Is slow time machine due to a lack of RAM

When I originally purchased Leopard, I used time machine on an old imac G5 with 2.5 gig ram without a problem. I have now changed my Mac to the latest Imac G5 with dual. I am starting over with TM and it is so slow.
I have checked that I have the correct format on my LaCie external 320 gig firewire hard disc. I am not running Symantec antivirus.
In the last 6 hours I have managed to backup 7.75 gig with 137 gig to go. This cannot be right.
I have only 1 gig of ram and have ordered an extra 2 gigs. Will this make a difference?
The data on my new mac was restored from time machine. I have the bug that prevents me from copying and pasting a new icon on my HD. Could this be related?
Help please

From my experience, there are a couple of things you can check.
First, if you installed any third party memory go to About this Mac and see how much memory your system is recognizing. I had a problem here even though I bought the memory from an authorized Mac reseller and repair facility. We cured it by removing the original factory installed memory and booting with the memory that I installed. It recognized it immediately and then I went back in an reinstalled the factory installed memory and it has been ripping since.
The more and bigger size of files that you are initially backing up the longer it takes. It did take a long time for me to back up about 70 gigs of data.
Also, for some reason, Time Machine doesn't like daisy chained FireWire drives. I have four in my system and the first time I tried running Time Machine, it cranked for hours and then gave me an error. I disconnected my backup drive from the daisy chain and plugged it into its own FireWire port and it worked great after that.
Personally, I like Super Duper as a backup better because it produces a bootable backup and can be scheduled to run whenever you want (I did it once a day). With Time Machine you have to use your install disk in conjunction with Time Machine. However, Super Duper is not yet compatible with Leopard although they seem to be getting closer. It like Time Machine does an initial back and then only changes files when the files change. It keeps only one backup copy of your hard drive not the hourly, weekly, etc that Time Machine.
Many people like Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) which does the same as Super Duper but I am not sure that you can schedule backups or if the backup it produces is totally recopied every time it runs or just updates changed files like Super Duper and Time Machine.
Again, Time Machine is very very slow on the initial backup.

Similar Messages

Have made a rebbot from Time Machine, and now I lack a lot of pictures. Can see icons, but not enlarge them. Especially pictures where 2009 is included in the date is missing? When I set up my desktop, I can find some of the pictures. Where do They hide,

Missing Pictures.
Have made a rebbot from Time Machine, and now I lack a lot of pictures. Can see icons, but not enlarge them. Especially pictures where 2009 is included in the date is missing?
When I set up my desktop, I can find some of the pictures. Where do They hide, and what shall I do.
Have made back up, but unfortunately a little too late. What to do?
MacBook Pro 15 "late 2008, Processor 2.53 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB, Software Mac OS X 10.7.4 Lion (11E53).

1. You did not get an error message telling you that your iPhoto library was getting full. You got a message telling you that your HD was getting full, right?
OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on.
Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially.
Your first priority is to make more space on that HD. Nothing else can be done until you do.
Purchase an external HD and move your Photos and Music to it. Both iPhoto and iTunes can run perfectly well with the Library on an external disk.
Your Library has been damaged from being run on an overfull disk.
How much free space on it now?

Can't use time machine due to corruptness even after reinstalling snow lepoard how to fix?

