Time Machine and file system errors?

Hardware:
- 15" MBP 2GHz (mid 2006) 10.5
- WD MyBook Premium 320gb
Problem:
Time Machine backs up to a partition on the MyBook (drive is GUID partition table, partition is Mac OS Extended). Immediately after a TM backup to a reformatted partition, Disk Utility may or may not detect invalid sibling links, invalid key lengths, or other errors. If it does not detect them after the initial backup, subsequent backups of recently changed files will cause said errors. This is consistent; its occurrence is not a "maybe".
Disk Utility cannot fix these errors. fsck_hfs has had success in fixing these errors once. As I type fsck_hfs is running a second time, so we'll see the results from that. The first run produced the following:
fsck_hfs -ypr /dev/disk1s2
*Invalid node structure*
(4, 44282)
*Invalid volume file count*
(It should be 832071 instead of 802858)
*Invalid volume directory count*
(It should be 181916 instead of 177095)
*Invalid volume free block count*
(It should be 13931374 instead of 14042565)
*Volume Header needs minor repair*
(2, 0)
Questions:
- Of what is this behavior indicative?
- Is the MyBook necessarily bad?
- Is TM somehow the cause?
- Could bad sectors on the MyBook be the cause?
- Is the drive within the MBP the source of these problems (Disk Utility has not previously found any errors...)?
I'm really at a loss...

Boot from the OS X installer disc that came with the computer. After the chime press and hold down the "D" key until the diagnostic screen appears.
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.

Similar Messages

Using external HDD for Time Machine and files in one single partition ?

Hello everybody.
I've been searching for some time now and have encountered some contradictory answers, so I turn to you.
I would like to know if it's possible (one) and safe (two) to use a single partition for both Time Machine and file storage. I've read that this should be ok, since TM is actually only a single folder, which means the rest can easily be used as a standard Finder drive. Some people say however that this is not good to do so, because TM will run out of space quicker. But if the -let's say- 30Gb used for files where used by TM after a month, that would be the same, wouldn't it ? It would simply erase older backups. But is it safe to do so ? Will Time Machine not makes errors when accessing files or doing an entire system backup ? I don't won't to make a new partition really, that's why I'm asking you here, to let me know some arguments about it.
Thank you very much for your answers.

Marekova wrote:
Yet, overlooking that, you say "safe: mostly", why is that ? where's the "danger" or, what where you thinking when you said that ? Aren't these simple folder's ? Do you mean that, because during a full backup, these "stranger" files could be a problem ? It would be great if that was clarified, since I've found no indication about it elsewhere, has anyone tryed it ?
Oh, yes folks have tried it. That's why I (and many others) recommended against it.
Here's a similar thread from just the other day: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1926893 Note the responses from the top 2 "gurus" on this forum.
I probably should have asked you what you mean by "safe." If you mean, will TM delete other files on it's partition, no, it won't. If you mean, can there be problems, then yes, there can be conflicts and difficulties, as mentioned.
As to whether TM backups are simple folders, no, they aren't. They look like normal files and folders, but they actually contain what are variously called "hard links," "multi-links," and (my own personal favorite term) "ghost clones." Think of them as very fancy aliases. So they're not to be fooled with directly, by us mere mortals.
If you want more on this: http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14
and/or: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/12/roadto_mac_os_x_leopard_timemachine.html
and, if you haven't seen it yet: http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#tutorial=leopardtimemachine
You should also know that, for some reason, TM stores it's backups differently when it does them wirelessly. In that case, they're in a "SparseBundle," very different from the structure used for directly-attached backups.
All the more reason to put each Mac's backups in a separate partition, and if you want to store other data there also, a 3rd partition for that.
I've been using Mac since many years now, but I have no idea about backups, so excuse me if the statements appear a little childish.
Nope. Even those of us who are "older than dirt" and have used many flavors and varieties of backup systems for decades are in a whole new world with Time Machine.
And most of the folks on this forum who found themselves in deep trouble got there because they assumed things or didn't ask.

