Time Machine Drive Failing

The external USB drive (Seagate Free Agent Desk External Drive, 2TB) that I use for TM is starting to fail. The drive is still under warranty and I'll be sending it in for a new replacement. My question is how can I move my TM backup onto my desktop for safe keeping until the replacement drive arrives without compromising the file. Then, how do I move the file back onto the new drive to resume the TM backup process?
I have no reason to believe that the new/replacement drive won't be an exact replacement (make/model) of the existing hard drive. I've seen lots of instructions on how to do this if you have both drives in hand, but that won't be the case in this situation.
Am I making this harder that it is in reality? What pitfalls and problems do I need to account for?
I can provide as much additional information as needed. For now, know that I'm running 10.6.6 on my iMac.
Thanks for your assistance!
Tim

tapH2O wrote:
Thanks for the reply. Great points all.
Allow me to clarify one point - the purpose of moving the TM back up file onto my Desktop is ONLY temporary while I return the defective drive and wait for the replacement to arrive. Once the new one arrives, I will immediately move the back up file to the new drive.
I have no intention, and agree with you that "maintaining" your back up file on the desktop serves no benefit.
Yes, I know. But there are two important points:
It's possible your internal HD will fail, or have other serious problems, while you're waiting. If it does, you may be out of business. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.
If you only have a single set of backups, you're not as well protected as you may think (even when the backup drive seems to be working fine). All hardware fails, sooner or later; no backup app is perfect; and anybody who hasn't erased the wrong drive yet probably will. In addition, you're not well protected from fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc. Thus now is an excellent time to start keeping "secondary" backups. See #27 in the FAQ for some suggestions.

Similar Messages

Time machine backup fails; error creating folder. Western Digital drive requires password which is perhaps/likely the issue. I can't eliminate the password/encryption.

Time Machine backup fails on new WD external drive (My Passport Studio); error creating folder (after several hours of Time Machine apparently working).
Background: I purchased a Western Digital drive from an Apple Store to use for Time Machine backup. I followed the Western Digital instructions that came with the drive for Mac. I didn't get the Time Machine prompt which the instructions indicated I would receive--namely to select whether I want to encrypt my Time Macine backups. (I already have a Time Machine backup I use at another location, which is perhaps why I didn't receive a prompt.)
I decided to install the Western Digital utilities and security software that comes on the disk--with a view to potentially encrypting the disk (since I still wanted to have an encrypted backup since I was mobile). I forgot that (from experience 2-years previous) that I shouldn't install Western Digital software because it just makes life really complicated.
I tried several times to do a Time Machine backup with failures each time (error creating the backup folder). I tried to get help from WD but I don't think the technicians were following what my issue was. Potentially I was not helpful in explaining it. I deleted the WD applications from my system after the first contact with WD. However the problem persisted--I still had an encrypted hard drive. After three phone sessions with three different WD techs I still could not get a solution. (By the second call I was not at all interested in having an encrypted drive--I just wanted to format and restore the drive to an unencrypted state so that I could have SOME kind of Time Machine backup.)
I still don't have a solution--either to get Time Machine working with the WD encryption/password on the drive, or to remove the encryption so I can backup. Right now my options are to return the drive to the Apple Store -- or get a return authorization from WD. Seems crazy since the drive is fine and I have the working password.

Never install "helpful software" provided by WD and Seagate (or any HD mfg.)
All such stuff is fluff and nonsense that interferes with normal HD operation.
Always when you buy a new HD, format it for Mac and then use it to TM backup or clone a HD, or archive data.
Less is more on HD new out of box. A "blank brick", no fluff and cotton candy software

Time machine backup fails in my seagate 3tb external drive

Time machine backup fails in my seagate 3tb external drive

Without any specifics it's impossible to assist you, however the best tool for debugging TM failures is using Pondini's Time Machine Troubleshooting guide.
Good luck.

Old FileVault crashed my MacBook Pro, had to delete, reinstall and Time Machine restore failed. Trying to manually rebuild. No iPhoto pics, no iTunes music and NO DOCUMENTS found! Any thoughts?

