Compare not working?

[lunadesign]

In older verisons of Retrospect, long backups would invariably complain about files changing after they were backed up during the compare phase. Now, I never see those warnings. In fact, I just did a backup and purposely changed the files after they were backed up but before they were compared. Is compare broken? Or is there an option that somehow affects its ability to detect changes. (And yes, compare *is* turned on for all my backups)

[Hofstede]

Retrospect now works with shadow copy. So Retrospect will backup and compare the files as they were the moment the drive was scanned. Even if you delete a file while the backup runs it will still be backed up and compared.

If you run the same backup again you will see that Retrospect backs up the files you changed.

[FuzzyJohn]

This is only if your OS is Windows XP.

[lunadesign]

I had never heard of shadow copy until now and just looked it up. If I read this correctly, it means I can work while my system is being backed up without messing up the backup?

 

Has anyone had any problems with this? I'm used to avoiding my machine during backups, but I'm about due for a full backup, which means 4-6 DDS4 tapes, which means the better part of a day. If I could continue to use my system during the backup, it'd be really cool.

 

The only downside I could see is that if I'm taxing the system, the system may not be able to stream data to my tapes as fast as it would if the system wasn't being used, which means I might get a little less data on each tape.

[FuzzyJohn]

You are correct about being able to work on the system. Things may get a little sluggish though.

 

As for the system not being able to stream data to the tapes, that also could be true depending on the way you are using it. But this should not affect the amount of data. If the stream gets interrupted the tape drive will have to rewind to find its place after which it will continue. Because of this backups will take a little longer.