Retrospect's long and twisted road.

---

__________________________________
Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity

There is a reason you have not heard from them. I got really tired of having to buy a new version every 18 months and remember which versions were incompatible with which OS. One time when an OS update did not break Retrospect, I had gone over the directory limit of 10k items. I had to spend two hours putting files into Stuffit archives before I could back up, and abandoned it soon after. When OS X came out and heard a bare install had 80k files, I laughed when I thought at all the Retrospect users having to pay for another upgrade.

---

in tha 510.

geez, I haven't used Retrospect since I was backing up to DDS tapes, like 10+ years ago.

"... it supports tape drives. Yes, those things still exist..."


///

Is their user interface (and I use that term lightly) still a freaking disaster?
They might as well have just programmed the whole UI in Portuguese.

Not a fan...

---

Paul F.
-----
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--
Eureka, CA

I wasted some money on Retrospect years ago. Never again. If I remember correctly it was because MacWorld touted it. Never again on that score either.

I haven't used it since my SmartSet could fit onto 6 or 7 100 MB Zip disks.

SuperDuper and Time Machine do me quite nicely, thank you.

---

--------------

Embarassing myself on the Internet since 1978.

I once brought someone's HD into work and used a spare Mac in my spare time to meticulously retrieve their borked data. The main HD went belly-up and so did the backup, because the Retrospect database was corrupt and could not be rebuilt or salvaged. This was several layers of stupid risk: using OS9 in an established OS X world, using Retrospect, using a Mac that couldn't run OS X.

We went with straight Finder-level copies, other software and a bigger HD for backup and never looked back.

I used Retrospect back when I was backing my IIfx up to 230 MB Bernoulli cartridges (which I still have—wonder where the drive is?). That was version 1, I think. Then it got more complex, more expensive, and finally incomprehensible for my limited IT brain. I expect it still resides on my (long inactive) IIfx HD.

/Mr Lynn

---

"Hillbilly at Harvard"
Honky-tonk Country and Bluegrass
Founded in 1948 by Pappy Ben Minnich
Saturdays 9am - 1pm Eastern
WHRB-FM, Cambridge, MA
Streaming at [www.WHRB.org]
Be there!
New blog! [hillbillyatharvard.wordpress.com]

On the river in Saxonville.