Retrospect issues: Duplicate backup not bootable?; more

Continuing our previous coverage of Retrospect 5 (with one item on Retrospect 4):

Duplicate backup not bootable? Using the Duplicate option in the Preview version of Retrospect 5, we backed up an entire OS X volume to an external FireWire drive. All went well except that we could not boot from the duplicate volume. We contacted Dantz about this. They suggested that the problem may lie in the drive itself, which may not be bootable with any OS X install. As the drive did not have the Oxford 911 chipset, and as we knew that boot problems with external drives were indeed a commonly reported issue, the explanation seemed reasonable and we did not pursue this further.

However, now we receive word from Dennis Hill that he had the exact same problem with the release version of Retrospect 5. Further, suspecting the same explanation, he tested it out by installing OS X 10.1 from the Install CD to another partition of the same external drive. He was able to boot from this partition. Thus, it appears that the boot problem may be specific to how Retrospect makes the duplicate backup.

Note: In our case, Startup Disk System Preferences listed the volume as bootable; we could select the volume. The Mac would then try to startup from the external drive and die at the initial gray screen.

Update: Stephen Hart replies: "In the past, I have found that CarbonCopyCloner would produce a complete backup that was not bootable. Running DiskWarrior on that partition fixed 'boot block' problems, and the partition will then boot fine. On a Mac OS X users list, one list member found that his initial test of Retrospect Express produced a bootable partition."

Update: Volker Nawrath adds: "Following the advice in the ReadMe file, I first installed Mac OS X from the Install CD on the destination partition. Then I updated it to 10.1.3. After this, I was able to duplicate the original partition with the ability to boot from the duplicated partition. Without the first step (CD install), the duplicated system was not bootable despite it being listed as bootable by the Startup Disk System Preferences. The CD Install is also necessary for normal recovery to get a bootable system."

Perhaps the Install CD writes some boot block data that Retrospect cannot do? Interesting. We will test this all out ourselves, as we have time.

Retrospect and Adaptec 2940U2B: a follow-up Matt Riley confirms: "There is indeed a conflict between the Adaptec 2940U2B card supplied with Apple servers and Retrospect 5 (see yesterday's report). It is a problem not with the card itself, but with the driver for the card (installed during a normal OS X installation). I discovered this when I first ran the preview release and was greeted by a kernel panic immediately after initiating a backup. The solution for me was to purchase a new Adaptec 29160 card. It's been working fine ever since. Of course, replacing an expensive SCSI card that is not broken in any way with another expensive SCSI card is not my idea of a cost-efficient upgrade. But, if you read my posts, you will see why I do not feel like this driver issue will be resolved anytime soon. [More details are posted in this Apple Discussions thread.]

Retrospect 4.1 has expired Having nothing to do with Retrospect 5, but still of potential interest, Michael Schmitt writes: "There is a problem that has cropped up for users of Retrospect 4.0 and 4.1 (see this thread). Starting in February, when you start Retrospect it displays a dialog box: 'Your Macintosh clock/calendar appears to be wrong.' Dantz says they are working on a patch for 4.x users." Meanwhile, the fix is to upgrade to the 4.3 version.