Yes, someone stole my original apple id in 2009. Now i bought another iphone in late 2012 , Created another apple id due to Apple not being able to help me access my original apple id. Which now since 2 months ago someone or company, or bank stole my second apple id. My iphone 4s with Sprint has no celluar connection supossedly due to no internet that is what sprint said but I looked it up on apple and it stated that there is a cellluar block on my iphone4s.
So I guess I will have to go in person to Sprint so they can explain that to me and why I was lied to on the phone earlier. Back to my 2nd stolen apple id that I registered my macbook,airport express router, and iphone4s and apple TV. So who ever stole this apple id obviously took over all my mac products I had registered to it. Enough about that back to trying to use time machine....Everytime i do, my macbook just starts acting all screwed up. I bought a WD external drive for Mac but I believe someone must have claimed it too. Since there is 75gb on it that I can't access. Kind of like my Macbook stating I can't save or have access to the Root . That is another thing after reinstalling snow lepoard which works great until I update it. Which is a problem because everytime I update it to 10.6.8 All the permissions are changed the graphics look horrible and I get redirected so bad its not funny. The email account is a joke. Also I notice my stationary for email is in Spanish not sure why and on Iworks the document samples are also in spanish. Now I dont speak any other language except ENGLISH AND HAVE LIVED IN UNITEDSTATES MY ENTIRE LIFE. But my internet provider Fibrant which swears they are local shows it is in the UK also when i try to access my email for that account it states it is not safe , certificate is expired and someone might be trying to impersonate my server. Needless to say it is getting old. I had this same problem with Timewarner and Att except att would just remove my ethernet driver then laugh when i would call and ask what the problem was. Then later I find out when I had DSL that somehow the phone number they had listed was change to being a digit off from my DSL account which again they laughed and thought it was funny. Enough about that. I need to know how to get access to my Apple id. I gave up on the first one but the second one I did have access to until I registered all my apple products. What is up with every thing I have with a usb port being corrupt. I have also notice anywhere in town where I live my phone is English until I come home it is arabic,hebrew , spanish any language except English. Shouldn't I be safer in my home??????????????? But I am not I am safer in town or anywhere but my home. EVerything states international in my home and this has been going on since 2009.....No one can tell me why. My power from Duke reads that OTHER Is costing me the most $$ every month what ????? This is a joke. But yet no one can tell me why or how to fix the problem. Going on 5 years , I have been cut off from everyone I know. Can't keep contacts on a phone or email accts. They all disappear. All so I am in Eastern time zone but all my computers and tv seems to think I am in pacific timezone. No one can fix this problem either. So if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix at least one of my 5 year problems I would be grateful. I try to create a new email account but either I am locked out right after or someone turns it into an alias account which doesn't help me. When I was layed off in 2009-2010 I went back to school/college. Needless to say they took my School email acct too.
Back to my iphone 4s problem. My icloud email account gets alot of spam starting about 2 months ago and I can't stop it. I try to foward it to Spam @ me but it hasn't helped.My iphone can only connect to the internet with wifi. Sprint swears that there is not a block but according to apple there is.
About my macbook and apple ID how can I upgrade my Macbook from 10.6.3 to 10.6.8 with out all the permissions being changed and corrupt?? I have tried several times and it is always the same. I won't to connect my iphone to itunes to try to restore it but it states I have to update it to 10.6.8. When I do that my computer is alot worse off. Also how can I use TimeMachine with out my Macbook getting messed up? Something in my house has taken over anything with a usb port actually years ago and probably now something kept turning all my computers and phones or any electronic I owned it to a printer. I actually can't even use a printer in my home thats the funny thing. When I try to connect one when I used windows it stated I had no rights to it and couldn't use it. Since I switch to Mac not much better. When I try to print a test page it is all crooked and too small of half off the page. So it is upsetting that I can't use a printer but something keeps turning all my electronics into printers. If anyone knows how to fix this problem that would be great or to stop all this international stuff going on in my home that would be wonderful. I try to buy brand new pcs but soon as I start them up something had already taken over. This is with nothing electronic in my home on. Turn everything that a power switch off or unplugged it. Still I lost rights and access to anything in my home. Now if I am away from my home and try to use one of my laptops they look completely different and almost usable. Unfortunately I can't afford to move. I thought about it but I am still in bankruptcy and don't have the money. In the last 4 years I have not been able to reinstall in backups that I have created. Not sure why oh wait it states I have no rights to do that. My macbook I lost access to a week after I bought it and connected my iphone too. You don't know how many times I wish I had never backed my iphone 4s to my Macbook. Right after I could not log into it. Even used the disk to reset the password nope still couldn't log into it. Try to type the formula for resetting the password and nope it didn't work either.
Any suggestions would be appreciated---Need to gain access to my apple Id that would be a great start
Thanks, Suzanne
UnitedSTates
Eastern timezone

Didn't really read much at all of your post. Much, much too long, irrelevant details and & no paragraphs.
Can't use time machine due to corruptness
Post over here -> Mac OS X v10.6 - Snow Leopard forum
About my macbook and apple ID how can I upgrade my Macbook from 10.6.3 to 10.6.8 with out all the permissions being changed and corrupt??
Same as above. Post in the correct forum.
Need to gain access to my apple Id that would be a great start
-> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5625

When is Apple going to fix the problem with slow Time Machine backups with Mavericks?

I have been with Apple tech support and they got my Time Machine working by doing a spotlight re-indexing and a safe boot. This worked for about three days and I am back to very slow backups. It is impossible for Time Machine to back up every hour when it takes six hours to do the back up. I don't want to take hours to re-index with spotlight all the time. I think taking six hours to do an incremental backup is a bit much. I see that there are many people that have this trouble and it all started with an upgrade to Mavericks. The question is when is Apple going to fix this problem of slow backups with Time Machine for Mavericks. I have wasted more time than I care to. I am think of going back to Windows. I need good solid backups of my machine and Apple has taken it away with the new Mavericks. Oh, I am using the UBS 3.0 connection so the drive should not be the problem. Also this has occurred in about the last five months, so I am not sure this problem was in the original Marvericks.

