Att Mezzo users ...How good/effective is background back up of Mezzo

[dw]

I need to find out if the background back up features of Mezzo actually WORKS as advertised !!!
I want to be able to back up one session while working on another on the same workstation.
I tried the latest Retrospect,wich claims they can do it, but in real life situation, the feature does not work reliably at all !!! Thanks

[Joel Abrams]

dw-
Try using the DUC Search Engine for 'Mezzo', particularly in the Storage Subsystems Issues Forum.

Long & Short-Mezzo may work o.k. for you, but watch out when working in ProTools on a session Mezzo is trying to archive.

Good Luck
Joel

[meshtheflesh]

Mezzo does what it says it will do. It a very clever programme, but I has had its moments. No lost data, but a couple of us had a period that it was crashing when we tried to restore stuff, updateing our systems resolved this, but it came out of the blue. That aside, we do love it. It is great how you can just drag a session icon across, and it find all the files, and keeps them backed up.
In regards to backing up while doing a session, I do it a bit, but there is the risk of crashing. If you feel you PT system is really solid, then do it, but crashing in the middle of an archive is pretty bad news. It usually will recover, but it is not the best thing. Its can be scary if you have 20gig on one tape.

Cheers
Ramesh

[BDWillis]

I've used Mezzo backing up to DDS3 for 18+ months, archiving & restoring sessions literally hundreds of times, with no problems (knock wood…!!) However, I've been told that if you have an AIT drive, Retrospect is the way to go. As always, the mix & match thing will help you or hurt you — check with a dealer who has lots of practical experience & good tech support! Good luck.

Warmest Regards,
Brian

[Kasper]

Funny, I have had just the opposite experience.

Do a search , this was covered not too long ago.

Never really liked Mezzo and would not even attempt backing up in the background with it, crashed almost every time. Switched to Retro and love it.
You do have to be more organized with Retro as it will not map to the files as Mezzo does, but I have not seen this to be that big of a deal. IF you have lots of sessions scattered across multiple drives Mezzo will be easier, but if you mainly work on one or two projects at a time Retro is fine. Rock solid. I always found Mezzo a little flaky in general.

Having said all that-I don't do background backups all that often, even though it works, it just takes much longer and bogs down the system too much.

kasper

[Magnetic]

I'll add my name to the list of Mezzo fans. We're running three Mezzo systems, and have had zero problems. We back up and restore in the background frequently, and I don't see any stability problems that I can attribute to Mezzo.

YMMV.

[This message has been edited by Magnetic (edited July 25, 2000).]

[blairl]

I've used Mezzo since it first came out years ago. In the past I woudn't dare backup in the background, but for the last few versions I have been using it successfully.

[Stratman]

I also put a vote in for Mezzo but like some of the other folks have stated here, when running it in the backround you run the risk of an occasional crash. Pick your time to do this. If you are recording a client wait until the session is over to either restore or backup. If your on your own clock, restore and backup to your hearts content while you are working in PT's.

My $00.02

[This message has been edited by Stratman (edited July 25, 2000).]