Rebuilding Retrospect for Mac Version 6 catalog files

Retrospect 6.1 is only supported on Mac OS 10.5.8 and earlier. To rebuild a Retrospect for Mac version 6 catalog for use with newer versions of Retrospect, you will need to rebuild your catalogs using Retrospect for Mac version 10.5. Once the catalog has been rebuilt, you can update to the latest version of Retrospect and use that catalog for restores. Newer versions of Retrospect are unable to rebuild version 6 catalogs.

The link to download Retrospect for Mac version 10.5 can be found here: http://download.retrospect.com/software/mac/v1050/Retrospect-1050145.dmg.

You can use this 45 day trial code: P66L-W6VT-A388-7MKY.

Preparation

To rebuild a removable disk backup set catalog, you will need to enable some additional options.

After installing Retrospect for Mac version 10.5. Head to System Preferences > Retrospect and stop the retrospect engine. Open /Library/Application Support/Retrospect/retro.ini for edit using a text editor. In this file you should come across an entry called [Devices] Under the devices tag you will enter three entries which will look like:

[Devices]

CanCreateRemovables=1

ShowRemovables=1

DontEjectRemovables=1

If you do not find a [Devices] entry, you can add it manually at the bottom of the retro.ini file.

After making the changes, save the retro.ini file. Now head back to "System Preferences" > "Retrospect" to restart your engine, and then launch the "Retrospect" application from "Applications".

To rebuild an optical disc backup set, you can follow the instructions to enable optical support here:

https://www.retrospect.com/en/support/kb/retrospect_8_x_for_macintosh_optical_support

For tape and file backup sets, no additional preparation is required.

Rebuilding

Tape, Optical or Removable Backup Sets

Once the required options are enabled (see above), head to the Media Sets window, select Rebuild.

For the rebuild type chose "tape, optical, or removable”.

Select the device containing the data you wish to rebuild the catalog for.

Choose a location for the catalog,

Start the rebuild.

A catalog rebuild tutorial can be found below:

File Backup Sets

Click on Media Sets on the left and select Rebuild.

For the rebuild type, chose “File”

Specify the location of the file backup set.

Run the rebuild.

Once the rebuild is completed, you can use the rebuilt catalog with the current version of Retrospect for Mac to restore your data.

Note: The disk that contains your file backup set must have free space equal to or greater than the total size of the original File Backup Set. The File Backup Set rebuild operation with version 10.5 will make a new copy of the file backup set during the rebuild.

Version 4.3 and earlier

If you need to restore data from backups created with Retrospect 4.3 and earlier, you will need to be using Retrospect 4.3 on Apple System 9.  We can provide you with a copy of version 4.3 if needed.

Last Update: December 2023