Allen Thanks for your reply. All I can say is several months ago Time Machine quit working in a reasonable manner. Right now I have a Time Machine backup that has been running all night and still has three hours to go to backup 6 GB of data. I am using a OWC 1.5 TB drive connected directly to my MacBook with a USB 3.0 connection. In the resent past I have added Dropbox, GoogleDrive and a MAMP server on which I am using a program called Learning With Text from Sourceforge. There have been a lot of questions on the forum about people having very slow Time Machine back ups, so it appears to be a general problem. I should also state I am getting this very slow backup after doing the Spotlight re-indexing and the Safe Restart procedure that was told to me by apple support. I have a 750 GB drive in my MacBook Pro which I am constantly trying to keep at a 5% level of free space. This might be a problem also. However, I am working on a lot of things and like to have a lot of things on my drive. Also the heavily loaded drive has not be a problem in the past. This slow backup business started about three months ago, so something has happen in a very short time period. Now it seems even the procedure that Apple support gave me is not working. Currently I am in China and it is difficult to interact with Apple support to solve this problem, but because I am in China having my computer backed up is critical. I have run the EtreCheck and am attaching the results below. I would appreciate any suggestions. If necessary I will clear out more of my hard drive if that appears to be a solution. The Time Machine drive was recently reformed so I only have a few backups on it. I also don't run the Time Machine all the time as I don't want multi-hour backups running all the time. I run it every few days.
Here is the info from EtreCheck:
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012)
          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,1
          1 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores
          8 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1024 MB
          NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - VRAM: 1024 MB
System Software:
          OS X 10.9.2 (13C1021) - Uptime: 0 days 10:18:59
Disk Information:
          APPLE HDD HTS727575A9E362 disk0 : (750.16 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 749.3 GB (54.06 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N
USB Information:
          VIA Labs, Inc.    USB3.0 Hub
                    OWC Elite Pro mini C 1.5 TB
                              EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                              NewMBP-TimeMachine-1.1 (disk1s2) /Volumes/NewMBP-TimeMachine-1.1: 1.5 TB (691.6 GB free)
          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
          Logitech USB Receiver
Thunderbolt Information:
          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper:
          Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions:
          [not loaded] com.LaCie.ScsiType00 (1.2.2) Support
          [not loaded] com.lacie.driver.LaCie_RemoteComms (1.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.oxsemi.driver.OxsemiDeviceType00 (1.28.0) Support
          [not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6) Support
          [not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecDriverCore (5.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_4 (5.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_5 (5.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.SeagateDriveIcons (5.0.1) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.SymAPComm (11.2.2f3) Support
          [not loaded] com.symantec.kext.confidentialData (1.4f5) Support
          [not loaded] com.symantec.kext.filesecurity (1.4.3f19) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.fw (1.0.3f5) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.internetSecurity (1.3.2f5) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.ips (1.3.1f7) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.pf (4.2.1f7) Support
          [not loaded] com.wacom.driver.HIDTablet (5.0.1) Support
Startup Items:
          cma: Path: /Library/StartupItems/cma
          MySQLCOM: Path: /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
          ParallelsDesktopTransporter: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ParallelsDesktopTransporter
          ParallelsTransporter: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ParallelsTransporter
          Tablet: Path: /Library/StartupItems/Tablet
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
          [loaded] com.adobe.versioncueCS4.plist Support
          [loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist Support
          [not loaded] com.barebones.textwrangler.plist Support
          [loaded] com.bombich.ccc.plist Support
          [loaded] com.mcafee.virusscan.eupdate.plist Support
          [running] com.micromat.TechToolProDaemon.plist Support
          [loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
          [loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support
          [loaded] com.prosofteng.DriveGenius.locum.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.avscandaemon.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.deepsight-extractor.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.diskMountNotify.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.MissedTasks.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.navapd.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.navapdaemonsl.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched501-1.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched501-2.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched503-3.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched503-4.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.sharedsettings.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.symdaemon.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.symSchedDaemon.plist Support
          [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist Support
Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager.plist Support
          [running] com.lacie.safemanager.daemon.plist Support
          [running] com.micromat.TechToolProAgent.plist Support
          [loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
          [running] com.seagate.SeagateStorageGauge.plist Support
          [failed] com.sogou.SogouServices.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.uiagent.application.plist Support
          [running] net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist Support
          [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist Support
User Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
          [running] com.wondershare.mobilegodaemon.plist Support
User Login Items:
          GeekTool
          SIMBL Agent
          QQ
          Safari
          Calendar
          Google Drive
          Dropbox
          Day One
          Dictionary
          SymSecondaryLaunch
Internet Plug-ins:
          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.2.1.11 Support
          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.182 - SDK 10.6 Support
          iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
          Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.182 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
          AdobePDFViewer: Version: 9.5.5 Support
          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 Support
          RealPlayer Plugin: Version: (null) Support
          Silverlight: Version: 4.0.51204.0 Support
          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 55 Check version
Safari Extensions:
          Video Converter: Version: 4.0.0
          AllMyTube: Version: 4.1.0.0
          Open in Internet Explorer: Version: 1.0
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
          AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins:
          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
User Internet Plug-ins:
          QQMail: Version: 1.0.2.0 - SDK 10.7 Support
          txftn: Version: 1.0.0.6 Support
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          Adobe Version Cue CS4 Support
          Flash Player Support
          GeekTool Support
          Growl Support
          Java Support
          MacFUSE Support
          MenuMeters Support
          MySQL Support
          Norton\nQuickMenu Support
          Paragon NTFS for Mac ® OS X Support
          Pen Tablet Support
          Perian Support
          TechTool Protection Support
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 697.84 GB Disk used: 647.49 GB
          Destinations:
                    NewMBP-TimeMachine-1.1 [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 1
                    Total number of backups: 11
                    Oldest backup: 2014-03-18 15:09:46 +0000
                    Last backup: 2014-04-29 23:24:28 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Too small
                              Backup size 1 < (Disk used 647.49 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
Top Processes by CPU:
              47%          SymAVScanDaemon
               7%          Finder
               7%          WindowServer
               2%          mds
               1%          NortonAutoProtect
Top Processes by Memory:
          385 MB          NortonAutoProtect
          262 MB          mds_stores
          180 MB          Safari
          139 MB          WindowServer
          115 MB          Finder
Virtual Memory Information:
          1.15 GB          Free RAM
          2.87 GB          Active RAM
          1.83 GB          Inactive RAM
          1.05 GB          Wired RAM
          1.02 GB          Page-ins
          380 MB          Page-outs
I hope you can see something that can be fixed.

