OLD retrospect backup - help??

[swethington]

This isn't strictly a Pro Tools question, so mods feel free to remove this if it's not appropriate (and my apologies if that's the case).

I recently discovered an old box of CDs and DVDs that contain backups of Pro Tools LE sessions I recorded from around 1999-2000 that were backed up using *shudder* Retrospect. For those who don't know, Retrospect wrote files in a proprietary format and then apparently abandoned that format at some point, making the backups useless on more modern computers as far as I can tell (oh hello SDII, fancy seeing you here!).

These aren't files for clients or anything critical like that, it's more that I'd like to recover these files for my own purposes but honestly don't want to spend the time figuring it out. They're probably the first songs I ever recorded for anyone other than myself on my then-fancy digi001 so it's strictly sentimental.

A couple hours going down an online rabbit hole of trying to figure out which version of Retrospect, what type of CD drive, what Mac OS, etc has turned me off so I thought I'd reach out and see if anyone here offers that kind of service. If there's any additional info I can provide please let me know, to the best of my knowledge these were from around 1999/2000 so probably Pro Tools LE 8-ish on some flavor of Mac OS 9, definitely SDII files.

I've found great tips here for recovering SDII files (which I'm positive will be my next step when/if I can recover the backups), so I'm hoping I might find someone more patient and knowledgeable than myself here who might be able to help.

Obviously willing to pay for the time if it's something I can justify, can anyone point me in the right direction?

Cheers!

[paul_g]

Originally Posted by swethington

This isn't strictly a Pro Tools question, so mods feel free to remove this if it's not appropriate (and my apologies if that's the case).

I recently discovered an old box of CDs and DVDs that contain backups of Pro Tools LE sessions I recorded from around 1999-2000 that were backed up using *shudder* Retrospect. For those who don't know, Retrospect wrote files in a proprietary format and then apparently abandoned that format at some point, making the backups useless on more modern computers as far as I can tell (oh hello SDII, fancy seeing you here!).

These aren't files for clients or anything critical like that, it's more that I'd like to recover these files for my own purposes but honestly don't want to spend the time figuring it out. They're probably the first songs I ever recorded for anyone other than myself on my then-fancy digi001 so it's strictly sentimental.

A couple hours going down an online rabbit hole of trying to figure out which version of Retrospect, what type of CD drive, what Mac OS, etc has turned me off so I thought I'd reach out and see if anyone here offers that kind of service. If there's any additional info I can provide please let me know, to the best of my knowledge these were from around 1999/2000 so probably Pro Tools LE 8-ish on some flavor of Mac OS 9, definitely SDII files.

I've found great tips here for recovering SDII files (which I'm positive will be my next step when/if I can recover the backups), so I'm hoping I might find someone more patient and knowledgeable than myself here who might be able to help.

Obviously willing to pay for the time if it's something I can justify, can anyone point me in the right direction?

Cheers!

It appears the company is still in business. Have you thought about contacting their support? You may get further if you contact their sales department (as there is money to be made). I'm sure for a nominal fee they may offer some service.

[swethington]

yeah they are still around, but I haven't contacted their support team yet. I did download a trial of their newest version but had no luck figuring out how to make it work. My experience with contacting companies about very old versions of their software has generally been poor (which is understandable, to be fair) so I thought I might have more luck here.

[gugu]

Hi,
I had the same problem some years ago and contacted them
I got the answer that even paying for the service, they are unable to read these old backups ....
I was really pissed off and had to throw dozens of retrospect backups of movies and shows from the early 2000's

gugu

[tope d]

Originally Posted by swethington

This isn't strictly a Pro Tools question, so mods feel free to remove this if it's not appropriate (and my apologies if that's the case).

I recently discovered an old box of CDs and DVDs that contain backups of Pro Tools LE sessions I recorded from around 1999-2000 that were backed up using *shudder* Retrospect. For those who don't know, Retrospect wrote files in a proprietary format and then apparently abandoned that format at some point, making the backups useless on more modern computers as far as I can tell (oh hello SDII, fancy seeing you here!).

These aren't files for clients or anything critical like that, it's more that I'd like to recover these files for my own purposes but honestly don't want to spend the time figuring it out. They're probably the first songs I ever recorded for anyone other than myself on my then-fancy digi001 so it's strictly sentimental.

A couple hours going down an online rabbit hole of trying to figure out which version of Retrospect, what type of CD drive, what Mac OS, etc has turned me off so I thought I'd reach out and see if anyone here offers that kind of service. If there's any additional info I can provide please let me know, to the best of my knowledge these were from around 1999/2000 so probably Pro Tools LE 8-ish on some flavor of Mac OS 9, definitely SDII files.

I've found great tips here for recovering SDII files (which I'm positive will be my next step when/if I can recover the backups), so I'm hoping I might find someone more patient and knowledgeable than myself here who might be able to help.

Obviously willing to pay for the time if it's something I can justify, can anyone point me in the right direction?

Cheers!

Sorry, not too familiar with Retrospect, but let me check with older cases. For session back compatibility, this article might help! https://avidtech.my.salesforce-sites...ility/en353093

[DetroitT]

CDs DVDs SCSI
Retrospect for Mac OS9. G3-G4
Retrospect did not cross into OS X smoothly.
For audio folks, OS 8 & 9 retrospect was king for Backups.

Start with a Mac G4 with retrospect version ?
Likely a scsi port or card to connect data-dat, CD-r …other

I imagine someone may have this setup.
(Record Co, Artist-archival)
T

[smurfyou]

Retrospect was in such wide use with PT you'd think someone here would have a legacy system for this.

I'm not aware of any way around it.

[TheFilterLab]

I have access to an older version of Retrospect that we used for backups back in the 2000s. It's Version 6.1.126. running on a 1,1 mac pro on OS 10.6.8. Not sure if that would be compatible with your backups.

We ended up transferring everything off of the AIT tapes and on to hard-drives several years ago. So I haven't used retrospect in a long time. I've also never used it with CD's.

We have a few archival Pro tools systems PT5, PT7, PT10 and are pretty good at bringing sessions from the past into the modern era when we need to.

DM me if you want to discuss further.

Take care,
Jared

[swethington]

thanks for all of the info everyone, its much appreciated!

I remembered earlier today I have a buddy who is a bit of a hoarder and still has all of his old Macs. He has both a G3 and a G4 tower that still work so I'm going to pick those up from him tomorrow and give it a shot. I do have a copy of Retrospect 6 (point something, can't remember) so hopefully I can get something to work. Wish me luck!

If I can't get it to work though I'll be in touch Jared, you're exactly the type of person I was hoping to find here!

[TheFilterLab]

Sounds like a solid plan. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.