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Bast1240
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎04-24-2009
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replacement for my mirra

I am a physician in a solo practice and have been using a Mirra since 2005 to sync my patient files between the 3 computers on my wireless network in my office.  My mirra died this week and I have since discovered that this lovely little device no longer exists.  I am having a time trying to figure out which Seagate product replaces the Mirra.  I don't really access the data over the internet because I have a laptop that I take home with me every day.  It is the instant mirroring of the patient files that I rely on.  I see that there are options out there, but I am not a tech person and I would like something relatively simple.  Any answers?  Thank you!
c2
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c2
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎04-26-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

Which Mirra did you own?  The original with the big plastic case with two light gray plastic circles on the sides, or the newer model with the punch hole grill on the top?

 

If it is the older unit, does it still start up?  If so, it is probably the HDD, and that requires Seagate intervention.  If it doesn't start at all when you press the power button, then it's probably the power supply and you fix the problem (for as long as the HDD doesn't fail).

 

I own two Mirra's, one the original version, and the second the newer version.  The older verision has a 150w Sparkle power supply that is subject to failure because of overheating and arcing of an internal transformer.  My older version is a a replacement for the original unit whose power supply died.  Now the replacement power supply died.  If you have the older unit, and nothing happens when you push the power switch, you may want to pay the $50 to purchase a fit-in-place replacement 200w supply.  This is what I've done, and the old unit came up just fine.

 

I've had not problems to date with the newer version unit, so haven't had to dig into that one. 

 

However, comment for Seagate.  You need to support the Mirra community.  These devices are an essential part of my, and a number of my clients backup strategies, and you are burning bridges with us when you provide a product like this that absolutely does the job, and then dead-end the upgrade path when there is a problem.  I hope you come to your senses and provide a way to replace the HDD/Linux software when it comes time for these units.  I've said this to several of your support personnel and wish I'd kept the telno of the VP I spoke with when my older first died two years ago and was replaced.

 

Craig Cooper

c2Biz inc.

 

 

 

Visitor
Bast1240
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎04-24-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

Thanks for replying!  I have the old version.  It stopped working 2 weeks ago now, the right green light just keeps flashing rapidly.  A computer guy was in the office for another reason and he looked at it and said it has a short . . . there's a buzzing sound coming from it.  He didn't seem too familar with the device, but maybe I'll print out your reply and see what he says. 

 

I bought a Central Axis storage thinking that would be the "replacement" and I am afraid it doesn't do what I want it to do . . . continously sync information between the 3 computers in my office.  Of course, maybe it does and I haven't figured it out yet . . . rather confusing set up versus the Mirra. 

 

I will be getting electronic health record software in about a year, so I hate to buy an expensive piece of equipment when I won't need it for more than a few months.  Does anyone know of ANYTHING that really works like the Mirra for just syncing files?

 

I'm pretty disappointed that a Seagate representative didn't reply to this post.  I tried to call the service center, but was on hold 20 minutes before I gave up . . . I've been that route many times with my Mirra questions when I first got it and don't have the time to waste now. 

Visitor
certifiedtek
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎05-09-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

I have this problem where can I get this reliable ps you mention.

 

Thanks

c2
Regular Visitor
c2
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎04-26-2009

Re: replacement for my mirra

The power supply in the original Mirra is a 150 watt supply manufactured by Sparkle/FSP.  The 200 watt replacement can be found using the part number, "FSP200-50PL" in a Yahoo! search.  My purchase was from Stay Online in Raleigh, NC - reliabile, professional.  You can also find the 150 watt power supply for sale online changing the 200 in the above part number to 150, but, history suggests that model is frought with problems.

 

A mounting bracking on the front of the 200w supply is attached with two screws for mounting the supply to the top of a case.  This bracket will have to be removed from the 200w supply, and replaced by the much smaller single screw bracket from the old 150w power supply.  There are more connections coming out of the 200w supply, and the unused ones are simply unused.

 

The original Mirra case is still available from IDOTPC.  Search the term, "ITX-PG Falcon Mini-ITX PC," and you'll be surprised to see a picture and tech specs.  I thought about possibly converting my old Mirra to a small Linux box when the HDD finally gives up the ghost.  However, it's likely that the BIOS has been customized to remove access to any configuration screens, POST and keyboard.  The 'n' version VIA EPIA mini motherboard in the old Mirra is no longer produced -- forget BIOS replacement.

 

Hope this helps you.