Extremely Slow Time Machine Backup after upgrading to 10.8.3

Time machine backups are taking an extremely long time on my retina MacBook Pro 13 inch after upgrading to 10.8.3. It's taking many minutes just for a kilobyte to be backed up. I've tested transferring something to the disk and it's lightening fast so there's nothing wrong with the disk.
Is anyone having similar issues or know of a fix?

I had the same problem with slow backups. Called Apple 5 times and went through all the hoops checking plists, airport, and then erasing using my airport utility and the first backup of about 25-30 gigs went fine, but the second backup would take between 1-2 hours. By the time it was finished it was ready to do another backup.
After looking at community fixes I found that my Comcast Norton Anti Virus was the problem. Upon speaking for the 6th time to Apple I was told that should have been the first thing they asked, since antivirus programs check each file going to the time capsule. Even unchecking the scan external drives did not help.
I removed the Norton AV from my system and replaced it with the IAV from apple store (free) and my backups are back to normal. I timed a 100 meg using Ethernet/LAN and it took 9 minutes 32 seconds from clicking backup now, searching for backups, preparing backup, backingup, and cleanup. My Wifi connection on 10 megs took only 1 minute 29 seconds.
Now my backups run so fast I don't even see them working. Also the constant updates to Norton were casuing my backups to be 100 megs or more each time due to daily Norton updates. Now I get backups in the order of 10-20 megs - depending up what I have put on the machine. If I put music on it increases the size of the files installed.
I recommend anyone having this slow time capsule problem to turn off your full antivirus program no matter what you are using and watch the difference in speed. I am so happy! No more 2 hour backups and 45 minutes to 1 hour preparing backup! good luck

Very slow Time Machine!

I have no issues with backing up files with Time Machine, but when i try to activate it to restore a file it takes forever to load. It literally takes a minute or two for the "space" theme to pop up, etc. My Mac isn't old or slow, and everything loads just fine, even applications that take more resources like iMovie/iPhoto with a lot of projects/photos load fine. I've tried searching here, and Googled looking for a fix. Any ideas? Help!