My mac 10.8 does no have the file, com.apple.desktop. plist I wentto lIbrary, preference and look for it and it is not where in my mac. I also launch time machine and file is no where on my Mac. How do I get this file back?

My mac 10.8 does no have the file, com.apple.desktop. plist I wentto lIbrary, preference and look for it and it is not where in my mac. I also launch time machine and file is no where on my Mac. How do I get this file back?
thanks

System files are hidden by default in Finder now, search for what you want then click the little + button on the top right of the bar that appears when you do a search. A new bar comes up and click the first box (that says "Kind"), change it to "System Files". Then change the box that says "aren't included" to "are included" and your file should show up.
http://osxdaily.com/2009/02/25/show-hidden-files-in-os-x/

Time Machine And Repair Permissions Error

Hi.
I have a new Intel Mac running Leopard. "Set up Assistant" worked like a charm and brought over all my preferences, iTunes, iPhoto etc. with out a hitch. Verified permissions and the disk and came up clean.
I bought a USB LaCie 500GB external hard drive and connected it up with the idea that I would eventually use it for Time Machine.
First thing after connecting up the new hard drive, Time Machine came up and asked if I wanted it to use the new drive as a Time Machine drive and I clicked on "cancel." Thanks to all of you I knew enough to need to GUID partition and re-format the hard drive, from the FAT 32 that it came with to Mac OS Extended (journaled) that Time Machine needs. After completing this, again, the dialog box popped up about activating Time Machine and I cancelled it again.
I have not, yet, activated Time Machine. But running permission verify and repair yielded this error message both times: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
This is the same message seen on so many other people's machines and posted here when they run into problems with Time Machine. If I don't resolve this error, will I, too, have problems running Time Machine?
This is so weird. The only thing I did between the clean permissions verification and the one with the error was connect the USB LaCie hard drive and partition and and re-format it. Time Machine has not yet been activated on this machine.
What does this SUID warning mean? Is this something I need to worry about? Should I wait to start using Time Machine?
Or... is this not a problem but there are other things I need to do to insure a good running of Time Machine?
Thanks so much for any advice you can offer.-Charlotte

The SUID is nothing to worry about.
It is documented from Apple stating this.
Everyone of us has that error.
It has not bothered Time Machine from doing its thing.

What to do if you simultaneously run Time Machine and File Vault

Never do what is mentioned in the subject line; even if you decrypt your drive, it does not spread to Time Machine, and so if you ever need to do a system restore, File Vault will forget your password and lock you out of your own system.
Thankfully, I ended up having recourse. The solution is to log in as root and create a disk image from the last Time Machine backup, "latest," and then duplicate that disk image. Having done that, paste the files into the user folder of your choice, recreating the account you have lost.

Realistically, your only option is to upgrade to an Intel-based Mac.
There is no way to use iCloud on a Mac running anything lower than OS X 10.7.2 - not even Snow Leopard.
You can access iCloud.com through a web browser on your current computer, but you'd need a Mac running 10.7.2 to move to iCloud and it wouldn't sync anyway...

Time Capsule both: Time machine and file server

Hi!
We have 3 macs that has access to a Time Capsule we use just as a file server.
Now, I'll like to do backups of all the data, and I was thinking about using Time Machine in all the computers to backup in Time Capsule.
My question is, can I use Time Capsule as both? With Time Machine and also as a file server?
Thanks,
Júlia

Time Machine can be used to backup your Macs to the Time Capsule. You set this up on each Mac by opening System Preferences (gear icon) on the dock and then opening Time Machine to select the Time Capsule as the destination for backups.
Time Machine will keep separate files for each Mac on the Time Capsule and your regular files on the TC will be left alone. Ideally, Time Machine needs about twice as much space for each Mac to allow for a good history of future backups.
Backup each Mac one at a time since the first backup will copy everything from the Mac over.
Things will go 3-5 times faster if you connect the Mac to the Time Capsule using an Ethernet cable for this procedure.
Once the "master" backup is completed for each, you can switch back to wireless to backup incremental changes since these will only take a few minutes on average.
As you know, Time Machine cannot be used to backup the regular files that you already have on the Time Capsule disk. If you need to backup these files, post back for a few suggestions on applications that can handle this task.

