10.5.5 Update Now: A volume you are backing up is case-sensitive

Question

Since the 10.5.5 patch, Time Machine will not backup. I get the following dialog:
A volume you are backing up is case-sensitive, but the backup volume is not.
To select a different backup volume, or to chose not to backup the case sensitive volume, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine.
Here is the problem. All my drives are formatted the same way including my backup drive.
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
In fact, I can navigate through my older Time Machine backups (both in Finder and through the Time Machine UI) and see that previous to 10.5.5 backups were case sensitive. Or, at least they are showing proper case when I manually view the filenames.
A couple of days now without any backups has me very concerned about Time Machine. Thank goodness I have a Drobo as my primary storage.
Anyone have any recommendations?

Answer 1

Before I go on, I will say I'm not yelling at you - I'm venting in frustration. And, some of this is written tongue-in-cheek is it were, but perhaps you will get my meaning. All of it is factual.
I understand that much of Time Machine is smoke and mirrors until you are in the IT industry and understand what TM is doing. Trust me - it's not rocket science. Basically think of each file as your mailbox. When the file is altered, the operating system raises the mailbox flag to tell the postman (the backup application) "Hey - something is different here and this file needs to be copied". The backup application copies the modified file to a compressed file called an archive (or library) and then lowers the flag. The next time the backup application runs, it looks at all the files again to see if the archive bit (the flag) has been set (raised) and if it has ... you know the rest.
What is really frustrating is that we are growing more and more digitally dependent and we have no real reliable solution to data storage. It's not like I can send the drives back for warranty service, or even diagnostic - with all the digital information and continued identity theft. We were told that tapes were the solution, but they never work. Then CD-ROMs and DVDs were the rage and they were suppose to last a hundred years (cough cough) I mean months, (cough cough) I mean ....
And now we have TM.
Secondly, because digital data grows exponentially every year (those digital cameras aren't producing smaller images - for example) you have to grow your storage. Now Mr. Consumer is looking at 1 and 2 TB storage solutions for the home. So we need reliable storage and reliable backup. For example, I use Apple Aperture and am an amateur photographer. On my desk currently is nearly 6TB of storage. Now that may sound like a lot but I assure you it isn't. One disk is 1.5TB and is used to backup my 2TB primary disk (931GB used). A third disk was purchased as an emergency 3 weeks ago when the 2TB disk started to fail. Following instructions on Apples site, I used the DITTO command to transfer files from the original primary storage to the new storage. Unfortunately, the new storage unit had to be placed on a USB 1.0 chain. The transfer took WEEKS, yes WEEKS to complete and even then failed to apply proper user and group ownership. Just when I was about to try and clone the disk again, the latest patch came out and kicked two of the drives off the USB and placed the third into read only mode. Just like it does every time. And yes, I have turned auto update OFF and no, no one at Apple can tell my why it is automatically applying updates. They swear they are not doing a silent push.
As to the MS Windows approach of telling a user to "reinstall" their system frequently to resolve such problems - that is simply asshattery at the highest level. As an MCSE it is that kind of resolution which shifts the problem from the vendor to the client that I found unacceptable and why I moved from MS to Apple in the first place.
If I were to tell any of my customers that I'd quickly be without employment! We need to put pressure back on vendors to provide reliable solutions. I should not be expected to run verify and repair on each of my disks every time Apple comes out with a patch for some minor applications - which is what is happening.
Such actions (against TB drives) take hours to run and it's just plain unacceptable.
Luckily for me I use Drobo as my primary storage device. If it wasn't for Drobo - I would have lost all my data long ago. Through all of this, Drobo has continued to be (pretty) rock solid, despite the fact that I have to verify the volume every time there is a software patch and it takes all night. Oh, and by the way - before any of you run out and buy a Drobo for your users files (which I highly recommend) you should know that the folks over at Apple state that "the operating system does not support relocation of Users home directories" - which flies in the face of UNIX design.
In fact, the tech support rep who told me that directed me to relocate all my user files (all 931.45GB of them) back to the 150GB boot disk. I tried explaining to him that I had over 900GB of data, but he couldn't grasp that. I also explained that the reason my user directory was on an external drive was because some of the applications (when they were installed) required the files to be native in your home directory path, and my internal SATA disks were limted in size (apparently by architecture design) to 150GB. No one at Apple can explain this to me, the reasoning is also apparently quite a secret. But, I always understood that one of the reasons to migrate to SATA was that it reduced the need for the operating system to ... oh never-mind.
Now, I'm no math major but the last time I checked 931GB of data won't fit on a 150GB disk .... I could be wrong. If I am, I'm a big enough man to admit it so someone please explain it to me.
There, now that all of that is out of my system. I am truly a reasonable man. Please feel free to tell me why I'm wrong here or what I'm missing in the picture.
Message was edited by: Gilbert Blankenship1