A restore keeps "hanging"

[Guest]

When I try to restore certain files and folders from a backup set, the operation keeps hanging. I am concerned that I no longer have the accompanying member file and that the so-called “backup set” that the program lists as available is just a catalog file.

 

I am using OS 9.2.2 and Retrospect Express 4.3. The backup set -- a file with the name “Backup Set A” which is located in my Retrospect Express folder on my secondary hard drive -- has an icon that identifies it as a Catalog for Disks Backup Set. Its size is 6.2 MB. When I click on that file in my directory, a Retrospect window appears with the following tabs: Summary, Options, Snapshots, Members. Under the Summary tab it tells me 6.6 G are used for 38,660 files. What reads next to the subject, “Available:” depends on whether the set listed as a Member (with a name of “1-Backup Set A”) is indicated as <Set Found> or as <Set Missing>. If "found" then “Available:” reads “4.8 G”. If missing, then it reads “appending requires another member”. The truth is, however, that "1-Backup set A" does not exist, if it ever did. Nevertheless, Member status for it can be changed from "missing" to "found" by a click of the respective buttons. Lastly, “Storage:” under the Summary tab reads as, “1 member, 1 session, 2 snapshots”.

 

What follows next are all the prescribed steps to restore backed-up files. I click the <RESTORE> button under the Immediate tab of the program. Then I choose “Restore files from a backup”, followed by a choice of my backup set (“Backup Set A”) and the snapshot I am interested in. Next I select a destination for Restore, select <Retrieve files and folders>, and click the <OKAY> button. A “Not Ready to Execute” window appears, prompting me to “Please click Files Chosen to make changes”. Then I mark the folders I want to restore and click the <RESTORE> button in the Restore from Backup window.

 

A window called Backup Set A appears, reading, “Please insert ‘1-Backup Set A’… If disk unavailable, please click Choices”. In the window within that window, it says “No removable media found”, which is terribly confusing to me because I never backed up my data to anything but my secondary hard drive. In any event, I do as I am directed and click Choices. The resulting window has an exclamation point and asks me, “Are you sure that “1-Backup Set A” is missing? Execution will resume with the next disk”. Clicking the <Okay> button takes me back to the "Restore from Backup" window with a motionless progress bar and “0” files completed.

 

Can any of you help? I lost some vital files in an installation of a new operating system, and this is my final hope. However, I keep getting confused by a listing of a member that I obviously don’t have. Is this my data file? If so, is there any way to recover it?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[AmyJ]

From your post it appears that you inadvertently backed up to your hard drive with a 'disk' backup set rather then a 'file' backup set. A disk backup set is designed to be used with removable media, such as Jaz, Zip or Orb disks. In these operations, there are two parts to the backup set - the catalog and the media (members).

 

Hard drives may show up in the devices window when the formatting of the drive makes it appear to the OS as a removable drive, rather then a standard hard drive. Disk drives and hard drives are accessed through the OS directly. When the OS reports that your drive is a 'removable' drive, Retrospect will allow you to use a Disk Backup Set. Your external hard drive becomes the backup set member (where the data is stored).

 

There is a strong possibility that you _will not_ be able to restore your data if you backup to hard drives as removable media. Where is the hard drive were you stored the data? At the time you first used the hard drive as a disk backup set, you would have been prompted to reformat the drive. Retrospect would have named it 1-(Backup Set A). Without this drive, there is no data to restore. The catalog file is only an index of what is contained on the member.