Can't force quit applications problem during Time Machine backups

I've run into a frustrating problem with Time Machine. I'm using an external 750gb USB hard drive as a backup disk with my Mac Mini; the connection is visa the Firewire 400 port.
When I'm doing anything that's CPU-intensive while a Time Machine is backing up, it is a 50-50 chance that one or more applications will crash. It is impossible to Force Quit them, which means that it is impossible to log out or shut down. The user is faced with a choice: Kill the whole system, and risk corrupting the system hard drive, or yank out the Time Machine disk's connector, and risk corrupting the Time Machine backup. Of course the latter is preferred, and that's what I've done. Thus far, I haven't seen any corruption on the Time Machine drive, fortunately, but in order to work with my system, I have had to disable Time Machine backups while I am working. (I reconnect the Time Machine drive overnight.)
I know from some Google searching that others are experiencing this problem. My question is, has anyone figured out why this is happening, or developed a workaround?
Regards,
Bryan

In the process of restoring my MacBookPro from an external TM drive as we speak. I can say with almost 100% certainty that force restarting (holding the power-button down until the book shuts off) will corrupt your start up disk to some extent.
My problem is that I was away from my network when TM tried to do an update. I'm not sure if TM was actually able to connect to my server but none the less I was on a verizon wireless card and so even a minor backup would have been slow.
I needed to shut the computer down and leave. I have had TM hang when trying to shut down and tried to tell it to stop the back-up (which it tries to do for hours on end and have had to force quit before... had to run disk first aid that time) So this time I figured Id leave the computer on (though unplugged) while I drove home.
I did not close the case until the screen went dark. Unfortunately, it had just gone to sleep (a half hour later) instead of shutting off but I did not know that at the time so I shut the case then.
When I plugged it in in the AM it was dark but not black... I could just see the screen and could see it was frozen. Force restart completely screwed my startup disk. Luckily I have a BU from the night before.
Maybe TM should also be linked to the location, and or connection you are using. So, if I am away from my LAN it will automatically turn off. I also wish I could set it to back up every x hours instead of every hour.
Good idea... just needs some work on the routines. (only an hour left on my restore now)