It literally takes a minute or two for the "space" theme to pop up, etc.
There's a HUGE amount of data to be transmitted when you open Time Machine, far more than running a number of normal applications.
You aren't trying to do this using wireless, are you?
If you need to access Time Machine, connect an ethernet cable from your computer to one of the LAN ports on your Time Capsule. Things will go much faster than wireless only, and you'll minimize the chances of any errors due to wireless interference.
Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

Add'l ideas to cure slow Time Machine backup

Over the past 10 days, the average duration of my Time Machine backups has gone from 1 minute to :42-:45 minutes. There's been no significant shift in my computing behavior during that time. To fix, I've tried nearly everything recommended in Pondini's terrific site -- can you see something that I've overlooked?
* iMac8,1 4GB, running OS X 10.6.8
* TM drive: Seagate GoFlex 1TB, 30 days old, was freshly formatted and 100% dedicated to TM; have tested both Firewire and USB; 356GB used
* Fusion virtual machines excluded from TM via Preferences
* no virus program running
Review of backupd items in system.log shows, after the first few weeks of speedy TM backups, a gradual decay -- can't pinpoint a cliff (that could be blamed on an installation, etc.) And there's no other TM-related messages ("deep traversal," etc) in the log. When I watch Activity Monitor during a TM cycle, I see low CPU usage by TM, and slow read/write speeds for disk activity.
Yes, I have:
* repaired permissions (frequently)
* done disk verify and repair on both internal and TM drives (nothing found)
* set drives to "no sleep"
* disabled Spotlight
* relaunched Finder (and, of course, rebooted the whole system)
* tested in Safe Mode (no improvement)
* run daily/weekly/monthly maintenance scripts and purged caches, using Cocktail (Ironically, it got dramatically worse yesterday after I did this!)
No, I have not yet reformatted the TM drive, nor reinstalled 10.6.8. Am I forgetting something else?
thx

Hi there
The same problem here:
17.07.12 17:17:17          com.apple.backupd[12749]          Starting standard backup
*means: com.apple.backupd[12749]
17.07.12 17:17:17          *          Starting standard backup
17.07.12 17:17:17          *          Backing up to: /Volumes/TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb
17.07.12 17:17:48          *          No pre-backup thinning needed: 703.6 MB requested
                                                  (including padding), 1.37 TB available
17.07.12 17:22:43          *          Copied 34006 files (639 bytes) from volume DATEN.
17.07.12 17:23:54          *          No pre-backup thinning needed: 704.0 MB requested
                                                  (including padding),1.37 TB available
17.07.12 17:27:14          *          Copied 10482 files (639 bytes) from volume DATEN.
17.07.12 17:29:47          *          Starting post-backup thinning
17.07.12 17:33:29          *          Deleted backup /Volumes/TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb/
                                                  pmg5/2012-07-03-121520: 1.37 TB now available
17.07.12 17:37:05          *          Deleted backup /Volumes/TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb/
                                                   pmg5/2012-07-03-114951: 1.37 TB now available
17.07.12 17:37:05          *          Post-back up thinning complete: 2 expired backups removed
17.07.12 17:37:06          *          Backup completed successfully.
Many years everything with TimeMachine was fine. No problems, no effort. Works quiet and effectiv in the background.
2 months ago I recognised first changes. TM needs long and longer. Thousands of files - big number with low volume - TM copied to my external HDD. "Preparation" and "reworking" take a long time.
I controlled the backup with TimeTracker - a much smaller number of files was listed.
I read other threads:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3144862?start=15&tstart=0
and jump to Pandinis website. No success with this.
So long
iPille

Extremely slow time machine backup

Hi,
I tried my first backup on snow leopard and I found it extremely slow compared to leopard. What used to take 20 minutes in leopard now takes 3 to 4 hours.
This was my first backup on snow leopard.
Is there any known issue for slow TM backup? If not, this must be a bug in this new OS.
If there is any assistance needed (i.e. logs etc) do let me know.
Thanks,
Apurva

Hi every one had the same problem for a while and had tried everything but discovered a solution that has helped me out and hope that it helps others as hours have been burnt trying to get this running.
so here we go.
Restart your Mac with the boot up media/ CD/ DVD
open disk utility
repair back up drive
repair local disk
repair permission local disk
boot back in to SL
go to your back up drive
open Backups.backupdb folder
find your back up folder (it will be named the same as your machine)
locate your current backup temporary file (this is not a folder but a file that is used to store and create your latest backup of your system it will look different so don't remove the wrong one)
move it to the trash
empty the trash (this will take a while depending on the size of temp file)
once completed run time machine again.
this time time machine will run a lot faster in determining the backup required, the the actual back up process will be a lot quicker once the first back up is created.
I went from waiting over 24 hours for a backup which ended up either failing or crashing my system to a 1st time complete back up in less than an hour and the incremental backups are much quicker.
for some reason the temp file gets corrupted no idea why but this has seemed to fix it for me.
I am backing up over 150 GB on my local disk and about 350GB on another external disk drive to my back up drive.
Drives is connected by Firewire 800
let me know if I can b of further assistance.
""Cheers