Visitor
certifiedtek
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎05-09-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

Thanks for your help, friendly forums are the way to go.Not the mean ones.
MIT
Regular Visitor
MIT
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎09-19-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

Huge thanks to C2 for the solution to the dead Mirra problem. Mine just died yesterday and I was in a panic over what I would do for a replacement and didn't think it was going to be a fixable solution. After talking with numerous Seagate personnel, I was led to believe the unit was totally shot and not repairable. Furthermore, even after being a multiple beta tester for the Mirra software in the past, they refused to even help me try to recover the potentially lost data.

 

I came across the solution from C2 and it made total sense and sounded exactly like my situation. Even more amazing was that he purchased the new power supply in Raleigh, NC, about 10 miles from where I live. Needless to say, I immediately ran over and picked up a new power supply and installed it. Problem solved!!!! 

 

I have one question. I replaced the battery on the MOBO while I had the unit open, but I'm not sure if I installed it with the polarity correct. Does it matter and, if so, which way should it be installed?

 

I really appreciate a good forum and want to again thank C2 for sharing this insight!

Regular Visitor
mark9734
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎09-27-2009
0

Re: replacement for my mirra

I have 25+ Mirra servers if you are looking for a replacement MB etc. ]
c2
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c2
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎04-26-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

The Mirra is a boat anchor, or soon will be. The September Microsoft updates push to XP caused a mission crititical application to stop working for me.  Paid help from the supplier traced the problem not to their app, but to the Mirra software, something to do with the encryption processing on the Mirra client.  Uninstalling the Mirra client from my machines, and the important app worked immediately.  Seagate won't be updating the the software, so there's no fix to problems that are sure to come as MSoft continues to maintain XP.

 

Second, you can find on the web those who have been able to re-flash the BIOS on the older version of the Mirra, and turn the box into a Windows XP or Linux device supporting keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.  All the components and connections are behind the plastic panel on the back of both the older and newer Mirra boxes.

 

However, the BIOS on the newer Mirra box has been modified by Seagate, and though it will report "Award" when the box boots, the Award re-flash tool won't recognized the BIOS as AWARD, and won't reflash the BIOS.  This means newer Mirra boxes cannot be converted to any use once the software client is made completely useless by security updates from Msoft.  Disabling the ability to reflash the BIOS is Seagate's doing, not Awards.  While Seagate won't directly say this is what's been done, I have support e-mail that virtually confirms this is intentional.

 

Anyone out there with an EPROM burner who can reflash a BIOS for me???????

 

In short, it's time to stop fighting for the life of the Mirra box.  If it's creator, Seagate, doesn't care, and has even intentionally built-in terminal obsolesence, any effort to keep the device working is a complete waste of time that could be better used implementing a better solution.

MIT
Regular Visitor
MIT
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎09-19-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

C2 - I am interested in what happened to you as a result of the MS push update? I have been having serious problems since about the middle-late September period with two PCs, but one doesn't even have the Mirra client installed, so I never gave that a thought. But, now you've got me wondering. Been having serious browser slowdown problems and total freeze-up on the other machine; in general a significant drop in performance that happened almost overnight. Is this anything like you experienced?

 

BTW, What is your answer to replacing the Mirra going forward? I haven't found anything that has similar funtionality and accessibility and multi-version backup capability. Everything seems to be limited to single version backup software, with no external network access.

c2
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c2
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎04-26-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

There isn't one.  Mirra was unique in its ability to incrementally backup multiple repositories, wherever those might reside, and to be able to allow access to the backup via the Mirra web site.  However, as implemented, that flexibility also created some hidden problems for certain kinds of data.  Backing up a multi-file accounting database requires that all the files are backed up as a snapshot of the moment, and the Mirra didn't work that way.  So, to have a useable accounting backup required regularly saving the single file restore point snapshot from within the app.  That was a hard learned lesson when a Peachtree Btrieve DB suddenly started throwing errors.  All other picture, audio, video, excel, word, powerpoint, single document and generally stand-alone digital content was perfect stuff for the Mirra, up to 250,000 files, the limit the Mirra could handle (a limit probably set by Seagate when they looked at what the client did to performance on the main computer when it tried to work with more than 250K files as it looped throughout the day).  

 

That limit on the number of files AND the invisible latency in the Mirra backup stream AND the desire to have the comfort of having true snapshots of multi-file databases had already forced me to implement 3 of the USB stand alone backup drives which were scheduled to fire at different times during the day.  That solved the 250K file limit problem, and the DB snapshot problem, and the latency issue turned into working on another computer until the backup was done.   Not perfect, but it worked, and the Mirra was relegated to keeping the current backup of the constantly changing folders on the primary system, and surrounding boxes that relied on that system as a file server.

