JeffNY Posted August 17, 2006 Report Share Posted August 17, 2006 Hi, I currently use Retrospect 4.3 with 5 clients on a Beige G3 with OS 9. I am moving to a Mirror Door Dual G4 (1.25HGHz) that is running 10.4.7. 1. Is there any "upgrade" options for me? Or do I have to buy a new copy of Version 6 Workgroup and new clients? 2. I just orded a Pioneed DVR-111D DVD burner for the MDD G4. Is Retrospect 6 currently compatible with this drive? 3. Does version 6 take advantage of Apples new search engine abillties to speed up backups? Unlike OS 9, an OS X drive can have 70,000+ files just for a base installation. I have backed up other OS X computers with Retrospect (version 5?) and it takes a loooonnnngg times.... Thanks, Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted August 17, 2006 Report Share Posted August 17, 2006 Quote: I currently use Retrospect 4.3 with 5 clients on a Beige G3 with OS 9. I am moving to a Mirror Door Dual G4 (1.25HGHz) that is running 10.4.7. Congratulations. That's a similar move (and network size) that we made last summer from our Retrospect 4.3 ASIP server to our Xserve G5 (2 GHz, single processor), so my comments may be applicable. Note that I'm just a user like you, not affiliated with EMC/Dantz/Insignia, and have used Retrospect since about version 2.1. Quote: 1. Is there any "upgrade" options for me? Or do I have to buy a new copy of Version 6 Workgroup and new clients? Here's a link to the current upgrade pricing matrix: Retrospect upgrade matrix Quote: 2. I just orded a Pioneed DVR-111D DVD burner for the MDD G4. Is Retrospect 6 currently compatible with this drive? Here's the searchable compatibility database: Retrospect Supported Devices Here are the supported Pioneer devices: Supported Pioneer devices Quote: 3. Does version 6 take advantage of Apples new search engine abillties to speed up backups? No, it doesn't, no it wouldn't speed up backups, and no you wouldn't want it to operate that way. Quote: Unlike OS 9, an OS X drive can have 70,000+ files just for a base installation. Think much bigger. Our Mac OS X clients have about 900,000 files each; our Xserve has many, many more. Quote: I have backed up other OS X computers with Retrospect (version 5?) and it takes a loooonnnngg times.... Yep, be prepared. You've chosen a rather slow computer and a slow backup medium. Our Xserve G5 takes about 12 hours to back up about 100 GB to tape (Exabyte VXA-2 1x10 1u Autoloader, SCSI Interface, via ATTO UL4D). Make sure you have a bunch of memory (at least 2 GB) so that you don't thrash. We are hoping for D2D2T in the next Retrospect Mac release (the Windows version already has that) to shorten our backup window. I suggest that you investigate using an autoloader tape drive. There's an explosion of data when you go to Mac OS X from Mac OS 9. The Exabyte VXA autoloader drives are nice for small installations, we have been very happy with ours. Fill it up, let it rip. As a practical matter, you will get about 115 to 120 GB on an X23 tape; the autoloader holds 10 tapes (or 9 tapes plus cleaning cartridge). Good luck. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted August 18, 2006 Report Share Posted August 18, 2006 Quote: 2. I just orded a Pioneed DVR-111D DVD burner for the MDD G4. Is Retrospect 6 currently compatible with this drive? Just make sure to buy DVD+R discs as they burn faster with Retrospect's "packet writing" than DVD-R discs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffNY Posted August 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2006 Well, they list the "Pioneer DCR-111 (Apple version)" and "Pioneer DVR-110D". Anyone hazard a guess when it will support the Pioneer DVR-110D ?? Will Retrospect refuse to work with this device? Maybe I need BatchBurn until ECM adds support for this drive? Can there be much difference between the 110D and 111D? Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted August 18, 2006 Report Share Posted August 18, 2006 I have the pioneer DVR-110D and it works just fine. PatchBurn is just for iLife and Finder burning. Most drives nowadays works just fine. If there isn't a driver, you have to sacrifice one disc of each type you intend to use: CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R. The RW types can be reused, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffNY Posted August 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2006 Thanks guys. >>You've chosen a rather slow computer and a slow backup medium.<< SLOW!!?? A couple years ago this machine was considered a Super Computer that couldn't be exported! I think the problem with slowness lays with the 1960's file structures used by "UNIX" and OS X....my 9 year old Beige G3 can back up an OS 9 computer WAY faster than any OS X backup running on a G4 or G5 I've seen....Apple REALLY needs to address the situation. It puts a lot of unessesary wear and tear on the computers and hard drives. Hopefully some of the API's Apple is using for Time Machine will help (it says on their web page these APIs will be available to 3rd party developers). Apple should have found a way in OS X to keep files that could contain both a data and resource fork....so instead of having 100,000 file in OS X you might have 4000 or 5000. THAT is the problem and the reason it takes FOREVER to back up an OS X volume...OS X is using a 1960's file structure. And I loved the 60's and 70's for a lot of stuff...music, motorcycles....but computer science has to move forward... >>Just make sure to buy DVD+R discs as they burn faster with Retrospect's "packet writing" than DVD-R discs.<< Well, I bought a pack of 50 DVD-R discs when I bought the drive. About how much faster are DVD+R disks to use in a backup? 10%? 50%? 100%? Thanks, Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted August 27, 2006 Report Share Posted August 27, 2006 Quote: Apple should have found a way in OS X to keep files that could contain both a data and resource fork They did. Type/Creator codes, custom icons, etc. Dual forked files live happily under OS X on HFS volumes. But bundles and packages have benifits that are worth the extra file overhead. It's nice to have data that can be copied to _any_ file system without having to worry about how that file system will handle Apple specific formats (although sometimes the Finder's naming capabilities can throw a wrench into all that). One good thing about the "old" attributes of *nix is that they're well baked, with Apple leading the way in improving how all those files are tied together (launchd, anyone?). Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Quote: >>Just make sure to buy DVD+R discs as they burn faster with Retrospect's "packet writing" than DVD-R discs.<< Well, I bought a pack of 50 DVD-R discs when I bought the drive. About how much faster are DVD+R disks to use in a backup? 10%? 50%? 100%? Thanks, Jeff With my Pioneer DVR-110 and DVD-R discs I get around 80MB/min, with DVD+R discs, I get around 300MB/Min backing up. I have seen that the verify may take longer with DVD+R than DVD-R, but it's rare and I haven't seen any pattern. Your milage may vary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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