Here's the ordeal. I'm running a 2007 MacBook Pro 17 inch with Lion OS. When I converted to Lion, I didn't have enough room on my harddrive to convert to the new FileVault, so I remained on the old system. Less than a week ago I reboot my computer because iPhoto seems to be stuck on "cataloging" my photos, though after days of letting it run, it doesn't do anything. After the reboot, my computer appears as if it had been reset to factory settings with all my programs gone, etc. I'm like, hey, I've got Time Machine, I'll restore it. After the restore is run, when I go to login, I get the dreadful error message, "You are unable to log into the FileVault user "John" at this time. Logging into the account failed because an error occurred". I searched the internet via my iPhone for suggestions and followed everyone of them, all the way down to erasing my harddrive and reinstalling Lion. So I get back into my computer and think I'm golden. I go to restore my computer via Time Machine and wham....I'm right back to that error message. I think, ok, I'll do it again. This time it messes us even more, giving me two login screens, one for the new Lion like before I restored the computer and then a second, as if it were restored, but unable to login. On top of that, I couldn't get back to the Command-R page! I thought I was really screwed! Well, I finally figured a way back, or maybe it was just that it finally decided to cooperate, I don't know, but I erased my harddrive again, and reinstalled again and thought, well, I'll rebuild manually by selecting what I want to restore from the Time Machine drive. I was able to get all my applications back and running, but to my dismay, I seemingly have lost all my iTunes music (except that which Apple has graciously setup to redownload now "thank you!) plus all my iPhoto's and even worse, all my DOCUMENTS!!!! Here I thought Time Machine from backing all this stuff up, but with over a years worth of back-ups I cannot locate any photos, music, or my documents on my drive to extract! Needless to say, I will never be using Time Machine again to back up my computer, I'll find another program or at least do it all manually. But my question is: am I looking in the wrong places for this files? Are they hidden under some unknowning folder that doesn't list it as music, photos or files? I can manage with the music, I can live with the photos because my wife has many of them on her computer and I have many uploaded to Facebook, but my files! My documents, thousands of them, many with information I won't be able to compile again, seemingly gone unless someone out there has any ideas?!!!
I even had iPhoto search the drive for photos and after hours of the barber shop pole spinning I cancelled the command for I figured it wasn't going to find anything.
If anyone has any suggestions, or if Apple, you are reading this and can provide some direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

Also - my battery has been telling me "service battery" for a LONG time and then it switched to "replace soon" som time ago. Can't really see what this has to do with anything but whatever.
That could conceivably explain all the problems you're describing. Replacing a Mac's battery should not be postponed since a failed battery will cause other problems to occur. It is also possible that its hard disk has failed, which means the information on it may soon become unrecoverable.
... my latest TM back up was from April 2014, can I just run this when I have rescued everthing and then it might not be as slow?
If that Time Machine backup remains intact, it may be the only viable means of recovering that Mac's information. I suggest you do not attempt to restore its contents to your ailing Mac.
Given that you are having trouble creating a newer Time Machine backup you should stop using that Mac immediately and have it serviced as soon as you are able. Do not take it to anyone other than Apple or a service facility authorized by Apple, for the very reasons you explained. If there are no Apple Stores in your vicinity search for an Authorized Apple Service Provider using the Contact Us link below. Use one of the options that appear under Contact Apple Support. The language on that page will be different for your location.

After upgrading to 10.7.2 Time Machine has failed

Hi everybody,
After upgrading to Lion 10.7.2 Time Machine has failed and won't mount the Time Machine drive.
I use a WD My Book Studio LX for my Time machine and also have a smaller WD My Book daisy chained through it in to the iMac with 2 partitions.
Both of the partitions on the My Book are loading fine and the Studio LX Drive is on and functioning ... the light is blinking away like a good'un ... but the drive won't mount on to the Desktop.
Has anyone else experienced this or have any possible solutions for it?
Thanks
Simon

I znever realized that you need to add firmware updates, since Apple sells this but doesn't provide any instruction or information on use. I had my WD external since about May and just looked into adding necessary firmware. This was my second drive and was not aware of this necessary upgrade. If failed to recognize my drive so I contacted Westen Digital and after a series of emails they said sorry but Lion is not supported! I was dumbfounded and in disbelief. They tried to
Get me to upgrade to another model but didn't tell me about any cost. I called the Apple store where I purchased it and talked to. Manager who brought on the phone a genius. He told me he has one and it does work with Lion! He walked me through adding the firmware and there you go Apple knew more than the Tech support at WD! I am hoping someone at Apple will read this and contact WD management and tech support to get their act together.
Regards,
Barry

