Retrospect Backup

[Thomas S. England]

Just hooked up a new external drive and found it had a bunch of software already loaded onto it, most of it stuff I don't need.

But also in the package was a CD for Dantz Retrospect Backup 5.1. A quick bout of websurfing show that a lot of folks like this.

Anybody here used it?

[Gregg]

I've used Retrospect Express for several years. Initially, I didn't find it to be completely intuitive, but it doesn't give me problems backing up. I have had to tussle with it to restore things. That's probably a function of not taking enough time to figure it out.

[RNKIII]

I've used the Retrospect product for several years also, and never had a problem with it.
I have, however, never had to use it for a restore.
I've used it with floppies and 100 & 250 Zip drives, but no other backup medium.

My $.02

Bob K.

[jwboyd]

Wouldn't be without it! Saved my bacon a number of times.

True, in some ways it is not very "Mac-like," but it works fine as long as you do things its way. Through the years, I've backed up to streaming tape, SyQuest cartridges, magneto-optical, and now use CD-R.

I do not use scripted backups, but I do try to backup daily except weekends. I alternate between a Set A and a Set B. That way, if something goes wrong during a backup, you can go back to the previous day and lose only one day's work.

Just a couple of weeks ago a friend lost all of his 2003 QuickBooks because he had not been diligent about backing up. He and his CPA are now painstakingly reconstructing everything manually so they can close the 2003 books on his business. Bummer!

[Epaminondas]

Back in the era when backup drives and media were slow and expensive, Retrospect made a lot of sense.   With incremental backups, Retrospect squeezed every ounce of efficiency from your backup setup.

In the era of $50 CDRW drives and 25 cent CDRs, Retrosepect's era has largely passed.


It's kinda like RAM Doubler.  When RAM was $50 a MB - with 8 MB costing $400 - woohoo! - RAM Doubler was great!  Saved you a lot of money.  But in the current era of cheap RAM, RAM Doubler is no more.

That situation is analagous to Retrospect in the current era of cheap, fast backup solutions.


Once the Gold Standard - I always found Retrospect to be unwieldy.

Downright user-unfriendly.

And that comes from a Linux advocate.  ;-)


Do you really need to schedule your backups with elaborate scripts over a full network to large tape drives late every night when you are gone home?  If yes, Retrospect still makes sense for you.  

As does hiring someone who knows how to use it.

But if can you simply toss a CD in your CDRW and backup your computer when you think it appropriate, you are far better off using Toast - with verification - instead.


If you are going to use Retrospect, best to read the manual first and practice a few times - a fantastic backup that you cannot figure out how to restore from is worse than useless.


Good luck,

Epaminondas