My Experiences with Retrospect 8

[ldamario]

I have a home network (wired ethernet) with two Macintosh computers (both MacBook Pros with OS 10.5.7). The storage device for my backups is an external firewire hard disk mounted to the server. Here are my initial experiences with Retrospect 8:

 

1. When the server backs up itself as a client, the backup completes very quickly. It takes about an hour to backup ~25 GB.

 

2. When the server backs up the other client computer over the local network, the process is terribly slow. It takes about 8 hours to back up ~25 GB.

 

3. I found that I have to manually stop the Retrospect Engine when I’m done with my backups. Otherwise, the server hangs up when I try to restart or shutdown.

 

4. If I select “Disk†for the type of Media Set, Retrospect 8 prompts me to specify the Member (i.e., destination) for the Media Set. But if I specify “File†as the type of Media Set, Retrospect does not prompt for the Member. In the Getting Started guide, it says to click the Members tab and the “+†button to add a member to a Media Set, but the “+†button is dimmed out. The end result is that Retrospect uses the server as the destination for the “File†backup, which is not what I want.

 

5. The Getting Started Guide says “[color:red]Retrospect always performs Smart Incremental backups. A Smart Incremental backup intelligently copies only files that are new or have changed since the previous backup.[/color]†The guide also says “[color:red]Retrospect uses an archival method of backup that ensures backed up files are not deleted or written over until you request it.[/color]†I haven’t been able to figure out how to control whether old versions of files are archived, and, if so, how do delete archived files.

 

6. Where is the User Guide? The Getting Started Guide is inadequate.

Edited August 2, 2009 by Guest

[rhwalker]

6. Where is the User Guide? The Getting Started Guide is inadequate.

No User Guide exists. You are not the only one who has observed that documentation needs to be created. Think of the program as an "Adventure" game, where you explore dark and twisty passages as you try to discover how to use the program.

 

Because Retrospect 8 is based on the Windows code base, you can get some good hints by looking at the Retrospect Windows 7.x User Guide.

 

Russ

[pfauland]

@Srhwalker: This is fine, when you want to play. But not, if you buy a commercial professional backup software, which is taking care (should be taking care) of the most valuable thing - your DATA.

 

If I want to spend time beta-testing software, I can decide to do so. But if I buy a product, because I want to have my business data safely protected, and then find out I am "testing" ... No further comments needed, I guess ...

 

 

[rhwalker]

I completely agree with you. I was just trying to answer your question as best as can be done with the current state of the program and its lack of documentation.

 

Russ