Encrypted Time Machine Drive not visible

Hi,
I have a Mac Mini (2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Ram) running OS 10.8.4 and all other OS/application updates have been run. I have a Drobo (2nd Generation, the one with four drive bays & Firewire) with 3.69TB used and 1.72TB free. The Drobo has the most up-to-date firmware 1.4.2 as well as the latest Drobo Dashboard software (2.5.2).
I was using a different NAS to backup my data from the Mini but the housing failed and I'm waiting for Other World Computing to send a new one. In the mean time, I decided to backup the Mini to the Drobo and Encrypt it. I believe it went through one complete backup of the Mini (440GBs) overnight. I also use the Drobo as my main drive for my photos and iTunes library. I have about 2TBs of music/movies and about 1TBs of photos already stored on the Drobo. During the day yesterday, during a regularly scheduled Time Machine backup (I believe it backs up every hour), I was in the process of deleting photos off the Drobo and got the dreaded spinning beach ball. I waited for 1/2 hour but still after no changes, I turned off the Mini and after rebooting the Time Machine drive will not show on the desktop.
The Drobo is visable in the Drobo Dashboard app and of course it says there are no issues.
The Drobo shows up in Disk Utility as a Virtual Whole Disk (in red type) and when running Verify or Repair Disk, it states that "Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk." I can do this till the cows come home but nothing changes. The only other info that shows up in red is "Invalid Disk Label @ 17591825289216: invalid field value. It repeats it four times, I'm assuming once for each drive. The last piece of info is "disk3s2 is not a CoreStorage volume.
I saw on another thread to run a Terminal command "diskutil cs list" and it came up with the below listed info.
Last login: Thu Jul 18 12:51:04 on console
skurkis:~ administrator$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 6E1361BB-CAF7-468D-9CD5-5A77ED37C763
    =========================================================
    Name:         -none-
    Status:       Initializing
    Size:         0 B (0 B)
    Free Space:   -none-
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 161162B5-ABCE-4540-BA90-A3EA9E2E956B
        Index:    18446744073709551615
        Disk:     disk3s2
        Status:   Failed
        Size:     -none-
skurkis:~ administrator$
Any help to get my nearly 4TBs of music, movies, photos back would be awesome!
Thanks,
Jeff

Are there any utilities that can help "uncorrupt" the volume so I can rescue my data?
The only thing you can do is destroy the Core Storage logical volume, which will remove all data. If there is anything other than backup data on it, you're in a recovery situation, which is a job for professionals.
You should immediately start a new backup on another storage device. Don't do anything else with the computer until that's done.

Help. My WD Time Machine Drive won't appear anymore on the desktop. It won't appear on my windows OS machine as well. Can anyone help me?

I made the darnest mistake when I tried cleaning up my time machine drive by deleting some of the "back-up" restore points.
Since then, the external drive does not appear anymore on my mac's desktop. Nor does it appear on my windows OS laptop.
I tried using DISK UTILITY on my Mac and the drive appears there. I was able to run Repair Disk, though No Errors appear. I "cannot eject" using the EJECT button at the top of the application as it prompts me with a message
"EJECT FAILED --
The disk “WD Ext HDD 1021 Media” could not be unmounted.
Make sure that all applications and files are closed on this disk."
Same goes when I try using a WINDOWS OS machine. It does not appear on Windows Explorer. Though when it does appear in the "eject list".
I assume that deleting some of the restore points (at random) was the cause of this.
How can I repair it? I have some sentimental and personal files (i.e. family pictures) that are also stored on the drive.
Thanks in advance.

Other than the Disk Repair from the Disk Utility, I would suggest resetting the PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11243.
Tha's kind of a last ditch effort though. Can you put it in another mac computer with the mac os? Does it show up there?

Can't see time machine drive and can't boot

Last week the internal hd on my Mac mini (mid-2010) began failing. I took it in and AppleCare replaced the drive. The genius told me they loaded 10.7.3 and I should be able to use Time Machine (TM) to bring it all back. So I go home, plug in my TM drive and the Mac can't see the drive the TM is on. And yet I know it recognizes the drive because if I turned it off it would give me the nasty warning about disconnecting before unmounting. So not knowing what to do I went and popped in the installation disc that came with my Mac mini (10.6), and booted with the cd. I told it to restore from TM, and this time it sees my drive and transfers the data. When it restarts I get the gray screen with a null (not permitted) sign. So I can't make heads or tails of it an decide that maybe I have to make a clean install and then upgrade to 10.7.4 and then try time machine (I'm grasping at straws now). Only when I attempt to to restart after installing 10.6 it go from a gray screen to a blue screen (of death) and just sits. I'm baffled and don't know what to do. Could my time machine disk, which was backing up a failing internal HD, have been bad? What do I do?

