Retrospect Continuous Backup Add-On

Removing a default Exclusion Rule

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:53:56 GMT

Retrospect Continuous Backup Pro 7.6 build 40478 on Windows XP Pro SP3.

I wish to arrange Continuous Backup (not OFB) for some Eudora file types (.mbx & .toc). (Eudora closes these files when they are modified by a new mail message etc.) The files concerned are stored in \Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora\ There is an exclusion rule which bears on this: “starts with” \DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ and “contains” \APPLICATION DATA\ This exclusion rule is not greyed out; when I “remove” the rule, RCB asks for confirmation and appears to accept the command, but afterwards the rule appears still present in the list. I have tried as the system “Administrator”.

If this is a bug, is there any registry setting I could safely/effectively modify as a workaround?

RCB RSS Feed not working

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:12:35 GMT

The RCB RSS Feed (from the RSS Icon on the forms listing) does not work for me. It links to
http://forums.dantz.com/rss/fid111.xml

However, other RSS feeds such as for Retrospect for Windows, works properly for me.

Log file warnings

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:41:22 GMT

I saw this log file warning (I suppressed debug messages first). Does this indicate any problems with my set-up? (concerned since it states INTERNAL ERROR) I looked at the log since my data vault file copy has stopped after copying some files. The total error messages=0, warning=76, so there are no other error messages

2008-06-08 08:10:33.6130000 CBClean Warn Cle Failed to create patches: System.Exception: System.Exception: Failed to open file via driver: ? 0xc000000d - INTERNAL ERROR -- StreamHandleContext not found
at FKLib.CopyOFPFile.InitOFPFile(String sOFPFile, String& sErrMessage)

RCB creating issues with Vista start menu

Tue, 27 May 2008 13:17:48 GMT

Hi,

After installing RCB, the items that are automatically added by Vista to my start menu (i.e., the programs I use frequently) stopped working -- so I'd click on them and programs would not strat.

I googled this a bit, and it turns out that for some reason this can be caused in Vista by programs like RCB that add items to the context menus in particular ways. Sure enough, I uninstalled RCB and the start menu started working again.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
-Ben

RCB Pro documentation etc issues

Tue, 20 May 2008 08:53:44 GMT

7.6 (Build 39298):

1. The "help" claims if one Right-clicks on a file, one is supposedly presented with a menu including "Copy Version". I find no such menu item - only "Search and Recover Files".

2. Click on the RCB Control Panel > Health. The lower panel says "Last Data Vault Update" whereas the "Help" displays a screen shot showing "Initial Copy/File Validation information" (which is somewhat more understandable than "update" in the context).

When the inititial copying ("Backup Now") of the protected files was being done, progress bars appeared apparently showing both progress re each file and the overall progress. However the progress % for the individual file does not appear near the progress bar in the "Copying to USB Data Vault" sub-panel but rather appears as an orphan to lhe top-right of the progress bar for the total.

On initial installation, an undocumented pop-up appeared "Reboot as soon as possible". It was unclear whether one was supposed to let the initial copying proceed, or supposed to cancel the initial copying to reboot.

Error on uninstalling

Tue, 20 May 2008 02:44:04 GMT

Error on uninstalling:
"The path ...FileKeeper.msi cannot be found... "

I'd say that this Yosemite app is not ready for prime time.

Speed

Tue, 20 May 2008 01:11:19 GMT

It looks like this is Yosemite FileKeeper rebranded.

Problems:

On one of my PCs, the add-on service does not start on boot, and I have to start it manually.
The PC is noticeably slower. Creating a new directory, for example, often takes many seconds (like 10 or 20!).

Wish list

Second Copy is an example of an application with useful options. I would add the following ones to this backup product.

Add option to copy all changes at defined interval, instead of when files change.
Easily suspend activity temporarily.
Add option to exclude or include based on path and not just file extension.
Add option to exclude or include based on date modified.
Add option to exclude or include based on file attributes, such as archive bit.
Add option to clear archive bit of copied files.
Add option to specify data vault for individual profiles or backups.
Add option to exclude based on PC's current hardware profile.

Mike

Open File Backup on file close

Sat, 17 May 2008 11:06:44 GMT

Open File Backup checks the target file(s) at regular intervals (fixed at 1 hour for Retrospect Continuous Backup Pro?) for changes. The OFB copy/delta is immediately stored in the "Data Vault" not in the "Version Store". (A "Data Vault" is compulsory for RCB Pro OFB.) Whereas files marked for "Continuous Backup" have their copies/deltas first stored in the "Version Store" and then transferred later to the "Data Vault" on a regular cycle (if a "Data Vault" has been set up).

What is the situation if a target file marked for OFB is opened & closed inside a particular 1 hour interval? For a specific example if Outlook is open to check mail, then shut down after say 7hrs 20mins - does that closure trigger RCB Pro OFB to backup the very latest outlook.pst file even though it may be (say) 40mins before the next OFB is due? (Ie in addition to any timed backups). My experiments seem to indicate that is the case, but I would like to know from authority. The documentation says that if a file qualifies under both CB & OFB, OFB is invoked, but that does not make what happens in the above situation clear to me.

Bought product - problems completing first backup

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:28:38 GMT

Hi, I've had problems completing my first back. The first thing is that it kept failing backing up zip files (I need to backup zip files because they're a programming artifact I create for my job as a software consultant). Now that would be fine if it would just say, hey, cannot do it. It kept having problems with "cyclic redundancy checks". But the problem is it interrupts itself each time to tell you this, and doesn't give you an option to say, in effect, "ignore this message." Which means I have to sit there for hours to click a button to let it continue each time it finds a zip file.

So I took out zip files as a file to be backed up. It's now been running 18 hours. I got a balloon from the status bar saying the continuous backup had failed, and I bring up the log window and it has a whole long list of failures like "Failed to copy file.." which don't exactly explain why the copy failed. Meanwhile no more files appear to be being in the process of being copied, yet my hard-disk is whirring away, and CB is using 10% of my CPU. I'm going to kill it.

In fact, yesterday when I was running it, although I'd set it to run in the background, it was making my whole machine sluggish.

I'd attach the log file but a) it's huge, and b) it's got a lot of private information about my computer in it. Can send privately if needed.

Thanks, Keith
Windows XP SP2

RCB Trial

Sun, 11 May 2008 19:46:54 GMT

You can download the trial version from http://www.emcinsignia.com/updates

Download and install the Professional or Policy Server/agent version.

The software will automatically include a trial license code.