macwino Posted April 9, 2003 Report Share Posted April 9, 2003 I tried the following: system 10.2.4 with Retrospect 5.0.238 using dual Lacie 120GB external Firewire hard drives for backup that I would rotate offsite each week. All worked fine for a few weeks. Then, all of the sudden, Retrospect does not see either of the drives. I first noticed the problem when I tried to run a script and got a 102 Error. Then I checked the Configure tab and all Retrospect sees is my internal CD-RW. It does not see the external LaCie Firewire hard drive. I've tried new Firewire cables and it makes no difference. I've made no system changes and no changes to Retrospect. Why am I suddenly having this problem? Both of the LaCie hard drives mount on my desktop and you can move files to and from them without any problem. It is just Retrospect that no longer sees them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted April 9, 2003 Report Share Posted April 9, 2003 Technically, the OS should never see a hard drive as a removable drive. The device status window in Retrospect is designed to show devices such as Zip, CD-R, tape, etc. but not hard drives. The correct way to backup to a hard drive is with a File backup set. If the drive is seen on the desktop, Retrospect will see the drive when creating a file backup set. Please see the following link on backing up to hard drives: http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=kbase&ACTION=KBASE&id=27501 We do not support backing up to hard drives as removable media (Disk backup sets). Doing so may prevent the ability to restore. We hope to incorporate the ability to span multiple hard drives in a future release, as we've done with the Windows product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macwino Posted April 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2003 Amy, thanks for the prompt reply, but I think you missed the point of my inquiry. All right, I messed up by saying that I couldn't see the external hard drive in the Configure menu. Now I understand that I'm not supposed to. But so what? My point is that I got the Error 102 when I would try and do a normal backup to the either of the external hard drives. Why am I getting this error? I didn't get it for the first couple of weeks that I used the Retrospect software to backup to these hard drives. Now, all of the sudden, Retrospect can no longer communicate with my external hard drives, and I've made no system changes whatsoever. Thanks for your assistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted April 9, 2003 Report Share Posted April 9, 2003 Quote: Now, all of the sudden, Retrospect can no longer communicate with my external hard drives Re-read what Amy said. Retrospect does not "communicate" with a fixed platter volume. Retrospect writes a file, the same way TextEdit or Photoshop would. Go to Configure->Backup Sets and select the Backup Set you are attempting to use. Click on "Configure..." and note at the top of the window the name and _type_ of Backup Set. What does it say? Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macwino Posted April 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2003 This is all getting a little confused. But first let me say that I did what you said, Dave, and it says that I have a "File Backup Set", which I believe is as it should be, and that its name is "TiBook Backup Set 2". This set is stored on an external Firewire hard drive named Backup 2. The drive is connected to the computer and is displayed on the desktop. I can write files to it. It is just that when I try and write to the Retrospect backup set that is stored on the drive, I get the Error 102 - Trouble Communicating message. Let me state again, that the problem is that when I try and backup up to this set, I get a message of Error 102 - Trouble Communicating. "Communicate" is not my word - it is the word used in the error message. And I get the same error for my other backup set, which is kept on a different external Firewire hard drive. And I never got these messages before when I'd go to do a backup to these hard drives using the very same backup sets. and no changes have been made to my system. So let me begin again. And please excuse my terminology, which may not be entirely correct. All I know is that this backup scheme worked flawlessly for several weeks, and now I suddenly get this error. I have two backup sets. One is called TiBook Backup Set 1 and the other is called TiBook Backup Set 2. They both use the same backup script. Backup set 1 is stored on a 120 GB LaCie External Firewire hard drive named Backup 1. Backup set 2 is stored on an identical drive that is named Backup 2. I keep one drive onsite and one offsite. Each day I backup to the one onsite. Each week, I rotate the backup drvies so that the one that is onsite is now offsite and the one that's offsite is now onsite. I never had a problem with this process. It was set up correctly and worked flawlessly. All of the sudden, when I tried to do my daily backup, I got a message after all of the files had been scanned, that there was an "Error 102 - Trouble Communciating." Now, I can no longer use Retrospect to backup to or restore from that hard drive. The hard drive is connected and working. It appears on my desktop, and I can move files to and from it. So the connection is good. Also, I tried using new Firewire cables and it made no difference. I still get the error. I then went to my offsite location and retrieved my other hard drive and tried to backup to it. I got the very same error as I got with my other hard drive. So the hard drive would not seem to be the problem. All I'm asking is why am I suddenly getting this error when all worked fine for weeks and there have been no changes to my system. Thanks for anyone's assistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted April 10, 2003 Report Share Posted April 10, 2003 Quote: All I'm asking is why am I suddenly getting this error when all worked fine for weeks and there have been no changes to my system. Now that you've provided more specific information, it sounds to me as if you may have some sort of hardware problem. Two drives both fail on the same comuter. The question becomes, will either of these drives work on a different computer? Another test would be to re-partition one of these drives using Disk Utility and make a new File Backup Set and see if you get the same result. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macwino Posted April 10, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2003 I don't think this is a hardware problem. I did some more experimenting which leads me to conclude this. The hard drives also contain File Backup Sets for a Windows machine that is backed up from the Mac over a network. Retrospect gives no "Error 102 - Trouble Communicating" when backing up or restoring to or from these Windows sets. It is only with the File Backup Sets for the Mac machine that I encounter the problem. BTW, the size of the backup sets is not the problem, as is suggested might be the case in a knowledge base article. The sets for the Windows machine are 5 times the size of the sets for the Mac, and they work fine. And none approach the 1 TB limit for an HFS+ disc. Amy, I've not heard from you about this matter since your initial response, which misinterpreted my problem. I'd appreciate your jumping back in and giving me your thoughts. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted April 18, 2003 Report Share Posted April 18, 2003 Quote: The hard drives also contain File Backup Sets for a Windows machine that is backed up from the Mac over a network. Retrospect gives no "Error 102 - Trouble Communicating" when backing up or restoring to or from these Windows sets. It is only with the File Backup Sets for the Mac machine that I encounter the problem. So, if I'm understanding correctly, the error only happens when backing up the local machine to the these hard drives? The new information you've provided indicates that other file backup sets work as expected on this same computer, writing to backup sets on the same hard drive. Backups only fail under certain circumstances. That is, the problem only happens with data backed up from the local machine? Not from Windows machines? How big are these backup sets? Go to Configure > Backup Sets > Configure for detailed information. Have you tried creating a new backup set? What about hooking this drive up to another Macintosh and trying a local backup? Do you see the same errors? Is the source data coming from a local IDE drive or a local external drive (ie: another Firewire, USB or SCSI drive)? How much data are you backing up? How much memory do you have in this system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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