Hello:
If I were you (and I am not), I would bundle up the repaired computer and your Time Machine drive and take it in and ask the Apple person to bring it back to life. IMHO, that should have been done the first time.
Barry

Time Machine Backup Failed - on three Macs. Used to work fine.

"*+Time Machine Error*+
+Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume.+"
Last week all three machines were running fine. The Time Machine disk is hooked up to an Airport Extreme running 7.3.2 firmware. I updated it today to 7.4.1 in hopes of fixing the problem. All Macs are on 10.5.6 and have been for a month or more.
When "Backup now" is selected all machines stick on Preparing backup" for a few minutes and then fail.
I'm bummed that this is happening now. I used to use SilverKeeper (free from LaCie). It's faster and more comprehensive, but somehow I got sucked in by Apple's futuristic (historic?) interface. Now, in order to use SilverKeeper I need to erase the Time Machine drive - all 1.2TB.
I don't feel TM is ready for storage of important data. A commercial product would never make it to market if it continually had issues like this. Nearly 10,000 topics in this forum, and a good portion have just plain bad things to say.
I'm sure a lot of people have run into this on their own setups. Has anyone solved the issue? Please help.

Yes, perhaps we're missing something. But I'd rather stick with what works. Here's a software review that pretty much echo's my feelings:
*+I've tried to love Time Machine. I really have. It was one of the reasons I was in an all-fire hurry to upgrade to 10.5. I spent the cash, installed the OS, and immediately set up TM. Or at least I tried to. My new Airport Extreme wasn't allowed to access the USB disk for this purpose.+*
*+But I found a hack and things were good. For about a day. "To **** with it" I thought and went back to Carbon Copy Cloner. An excellent and free app that got me thru years of work with no loss of data. But wait! Now that I upgraded to 10.5 CCC no longer works.+*
*+So I played with it for a few weeks and eventually, I got it to work.... Until Apple released the official software upgrade that allowed Airport Extreme disks to work with TM and it broke again. Another 4 days of playing and reinstalling, and reformatting, and shuffling data. Still nothing.+*
*+****, you should have seen the look on their eyes when I showed up to the Apple store toting my G5 PowerMac Dual, AirPort Extreme, MacBook Pro, wife's MacBook, and two USB drives. AND my Apple ProCare card.+*
*+I took up half the Genius Bar for about 2 hours and still left with a backup scheme that would only partially work. Then, upon arriving home, the IP addresses had changed so I had to repeat half of the steps I barely remembered (and the Genius made up on the fly).+*
*+Finally all was good in the world. Until last week. My wife asked me to send her a picture I took of her with our new puppy at our new house about 6 months ago. I pulled up iPhoto and couldn't locate the picture. "No problem, I've got Time Machine" I thought.+*
*+The story is getting long and you can see where it's going. Not only was the picture missing, but 4 months of pictures were missing. 4 months starting when I stopped using CCC and, even though TM was running, it deleted the oldest files without any warning, any notification, or any reason. In fact the TM drive still had over 400GB free.+*
*+Yes, I had to replace a drive in that 4 month window and yes, I made sure I pulled the data off of Time Machine. HUGE pain in the @ss - it took nearly 4 days to copy the data from TM to the new drive, and apparently a big chunk was lost.+*
*+Finally, the end of my little story. I'm back using CCC. v3 is out and it works with 10.5 and reportedly, 10.6. Four years of using CCC and I've never lost so much as an email (much to the chagrin of my old landlord that emailed me that dogs were perfectly fine, only to try to sue me later).+*
*+For all of those who trust Time Machine, go ahead and try to find a file from a few months ago. It's not as easy as the interface makes it look, and it may not be there at all.+*
*+Time Machine - go sparse yourself. And thanks Bombich software for a superior product in Carbon Copy Cloner.+*

Time Machine backup failing

I was wondering if there is a way to copy your past backups before re formating a time machine drive. My machine comes up with a message saying
"The disk "timemachine" was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must back up you data and reformat the disk as soon as possible."
I have tired to copy the drive to another of similar size and make using the restore options in disk utility, but this fails halfway through.
If any one has any alternatives they will be immensely appreciated.

have you tried repairing the drive with disk utility?
you can try cloning the drive with [CCCloner|http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html] (freeware) and [Superduper!|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html] (shareware). Superduper explicitly supports cloning of TM drives. however, this might not work if there is a problem with the drive.

