Throughout this article, I've sung the praises of Retrospect, the well-known backup software from EMC Insignia (formerly from Dantz). It's my main backup tool (though I do use other software for certain tasks). Although I've tried every backup program I can get my hands on, I haven't encountered anything that impressed me enough to tempt me away from Retrospect.
And yet, I'm well awarebelieve meof Retrospect's shortcomings. I get email all the time from people who find it inscrutable. I've read many complaints about Retrospect on Web sites and discussion lists. And I've encountered numerous problems myself. But although Retrospect surely has some bugs and limitations, its biggest problem is the user interface. It's weird. It's confusing. It's 10 years overdue for an extreme makeover. And the difficulty ordinary users have in getting past the interface to the useful stuff beneath is the main reason so many people are looking for alternatives to Retrospect.
When I started using Retrospect way back when, I found it confusing, too. Its 250+ page manual contains plenty of helpful information, but it's a lot to get one's brain around. With some effort, though, I managed to figure out enough of Retrospect to get my own backups working, and eventually I became so accustomed to the interface that I barely notice how weird it is anymore.
In the next few pages, I provide a brief overview of Retrospect's terminology, logic, and interfacewith special attention to things you're likely to find confusing. I won't cover everything, of course, but I hope I can give enough information that you can feel comfortable using it for basic duplicates and archivesfor a single computer or for a small network. Unless otherwise noted, everything in this appendix applies to both Retrospect Desktop and Retrospect Express.Retrospect Terminology

Before I get into specific Retrospect windows or activities, I want to explain some important terms as Retrospect uses them. Understanding these words will make everything else much easier.

• Backup: An operation in which Retrospect copies files into a special file called a backup set (see "Backup Set," ahead in this list). Every backup to a given backup set after the first one is, by definition, an additive incremental archive. (Retrospect doesn't perform differential backups.) So, for the remainder of this appendix, I use the term "backup" to refer to what I normally call an "archive."
• Duplicate: An operation in which the entire contents of a volume are copied exactly to another volume. Subsequent duplicates are incremental, and may delete files absent on the source (using the "Replace Entire Disk" option) or leave such files on the destination (using the "Replace Corresponding Files" option). Duplicates of startup volumes to external FireWire drives, secondary internal drives, or partitions on such drives, should be bootableas long as you chose the "Replace Entire Disk" option. Duplicates do not use backup sets.
• Archive: A backup operation in which Retrospect deletes the original files after copying them into a backup set.
• Restore: An operation in which files are copied from a backup set to another locationwhich may or may not be their original location.
• Script: A saved set of options for a backup, duplicate, archive, or restore operation, which you can run at any time (manually or on a schedule). Scripts include what data you're backing up, to what destination, with which selectors and other options, and schedule information. The term "Script" is a bit of a misnomerunlike with AppleScript scripts, shell scripts, and so on, you don't actually see a script (a sequence of coded instructions); you see only settings in dialogs and windows.
• Backup Server: A script type for backups (not found in Retrospect Express) that provides for a flexible schedule and multiple backup sets. Using this script type, Retrospect can back up clients whenever they happen to be available on the network, and store the backups on whatever media happens to be present. This makes backing up laptops and rotating backup media much easier.
• EasyScript: A series of dialogs that walk you through the creation of a basic backup script (including a Backup Set, if necessary) by asking you simple questions. I've found that EasyScript selections always require significant modification after the fact, so I prefer to skip EasyScript and define my own scripts manually.
• Backup Set: A special file that stores all the files and folders you're backing up; what I refer to elsewhere in this article as an archive. A backup set can contain many versions of any given file, and may optionally be compressed, encrypted, or both. Backup sets are readable only by Retrospect; you can't access their contents directly from the Finder.
• Catalog: An index of a backup set's contents. For backup sets stored on a hard disk or network server, you can opt to store the catalog in the same file as the backup set or as a separate file (even on a different volume from the backup set), so you can view and search the contents of your backups even if the backup set itself is unavailable. (Backup sets stored on removable media always keep their catalog files on your hard disk.) If a catalog is missing or damaged, Retrospect can reconstruct it from the backup set itself.
• Source: Whatever you're backing upvolume(s) or subvolume(s) on one or more physical drives.
• Destination: The location where backed-up files will be stored. For backup, backup server, and archive operations, the destination must be a backup set (or more than one backup set); for duplicate operations, the destination must be a volume.
• Subvolume: A folder you've designated as a backup source or destination. You cannot create a bootable volume by duplicating a startup volume to a subvolume, because as far as Mac OS X is concerned, a subvolume is just a folder.
• Client: A computer on your network that's running Retrospect Client, and which you can back up to a server running Retrospect Desktop.
• Device: A physical device that can store datasuch as an optical drive or a tape drive. (Hard drives and network servers don't count as "devices" in Retrospect's usage.) Some devices require special setup before they can be used, but in most cases, optical drives are recognized automatically.
• Normal: The default backup behavior, which is to copy all the selected files on the first run, and then copy only new or changed files (an additive incremental archive) on subsequent runs.
• Recycle: This setting instructs Retrospect to erase a backup set and then perform a normal backup.
• New Media: This setting instructs Retrospect to create a fresh backup set (with all the attributes of an existing set) on a new set of media, without erasing the existing media.

The Directory

When you open Retrospect, its main window, called the Directory, appears. You can click any of the tab-like buttons at the top of the window to display a pane containing a few buttons; clicking these buttons opens the windows where you actually perform useful tasks. The number and names of these tabs (and the controls on them) differ between Retrospect Desktop and Retrospect Express.
When you click a button to open a window, the Directory usually remains visible in the background; you can return to it at any time by choosing Retrospect Directory (or Retrospect Express Directory) from the Window menu. Be aware that almost every action you perform in Retrospect opens at least one new window; you could easily end up with half a dozen or more windows open at once.
Because Retrospect helpfully includes explanations of each button right in the Directory window, I'm not going to reiterate all the button names and functions here. I do, however, want to point out where you can find some commonly used features.

• To set Retrospect's preferences: In Retrospect Desktop, click Preferences on the Special pane. In Retrospect Express, click Preferences on the Configure pane.

Note
For most users, Retrospect's default preferences are ideal.

• To set up a recurring Duplicate or Backup: Click Scripts on the Automate pane.
• To restore backed-up files: Click Restore on the Immediate pane.
• To duplicate a volume as a one-time activity: Click Duplicate on the Immediate pane.
• To prepare client machines on your network for backup: Click Clients on the Configure pane (Retrospect Desktop only).
• To run a script immediately: Choose the script name from the Run menu.