 

What I've decided to do as a next step is to move to RAID, multiple disk continuous duplication, possibly as a NAS, though the cost of the latter has to come down significantly, first.  For my purposes (not my clients, yet) I'll be implementing RAID on the remaining two SATA connections on my 8xSATA motherboard, leaving all the existing drives in place.  Then, using an inexpensive, NOT-BACKUP, piece of software I've found, that will schedule, and will do incremental synchronizations, I'll use the 2xSATA RAID capability to capture synchronizations from the main box HDD stack, and all the LAN connections (primarily desktop and my docs).   

 

The problems you describe with unexplained freezes, instantaneous unexplained reboots, and a general touchiness of the system as indicated by funny error messages that dont' stop the system, apps that fail on startup, then start on the second try, that's the stuff that was going on after the September MSoft Tuesday push of updates.  The tech who worked remotely on the box used a MSoft process reporter/capture app to look at the process hierarchy after the critical app was started, and failed to open, remaining stalled in the TaskManager process list.  He zero'd in immediately on "encryption" processes, and there was only one, the Mirra client.  Uninstalling the Mirra client, rebooting, and the critical app started normally.  Watching him work and asking questions on the phone, I gathered that the Protexis digital licensing software was also involved, and noted that while in the past I'd seen and was familiar with a single protexis process, there was now also a second, protexis2 -- yes, literally with a "2" added to the filename -- running, that I didn't recall ever seeing before. After the Mirra client was removed, I haven't had any of the problems described in the first sentence above.  I can be found on the web at c2cpa dot com if you need more information about what is described here.

Regular Visitor
mark9734
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎09-27-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

I guess being in the customer service business for my entire life I don't get why seagate would not at least offer some online help to the problems we are having. Its an end of life product, we get that. Open up and give us some help on the BIOS so we can use the boxes for other uses. Tell us how we can extend out the life of what we purchased in good faith. If seagate did that the goodwill they would build would pay them back 10 fold.

 

Are they afraid they will loose sales due to us extending the life another 12 months? No what they are doing is saying no, so now that gives all of us a reason to bag on seagate.If they stood behind the customers who invested with their company and products. These units are going to DIE, they are going to have problems and we will have to replace them. I my self wouldn't purchase a seagate product just based on the lack of support given in this case in fear of it happening again.

 

Big Brother will take care of the software problems, blame Microsoft for the Vista problems, blame Microsoft for the patches that break things, offer limited help to the common problems and wait for the last unit to die. You can't blame us SEAGATE, MIRRA was a great product and we got spoiled.

 

If Seagate took the wait and see approach, these units will die, and customers would purchase Seagate again as they would have nothing but good to say about the company and its products.

 

I will be testing the mirra with Windows 7 on the 23rd. Could be it dosent work and I can blame Microsoft for having to turn off my Mirra.

 

 

Visitor
san7an4
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎06-06-2010
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Re: replacement for my mirra

attn: mark9734

 

Had some lightening take out my mirra's built in NIC.  Attempted to install a pci NIC but ran into annoying passworded bios issues and so forth.  Came across your post and i am wondering if you could message me back to let me know if you have any mirra server m-80 motherboards i could use as a replacement. 

 

VIA EPIA ESP5000 mini-ITX is the motherboard i need.  you would be shipping to 20105. let me know

 

thanks!

c2
Regular Visitor
c2
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎04-26-2009
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Re: replacement for my mirra

[ Edited ]

It's been awhile since I've paid attention to the Mirra.  I sold my older unit when the selling was good (the original version with the gray and brownish plastic case).  The newer version is sitting behind me unused.  The bios cannot be updated on the newer motherboard, and Seagate won't release the bios password, probably because even having the password won't let you do anything with the system because of other mods.  Don't know.

 

[Edited per the community rules and regulations.]

 

Craig

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bptsj61
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎06-10-2010
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Re: replacement for my mirra

I have an old Mirra Model 80 which I converted to a unix box. I have this on my home network and all my computers use a software package called MirrorFolder to copy designated folders to my new unix backup server when ever a file is changed :smileyhappy:

 

Brian

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JimmieJoe
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎10-06-2010
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Re: replacement for my mirra

The Microsoft Home Server appears to do the same function as a Mirra Server, including needing a client on each machine that is being protected.  This may be why Seagate has back out of the Mirra product line.