Slow Time Machine backup

I am running OSX Maverics version 10.9 on my mid 2009 15" MBP. I've noticed lately that my backups are taking longer than usual, even before the upgrade to the new OS. I've even hard wired my MBP into my Time Casule A1355 which seemed to help the first few backups, but now it's running slow again. Right now it says backing up 1.1 MB of 1.2 MB with no calculated time. I have over 300 GB remaining on my Time Capsule that started as 1 TB. Just wondering what's going on and if anyone had any insight or the same problem. Thanks

I did a simple Google search for "time machine slow backups" an dthis is the site I found which explained what to do. It worked for me.
http://www.vitarara.org/cms/node/149

Suddenly extremely slow Time Machine backups on Time Capsule

My Time Machine backups on Time Capsule have been pretty good in the last few months. In the last week or so I am seeing painfully slow backups. It's not the preparing or the finishing phase, it's the backup itself. Data transfer for other apps is fine. The backup transfers about 50 Kb per second. In more than 3 hours it backed up about 600 Mb. Here's what I get from the Console:
11/26/08 4:22:07 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.28 GB requested (including padding), 730.31 GB available
11/26/08 5:50:47 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
11/26/08 6:12:40 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
11/26/08 6:51:37 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
11/26/08 7:05:44 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:05:46 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:05:46 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:07:05 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:07:05 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:09:06 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:09:13 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Error: (-39) SrcErr:YES Copying (null) to (null)
11/26/08 7:09:14 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:09:14 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:12:15 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
Any clue? What happened? (I did an Airport-related upgrade recently)
My set up is a Time Capsule and an Airport Extreme.

Well, this link has a video describing a downgrade:
http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/airport-extreme-and-time-capsule-firmware-downgrad ing/11537477/
It has been mentioned in apple discussions here as well, but with no other information than that it has helped some people.
Message was edited by: Karl Ivar Dahl

Slow Time Machine Backups?

Hi there
I'm doing my first Time Machine backup after upgrading from 10.4 to 10.6, backing up to a partitioned Freecom USB2 external drive directly connected to my Mac Mini. The data rate of the backup seems very slow (approx 1GB per 35 minutes compared to 1GB per 45 seconds when doing a copy / paste to the drive). Is this normal for Time Machine to transfer data at this slower speed or is there a possible problem causing this slow transfer?
Thanks in advance
John

jonty1512 wrote:
will subsequent backups be complete (ie 23GB)
no. you are doing your initial backup hardwired, right ? backing up large amounts of files via wi-fi is neither recommended nor very reliable. plus, an ethernet connection will increase throughput
or will they be small incremental backups?
yes. and they can be done wirelessly.
JGG

Slow time machine, console messages: mdworker: unable to talk to lsboxd, and mdworker 32:kCGErrorFailure:set a breakpoint@CGErrorBreakpoint()

iMac: model indentifier: iMac11,3
processor: 3.2GHz intel core i3
Software: OSX lion 10.7.5
Current problem: Time machine running extremely slowly as is computer. When time machine is "preparing to update" if I attempt to open any drive, that function freezes the computer.
I followed web advice to check for console message: mdworker: unable to talk to lsboxd. Found that to be present. As recommended, I turned off computer, restarted in safe mode, logged in and restarted computer. checked console, I see this same message and another message that may be problematic: mdworker: 32: kCGErrorFailure: set a breakpoint@CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch srrors as they are logged.
Both these messages being recorded every few minutes in the console log.
Any support would be greatly appreciated.
thank you,

