retrospect ignores retrospect data

[worstenbroodje]

I have a porsche design lacie usn 500g disk.

There's only one file on this disk. it's about 500gigs big. it's called 'retrospect data'. It is an old back up disk that was attached to a server.

this back up was made in 2008. I dont know with what version of retrospect. The newest retrospect tryal version however doesn't seem to recognise the data. I lost the old software that was used for back up. Am i missing something?

[twickland]

The newest retrospect tryal version however doesn't seem to recognise the data. I lost the old software that was used for back up. Am i missing something?

Unfortunately, you have experienced one of the "features" of Retrospect 8: it won't read backup sets created by earlier versions. Stupid, yes; pathetic, yes; but unfortunately, true.

 

You can download a copy of Retrospect 6.1 here but you'll need your license code. If you've lost the code, I would try calling EMC Customer Service to see if they have it on record. In the worst case, you may need to purchase a new copy of Retrospect 6.1 in order to recover your old data.

[rhwalker]

I have a porsche design lacie usn 500g disk.

There's only one file on this disk. it's about 500gigs big. it's called 'retrospect data'. It is an old back up disk that was attached to a server.

this back up was made in 2008. I dont know with what version of retrospect. The newest retrospect tryal version however doesn't seem to recognise the data. I lost the old software that was used for back up.

The backup was probably made with a version of Retrospect prior to 8.1.x (the current version).

 

If you read the EMC Retrospect 8.1 Read Me, you will see that the current released version of Retrospect is unable to read backups made by any earlier version of Retrospect.

 

What a concept that a backup program would be expected to read backups that were made by earlier versions of the program. Why would anyone ever need to restore from older backups, or expect that a backup program would be able to do so?

 

Am i missing something?

Yes, you are missing a version of Retrospect that can read your backup data.

 

You might try downloading an older version of Retrospect (available here):

Retrospect 6.1 download

 

or here:

Retrospect archives

 

If you don't have your license code, you will need to contact EMC customer support:

Contact EMC support

 

You may be able to get a trial license for one of the older versions from them, or you may be able to purchase a license for an older version to restore your data because the current version cannot.

 

Good luck.

 

Russ

[worstenbroodje]

Thanks for your quick responses!

I was almost there, I saw light at the end of the tunnel

downloaded the 6.1 installer,

now it doesn't install. the installer freezes when the progressbar shows. ther is no progress. is there a problem with os 10.6.2.?

[rhwalker]

downloaded the 6.1 installer,

now it doesn't install. the installer freezes when the progressbar shows. ther is no progress. is there a problem with os 10.6.2.?

Yes. Retrospect 6.1 and all earlier versions of Retrospect are completely unsupported on 10.6.2. If that's what you have, then you have no way to restore your older backup data. Current version of Retrospect can't read it (see the Read Me link I provided above), and older versions of Retrospect don't run on Snow Leopard. See the

Retrospect Snow Leopard Compatibility Statement

 

(look at the last few lines of the Compatibility Statement).

 

Again, what a remarkable concept that someone would expect a backup program to actually restore data that was backed up by an earlier version of the program.

 

Russ

[worstenbroodje]

Hi Rus,

I hope you're still there.

finally dug up an old imac with 10.4 on it.

installed retrospect 6.1.

still the "retrospect data" (which is 465,9gb) remains grey when i try to restore files from a back up or try to search for files and folders.

The "retrospect data.cat" i can open, but it doesn't contain snapshots whatever they may be..

please help..

[worstenbroodje]

Hi Rus,

I hope you're still there.

finally dug up an old imac with 10.4 on it.

installed retrospect 6.1.

still the "retrospect data" (which is 465,9gb) remains grey when i try to restore files from a back up or try to search for files and folders.

The "retrospect data.cat" i can open, but it doesn't contain snapshots whatever they may be..

please help..

[rhwalker]

finally dug up an old imac with 10.4 on it.

installed retrospect 6.1.

still the "retrospect data" (which is 465,9gb) remains grey when i try to restore files from a back up or try to search for files and folders.

The "retrospect data.cat" i can open, but it doesn't contain snapshots whatever they may be..

please help..

More details are needed.

(1) exactly what version of 10.4? (10.4.x)

(2) exactly what version of 6.1 (6.1.x)

(3) architecture of the machine (PPC, Intel) on which this is being done

(4) your exact steps when you try.

 

Also, it's unclear from your earlier posts what version of Retrospect made the old backup. If you search these forums, you will see that it has been reported that, at some point during Retrospect 6.1, the ability was (unintentionally?) lost to read older version backups. I know that it worked under Retrospect 6.0 when it was intially released (I tested all the way back to Retrospect 2.0 backups), but I would have to recable our server to test our older Retrospect 2.0 DAT backups.

 

So, depending on missing details from your post, you might have to revert back to Retrospect 6.0.x to read those files.

 

Also, even if Retrospect 6.x can read the backup sets, if the backup set is from older than Retrospect 6, you will have to rebuild the catalog from the backup set - the catalog format changed. Read the release notes for details.

 

Russ

[worstenbroodje]

OK,

 

mac os x 10.4.11

retrospect 6.1.230

it's an old imac sphere a powerpc G4 800mhz and 512 mb sdram

 

at the tab Immediate i hit the restore button.

then I hit restore files from backup.

There I have to open a file and the only file I can open is the "retrospect data.cat" which is 112kb

when i open it it says tht it doesn't contain snapshots.

The "Retrospect data" i can not open. this is the big file. it remains grey.

When I try to repair it, it says that the catalog portion of the retrospect data appears to be valid and if i want to rebuild anyway.

when I repair anyway it says: Couldn't repair error -48 (duplicate name)

 

thanks very much for helping

[rhwalker]

Ok.

 

Try moving the catalog to the desktop (with Retrospect quit, so that Retrospect can't find it on launch), then rebuild the catalog from the backup set.

 

I strongly suspect that your problem is because you've only got 512 MB of RAM in the computer. That's really not enough to run Mac OS 10.4.11 and Retrospect 6.x - I would suggest you try with at least 2 GB of RAM.

 

Also, as noted above, you might want to try with one of the Retrospect 6.0 versions rather than 6.1.230 - It's my understanding that Retrospect 6.1 lost the ability to retrieve from earlier versions of Retrospect backups. I know that 6.0 could, but I would have to recable our server to test with Retrospect 6.1.230.

 

Russ