Copying Mac App Store Apps may cause Time Machine to fail

Hey folks,
My Time Machine backups started failing the other day with the "error occurred while copying files" error (asking me to run Disk Utility). I ran DU and the drive checked out fine. I eventually checked the backupd logs (Console> filter "backupd") and found that TM was stopping with Error: (-41) SrcErr:No Copying /Path/to/a/file/inside/aMacAppStoreApp. Then saying the backup stopped with error:11.
So I deleted the App and ran the backup again. This time it gave me the same error on another MacAppStore App that I had installed. So I deleted that one too and then TM backup run successfully.
Background:
- There were only two MAS Apps installed (the two referenced above: Quick Note, ARD).
- Both were installed after being downloaded to a different computer, copied to this one, and then a copy made into the Applications folder. They were working fine.
- When I "installed" the Apps, I did not do a drag/drop copy, I did a copy/paste.
- There were two copies of the each App on the filesystem. 1 copy in my "software installers" folder and 1 copy in the Applications folder. Only the copy in the Applications folder failed to backup. The unused copy in the installers folder backed up fine.
Once the backups were working. I then moved the Apps from the "software installers" folder to the Applications folder. I opened the applications and they worked fine. I then ran the backup and it worked fine as well.
So I'm not sure if Time Machine was failing because of my unusual way of copying them into the Applications folder or what? Thoughts? Either way, it seems like a strange thing to cause TM to completely fail.

It's not copy protection issue since after I recopied the App (using drag/drop) the backup worked fine.
You are allowed to copy MAS Apps from one computer to another and run them as long as the target computer is either authorized for the same MAS account or you login to the account that purchased the App.

Cloned Time Machine Drive Invalid Node Structure

My Hitachi 2TB HD I use for Time Machine started sending out S.M.A.R.T. errors earlier this month, so I sent it in to Hitachi under warranty. Before I sent it out, I was able to clone the drive to another 2TB drive using the Restore feature in Disk Utility. This worked great, I have since been using the clone as a Time Machine drive and doing regular automatic backups - smooth so far!
When I got the new drive back from Hitachi, I tried to send the data back to the new drive using the same Restore function, and it looked like it was a complete success. After the restore process finished, both drives suddenly reporting "Invalid Node Structure" in Disk Utility.
I've since tried Disk Warrior, and it tells me I'm out of RAM (I have 8GB of RAM on a 2 x 2.26 Quad-Core MacPro) and the Disk Utility Repair Disk function is failing. I've since done a complete wipe of the new drive again (I used the Certify function in SoftRAID 4.0), and voila, no errors on the new drive. I then tried simply dragging over the Backups folder from the clone, and Finder tells me "Operation Not Supported." Strangely enough, Time Machine backups still work!?
Any idea how this happened and how I can fix it? I really can't buy Drive Genius only to find out it's not going to work too...do you think it would work? I would really hate to completely lose all this valuable backup data, it's been quite valuable to have around in the past.
Thanks everyone for your help, I'm at a total loss as to what happened.

John Nightingale1 wrote:
I then tried simply dragging over the Backups folder from the clone, and Finder tells me "Operation Not Supported."
Yes, prior to Lion, you can't copy Time Machine backups with the Finder.
Are both drives formatted exactly the same, and with the GUID Partition Map scheme?
I'd be inclined to just let Time Machine start fresh on the new drive. You can always view and restore from the old one via the Browse ... option, per #17 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

365 gig used, 1TB external HD-Time Machine bu fail -claims to need 1.3TB...