Time Machine and File Permissions

'Twere I to rate this question's technicality on a scale of 1 through 10, it would rate 8. Just warning you. Unix people will be especially useful for this.
Okay, so, before the problems started, my hard drive had three partitions. One for OS X, one for file storage for Ubuntu Linux, and one called the "Swap" partition, which somehow relates to Ubuntu (the Ubuntu installer put it there, I've no idea what it's for). Here's a makeshift diagram of what my partition map used to be:
I ran out of space in my OS X partition. You see, I've recently had the fortune to obtain some rather fantastic software. The downside is that the software (and it's files) take up roughly 53GB. I won't trouble with you what it actually is (though it should have dawned on some people by now). Between OS X and Ubuntu Linux, OS X prevailed. As far as I'm concerned, Linux will have to wait 'till I have a larger hard drive.
So, I fired up Disk Utility, and tried to remove the two Linux partitions. It told me it was "Preparing to erase [insert Linux partition name]". It told me that for an hour. After one hour, I said screw it, I'll do this the "hard" way.
My initial plan was to back up my data, and completely reformat my drive, reinstall Leopard, and have it restore from my Time Machine backup. Now, my external drive is not big enough to hold a complete system-wide backup. I had to leave some stuff out. Here's the list of exclusions, taken directly from the back up logs:
Excluding System files: 16.3 GB (242143 items)
Excluding /Developer: 0 bytes (1 items)
Excluding /Users/Audacitor/Downloads: 7.9 GB (18 items)
Excluding /Applications/Creative Suite 3: 3.2 GB (13214 items)
Excluding /Applications/Disk Images/Macromedia: 240.5 MB (4 items)
Excluding /Applications/Utilities: 484.2 MB (111 items)
Excluding /Users/Audacitor/.Trash: 97.3 MB (2142 items)
Excluding /System: 108.2 MB (5874 items)
Excluding /Users/Audacitor/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache: 144 KB (1 items)
Excluding /Users/Audacitor/Library/Safari/WebpageIcons.db: 52 KB (1 items)
Excluding /Users/Audacitor/Library/Mail/Envelope Index: 680 KB (1 items)
Excluding /Users/Audacitor/Library/Icons/WebpageIcons.db: 20 KB (1 items)
I am uncertain as to why it excluded those last four entries. I didn't ask them to be excluded, so I assumed that was something Time Machine does automatically.
The backup worked normally, or so it seemed. After about a half hour, it told me it was done. I hastily (read; stupidly) unplugged the drive and prepared to reformat my drive. So excited was I to reach my new software, that I made the utter and completely foolish move of not double checking that everything I needed was backed up. If I had, I might never have this problem, and even if this problem were destined to happen, I could have at least saved my Pictures folder (fortunately, most of it's contents are safely residing on my iPod).
So, I wiped my drive. Specifically, I booted into my Leopard Install DVD, and went for the Erase and Install option. The install commenced and finished without a hitch. I brought my "new" computer up, enjoyed the theatrics of the intro movie and started running through the setup. I came to the step where it asks if I want to transfer files from another Mac, from another volume on my Mac, from a Time Machine backup, or not at all. I of course clicked for a Time Machine back up. The first sign of trouble was that my backup didn't show up (despite having my external plugged in). I felt a pang of fear, but it didn't worry me too much, and I thought to myself that I'd just use Migration Assistant later on (the Leopard setup sequence specifically stated I could do this if I so wished).
So I went straight to my desktop and fired up Migration Assistant, and went through the steps till it asked me to select a Time Machine backup. But there were none to select from. I waited a full minute, my fear growing steadily to terror. Finally, I realized that my data was gone, and flipped out. My inner geek, which was screaming at me to calm down and look inside my external, was shackled and thrown into a tiny corner of my now completely panicked mind. This lasted for roughly two minutes. After regaining myself, and opened my external. It contained one folder named Backups.backupdb. I opened it, and inside I found Neomiranda (Neomiranda is the name I gave my computer). So far so good. Inside the folder of Neomiranda, I found 2008-02-20-060526.inProgress. Another 30 seconds of flipping out over the idea of .inProgress. After awhile, I had the sense to right click on it, and hit the "Show Package Contents" option.
Inside were three folders, with three corresponding log files. I quickly realized that each one was a backup. The first two were empty, which I anticipated. Those were my two attempts while figuring out what to exclude, so I could get a backup to fit on my external. The third contained another Neomiranda folder, which contained all my data. Everything except my Pictures folder was there.
So, I went back and forth, manually restoring my data. When I'd finished, I started up a few apps to check that everything worked. Not everything worked. Mail wouldn't even get a bounce from the dock, Firefox told me there was a copy of itself already running, and iTunes complained that I had either a locked disk or insufficient permissions. Acting on iTunes' advice, I set out comparing the permissions of various folders I'd copied to the permissions of their equivalents on another, fully functional, system. Everything checked out. Nothing was locked, and everything had the correct permissions. I fired up Disk Utility and had it a run a permissions repair. It spat out a great deal of stuff that it apparently found wrong, and apparently fixed, but ultimately, it had no effect.
I cannot find anything wrong with any permissions, but I've got a feeling that's where the problem is. Why? Because any time I want to do anything to a folder I've copied, or anything inside a folder I've copied, it wants my admin password. Despite no apparent differences in permissions between folders I don't need a password for and between folders I do need a password for, I need a password for folders I have copied from my backup.
I've not looked into file ownership, as I couldn't find a way to even find out who a file belongs to, much less actually change ownership to anything. If I end having to use chown at a bash, fine with me, but I'm not a Unix man. I'll still need help with it (though I do know how to use the man command).

