What's On the CD

[metapro]

I have a client who recently started using Retrospect Professional on Windows 98. He backs up a number of specific folders to an alternating set of 2 CD-RW discs. The backups seem to work.

 

I took a quick look at both CD-RW discs using the Windows Explorer (which is set to show hidden files), and they both look empty! (The discs have a nominal 650mb capacity and show 648mb free, 0mb in use.) Yet, when I did a test Restore of a single file from one of the discs, it seemed to work.

 

Thus my question: Does Retrospect somehow "hide" its data on the CD so the user can't accidentally delete it, or does my observation imply that the backups are in fact *not* happening? I've searched your Knowledgebase and Forums for this question to no avail.

 

Thanks!

 

Bob Avallone

MetaPro Systems Inc.

[awnews]

Retrospect doesn't format and store it's data (doing a "Backup" to CD as opposed to "Data" backup) in normal format when doing a backup to CDx. So the data is OK as long as Retrospect can see it (e.g. your restore test).

 

Comment: I think this is a poor implementation. It would be better to store the data in a format that at least makes the data files visible (more confidence, can move them if needed) to Windows/Mac OSes. I use another program in addition to Retro that stores its data in a zip format which is really nice--can see data (backup file and contents), can recover with other programs, could recover data from zip archive even if Retrospect wasn't available.