Selectors do not save

[phapp]

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2

 

Retrospect Professional

Version 7.0.326

 

Update Version

7.0.6.108

 

 

Hi,

My selectors no longer work, nor can I create any new ones that work.

 

I use immediate backup everyday. Normally, a few times a year, I will start a new backup set and forget or archive older backup sets and create a new selector.

 

 

My normal selection process is to start immediate backup, then do a "Preview" and manually mark and select my files. I then do a save of the highlights as my selector. I then use that selector for several months. This has worked for years and I have tested and restored from my backups.

 

 

 

Suddenly, I am now unable to create a working selector. I have tried my usual manual selection process, creating a selector from scratch entering the folder names, copying and modifying the included selectors. No matter how I create the selector when I check it or preview it, few or none of files I had marked, highlighted and saved are included.

 

 

 

I have tried renaming my config files, reentering my license and going back through the configuration process. The selectors still refuse to save and remember my marked files /highlights.

 

 

Can anyone suggest a solution?

 

Thanks.

 

[Mayoff]

What options are you selecting when you do the Save Highlights Selector?

 

What do you mean by "creating a selector from scratch entering the folder names...." Can you be more specific? How about a screenshot?

[phapp]

Thanks for working on this.

Here's a rundown of my problem with screen shot

links.

 

http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/bupprob.html

 

If you prefer the ugly version:

Started an immediate backup, selected "Preview" to select my files.

 

Checked the files / folders I want to backup. http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image1.jpg Screen Shot (The file count and 9.2 gig is correct)

 

Clicked Highlight Marks

 

http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image2.jpg

 

Screen Shot

 

Click Save Highlights http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image3.jpg

 

Screen Shot (The option screen appears to have the correct number of files)

 

Saved as testselector http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image4.jpg

 

Screen Shot

 

Preview of the manual selection looks good.

 

http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image5.jpg

 

Screen Shot

 

Exit Immeditate Backup

 

Go back into immediate backup

 

Select "testselector" as the Selector

 

Click Preview. None of my selections are indicated.

 

http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image6.jpg

 

Screen Shot

 

Go to Configure:Selectors

Select testselector and do a "check selector" again, only the first few folders of my selections are saved. It did not save them all http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image7.jpg Screen Shot

 

 

[phapp]

And here's another attempt to create a selector manually:

Configure:Selectors:New

Paste in the individual paths I want selected for backup Screen Shot

The completed selector Screen Shot

Then Save

Then Check or Modify the newly created and saved selector and get NOTHING selected Screen Shot

 

 

What am I doing wrong, or what has broken?

 

[Mayoff]

The forum does not support html in posts. I tried to remove your HTML, but the forum is not updating the links to make them live.

 

Next time, just put in the URL without trying to include html.

[phapp]

Is there anything you can suggest?

 

This selecting all my files manually every night is getting real old.

[phapp]

So that's it? That's what I get for support for my multi-hundred dollar piece of software?

 

I almost bought an upgrade at Amazon until I read the reviews. Based on that and the support I didn't get for this problem, I will never own, recommend, or purchase an EMC product. You can tell a lot about a company by how it support it's old, small products.

 

 

[Mayoff]

Based on that and the support I didn't get for this problem

 

Please review the forum rules. http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=9645&p=2

 

This is a community based forum. The forum is not an official way to reach and get technical support. If you need urgent technical support, you need to contact technical support directly.

 

I think the lack of replies has a lot to do with how hard it is to read the post in it's current state. The URL's got all messed up during the attempt to post in html. I will try to repost your original question

 

 

[Mayoff]

hanks for working on this.

Here's a rundown of my problem with screen shot

links.

 

http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/bupprob.html

 

If you prefer the ugly version:

Started an immediate backup, selected "Preview" to select my files.

 

Checked the files / folders I want to backup. http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image1.jpg Screen Shot (The file count and 9.2 gig is correct)

 

Clicked Highlight Marks

 

http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image2.jpg

 

Screen Shot

 

Click Save Highlights http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image3.jpg

 

Screen Shot (The option screen appears to have the correct number of files)

 

Saved as testselector http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image4.jpg

 

Screen Shot

 

Preview of the manual selection looks good.

 

http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image5.jpg

 

Screen Shot

 

Exit Immeditate Backup

 

Go back into immediate backup

 

Select "testselector" as the Selector

 

Click Preview. None of my selections are indicated.

 

http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image6.jpg

 

Screen Shot

 

Go to Configure:Selectors

Select testselector and do a "check selector" again, only the first few folders of my selections are saved. It did not save them all http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image7.jpg Screen Shot

 

 

[rhwalker]

Based on that and the support I didn't get for this problem

Did you call EMC support? These forums are user-to-user support. Here is the contact info for EMC support:

Contact EMC Support

 

I'm certainly not an EMC fanboy, but we have found the support group to be quite good ever since 1992.

 

Russ

[Mayoff]

1) I never use a save highlights selector, they just don't work well if the state of the disk changes.

 

2) http://www.yhp.com/bupprob/Image9.jpg uses an AND condition which is probably going to fail. You need to use OR conditions.

 

3) Don't use a path in the Name/File Folder criteria and don't use "match pattern". You should be using the Path based selector with "path name starts with XXX"

 

4) It is always best to just use "all files". The item you exclude today will be the item you want to restore tomorrow.

[phapp]

After many attempts, I was able to get a selector that seems to work. Thank you for your help and suggestions.

 

To build a working selector (that saved and remembered my selections), I added each of my desired Windows:Path conditions (OR'd), one at a time, checking the selector after each addition.

 

This is very different than what had been working well for several years (saving highlights as selector).

 

Why it would stop working without any errors or indications is a concern. Although I have been very happy with Retrospect for some time, my confidence has been undermined. If it continues to work reliably, it is a very powerful and relatively convenient solution. I am not sure if there are better backup solutions out there at this point, but I'd owe it to myself to explore other possibilities before I decided to go with an upgrade.