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Important Update on Panasonic CW-8121 (Apple)


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Panasonic CW-8121 (Apple) drive

 

 

 

Due to potential dataloss issues with this drive, the minimum supported drive firmware revision is AA21. This firmware revision (or later) is on drives included with the currently shipping PowerBook G4 computers new as of 11/2002. Firmware revision AA21 addresses a serious dataloss defect where used discs will have an "erased" status and drastically

 

improved performance when used with Retrospect. Dantz is working closely with Apple in regards to availability of the AA21 updater for earlier PowerBook G4 computers.

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I reported this over a month ago (see "Retrospect 5 vs. PowerBook CD"). It would have been nice if someone had responded...

 

 

 

So what chance is there that those of use with PBook 550s will see a firmware update?

 

 

 

Will anyone let use know? Or should I bug Apple about this?

 

 

 

John

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In reply to:

I reported this over a month ago (see "Retrospect 5 vs. PowerBook CD"). It would have been nice if someone had responded...

 

 

 

So what chance is there that those of use with PBook 550s will see a firmware update?


 

 

 

We just became aware of issues with the Apple firmware. There is no update at this time regarding availability from Apple for older computers.

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This is probably another stalling tactic by Dantz. They don't say whether or not upgrading the firmware to AA21 is going to solve all the Error 206 problems people are having with the 8121 drives. Eventually Dantz is going to tell us that our machines and drives are too old and we should upgrade to a newer machine. I suggest you do your backup manually. Just copy everything to make a base backup, then use "Find" to select all the files that are modified today (you have that option from "Add criteria"), and simply drag them to CD-Rs or RWs. Regardless what Retrospect tells you, your drives are not dirty, and your disks are not invalid. It works for me.

 

 

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> Eventually Dantz is going to tell us that our machines and drives are too old and we should upgrade to a newer machine.

 

 

 

-- Geez, I upgraded to v.5 (despite thinking $100 was overpriced), because I had to - v.4 will not be updated to support my PowerBook's combo drive. This computer is now 7 months old - and it's gonna be "too old" soon!!!!

 

 

 

> I suggest you do your backup manually. Just copy everything to make a base backup, then use "Find" to select all the files that are modified today (you have that option from "Add criteria"), and simply drag them to CD-Rs or RWs.

 

 

 

-- Ha ha, yes, that's why I spent another $100, in order to not use the software & roll my own archiving, sure...

 

 

 

rgp100's comments seem typical of the *lots* of ill will Dantz is earning a from frustrated customers. Seems like v.5, especially on OS X, is still way too buggy - did they stop testing their software on real machines? I am very disappointed, expecially after years working with Retrospect, which I always recommended as consistently (reassuringly!) rock solid.

 

 

 

My combo drive burns just fine with Toast (which doesn't disable the CD eject key, BTW).

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I know I don't make a lot of friends, but I decided to make it a mission. I don't know if you were aware, but Bob 'Dr. Mac' LeVitus has been publicly denouncing Iomega for all the problems he had. Now I'm a happy Iomega customer, and I'm sure many are. And I know I have less than 1/1000000 of Dr. Mac's influence, but when a product you _pay_ fails to live up to it, well, then I agree with him that it must be known. Especially when you are not doing anything out of ordinary, like using an OEM drive (i.e. CW-8121). Since I bought (upgraded) Retrospect 5, I haven't been able to make a single backup of any kind. As I said, all the CD-RW media (Sony, Verbatim, Fuji and Memorex) rejected by Retrospect (with the infamous -206 errors) work fine with anything _other than_ Retrospect. I have been faithfully following instructions posted on this forum (so I'm up-to-date as of 11/27/02), but I only have a fragmented, yet complete backup that I made manually. Nothing is worse than paying to become a beta tester.

 

 

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