Retrospect wants to back up a different folder.

[sgodun]

I have an Intel Mac mini that I use as a dedicated file/web server and network backup machine using Retrospect on the mini and Retrospect Client on my G5 Quad and my wife's MacBook Pro (2.16GHz Core Duo). Retrospect and Client are both at version 6.1. My wife's computer is running Boot Camp 1.3 (WinXP SP2) although the issue I'm going to describe started in 1.2 as well; I don't know about previous versions of Boot Camp.

 

The mini is set up to be a backup server; Retrospect routinely polls our computers and backs up files when applicable. When I set up the backup server script I tell it to back up three folders: My home folder on my G5, my wife's home folder on her MacBook Pro, and the "Documents and Settings" folder on the Windows partition of my wife's hard drive. When I first run the backup server it operates flawlessly. At some indeterminate point -- and I don't know when or where this happens -- the backup script stops backing up the "Documents and Settings" folder and instead backs up a completely different and randomly-selected folder. For example, there's a period of a couple of weeks where everything was running correctly. Then on June 25 it switched from "Documents and Settings" to a folder called "Replicate". Nothing unusual happened between June 24 and 25 other than this reassignment. I can easily edit the backup script and reset the source back to the "Documents and Settings" folder but eventually it just resets itself again.

 

This issue ONLY happens when backing up folders on the Windows partition. Anything Mac-related backs up without incident.

 

Any ideas?

[CallMeDave]

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Retrospect and Client are both at version 6.1

 

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Since version 5.0.206 shipped, all versions of Retrospect for the Mac have build numbers after a second decimal point. Furthermore, Retrospect should always be run with the appropriate RDU (Retrospect Device Update) file.

 

> When I set up the backup server script I tell it to back up three folders: My home folder on my G5,

> my wife's home folder on her MacBook Pro, and the "Documents and Settings" folder on the Windows

> partition of my wife's hard drive.

 

How did you "tell" Retrospect to use these folders? Did you define the folders as Subvolumes in the

Configure->Volumes dialog?

 

Is a BootCamp partition visible in the Finder? (I don't know; I prefer Parallels to rebooting if/when I need Windows, and I've never configured BootCamp)

 

> This issue ONLY happens when backing up folders on the Windows partition. Anything

> Mac-related backs up without incident.

 

This is because Retrospect simply doesn't support what you are attempting to do; when the program was written, BootCamp didn't exist.

 

Note that the name(s) of folders or volumes is not what Retrospect uses to identify them; instead, Retrospect uses file identification information assigned by the operating system. This is why you can change the name of a hard drive, and Retrospect will still see it, and will still use it in any existing scripts. Same for defined Subvolumes; changing the folder's name won't suddenly break your backup configuration.

 

So it's likely that something in BootCamp or in Windows is changing or reassigning the file ID of the folder.

 

I can't suggest a workaround, but it's not something that Retrospect itself can have any effect on.

 

Dave

[sgodun]

Yes, I defined them as subfolders.

 

Yes, the Boot Camp partition is (always) visible in the Finder.

 

<i>This is because Retrospect simply doesn't support what you are attempting to do; when the program was written, BootCamp didn't exist.</i>

 

Yeah, but this isn't a Boot Camp issue. Realistically speaking, this is nothing more than an NTFS volume mounted on a Mac desktop. The fact that it's used mainly by Boot Camp is irrelevant.

 

I guess I'll just have to keep manually reassigning the folder. Thanks.

[CallMeDave]

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The fact that it's used mainly by Boot Camp is irrelevant.

 

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Unless it's, you know, not.

 

The NTFS volume gets used as a boot volume for its own OS. Something is being done to the file directory when it used this way, caused either by Windows itself or by the BootCamp software routines.

 

If it were actually nothing more than an NTFS volume mounted on a Mac desktop, this probably wouldn't happen.