slow reading

[CBM]

Last spring I (CBM) downloaded the trial version of Retrospect and had difficulty with my drive, as described in that post. I'm happy to say that this problem was resolved later in the year, because the updated trial version of Retrospect I downloaded in the Fall did not have problems with my drive.

 

 

 

The main problem I did have, however, was that reading files back from CD's during the verification phase of a pretty full system backup was many times slower than writing all those CD's to begin with. The slowness meant that I still couldn't make use of Retrospect.

 

 

 

Any suggestions from anyone?

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

CBM

[AmyJ]

While in Retrospect, go to Configure > Devices > Environment and list Vendor, Product and Version for your drive.

 

 

[CBM]

The program does a device scan, and then brings up the "storage devices"

 

status tab. When you click on the environment tab, you notice that

 

response to any input to the computer is very slow. It might take the

 

best part of a minute for any response to occur to clicking on "environment",

 

or to clicking on the scroll bars. Even clicking on the task bar (such as

 

the start button) shows the same slow response.

 

 

 

When the environment tab finally comes up, then all is well from that

 

point on. Every mouse click gets an immediate response.

 

 

 

Now, the environment table entry is very interesting. It shows the

 

device 0 as "busy", and only displays the driver info, which is Samsung

 

CD-RW (1.53). Now, if you right click on the highlighted (only) line in

 

the table, and click on "refresh", you will soon see a complete entry.

 

It says, Vendor = SAMSUNG, Product = CDRW/DVD SM-308B, Version = T100,

 

Driver = as above.

 

 

 

I suspect that the drive appears inordinately "busy" to the Retrospect

 

software, and this impedes the progress of work.

 

 

 

I tried the "custom configuration" thing for my drive, but all it does is

 

ask for a CD-RW, which it proceeds to blank, then eject, then ask for

 

it to be put in again, repeating the whole thing over and over. On the

 

third "pass" I pushed the stop button. It continued to work the drive

 

(the light was flashing) for a long time before it really stopped.

 

 

 

I "deleted" the custom drive configuration, if any.

 

 

 

I do have Easy CD creator and Direct CD installed. These come on these

 

Dell machines. I've got a piece of mail from the forum with instructions

 

on how to keep these items from interfering with Retrospect, and I've

 

tried to follow the directions, best I could. No cigar.

 

 

 

Thanks for your help.

 

 

 

CBM

[AmyJ]

In reply to:

---

Vendor = SAMSUNG, Product = CDRW/DVD SM-308B, Version = T100,

 

Driver = as above.

---

 

 

 

This drive is supported with the following minimum requirements:

 

 

 

Retrospect: 5.5

 

Retrospect Driver Update: 2.2.104

 

Firmware version: T102

 

 

 

According to your post, your firmware version is too old (T100). The first thing to do is upgrade your firmware through the vendor.

 

 

 

Download the latest version of the Retrospect Driver Update, available from: Updatescolor=blue>

 

 

 

Make sure the drive is installed as the Master drive on the Secondary IDE channel.

 

 

 

Was ASPI installed correctly? Run ASPICHK (in the Retrospect Program Files folder) to make sure ASPI is "green" and all components are at version 4.60. If not, try a reinstall (ASPIINST.exe). If you still have problems, consult the Retrospect User's Guide or Adaptec's website.