Same problem and for months now. I haven't been able to find a solution, but I suspect that's because I don't know exactly what's wrong.

Sleep interferes with Time Machine and file writes to FW800 drives

I have leopard installed now on 5 systems. If a system goes to sleep while i am either copying files to an external firewire 800 drive or using time machine for its initial backup to the firewire 800 drive the file copy/write will get hung up and not resume when coming out of sleep. I have also had a problem where the screen gets crazed and locks up while writing to external drives and the sleep state.
I have gone in and selected never as the sleep frequency and this has all stopped.
I did not have this problem writing to the same Firewire 800 drives with TIGER.
Anyone else seeing this problem?

I am having a very similar problem. Time Machine starts up fine (albeit a little slow). It starts backing up files. I have the machine set to not go to sleep and I have the option to put drives to sleep turned off. I do have the screen saver kick in after 30 mins, though. As soon as that happens, the backup process seems to halt.
FWIW, I am backing up to an external FW800 drive. I have a FW400 enclosure I can try. I'll give that a whirl later tonight.
This is very annoying. Very un-Apple.
--DotComCTO

Time Machine and file sharing with XP on a Time Capsule

Am I right in thinking that I can't use a Time Capsule to support Time Machine on OS-X and to support sharing files between OS-X and XP at the same time given Time Machine will not run on FAT32 and I can't partition Time Capsule hard drives without taking them to bits, partitioning and re-assembling?

Hi Jonathan and welcome to Discussions,
Drive Genius http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php and iPartition http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php claim to be able to repartition without erasing.
Time Machine indeed works only on Mac OS Extended partitions.
Regards
Stefan

Time Machine and File Vault - How does it REALLY work?