Hello Mr Davis,
Thanks for your willingness to help I really appreciate your assistance.
I decided to watch what was happening a bit more to see if I could discern a pattern to the problem so that I could pose a more refined question.
This am, after the computer was left on all night, I noticed time machine (TM) was running. I opened the console window, and noted after entering "starting" in the search field corresponding to "all messages" that hourly, there is a notation:
date, time, then "starting standard backu" followed by date, time and starting post backup thinning".
However, then there is the entry below at 12:25:46am referring to "starting standard backup" and there is no subsequent entry in the log referring to thinning having occured. I wonder if this corresponds to TM running now and I am guessing, ever since 12:25:46 am?
Once again, it seems that the problem is that when TM is running in this fashion, the computer slows down tremendously and operating particular programs such as photo processing lightroom that require more power, become very slow in particular.
I copied and pasted a section of the log as it seems to repeat the same sequence of information over and over all night long. I did not copy and paste the entire log since 12:25:46 am, as I wanted to not paste an excessive amount of lines here, but can do that if you like.
I hope I followed your directions correctly. thanks again, Jeff
Console log:
8/2/13 12:25:46.540 AM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
8/2/13 12:25:46.823 AM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie 2 TB Backup for Mac/Backups.backupdb
8/2/13 12:25:47.938 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11610]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:25:47.938 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11610]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:25:47.938 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:27:27.000 AM kernel: IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00::setPowerState(0xffffff800b0c8200, 1 -> 4) timed out after 100721 ms
8/2/13 12:27:28.015 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11620]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:27:28.016 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11620]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:27:28.016 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:29:08.092 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11630]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:29:08.093 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11630]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:29:08.093 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:29:08.000 AM kernel: IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00::setPowerState(0xffffff800b0c8200, 4 -> 3) timed out after 100746 ms
8/2/13 12:29:19.346 AM applepushserviced: <APSCourier: 0x7fe44b908430>: Stream error occurred for <APSTCPStream: 0x7fe44b810ab0>: The operation couldn’t be completed. Connection reset by peer
8/2/13 12:30:30.000 AM kernel: add_fsevent: unable to get path for vp 0xffffff8017720930 (system.log; ret 22; type 4)
8/2/13 12:30:30.000 AM kernel: add_fsevent: unabled to get a path for vp 0xffffff8017720930. dropping the event.
8/2/13 12:30:48.171 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11642]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:30:48.171 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11642]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:30:48.172 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:31:10.000 AM kernel: IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00::setPowerState(0xffffff800b0c8200, 3 -> 2) timed out after 100738 ms
8/2/13 12:32:28.263 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11652]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:32:28.263 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11652]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:32:28.264 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:33:11.000 AM kernel: IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00::setPowerState(0xffffff800b0c8200, 2 -> 1) timed out after 100738 ms
8/2/13 12:34:08.343 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11662]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:34:08.344 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11662]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:34:08.344 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:35:48.420 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11672]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:35:48.420 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11672]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:35:48.421 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:37:28.498 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11682]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:37:28.498 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11682]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:37:28.498 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:39:08.577 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11692]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:39:08.577 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11692]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:39:08.577 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:39:19.976 AM applepushserviced: <APSCourier: 0x7fe44b908430>: Stream error occurred for <APSTCPStream: 0x7fe44a444230>: The operation couldn’t be completed. Connection reset by peer
8/2/13 12:40:48.654 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11702]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:40:48.655 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11702]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:40:48.655 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:42:28.731 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11712]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory
8/2/13 12:42:28.731 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11712]) Exited with code: 1
8/2/13 12:42:28.731 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/13 12:42:54.000 AM kernel: CODE SIGNING: cs_invalid_page(0x1000): p=11715[GoogleSoftwareUp] clearing CS_VALID
8/2/13 12:44:08.810 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper[11723]) posix_spawn("/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper", ...): No such file or directory

Extremely slow time machine backups

I have problem that prevents me from making Time Machine backup at all. First, some information about my environment:
- MacBook MB404 (late 2008)
- Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
- External USB hard disk drive (Samsung)
I'm using this configuration for years, before Lion everything was working pretty well. Unfortunately, on Lion from time to time I have to erase my external disc drive which contains Time Machine backups and start taking a new backup. Otherwise backups are extremely slow and taking couple hours just to save about 100MB on external drive. That's not a big problem for me, so every two or three months I'm erasing my external drive using Disk Utility, configuring TM from scratch and taking first backup again.
Yesterday was the day TM starts working very slow, so I decided to repeat mentioned process. Everything went good to the moment Time Machine started making a new, first backup on a erased drive. It is still so slow, it wont be done in a week or more. I know, that this is the fist and clean backup, and TM have to copy over 60GB of data from MacBook's hard disk drive to external disk drive, connected by USB, so it have to be time-consuming, but it wasn't take more than 6-8 hours before for the same amount of data! I have already fixed permissions on the disk using Recovery HD partition, but I didn't help, TM is still so slow it almost impossible to make a backup. I have checked MacBook's disk and external Samsung disk - both seams to be in good shape, there are no errors in S.M.A.R.T, Disk Utility says that everything is OK. What else can I do to fix this issue?

I just added a TM backup disk and TM says it will take about 7 DAYS to backup.
iMac Intel i5 mid-2011, Mac OS 10.7.5 (1163), FW800 connection
It looks like the 1163 build of 10.7.5 didn't fix the problem of Spotlight slowing down TM backups. I'm going to dl the supplement (even though Apple says it isn't needed) and see if it will fix it.

