Question: Why are my DAT tapes write-locked?
Answer: The AWS 95 DAT drive requires MRS (Media Recognition System) format DAT tapes. Standard audio-quality DAT tapes are not MRS format, so the tape drive shows them as read-only, which allows an AWS 95 to read previously written tapes but not to modify them.
Question: Should a StorageSet be placed on a Macintosh Filesystem or a UNIX Filesystem?
Answer: It is recommended that the Macintosh File StorageSet be located on a Macintosh partition rather than on a UNIX partition. This is because when Retrospect updates a StorageSet, it appends the backup data to the file's data fork, then goes back and writes the catalog data to the file's resource fork. Retrospect displays the message "Updating Catalog" in the status window while this latter stage is happening.
Because Macintosh File StorageSets are created in AppleSingle format, the UNIX file system wants to write the resource fork contiguously. Which requires it to move all the backup data in the data fork. This causes delays, sometimes long enough to make people think Retrospect is hung.
Question: Retrospect isn't backing up my AppleShare.PDS file. Why?
Answer: Certain files are excluded from backups with Retrospect 2.0. These include AppleShare.PDS, Desktop files and the VM Storage file. None of them can usefully be restored because they're part of the active system and a restored copy of the file is useless, and they will usually cause compare errors in the log during the verify cycle. Because of this, and because it makes no sense to waste backup media on them, it was decided to exclude them.