Similar Messages

System "hiccup" during Time Machine Backups

Over the course of the past week or so, I've noiticed that my system will freeze/stall/hiccup (whatever you call it) during Time Machine backups. This will apply to YouTube/Vimeo videos, iTunes (where I noticed it... it's like the song pauses and resumes 2 or 3 times over 10 seconds), task switching, text entry, etc. Again, this is only a recent thing.
Here's a log of what I was doing during this last backup. Didn't check the time when iTunes froze, but it happened at least twice, maybe 3 times.
3/5/13 4:50:35.477 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Starting automatic backup
3/5/13 4:50:36.010 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Hydra 1/Backups.backupdb
3/5/13 4:50:55.980 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Using file event preflight for Mac HD
3/5/13 4:51:18.189 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Will copy (2.07 GB) from Mac HD
3/5/13 4:51:19.601 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Found 105304 files (2.55 GB) needing backup
3/5/13 4:51:19.638 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: 4.58 GB required (including padding), 153.96 GB available
3/5/13 4:51:53.825 PM locationd[48163]: NOTICE,Location icon should now be in state 0
3/5/13 4:52:01.241 PM lsboxd[245]: @AE relay 4755524c:4755524c
3/5/13 4:53:40.070 PM mdworker[48192]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
3/5/13 4:53:40.075 PM mdworker[48191]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
3/5/13 4:53:40.219 PM sandboxd[48194]: ([48192]) mdworker(48192) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
3/5/13 4:53:40.226 PM sandboxd[48194]: ([48191]) mdworker(48191) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
3/5/13 4:53:40.000 PM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(48194) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
3/5/13 4:53:58.561 PM Messages[26674]: [Warning] Updating typing guid on IMMessage from 3FEF0FB8-9FEC-4C4F-93B9-ABA280016F8A to AB036A47-4BE4-4DD7-879D-1ED11CF1F0E0
3/5/13 4:54:08.903 PM iTunes[1027]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:54:08.905 PM ath[1032]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:54:11.000 PM kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.
3/5/13 4:54:27.000 PM kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.
3/5/13 4:54:27.526 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/niclake/.dropbox/sigstore.dbx to (null)
3/5/13 4:54:52.106 PM iTunes[1027]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:54:52.108 PM ath[1032]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:55:24.726 PM coreservicesd[65]: Application App:"Sublime Text 2" [ 0x0/0x13ea3e9] @ 0x0x7ffb51e75860 tried to be brought forward, but isn't in fPermittedFrontASNs ( ( ASN:0x0-0x14d24d1:) ), so denying.
3/5/13 4:55:24.726 PM WindowServer[93]: [cps/setfront] Failed setting the front application to Sublime Text 2, psn 0x0-0x13ea3e9, securitySessionID=0x186a3, err=-13066
3/5/13 4:55:24.765 PM authexec[48213]: executing /bin/cp
3/5/13 4:55:35.752 PM KernelEventAgent[45]: tid 00000000 received event(s) VQ_NOTRESP (1)
3/5/13 4:55:35.752 PM KernelEventAgent[45]: tid 00000000 type 'afpfs', mounted on '/Volumes/Chimera', from '//Nic%20Lake@Nic%60s%20AirPort%20Extreme._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Chimera', not responding
3/5/13 4:55:35.000 PM kernel[0]: ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 575 on so 0xffffff8026cb6260
3/5/13 4:55:35.000 PM kernel[0]: ASP_TCP asp_tcp_usr_control: invalid kernelUseCount 0
3/5/13 4:55:35.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect started /Volumes/Chimera prevTrigger 575 currTrigger 576
3/5/13 4:55:35.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: doing reconnect on /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 4:55:35.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: posting to KEA EINPROGRESS for /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 4:55:35.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: Max reconnect time: 30 secs, Connect timeout: 15 secs for /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 4:55:35.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: connect to the server /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 4:55:35.752 PM KernelEventAgent[45]: tid 00000000 found 1 filesystem(s) with problem(s)
3/5/13 4:55:35.869 PM KernelEventAgent[45]: tid 00000000 received event(s) VQ_NOTRESP (1)
3/5/13 4:55:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: Logging in with uam 13 /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 4:55:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: Restoring session /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 4:55:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: get the reconnect token
3/5/13 4:55:45.111 PM mdworker[48217]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
3/5/13 4:55:45.119 PM mdworker[48218]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
3/5/13 4:55:45.339 PM sandboxd[48215]: ([48217]) mdworker(48217) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