Good afternoon,
I ran some tests and I can't figure out exactly how Time Machine behaves with Filevault.. here's what I did:
I ran a backup manually. It backed up about 265megabytes. This was right after iTunes downloaded an update for my iPhone. This is weird, because that is stored in Library/iTunes/iPhone Software updates, which is in my FileVault user data.
I ran a second backup right after. It backed up 726Kb. Sounds like not much has changed.
Then, I copied a folder (mp3 album) from my NAS to a folder called Time Machine Test in my home folder.. 91megabytes of files.
I started a backup. Sure enough, it backed up about 91megabytes.
After the backup completed, I mounted the Sparsebundle file, and my files were there. I could copy them back properly.
Can someone explain to me exactly what TM can backup while logged in, and what gets backed up only when I log off?
It seems to me like actual files are being backed up, while the complete encrypted sparsebundle is backed up at logoff only. But if that's the case, why isn't there an option to restore individual files other than by mountaing the TM volume manually?
Thanks

infrid wrote: We shouldn't accept this as a price we pay for using other operating system features. Gepeto is quite right : it's unnacceptable, and Apple should sort it out.
Hmm. I guess it depends on whether you want your Time Machine backups to be encrypted or not.
If you use a whole disk encryption solution like PGP, Time Machine works fine when logged-in but all your data is backed-up as though encryption were not present, because one you have booted, the encryption is invisible to applications including Time Machine.
If you enable FileVault, and remove your Home Directory from the exclusions, TM will back up the files in the same way when you're logged in but they will be unencrypted on the backup drive.
With FileVault enabled and Home Directory excluded, it is not the FILES that are being backed up, but the encrypted VOLUME which is essentially one big file containing all the individual files in your Home Directory. It's similar to a TrueCrypt encrypted volume in this sense. It needs to be backed up unmounted which is why it only happens when you log off.
The only thing Apple could do would be to create an encrypted volume for the TM backup and synchronize that with your FileVault volume. Not quote the same thing as Time Machine though.
Message was edited by: Gledders

Time Machine and File Vault problems

Hi,
Since I converted to Mac more than a year ago, I turned my file vault on (although I learned in the meantime that it is not actually necessary....)
I now recently bought the time Capsule and found out that the Time Machine doesn't go well with the File Vault turned on. It does back up the home folder only when logged out and I don't get the hourly backups for single files either.
I then tried to turn File Vault off, but get the error message that I haven't got enough space on my hard disk (which I have). This message led me to this article here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1974
I am really not an expert and not too confident to play around with accounts, backups and so on, so I really don't want to go down the described route.
For me, it looks like a bug in OS X, I should be able to turn File Vault off with the click of a button. Also, why is the File Vault / Time Machine conflict nowhere mentioned ? I was playing round with TM to recover a single file, but this wasn't possible, that's why I went to explore the issue further...
I now just want to turn off File Vault and finally want to use my TC normally.
Who can help ?
Message was edited by: Mike201071

....so, it seems to work now.
I did eventually go through the routine of backing up my home folder manually on the TC, then I created a new account, copied everything back, deleted the old account, and so on, as described in the link above.
I did not turn on the File Vault, activated TM and backed the whole lot up via Ethernet, switched back to wireless and TM seems to do the trick now.
I have now access to single folders and files when I go back in time in TM, instead of the whole backup only.
This seems to be the only way TM & TC are working properly, why is this conflict between File Vault and TM nowhere mentioned ?

Time Machine AND File Sharing: Partitioning possible?

Hi everyone,
I'm thinking about a TC setup where 2 Macs would connect to it and do regular backups using Time Machine. At the same time I'd like to use TC's hard drive for file sharing purposes. I believe that this is possible. What I don't know is:
Is it possible to partition the drive in order to set a limit to what space is available to Time Machine? If not, is there another way (ratio setting) to limit this?
Thanks
Björn

From what I've seen, the answer is no. (1) you'd have to be able to access the disk in such a manner as to partition. it does not show up in Disk Utility. Perhaps Terminal might have options. (2) As far as I've seen, there is no ratio setting. TC just backs up all Macs on the network using Leopard that have Time Machine backups set to the TC.
You can actually do what you want without changing anything. The TC HDD shows up as a network drive. Time Machine backs up until full. Files on the drive would take up space. So, until it's full, you can put shareable files on it. once it's full, you have delete backups or make space through some other method.