I have an iMac with a 500 gig internal hard drive. We have used close to 365gig of that.
I originally tried to set Time Machine up with a couple of older/smaller external HD's. Time Machine told me that it needed 800gig to back up.
I purchased a 1TB LaCie external hard drive.
Tonight when I tried to set up Time Machine it failed and said it now needed 1.3TB.
I have now read through various discussions on sizing the drive for backup and generally it is suggested that 2 to 3 times is fine.
It is also noted that there is no way to restrict this size other than by excluding items. I would prefer to not do this as the point is to back up our entire music, photo and video libraries.
Also, it appears that once set up Time Machine works with the size of back up drive you have and deletes older backups.
I am reluctant to now purchase an additional hard drive, to find that it now needs even more space as the space required seems to be growing exponentially.
I seem to be locked into a catch-22 situation of Time Machine requiring space at a faster rate than I can buy a hard drive.
Any advice?
My ideal solution is telling Time Machine to restrict the size of the back up somehow. I realize, based on previous discussions that this does not seem possible.
1.3TB of back up for a 365gig seems excessive.

How many disks are connected to the system?
Is it possible that Time Machine is trying to backup more than
one disk (if there is more than one)?
Dave

Time machine backup failed

My time machine is not backing up my files anymore. Everytime I start it, it prepares for a very long time (maybe 30min or longer) and then eventually does start. But in the middle of the backup, an error pops up saying that I need to verify the space needed for the backup. But there is definitely space on my back up drive and Time Machine also recognizes the external harddrive. I've tried re-backing up a few times already but it doesn't work properly each time. I can still enter Time Machine and see the older back ups. If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate it.

Time Machine always gets corrupted, eventually and inevitably. It just gets more complex by the hour. I pretty much always recommend that a user erase the Time Machine drive on a regular basis - a very active computer should have it erased and started over every few months. Average home computer doing general duties maybe go 6 months. Longer than that and you risk it being not useable.
In test run here on 7 computers we failed every Time Machine backup within 10 months. All of them failed in a different way. One looked like it was backing up, but no data was stored, another the computer wouldn't even do minor duties when TM was running. A third looked good, but had not updated the backup in many months. My own computer the recover window wouldn't pull up anything, ever, once the corruption occurred. Cannot even tell you when as I didn't keep track for weeks at a time. One day it didn't work and nothing I could do would change that.
I do not know if anyone can answer the question of whether you can go backwards in OS and have it run. I doubt it will work. But because the database created by TM is proprietary and totally useless unless Time Machine can put it all together, there is nothing you can do except try things like going backwards in OS and/or TM utility revision.

Time machine sometimes fails with no space left

Hi,
I'm beginning to notice that sometimes Time Machine is failing to backup saying there is no space left on the Time Machine backup disk. I'm using OS X 10.9.4 .
My understanding is that when there is not enough space left, Time Machine will automatically delete older backups to make space? Sometimes this happens, sometimes not.
For example:
Aug 10 18:39:49 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Starting automatic backup
Aug 10 18:39:50 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Backing up to /dev/disk6s2: /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb
Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Will copy (1 MB) from Macintosh HD
Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Will copy (Zero KB) from HD5
Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Will copy (Zero KB) from HD2
Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Found 64 files (1 MB) needing backup
Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: 1.74 GB required (including padding), 7.41 GB available
Aug 10 18:40:26 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Copied 70 items (1 MB) from volume Macintosh HD. Linked 709.
Aug 10 18:40:33 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Copied 1 items (Zero KB) from volume HD5. Linked 2.
Aug 10 18:57:34 Barney.local backupd[9571]: Metadata.framework [Error]: server port invalidated for uid 0
Aug 10 19:01:02 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Stopping backup.
Aug 10 19:01:02 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Error: (-34) SrcErr:NO Copying /Volumes/HD2/Users/gj/Documents/2013.partial.mbox/mbox to /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/Barney/2014-08-10-184001.inProgress/38868 CAA-6167-40B8-8F15-BF798FADF283/HD2/Users/gj/Documents/2013.partial.mbox
Aug 10 19:01:03 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Copied 9 items (16.82 GB) from volume HD2. Linked 21.
Aug 10 19:01:03 Barney.local backupd[9571]: Metadata.framework [Error]: MDBackupCancel failed:-1 (4) (os/kern) invalid argument
Aug 10 19:01:03 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Copy stage failed with error:28
Aug 10 19:01:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Backup failed with error 28: 28
What I'm interpreting here is that initially TM says there isn't anything to copy from HD2, but then spends about 3.5 minutes copying a very large file from HD2 and then files due to being out of space.
Why did TM not realise this file existed in the first place?
Thanks for any help.
Steve

About TM "Backup Drive is Full"
Alert TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

Time Machine Drive Failing

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