3/5/13 4:55:45.348 PM sandboxd[48215]: ([48218]) mdworker(48218) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
3/5/13 4:55:45.000 PM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(48215) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
3/5/13 4:56:15.453 PM Messages[26674]: [Warning] Updating typing guid on IMMessage from 87A43B63-A4B2-4E41-B472-34083741613A to BA8D492D-6BDB-4B9B-9A44-50D21FCFAC7E
3/5/13 4:56:24.430 PM Messages[26674]: [Warning] Updating typing guid on IMMessage from 86F1F958-B235-4C5B-BCEE-537E0826534D to 2A54A84E-C80B-43F6-A31B-0148CB5367B0
3/5/13 4:56:31.437 PM lsboxd[245]: @AE relay 4755524c:4755524c
3/5/13 4:56:35.096 PM iTunes[1027]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:56:35.098 PM ath[1032]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:56:37.574 PM Messages[26674]: [Warning] Updating typing guid on IMMessage from A0CF4108-C32F-4E4C-B1FB-5745F2EFA376 to B890B725-4D5B-4338-9574-42E1BC800D26
3/5/13 4:56:53.912 PM iTunes[1027]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:56:53.914 PM ath[1032]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:57:09.327 PM iTunes[1027]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:57:09.331 PM ath[1032]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:57:48.285 PM mdworker[48246]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
3/5/13 4:57:48.291 PM mdworker[48247]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
3/5/13 4:57:48.388 PM sandboxd[48243]: ([48246]) mdworker(48246) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
3/5/13 4:57:48.423 PM sandboxd[48243]: ([48247]) mdworker(48247) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
3/5/13 4:57:48.000 PM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(48243) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
3/5/13 4:58:13.430 PM Tweetbot[22562]: CoreAnimation: warning, deleted thread with uncommitted CATransaction; set CA_DEBUG_TRANSACTIONS=1 in environment to log backtraces.
3/5/13 4:58:25.538 PM iTunes[1027]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:58:25.540 PM ath[1032]: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x7fff75326180): Unexpected connection closure...
3/5/13 4:58:30.819 PM iTunes[1027]: ImageIO: JPEG Corrupt JPEG data: premature end of data segment
3/5/13 4:58:30.829 PM Bowtie Butler[1030]: ImageIO: JPEG Corrupt JPEG data: premature end of data segment
3/5/13 4:59:52.515 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Copied 118801 files (2.47 GB) from volume Mac HD.
3/5/13 4:59:52.707 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Using file event preflight for Mac HD
3/5/13 4:59:53.910 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Will copy (3.4 MB) from Mac HD
3/5/13 4:59:53.913 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Found 120 files (3.4 MB) needing backup
3/5/13 4:59:53.914 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: 1.84 GB required (including padding), 150.66 GB available
3/5/13 5:00:16.000 PM kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.
3/5/13 5:00:16.222 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/niclake/.dropbox/sigstore.dbx to (null)
3/5/13 5:00:35.593 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Copied 1349 files (53 MB) from volume Mac HD.
3/5/13 5:00:36.426 PM KernelEventAgent[45]: tid 00000000 received event(s) VQ_NOTRESP (1)
3/5/13 5:00:36.426 PM KernelEventAgent[45]: tid 00000000 type 'afpfs', mounted on '/Volumes/Chimera', from '//Nic%20Lake@Nic%60s%20AirPort%20Extreme._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Chimera', not responding
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 576 on so 0xffffff8026cb6260
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: ASP_TCP asp_tcp_usr_control: invalid kernelUseCount 0
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect started /Volumes/Chimera prevTrigger 576 currTrigger 577
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: doing reconnect on /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: posting to KEA EINPROGRESS for /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: Max reconnect time: 30 secs, Connect timeout: 15 secs for /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: connect to the server /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 5:00:36.427 PM KernelEventAgent[45]: tid 00000000 found 1 filesystem(s) with problem(s)
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: Logging in with uam 13 /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 5:00:36.543 PM KernelEventAgent[45]: tid 00000000 received event(s) VQ_NOTRESP (1)
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: Restoring session /Volumes/Chimera
3/5/13 5:00:36.000 PM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: get the reconnect token
3/5/13 5:00:37.029 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Created new backup: 2013-03-05-170036
3/5/13 5:00:41.100 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Starting post-backup thinning
3/5/13 5:00:41.100 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
3/5/13 5:00:41.218 PM com.apple.backupd[48152]: Backup completed successfully.