Time Machine and File Vault question

I just completed a clean install of OS x mavericks and then used my time machine back up to restore the mac.
The whole process was confusing for many reasons and I just want to get some clarification/verification on my next actions.
When I enter time machine preferences and click select disk. It gives me two choices. One in the group Back Up Disks and One in available disks. The confusing I have is that it is the same external hd. So which should I pick if I want to keep my original time machine backups?
The other question I have is, this whole journey started with me wanting to turn on file vault. I am using a late 2012 Mac Mini updated to Mavericks came with Mountain Lion.
Should I be able to use both an encrypted time machine (external hd) and file vault?
Thanks for the help.

The difference is that do yo want to combine the backus you made before with the previous backups (group Back Up Disks) or start a whole new backup (available disks). Either option will retain the previous backups unless you overtly delete them. I would select that later to start a new set of backups.
See the following for using FileaFault with Time Machine
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/46833/with-file-vault-on-are-time-machi ne-backups-encrypted
http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/display/istcontrib/Enable+FileVault+(whole+disk+enc ryption)+on+Time+Machine+backup+drives+on+OS+X+10.9

Time machine and file organization

Does time machine:
Store everything into one file
Make an special folder and stores files in there
Make an special folder and makes subfolders and then stores it in the subfile
or
Stores all backed up files on to the external HDD with no organization

Time Machine creates a folder named Backups.backupd on the destination drive. Inside Backups.backupd it creates a folder whose name is your computer's name. (This way, I think, you can use the same Time Machine drive for more than one computer.) Inside that folder are folders whose names are timestamps: one folder for every snapshot that Time Machine has taken of your hard drive. (These are periodically trimmed according to the daily, weekly, and monthly consolidations.) Each of these folders contains folders which are (essentially) an exact replica of your hard drive. So the answer to your questions is, perhaps,
Store everything into one file
NO!
Make an special folder and stores files in there
Yes, in the sense that this is the Backups.backupd folder or the Backups.backupd/Machine Name folder. But there is more organization than just that.
Make an special folder and makes subfolders and then stores it in the subfile
This is even more accurate, until reaching the singular form of the subfile. The backups are stored in the subfolders of the special folder(s) in a hierarchical form which mirrors the layout of your hard drive. In particular, in no sense is each backup a flat file.
Stores all backed up files on to the external HDD with no organization
NO!
In case you are wondering, I suspect that when Time Machine needs to "backup" a file which is unchanged from the last backup, it simply creates a hard link. This is why the space used by the backups--and the time required for all but the first backup--is significantly less than the sum of the apparent space used by each backup.
Also, amongst the folders for each backup, labelled by the time stamp, is a soft link named "Latest" to the latest backup. This makes it easy to find the last backup.
I hope this helps.

Time Machine and File Transfer to a new hard drive -- Permissions

24May2011
Apple Discussions:
        I have a 2 TByte external hard drive that I use to back up a 1TB internal hard drive. I use time machine.
        I got a serious warning that my 2 TB drive is going bad and i need to reformat the disk AFTER I store the files on the drive.
        I bought a new 3TByte external hard drive. I copied some important non-Backup files from the defective 2TB drive, but I can not move the backup folders. I do not have permissions to copy the backup directory.
        I want to transfer ALL the data from the 2 TB drive to the new 3 TB drive. Then re-format the 2TB and use that for file storage. I want to use the copied back up folder on the 3TB and use teh 3TB to for time machine backups.
        I tried to change the permission on the Backup Directory on the 2TB. It has been two days and I have no indication that anything other than the horizonal barber pole is happening.
        How do I copy the back up folder to the new 3TB so I don't loose any old files Ihad backed up on the defective 2TB.
        Thank you for your help.

Sure that's pretty simple to do. Follow this link for the step by step instructions.
I used it about a year ago and it worked like a charm.
Regards,
Roger

Time Machine and file system errors?

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