Back-up with Time machine is soooo slow.

First back-up with Time Machine. I have a lot of pictures but not much else - but bout 80 GB. Not using encryption.
The back-up has now run for 24 hours - and has only managed to back-up 8 GB - reminaing time estimated to 8 days !
Back-up by wire to external hard disc (USB 3.0 for HD and 2.0 for Mac)
Is this normal?
Anything I could do to speed it up?

You want Lion and MacBook Pro forums.
Yes TM is slow but it depends on the drive interface and disk drive and whether they have trouble with Mac or Lion (or ML)
I prefer to clone and use one partition for that, say 200GB out of your (1.5TB?) drive and use the rest for TM.
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
TimeMachine 101
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
Time Machine stops backing up to external disk
Mac 101: Time Machine  Get to know the ins and outs of Time Machine.
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues

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    Message was edited by: tool

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    Welcome to the Communities.
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  • Is this first back up with Time Machine too slow?

    I'm running my first backup onto a new Western Digital Essential 1 terrabyte via a USB connection.
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    Boot ROM Version: 4.4.8f2
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    Product ID: 0x1110
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    Version: 20.03
    Serial Number: 574341563541373730353233
    Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
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    vanderleun wrote:
    I'm running my first backup onto a new Western Digital Essential 1 terrabyte via a USB connection.
    It started at 2AM. It's now 9AM and the progress bar reads:
    "16.5 Gigs of 118 Gigs"
    That's a little better than two gigs an hour.
    This seems very slow to me and I'd like to know if that impression is correct.
    Yes, that's ridiculous. While Time Machine backups are slower than just copying things, and especially slower at the beginning, you should get roughly 40 - 60 GB/hour, on average.
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  • HT1553 DO I HAVE TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL INSTALLATION DISCS IF MY HARD DRIVE IS REPLACED BUT I MADE A BACK UP WITH TIME MACHINE TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ?

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    Yes, you can partition your 2TB drive that way. In fact, I have an external hard drive with 3 partitions: one for a SuperDuper! clone of my Snow Leopard partition, one to clone my Lion partition, and one larger partition for Time Machine (which only backs up the Lion partition).
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    Technically you can but it is not a very good idea at all. The reason it is a flawed idea is if the HD fails (not really if but when) you will have defeated the whole idea of backup. A failure means you will lose the data files you stored on it and it's backup! A good backup plan has at least 2 forms of backup because backups can fail too. I would strongly recommend getting at least one additional external HD and use it for storing the data files you wanted off the internal HD and use the second for a Time Machine backup drive.
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