The boot drive is failing, or you have some other hardware fault.
Back up all data immediately, then make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested.
If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to bare metal from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

I was trying to adjust one of the parental controlled accounts for my child. I disabled parental controls, rebooted, and re-enabled it. Now all the settings that I had setup before are gone. How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

Hi ...
I've found a solution to my problem.
Time Machine locates extenal HDD backups differently depending if they were done via a network or via a USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt connection.
My initial backup was done via a direct Thunderbolt connection. I ran into the above issue b/c the second time when I tried looking for the backup file the HDD was conencted to my iMac and I was accessing it via a network conenction.
I simply connected the drive directly to my MacBook pro and ... voila. I was able to see the backup, select the iPhoto library and begin the restore.
Hope this helps.
BTW - I found this out by reading the 'blue box' selection on this page: http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html
(Thanks goes to Pondini!)

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
See #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Can I switch users during time machine backup?

I have a laptop with multiple users.
I am trying to do a Time Machine back-up using a fire-wire connected western digital drive.
Either because I had not backed up in a few weeks, or had updated to 10.7.2, I am not sure, but when I connected the drive to do a backup Time Machine started doing a deep scan.
The preparing phase took several (over 5) hours before the backup would start, but it finally did begin backing up.
It is trying to back up 8 GB of files and is taking a very long time. It backed up 1.5 of 8 GB over the course of the entire day.
Then my kids came home from school and switched to their users.
Looking at the logs, it looks like the backup got canceled when we switched users.
After switching back to the admin user, I am back to the preparing phase again.
I thought you could log out, swtich users etc with Time Machine.
Can someone explain this behavior to me?
Thank you

I just wanted to update all after my experieces:
Time Machine was not the problem. The problem was a defective WD external firewire drive (WD Green drive) which has since been replaced under warantee. Thank you WD for your comiitment.
Whenever I used this drive, I could hear it chugging and chugging away during mount and whenever I was accessing the drive.
I finally checked the drive (WD My Book) with DISK WARRIOR and the thing was toast. Tons of unrepairable hardware errors.
Thankfully the drive was under warantee and after receiving a replacement from WD (no issues with RMA replacement process, kudos to WD) have had ZERO issues with time machine and the replacement drive.
Initial 1st time- time machine backup was ~ 5 hours. (~120 GB of info). (I added the drive to spotlight 'do not index' prefs prior to setting up time machine.)
-This was a HUGE time difference. My prior initial backup with the defective drive was 3 DAYS, yes, DAYS.
If you are having these kind of problems, check you drive with Disk Warrior (Disk Utitlty does not cut it). If Disk Warrior reports problems, it is a hassle, but replace the drive.
Good luck. Karma +1

6th Generation Airport Extreme Freezing During Time Machine Backups using LaCie 1TB Hard Drive

