After backup, computer hung - conflicting backup info

Question

Just bought the time capsule/time machine disk on Saturday. Mac pro desktop, connected via internet. Backed it up Tues night. After the first backup (I left it overnight), the "busy basketball" was visible, wold not go away, and my machine would not respond to anything (not even cmd-opt-esc). According to the time machine preferences screen, which was still up, the backup was complete. The screen said it was backing up the 275 GB.
So I restarted the computer manually (pushed the button, shut it off, pushed the button to restart.). About 275 GB and 800,000 files were supposed to be backed up. According to time machine buddy, the last message indicated that it copied only 68 GB and 253 files, and indicated that "status of backup unknown". If I go "into" the time machine, the finder showing the backup db file indicates that 275 GB of space has been used in the backup disk. Perhaps this space has only been reserved but not actually used?
This is obviously an amateur product. How can I tell what's actually been backed up? I have a really bad feeling about this.

Answer 1

keystrike wrote:
Just bought the time capsule/time machine disk on Saturday. Mac pro desktop, connected via internet. Backed it up Tues night. After the first backup (I left it overnight), the "busy basketball" was visible, wold not go away, and my machine would not respond to anything (not even cmd-opt-esc).
Were you doing the initial backup via Ethernet? That's highly recommended.
According to the time machine preferences screen, which was still up, the backup was complete.
Do you mean it showed the appropriate timestamp in *Latest Backup?*
What does it show now? If there's a timestamp there, look at your backup via Time Machine. Click the Time Machine icon in your Dock, or select +Enter Time Machine+ from the TM icon in your menubar.
So I restarted the computer manually (pushed the button, shut it off, pushed the button to restart.). About 275 GB and 800,000 files were supposed to be backed up. According to time machine buddy, the last message indicated that it copied only 68 GB and 253 files, and indicated that "status of backup unknown".
That's likely because of the forced power-off; the later messages didn't get moved into the log files on disk.
If I go "into" the time machine, the finder showing the backup db file indicates that 275 GB of space has been used in the backup disk. Perhaps this space has only been reserved but not actually used?
If there's no *Latest Backup* date on the Preferences window, the backup failed; the 275 GB is in an ".inProgress" package, not in the forum of a completed backup.
Without the logs, there's probably no way to tell why it failed. If the Prefs window says Failed, see #C2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
This is obviously an amateur product.
No, an amateur user. The documentation leaves a lot to be desired, but it works fine for millions of folks.
How can I tell what's actually been backed up? I have a really bad feeling about this.
If the backup didn't complete, and there's no message on the Preferences window, connect via Ethernet if you haven't already. Start a new backup (select +Back Up Now+ from the TM icon in your menubar, or by right-clicking the TM icon in your Dock).
Time Machine will "recover" the failed backup. That will probably take a long time, even via Ethernet.
If it fails, note the message it sends, and see #C2 in Troubleshooting.
If it seems to hang, for a long time, and won't cancel, see #D6 there.
While it's running, you might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).