Backup Freezes shortly after start

Question

I've a recurring problem with Time Machine, whereby the backup appears to freeze shortly after starting. No error message is reported and I can see nothing in the log.
At first it seemed to be caused by my children's log-in still being active but it's not that. It does seem to happen more when my wife has left lots of applications open, including MS Word with lots of documents.
I've checked the external disk (Lacie 500GB), even erased and reformatted it (Mac OS Extended (Journaled), same as by iMac hard disk) but to no avail. Stopping the back-up does nothing. Pulling the cable or turning the disk off whilst kills the current back-up doesn't cure the problem.
The only solution is to restart and run a back-up straight away.
Any ideas?
Steve
8-)

Answer 1

Wackers wrote:
I've a recurring problem with Time Machine, whereby the backup appears to freeze shortly after starting. No error message is reported and I can see nothing in the log.
Unfortunately, a lot of things can cause this.
Let's take a look at the log: there may be a clue. Download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Navigate to one of these stalled backups, copy and post the messages here (be sure to get them all, as sometimes they overflow the small window).
At first it seemed to be caused by my children's log-in still being active but it's not that. It does seem to happen more when my wife has left lots of applications open, including MS Word with lots of documents.
That sort of thing might slow it down a bit, but shouldn't be much.
I've checked the external disk (Lacie 500GB), even erased and reformatted it (Mac OS Extended (Journaled), same as by iMac hard disk) but to no avail.
Also check the *Partition Map Scheme* shown by Disk Utility on the first line of the drive (the one with the make and size). It should be GUID for an Intel Mac, +Apple Partition Map+ for a PPC Mac.
Is your LaCie Firewire or USB? How is it connected?
Does it have it's own power supply, or does it get power from your Mac?
Are you running FileVault, any virtualization software, or any significant non-Apple software?
How much data is on your internal HD?
That info plus the logs should at least get us started.