loop and eventually crashes Retrospect. Sometimes crashes entire machine. Have to force the tape out by shutting down drive, hold the eject and off button while restarting. Also makes drive dissappear from configuration. Comes up as "Device Unknown". Painful. Have to go back to firmware again. Giving up for now. Rolling back to older system is all I can think of. Will try the preferences removal and see if that works. Even sometimes would be an improvement over never. Nice to know I'm not alone. Did look to me like EMC thought they had fixed this with latest update. I guess this must be for less than 10.4.7: http://kb.dantz.com/display/2n/articleDirect/index.asp?aid=7971&r=0.2584345. *************************** After posting above. Went back to OS 10.4.3 Still won't work. Goes into loop. Crashes Retrospect and if you let it go it will crash the entire system I think maybe I have killed the $1,200 tape drive. Anyone been down this path? Welcome any other thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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