I recently upgraded from a 4th generation Airport Extreme (short, dual band n) to a new 6th generation Airport Extreme (tall, dual-band ac) in the hopes of having quicker backups and better WiFi performance (I also just got a 13" retina MacBook Pro).
The upgrade has gone poorly, to say the least. Initially, I set up the new Airport Extreme as I had for the old one. Then I plugged in the same hard drive I was using (a LaCie 1 TB d2 Quadra USB2 drive that I bought in June of 2009). I decided to setup my wife's Time Machine backup first (she has a 2010 MacBook Air). I removed the "old" disk (the one associated with the old base station) from her Time Machine configuration, and set up her Time Machine configuration to backup to the same disk on the new Airport Extreme. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it picked up her existing Time Machine backup and incrementally synchronized to it (the backup size was about 300 MB). A few days later, she warned me that Time Machine told her that backups were not working. When I went to look, it was indeed failing.
I tried a few things that didn't work, and I suspected that maybe the backup "transfer" hadn't gone so smoothly as it seemed, so I decided to erase the drive using Disk Utility and start the backup over again. To my disappointment, I found that the backup got about 200MB-1.5GB into the backup and "froze." I left it overnight, and it was at exactly the same place the next morning. The light on the disk connected to the Airport Extreme flashed constantly all the time, and I could hear it spinning, but nothing happened at all.
When I tried to stop the backup, it took a very long time. In the logs, I would see a message like this (this log is from my machine, not my wife's, but it looks the same):
11/19/13 9:40:59.276 PM com.apple.backupd[93334]: Forcing deep traversal on source: "***-mpbr" (device: /dev/disk0s2 mount: '/' fsUUID: 7356274E-D28F-3BC0-9CA8-7F1AA21830B4 eventDBUUID: 99941F9A-AD5F-4FAF-94D2-701C94CA9581)
11/19/13 9:41:57.609 PM com.apple.backupd[93334]: Total content size: 148.2 GB excluded items size: 17.16 GB for volume ***-mpbr
11/19/13 9:41:57.610 PM com.apple.backupd[93334]: Found 674166 files (131.05 GB) needing backup
11/19/13 9:41:57.611 PM com.apple.backupd[93334]: 152.52 GB required (including padding), 498.67 GB available
11/19/13 9:41:57.625 PM com.apple.backupd[93334]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
11/19/13 9:59:22.407 PM UserEventAgent[11]: com.apple.backupd-auto launchd job disabled
11/19/13 10:00:15.103 PM com.apple.backupd[93334]: Cancellation timed out - exiting
Looking at the Airport Extreme in Finder, I saw that it got stuck, either "Connected as" me, or "Connecting...". The Airport Extreme wouldn't respond to the "Disconnect" or "Connect As..." buttons (depending on the context), and the eject button for the Airport Extreme itself in the sidebar was also unresponsive. Eventually, after 2+ minutes, I got a dialog saying "Couldn't connect to [my base station name]" with instructions to "check its IP" and contact my system administrator if the problem persists. During this time, Finder can seem frozen and unstable.
Through all of the above, the hard disk kept spinning and the light flashed constantly. The drive was warm to the touch in the morning.
I also found that when all this happened, I was unable to connect to the Airport device using Airport Utility. I I couldn't administer it, but the Internet continued to work for all connected devices. Unplugging the disk and plugging it back in worked immediately to bring the system back to a working state. I didn;t even have to power-cycle or reset the Airport Extreme.
I tried a number of things to correct this behavior:
Disabled Time Machine, removed disk, restarted machine, reconfigured Time Machine, and retried.
Tried backup on my 13" Retina MacBook Pro and my wife's MacBook Air.
I actually tried with TWO new 6th Generation Airport Extremes. The first one was a refurbished one. I returned it to Apple and purchased a brand new one. Both of them exhibited the behavior I described above.
Workaround:
Finally, I switched the drive out for a spare that I have (an older Western Digital MyBook and used it for a backup. This drive "Just worked."
So, I have switched to that for backup for now, and re-purposed the LaCie as a drive that I use for making periodic images of my hard drive using SuperDuper. The drive seems to work perfectly (and worked perfectly for several years with older Airport Extreme base stations), so I can only assume there's a bug in the USB driver of the current 6th-generation Airport Extreme.
I hope this helps someone else who's as confused as I was. If anyone has had a similar experience, I would very much like to read about it. I will be reporting this problem to apple right after I post this topic. Please do the same if you experience this issue.

As Bob says, backing-up that way isn't supported.
It's also unreliable. It may work for a while, but this forum, and the Time Machine forums, have many, many posts like this:
*"I've been backing-up via an Airport Extreme for* <some number of days, weeks, or months> *and all of a sudden my backups are corrupted beyond repair."*
In my case, it's happened about 4 times in a year. And that's with a desktop Mac, about 12 feet from the Airport, with the exact same hardware in exactly the same place and no interference.
It is very convenient, especially with laptops. If you want to take the risk, see [Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Airport.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
But do yourself a LARGE favor and take the prominent advice to keep secondary backups, and update them frequently. Sooner or later, you're probably going to need them.

