paleolith Posted June 14, 2003 Report Share Posted June 14, 2003 Configuration: Power Mac 8600, Mac OS 9.1, Retrospect 4.3, backup device is a LaCie drive with a Yamaha CRW8424S version 1.0j. Acts as a backup server but the problem discussed is with local use. This morning I backed up a few folders with large files (3 files over 150MB and most of the others in the 30MB-50MB range). I generally don't back up these folders because they are so large and not critical, but wanted to change that. I created a 5-CD backup set. The compare pass blew up as soon as I inserted disc 2, with "Trouble reading: [...] error 204 (device busy)". I tried verifying, marking members missing so I can check them all. Members 2 and 4 *always* get this error immediately on insertion, the others never. Nor do I get this error with members of any other backup set. I understand that this error is returned by the device, not generated by Retrospect. Presumably Retrospect assumes that this error is either permanently fatal or involves a condition (such as conflicting usage) which will not allow reliable use. But this situation seems very suspicious. It doesn't fit the possibilities listed in the Knowledgebase article on Error 204, since it occurs on certain disks (immediately) and not at all on other disks even writing or reading the entire disk. The conditions discussed there would occur either consistently on all disks, or inconsistenly. The only change appears to be the large files on this backup -- and I can't conceive of any way that could be related either. Any idea what could cause this? Edward Reid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted June 24, 2003 Report Share Posted June 24, 2003 You may have faulty discs. Make sure you're using quality media, such as TDK, Sony or Verbatim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paleolith Posted June 27, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2003 Quote: AmyC said: You may have faulty discs. Make sure you're using quality media, such as TDK, Sony or Verbatim. Since I originally posted, I marked the two bad CDs missing and did another backup. Of the two additional CDs created, one is bad in the same manner. Specifically, members 2, 4, and 6 of the 7-CD set get this error. So I have this 7-CD backup set with THREE CDs getting this very odd error message -- an error rate of over 40%. By contrast, I have a couple of hundred normal backup CDs and have *never* encountered this error. And that includes some created after these. Under the circumstances, I believe it makes sense to look for the error somewhere other than in the media. Edward Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paleolith Posted August 8, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2003 Amy, With more experience on this problem now, I'm leaning toward believing your explanation of bad media. It doesn't have to be top brand to be good -- I've had good experience with Office Depot branded disks, and with blank-label CompUSA disks. However, a batch of blank-label Spin-X disks seems to be playing havoc with my drive. But how does bad media cause a Drive Busy (error 204)? And more importantly, if this is a known cause, why is it unmentioned in the KB when several other causes of the same error are listed? Edward Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paleolith Posted August 10, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2003 I take back what I said in the last post. I just got this error on a Verbatim CD-R. Something drastic needs to be done with the description of error 204 in the KB. It's very obvious that there are causes other than those discussed. It would greatly help to know what they are. Edward Reid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Digital Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 I can't believe I've found only one post dealing with this issue, and that it has been so long since anyone has encountered/dealt with this. I've been getting these errors ever since I started using Retrospect again, this time with a Pioneer DVR-104 in a LaCie Firewire enclosure. I did the auto configure thang, and the drive worked fine for a while. When I started to get the error, I did all the suggested things (ie. extension weeding etc.) which seemed to make it better but still got he error -204 "Device Busy". Thinking that maybe the drive was starting to get out of calibration, I recently purchased a new LaCie 8X DVD+/-R burner (w/Pioneer drive), configured it and am still getting these errors. Anybody, please shed some light on this issue for me. Thanks! -doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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