SUPER SLOW TIME MACHINE PLEASE HELP!!!!

i have 2 external hard drives
1TB LACIE & 1TB FANTOM DRIVE
i have tested both and both do the same when TM kicks in EVERY HOUR it takes 48 mins to back up 100G an d completly slows and shuts down programs like itunes safari etc. to the point i cant do any work. i have tried both drives alone and they both do the same thing PLEASE HELP!!! i cant take it any more.
michael

Hmm. Are you changing 100 GB of data every hour?
Do you use any virtualization software (VM Fusion, Parallels, Virtual box)?
Do you use Entourage?
We might see something in your logs. Download the Time Machine Buddy Widget here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html
And post the information for the most-recent backup. Make sure you get all the lines--they might overflow the window.
~Lyssa

Slow Time Machine backup with seemingly unnecessary files being processed

Here are logs from three consecutive hourly backups during which my machine was not being used. Note that it takes 8 minutes to complete the backup, even though very few files have been added to the disk (I do webcam captures every 15 minutes via a cron job, that's it). What I find bizarre is that the backups appear to be performed twice, and the first time, it says it's copying a large number of files, though the total file size is very small.
I've looked on the board here and tried various solutions, e.g., I've reindexed Spotlight, checked my disk (no problems), removed the apostrophe from my computer's share name, and applied the 10.5.6 Combo Update.
Anyone have any other suggestions?
Thanks!
Feb 19 08:03:08 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Starting standard backup
Feb 19 08:03:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Backing up to: /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb
Feb 19 08:03:45 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 08:07:11 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Copied 58667 files (46 KB) from volume gb.
Feb 19 08:07:35 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Copied 59139 files (448 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 08:07:36 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 08:07:42 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Copied 27 files (20 bytes) from volume gb.
Feb 19 08:07:51 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Copied 364 files (229 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 08:07:54 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Starting post-backup thinning
Feb 19 08:11:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Deleted backup /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/My iMac/2009-02-18-070723: 214.67 GB now available
Feb 19 08:11:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Feb 19 08:11:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Backup completed successfully.
Feb 19 09:03:08 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Starting standard backup
Feb 19 09:03:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Backing up to: /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb
Feb 19 09:03:45 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 09:06:55 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Copied 58675 files (47 KB) from volume gb.
Feb 19 09:07:18 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Copied 59142 files (449 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 09:07:19 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 09:07:26 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Copied 27 files (20 bytes) from volume gb.
Feb 19 09:07:34 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Copied 364 files (229 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 09:07:38 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Starting post-backup thinning
Feb 19 09:11:01 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Deleted backup /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/My iMac/2009-02-18-080738: 214.67 GB now available
Feb 19 09:11:01 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Feb 19 09:11:02 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Backup completed successfully.
Feb 19 10:03:08 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Starting standard backup
Feb 19 10:03:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Backing up to: /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb
Feb 19 10:03:48 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 10:07:14 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Copied 58683 files (36 KB) from volume gb.
Feb 19 10:07:52 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Copied 66813 files (522 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 10:07:53 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 10:08:00 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Copied 27 files (20 bytes) from volume gb.
Feb 19 10:08:08 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Copied 369 files (229 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 10:08:11 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Starting post-backup thinning
Feb 19 10:11:52 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Deleted backup /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/My iMac/2009-02-18-090731: 214.67 GB now available
Feb 19 10:11:52 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Feb 19 10:11:53 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Backup completed successfully.

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
First, it's easier to monitor backups via the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window.
It's not unusual for TM to do what seem to be double backups. When it first starts, TM looks at the +File System Event Store,+ a log kept by OSX of all changes to the file system on your disk. It then estimates the size needed, and begins the process. When it finishes it's pre-backup "thinning," if any, and copying of changed items, it then checks again for any changes made during the backup, and does a quick copy of those items.
TM does occasionally get something wildly wrong about counts and file sizes, as it clearly has for you. Sometimes this seems to be a problem in the File System itself, so I'd suggest you use Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) to do a +Verify Disk+ on your internal HD. If it shows any errors, post back if you don't know how to use your Leopard install disk to fix them.
While you're at it, a +Repair Permissions+ wouldn't be a bad idea (takes quite a while -- at least 20 minutes).
You might also want to download the TimeTracker app, from www.charlessoft.com.
It shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.). This may give you some clues as to what's actually being backed-up on each run.
Give those things a shot and let us know the results.

Is slow time machine due to a lack of RAM

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