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Mac OS X  |  System / Utilities  |  Backup / Sync / Recover  |  Retrospect

Retrospect

Retrospect - 8.1.626

Advanced backup software.

All Time: (2.8)
This Version: (2.2)
Current Version: 8.1.626
Release Date: 2009-11-10
License: Update
Downloads (this version): 1,813
Downloads (all versions): 192,619
Price: $129.00

Information Related to Version:

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Product Description:

Designed to protect Mac OS X systems with absolute accuracy and reliability, Dantz Retrospect Backup properly backs up and restores all Mac OS X files and information, including both the data and resource forks of multi-part files, HFS+ metadata, UNIX-style permissions and group ownership, and hard-linked files. Automatic scheduling ensures that backups run even when no Mac OS X user is logged in, and Retrospect client software allows entire networks of Macs to be backed up and restored across the LAN. Dantz Retrospect Backup v5.0 supports more storage devices than any other backup software available for the Mac OS. Hard disk drives, Apple CD-RW drives, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drives, SuperDrives and other writable and rewritable DVD drives, tape drives and libraries, and removable cartridge drives are all supported.

What's new in this version:

  • Daylight Savings time causes script times to display incorrectly
  • Snapshots created during daylight saving dates cannot be retrieved during non-daylight-saving dates
  • Media request comes up before volume is full for large volumes (usually > 8 TB)*
  • Catalog rebuild failure (Daylight Savings Time related)
  • Past Backups not populating list / no access to backups (Daylight Savings Time)
  • Can't backup or restore of 10.6.1 large compressed files properly
  • Unable to rebuild an encrypted disk media set (Daylight Savings Time)
  • Media request when restoring after date & time changed
  • Unable to see backups during Restore with assistant after time zone change
  • Log time not displaying properly in zero hundred hours

Operating System Requirements:

This product is designed to run on the following operating systems:

  • Mac OS X 10.5 Intel
  • Mac OS X 10.5 PPC
  • Mac OS X 10.4 Intel
  • Mac OS X 10.4 PPC

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Feedback Summary:

This Version:
Overall Rating: (2.2) Features: (2.5) Support: (2.0)
Ease of Use: (1.8) Quality / Stability: (2.0) Price: (2.8)
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Retrospect Reviewstay away - Version: 8.1.626, 2/5/2010 01:50PM PST

svt2
I fully agree with many negative comments on this web site and elsewhere. Version 6.1 was a reasonably well built product. The latest retrospect, however, version 8.1, is a complete disaster. The new user interface in many respects is counterintuitive at best, if not meaningless. But this would have been a minor issue if this thing could produce reliable backups/duplicates. Instead it hangs, interrupts, quits half way and basically does everything to render the entire notion of a backup useless. I advise everybody to look some other way for their backup software. I, in the meantime, am going to resort to the old retrospect (v. 6.1) until I have identified something better. This "something better" is not going to be the new retrospect.
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Retrospect ReviewWant to back up to optical media? Don't use this. - Version: 8.1.626, 1/24/2010 08:38AM PST

domo

I'm yet another long-time user: well over a decade. But this looks like the year I kiss (or, rather, kick) this product goodbye. I've been using Retrospect 6 to back my home systems up to DVD-Rs because they're cheap, drives are cheap, and I can store the media off-site. Retrospect 6 has a pretty funky and un-Mac-like interface, but, after I'd mastered it, it did the job. I was hoping for better from Retrospect 8. No chance.

To cut to the chase, firstly it does not support the Apple-supplied "Superdrive" in my new iMac. (Actually, it does not support optical drives at all until you follow the instructions in a note on EMC's site that tells you to alter a configuration file using a text editor.) While it's possible to get Retrospect to teach itself about new drive types, it was not clear to me whether I'd managed to do this or not. Well, initially, it said not, but, after I restarted the "engine", it decided that it now knew about my drive. That did not fill me with confidence. I suppose there's some good reason why Retrospect can't just work at once with almost any drive you choose to throw at it, like Toast does, but, whatever it is, it escapes me.

Secondly, trying a test back-up to CD-RWs in an old external drive that is on the supported list, I was bemused by long erase operations on already-erased media, and exasperated by Retrospect filling the discs to less than half their capacity. Behaviour is the same for DVD+Rs, although at least the erase operation(!) is short.

For all I know, the product's really fine for tape and disk back-ups. But the first I don't want, and the second I've got covered with Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine. Perhaps I could do better if I could RTFM. But there isn't one -- just a Quick Start Guide. So, ho hum. It's off to the cloud for me. Or something.

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Retrospect ReviewFinally found my replacement for Retrospect 8 - Version: 8.1.626, 12/13/2009 10:35AM PST

scotty321
After 8 months of total hell with unreliable and incomplete backups with Retrospect 8 (see my posts in the EMC Retrospect 8 forum under the name "scotty321" for all of my hell with the product, along with the hundreds of other users who are also having problems with this product), I have FINALLY found my replacement backup software and am now gladly & happily saying goodbye to Retrospect for good!

I am now using ChronoSync and ChronoAgent for my backup software.

I'm using them successfully at multiple different office locations, including one office location that has 17 Macs on their network. ChronoSync and ChronoAgent work absolutely flawlessly on a nightly basis to multiple external hard drives.

In fact, ChronoSync and ChronoAgent do EVERY SINGLE THING that Retrospect 8 does (except backup Windows clients)... but they do it elegantly, they do it with better error reporting, they do it with a much better user interface, and they do it with significantly better pricing as well. You can backup an entire network of 25 Macs for only $190, with no upgrade fees ever!

So, goodbye for life, Retrospect... you have burned way too many bridges with me and have caused me way too much grief for any one person to have in their lifetime.
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