Kernel Panic during Time Machine Backup

Hello everybody, two days ago I was doing a time machine backup, and I got the kernel panic message that suggested me to switch off the computer.
I did it, I restarted the computer and since then I cannot get the time machine backup to end without a kernel panic!
Side information: my HD of 250Gb has only 1gb left, OSX 10.6.6, everything updated,
I was listening itunes music during the backup.
have to be a solution!
Down here one of the latest kernel panic log:
Interval Since Last Panic Report: 3411 sec
Panics Since Last Report: 2
Anonymous UUID: 85B69788-B363-4480-86E2-82C0AD2C64B0
Thu Jan 27 20:51:54 2011
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x558e80): "!pageList phys_addr"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.9.26/iokit/Kernel/IOMemoryDescriptor.cpp:1 409
Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x730b3998 : 0x21b50c (0x5d4438 0x730b39cc 0x223974 0x0)
0x730b39e8 : 0x558e80 (0x5ddb08 0x9a61784 0x52f2b 0x8e1)
0x730b3a68 : 0x550bc8 (0xf101e80 0x3 0x8704300 0x80)
0x730b3b58 : 0x55117d (0x86f7000 0x80 0x5507f0 0x5508e0)
0x730b3b88 : 0x119b92d (0x86f7000 0x730b3bc8 0x730b3bdc 0x730b3bec)
0x730b3c08 : 0x119f57f (0x8700e00 0x86f7000 0xf101e80 0x19000)
0x730b3c78 : 0x1194364 (0x8700e00 0x86f7000 0xf4240 0x871ac80)
0x730b3cb8 : 0x1194825 (0x8700e00 0x86f7000 0x0 0x160f321)
0x730b3cf8 : 0x1608511 (0x870c700 0x871ac80 0x0 0x2a94be)
0x730b3d38 : 0x1604800 (0x870a600 0x86fa804 0x730b3d68 0x122ea56)
0x730b3d88 : 0x1605089 (0x870a500 0x86fa804 0x4000 0x0)
0x730b3de8 : 0x160726a (0x870a500 0x86fa21c 0x860f0dc 0x0)
0x730b3e08 : 0x119467e (0x870c180 0x86f7000 0x0 0x847e40)
0x730b3e38 : 0x1195270 (0x870c700 0x86f7000 0x730b3e58 0x8700e00)
0x730b3e58 : 0x119d05c (0x86f7000 0x86f7000 0x0 0x574c6000)
0x730b3e98 : 0x119d1b6 (0x8700e00 0x86f7000 0x0 0x0)
0x730b3ed8 : 0x119ecc0 (0x8700e00 0x20000 0x730b3ef8 0x0)
0x730b3f38 : 0x119b130 (0x8700e00 0x0 0x8f41290 0x0)
0x730b3f58 : 0x54b5dc (0x8702cc0 0x95b6a80 0x730b3f88 0x1f0)
0x730b3f88 : 0x54ba36 (0x8702e40 0x86183d4 0x857c46d0 0x7fff)
0x730b3fc8 : 0x2a06cc (0x8702e40 0x0 0x2a06db 0x8ca0ee4)
Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage(1.6.3)@0x1602000->0x1614fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily(2.0.4)@0x1192000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily(1.6.2)@0x1226000
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort(2.1.5)@0x1198000->0x11abfff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily(2.0.4)@0x1192000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6)@0x908000
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily(2.0.4)@0x1192000->0x1197fff
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
10J567
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.6.0: Wed Nov 10 18:13:17 PST 2010; root:xnu-1504.9.26~3/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro4,1 (Mac-F42C86C8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 2274904729852
unloaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 2.0 (addr 0x123e000, size 0x12288) - last unloaded 162290510493
loaded kexts:
com.regularrateandrhythm.driver.RowmoteIREmu 1.0 - last loaded 102262743571
com.parallels.kext.Pvsvnic 3.0
com.parallels.kext.vmmain 3.0
com.parallels.kext.hypervisor 3.0
uk.co.obfuscated.framebuffer 5
com.parallels.kext.Pvsnet 3.0
com.parallels.kext.ConnectUSB 3.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.3d0
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 2.1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 1.9.9f12
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.4.5
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.0.17
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.13
com.apple.GeForce 6.2.6
com.apple.driver.SMCMotionSensor 3.0.0d4
com.apple.DontSteal_Mac_OSX 7.0.0
com.apple.iokit.CHUDUtils 201
com.apple.iokit.CHUDProf 216
com.apple.driver.AudioIPCDriver 1.1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPenrynProfile 17.1
com.apple.driver.ACPISMCPlatformPlugin 4.5.0d5
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.4.12
com.apple.driver.AppleBacklight 170.0.34
com.apple.kext.AppleSMCLMU 1.5.0d3
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCButtons 200.3.2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard 200.3.2
com.apple.driver.Oxford_Semi 2.5.8
com.apple.driver.AppleIRController 303.8
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 2.6.5
com.apple.iokit.AppleYukon2 3.2.1b1
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 1.6.3
com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43224 426.36.1
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 2.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA 2.5.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 4.1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 4.7.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 4.1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 4.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleSmartBatteryManager 160.0.0
com.apple.BootCache 31
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.3.5
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.3.5
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 105.13.0
com.apple.security.sandbox 1
com.apple.security.quarantine 0
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 2.1.11
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 105.13.0
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 1.9.9f12
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileReadCounterAction 17
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileTimestampAction 10
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileThreadInfoAction 14
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileRegisterStateAction 10
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileKEventAction 10
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileCallstackAction 20
com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal 6.2.6
com.apple.NVDAResman 6.2.6
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 2.0.3
com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 74.2
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 2.3.8f7
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 10.0.3
com.apple.iokit.CHUDKernLib 208
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.8.0fc1
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.3
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 1.9.9f12
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 1.9.9f12
com.apple.iokit.AppleProfileFamily 41
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 4.5.0d5
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.2
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.1.0d3
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.2
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 2.6.5
com.apple.driver.BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.3.8f7
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.3.8f7
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 2.3.8f7
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMultitouch 206.6
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport 2.0.1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSBP2 4.0.6
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 4.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 4.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 3.9.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 2.6.5
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.6
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.6
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.6
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 402.1
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport 2.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 2.6.5
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 312
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.0.4
com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily 2.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 4.1.5
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 4.2.6
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 4.1.7
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 1.9
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.4.0
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.6.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 6
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 289
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.6.2
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.3.5
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.6
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.3.0
Model: MacBookPro4,1, BootROM MBP41.00C1.B03, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.5 GHz, 4 GB, SMC 1.28f3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, GeForce 8600M GT, PCIe, 512 MB
Memory Module: global_name
AirPort: spairportwireless_card_type_airportextreme (0x14E4, 0x8C), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.1)
Bluetooth: Version 2.3.8f7, 2 service, 12 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet Adaptor (en2), Ethernet, en2
Network Service: Ethernet Adaptor (en3), Ethernet, en3
Network Service: AirPort, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: Hitachi HTS542525K9SA00, 232,89 GB
Parallel ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-875
USB Device: Built-in iSight, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8502, 0xfd400000
USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x0231, 0x5d200000
USB Device: IR Receiver, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8242, 0x5d100000
USB Device: BRCM2046 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0x1a100000
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x820f, 0x1a110000
FireWire Device: OEM ATA Device 00, G-TECH, Up to 400 Mb/sec

