Frustrated with lackluster hardware support

[Loren]

I recently upgraded the CD-RW in a desktop PC only to find out that it is not compatible. About the same time the CD-RW in my Dell Latitude laptop died and Dell replaced. Now it doesn't work with Retrospect either. I'm running 5.6 and yes, I am on the 3.1 update.

 

 

 

I understand that it is hard to be compatible with all the different hardware out there, but Dell doesn't use low-end hardware in their Latitude line and your customers have been waiting over half a year for support for TDK CD-RW drives.

 

 

 

I just bought Retrospect this year and don't feel that I should already have to buy an expensive upgrade to *possibly* get "unsupported" functionality for these two CD-RWs.

 

 

 

I was preparing to move my clients away from Acrserve to Retrospect, but after watching how Dantz has supported existing clients this year I have changed my plan.

 

 

 

It isn't realistic to expect people to choose key hardware components around a backup package.

 

 

 

Disappointed in Seattle-

 

 

 

Loren

[awnews]

I agree with you that I'm reading an awful lot of "HW not supported" messages in this forum for RDB5.6 and RP6.0. I'm not sure what Dantz can do about it directly other than a) devote a lot of time and effort to hardware support, find a way to use another tool (e.g. Nero, EzCD, an ASPI layer, etc.) with better HW support and somehow use an API to use these for the actual burning or c) allow users to generate files of size N (e.g. 650MB if your target is a CDR) and then have you manually burn the files later with another tool (again, e.g. Nero, EzCD).

 

 

 

Perhaps the new Disk backup in RP6.0 supports that later idea--setting a max size (e.g. 650MB) and then having RP6.0 create Backup_1.rpx, Backup_2.rpx, etc. files. Dantz--is there a way to use RP6.0 Disk backup to do what I suggest as long as you have enough spare space on an on-line harddisk?

 

 

 

In my case I've used Plextor and LiteOn drives that have been supported by Dantz (although I rarely do CD backups--I just do File backups to other HDs. But I have created some DR CDs). When I replaced a CDRW drive recently, I ended up buying a Lite-On 40125S because it was supported by all programs I use (RP6.0, Nero, EzCD, CloneCD) even though the Lite-On 40125W and 48125W models were available and not much more expensive.

 

 

[Guest]

We are certainly putting a great deal of resources into qualifying devices. We've also included two features in 6.0 that address this source of frustration directly:

 

 

 

1. An you suggested, you can use the new Disks backup set to create a number of ~650MB files ("members") that can later be burned to CD using a third-party application. When Retrospect asks you how much disk space you'd like to reserve for that "member," keep size down to fit on a CD.

 

 

 

2. Page 31 in the 6.0 User's Guide details another new feature: the custom driver configurator. This provides a way to create a custom configuration for drives that are not recognized by Retrospect's built-in suite of drivers. Since a driver built on-the-fly has not been tested by our Hardware department, it's not officially supported, but it may be useful to many users. See page 31 in the User's Guide for details.

 

 

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

Irena Solomon

 

Dantz Tech Support

[Loren]

I'm talking about a 20+ CD backup set here. That is a lot of manual work to do via the disk file backup system.

 

 

 

Since 5.6 is useless to me anyway, I guess I can DL the 6.0 demo, install, and see if it works with my CD-RWs, an HLDS GCE-8080N and a TDK 481648B.

 

 

 

Anyone with either of these drives that can report on whether the "build your own driver" kluge works with them?

 

 

 

-Loren

[awnews]

Do you really want to (and will you really) take the time to backup to 20 CDRs? I use removable harddrives for this (much faster, on-line [so nightly backups are feasible], actually get's done) either on the same PC or across a 100Mbps LAN.

 

 

 

You do have to shut down the PC to insert or remove a harddrive. I have a couple drives and rotate them every month or so. I preinstall a Window OS (e.g. W2K and NTFS formatted) on the harddrives so I can boot from it to do a restore--this works well and regardless of the cumbersome Disaster Recovery process.

[Loren]

Yes, I do take the time to make 20-CD backups. And that is precisely the reason I replaced an old 4x drive with a 48x drive.

 

 

 

Hard drive backups are faster, but I can't afford the drives to have the media retention that I need. With CDs I can go back to any backup I've made and retrieve data. I'll eventually move to DVD+R or +RW, but not until the technology has matured a bit more and prices have come down.

 

 

 

-Loren

[Guest]

Curiousity--how do you deal with bit rot & media degradation with CD-Rs? Do you recreate your backups periodically? Or, do you have--or know of any--CD-R media which has some sort of guaranteed period of time durign which bit rot will not occur?

 

 

 

Just curious, having some concerns about these issues myself.

[photophosphor]

On the strength of this I downloaded v6.

 

You can easily set the size of the member in 1Gb increments. That's great!

 

Now, can anyone tell me where I can buy 1Gb CD-R's?

 

 

 

Oh, I forgot, there is a % increment as well. They way it is designed the numeric window keeps showing 1Gb even if you use the % setting field.

 

So, I'm really not sure what I'm going to get if I ask for 3% of my 19.8Gb partition.

 

1Gb? 594Mb? 580Mb? I sure as heck don't get any feedback telling me what Retrospect is figuring on doing.

 

 

 

I'd like to say your guess is as good as mine, but I won't be guessing as I don't buy backup software that makes me guess what is going to happen.

[Loren]

Well, no luck across the board. Neither the CD-RW in my laptop or the TDK in the desktop work with the "Build your own driver" kluge.

 

 

 

As far as CD-R life goes, if they last a year that is good enough for me- I like to backup at least once/month, which gives me 12 sets. And I've had them last much longer than that. My only worry now is whether there will be any software to read Retrospect backups if Dantz doesn't get off the stick and write some drivers.

 

 

 

I guess its time to go shopping for backup software.

 

 

 

-Loren