Hi all
my Time Machine backups regularly result in kernel panics. I'm on a MBP 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and backing up to a Time Capsule. I removed the entire backup, erased the HDD in Airport Utility, and started from scratch backing up via Ethernet. No other applications are open.
I verified and repaired the internal HDD with Disk Utility (booting from the Mac OS X Install DVD). HDD appears to be ok. Repaired disk permissions. Ran Apple Hardware Test, all ok. Removed the Preference file com.apple.TimeMachine.plist (as per #A4. suggestion). But after all this, I still get kernel panics only after about 2 or 3GB into the backup (of approx. 140GB data total).
The Time Machine widget that I installed reported this after the reboot after the last kernel panic:
+Starting standard backup+
+Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Marcus%[email protected]/Finger%20Lime%20HD+
+Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Marcus%[email protected]/Finger%20Lime%20HD+
+QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN+
+Disk image /Volumes/Finger Lime HD/cif-mbp-foth.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups+
+Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb+
+Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.+
+No pre-backup thinning needed: 146.69 GB requested (including padding), 893.87 GB available+
+Waiting for index to be ready (101)+
These are the kernel panic reports I'm getting. I took out the HEX bits ("snip"). They all report as the possible cause: "unlocking an unlocked mutex or spinlock". Can anyone suggest any solutions to this problem? Thanks heaps!
*Fri Mar 11 20:37:13 2011*
+panic(cpu 1 caller 0x226b53): "thread_invoke: preemption_level -1, possible cause: unlocking an unlocked mutex or spinlock"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.9.26/osfmk/kern/sched_prim.c:1471+
+Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)+
+0xfbab78 : 0x21b50c (0x5d4438 0xfbabac 0x223974 0x0)+
*Fri Mar 11 22:20:53 2011*
+panic(cpu 1 caller 0x226b53): "thread_invoke: preemption_level -1, possible cause: unlocking an unlocked mutex or spinlock"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.9.26/osfmk/kern/sched_prim.c:1471+
+Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)+
+0x58fe2b78 : 0x21b50c (0x5d4438 0x58fe2bac 0x223974 0x0)+
snip
+Backtrace continues...+
+Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):+
com.apple.filesystems.afpfs(9.7)@0x80ed8000->0x80f2efff
com.apple.nke.asp_tcp(5.0)@0x1079000->0x1086fff
+BSD process name corresponding to current thread: diskimages-helpe+
*Fri Mar 11 23:44:41 2011*
+panic(cpu 1 caller 0x226b53): "thread_invoke: preemption_level -1, possible cause: unlocking an unlocked mutex or spinlock"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.9.26/osfmk/kern/sched_prim.c:1471+
+Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)+
+0xf82af8 : 0x21b50c (0x5d4438 0xf82b2c 0x223974 0x0)+
snip
+Backtrace continues...+
+Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):+
com.apple.filesystems.afpfs(9.7)@0x80f60000->0x80fb6fff
com.apple.nke.asp_tcp(5.0)@0x102b000->0x1038fff
+BSD process name corresponding to current thread: launchd+
*Sat Mar 12 09:26:09 2011*
+panic(cpu 1 caller 0x226b53): "thread_invoke: preemption_level -1, possible cause: unlocking an unlocked mutex or spinlock"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.9.26/osfmk/kern/sched_prim.c:1471+
+Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)+
+0x58eb2c88 : 0x21b50c (0x5d4438 0x58eb2cbc 0x223974 0x0)+
snip
+Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):+
com.apple.filesystems.afpfs(9.7)@0x80f8d000->0x80fe3fff
com.apple.nke.asp_tcp(5.0)@0x59a9f000->0x59aacfff
+BSD process name corresponding to current thread: diskimages-helpe+
*Sat Mar 12 10:10:56 2011*
+panic(cpu 1 caller 0x226b53): "thread_invoke: preemption_level -1, possible cause: unlocking an unlocked mutex or spinlock"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.9.26/osfmk/kern/sched_prim.c:1471+
+Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)+
+0xf1ab78 : 0x21b50c (0x5d4438 0xf1abac 0x223974 0x0)+
snip
+Backtrace continues...+
+Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):+
com.apple.filesystems.afpfs(9.7)@0x80d9b000->0x80df1fff
com.apple.nke.asp_tcp(5.0)@0x59a1b000->0x59a28fff
+BSD process name corresponding to current thread: diskimages-helpe+
+Mac OS version:+
10J567
+Kernel version:+
+Darwin Kernel Version 10.6.0: Wed Nov 10 18:13:17 PST 2010; root:xnu-1504.9.26~3/RELEASE_I386+
+System model name: MacBookPro5,1 (Mac-F42D86C8)+
+System uptime in nanoseconds: 2564482914622+
+unloaded kexts:+
+com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43xx 423.91.27 (addr 0xee1000, size 0x1900544) - last unloaded 110467139589+
+loaded kexts:+
+com.cisco.nke.ipsec 2.0.1+
+com.apple.filesystems.afpfs 9.7 - last loaded 903119162603+
+com.apple.nke.asp_tcp 5.0+
+com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.3d0+
+com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver 1.2.0+
+com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver 1.9.9f12+
+com.apple.driver.AGPM 100.12.19+
+com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 1.9.9f12+
+com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.13+
+com.apple.driver.ACPISMCPlatformPlugin 4.5.0d5+
+com.apple.filesystems.autofs 2.1.0+
+com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPenrynProfile 17+
+com.apple.kext.AppleSMCLMU 1.5.0d3+
+com.apple.DontSteal_Mac_OSX 7.0.0+
+com.apple.iokit.CHUDUtils 201+
+com.apple.iokit.CHUDProf 214+
+com.apple.driver.AudioIPCDriver 1.1.6+
+com.apple.driver.AppleGraphicsControl 2.8.68+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.4.5+
+com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.0.17+
+com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.4.12+
+com.apple.GeForce 6.2.6+
+com.apple.driver.SMCMotionSensor 3.0.0d4+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCButtons 200.3.2+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard 200.3.2+
+com.apple.driver.AppleIRController 303.8+
+com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 2.6.5+
+com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 1.6.3+
+com.apple.BootCache 31+
+com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1+
+com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43224 426.36.1+
+com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 4.7.1+
+com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 2.1.5+
+com.apple.nvenet 2.0.15+
+com.apple.driver.AppleSmartBatteryManager 160.0.0+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 4.1.7+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 4.1.7+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUSBOHCI 4.1.5+
+com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.4.0+
+com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.3.1+
+com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.5+
+com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.3.5+
+com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.6+
+com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.3.5+
+com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.4+
+com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 105.13.0+
+com.apple.security.sandbox 1+
+com.apple.security.quarantine 0+
+com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 2.1.11+
+com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 105.13.0+
+com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController 1.0.8d0+
+com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI 1.0.8d0+
+com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 1.9.9f12+
+com.apple.driver.AppleProfileReadCounterAction 17+
+com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 4.5.0d5+
+com.apple.driver.AppleProfileTimestampAction 10+
+com.apple.driver.AppleProfileThreadInfoAction 14+
+com.apple.driver.AppleProfileRegisterStateAction 10+
+com.apple.driver.AppleProfileKEventAction 10+
+com.apple.driver.AppleProfileCallstackAction 20+
+com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 2.0.3+
+com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 74.2+
+com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 2.3.8f7+
+com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 10.0.3+
+com.apple.iokit.CHUDKernLib 207+
+com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.8.0fc1+
+com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.3+
+com.apple.iokit.AppleProfileFamily 41+
+com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 1.9.9f12+
+com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 1.9.9f12+
+com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal 6.2.6+
+com.apple.NVDAResman 6.2.6+
+com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.2+
+com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.2+
+com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.1.0d3+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMultitouch 206.6+
+com.apple.driver.BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.3.8f7+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.3.8f7+
+com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 2.3.8f7+
+com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 4.1.5+
+com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 2.6.5+
+com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.6+
+com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.6+
+com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.6+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 4.1.5+
+com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 3.9.0+
+com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI 1.2.5+
+com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 2.6.5+
+com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 402.1+
+com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 312+
+com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 4.2.6+
+com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.0.4+
+com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 1.9+
+com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 4.1.5+
+com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 4.1.7+
+com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.4.0+
+com.apple.driver.NVSMU 2.2.7+
+com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.6.5+
+com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1+
+com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1+
+com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 6+
+com.apple.driver.DiskImages 289+
+com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.6.2+
+com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.3.5+
+com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.6+
+com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.3.0+

Problem with Time Machine Backup or Maybe Not Time Machine

The problem manifests after a Time Machine backup.
I have an iMac 24-inch, Early 2008. iMac 8,1
Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM.
Last week I purchased two 4-Terabyte G-technology G-Drives. Each drive is equip with FireWire 800 and USB 3.0/2.0. In general use they seem to work fine on the iMac.
I designated one drive as a Time Machine Volume. This is where the problem happens.
Time Machine will do the initial backup just fine. Then it runs once per hour with no problem. Intermittently however, Time Machine will fail and report :
“Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “hard disk name”.
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.”
Interestingly enough if I try to open a folder on the Time Machine volume using the Finder I get:
“The operation can’t be completed. An unexpected error occurred (error code -50).
If I try to eject the volume I get the irksome “Cannot eject volume because it’s currently in use by one or more programs.”
To resolve this I’ve tried everything, from the banal verifying permissions, to swapping the two G-Drives around, swapping out all the cables, etc.. When the error occurs I go into the shell and check with lsof and always find no software apparently holding or using that volume.
Very frustrating
I can force eject the volume, then remount the volume and things are back to normal. Same with restarting.
This happened under OS X Mountain Lion and is now happening under a clean install of Mavericks.
I thought that even though I don’t see any MDS related processes using the drive, it might be spotlight, so I told spotlight not to index the volume. Problem still happens.
I’ve found that one person had almost this exact same problem at:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4756742
His solution turned out to be replacing the G-Drive with another brand new G-Drive.
Unfortunately, I cannot return the drives to the Apple store because the boxes were tossed out. I also don’t relish trying to explain that the drives work just fine until some glitch that occurs either just before or just after a Time Machine backup.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

You can also contact G-Drive while the drives are under warranty (one year I believe).
I have the same problem using Time Machine with the 2T G-Drive and my MacBook Pro. G-Tech emailed me a Firmware Update Utility app and, when that didn't solve the error message problem, they sent me a replacement drive and new cables, twice. The problem persisted; I get one or two backups each day and then the error message. I also can't copy anything to the drive and have to force eject it, so G-Tech suggested I see how well it worked with the USB cable.
Time Machine works flawlessly with the USB cable and the G-Drive, so G-Tech suggested it is a problem with my Firewire 800 port. I worked with Apple Care over the phone, doing all the tests suggested in Eric's post - testing with Disk Utility, Time Machines interface with my User Accounts, the Operating System, then resetting Time Machine, etc. and then I took it to the Genius Bar so they could run the tests themselves. All looked like it should be fine (but they were using a 1T G-Drive and all testing was done within 30 minutes)...when I got home, after two good backups, I got the error message again.
Apple Care finally suggested I make a Genius Bar appointment and sit at the store working with my MacBook, the G-Drive and Time Machine running until I got the error message, to prove the only thing left that could possibly be the cause of the problem, is the port. I did this last Wednesday.
It is 9 days later and I got my computer back this afternoon...the logic board was replaced because the Firewire 800 port is attached to it...I got my first Time Machine back up at 5:34pm...and the error message again at 7:34pm.
The only solution, it seems, is to use the USB cable instead of Firewire. USB and Thunderbolt seem to be the direction Apple is taking, which is why so many people have been posting about this problem, here and elsewhere, with no real solutions from Apple. See this article: http://www.infoworld.com/t/mac-laptop/how-cope-the-end-of-firewire-205957
I hope the USB works for you too.

Force migration assistant to recognize time machine backup

I was trying to reformat Bootcamp partition and it reformated an attached external hard drive with my Time Machine backup on it and my internal hard drive that I boot from. I have professionally gotten the Time Machine backup recovered but it is not recognize by Migration Assistant or Time Machine so that it will restore my whole computer or at least transfer my account folder back to my reinstalled internal hard drive. I have 20 years of stuff locked in that Time machine backup and really need it back.

ahlquist wrote:
There are a lot of extra named files broken out in addition to the main folders (which look the same) that have 0-k in them and it looks like they were "links" or something like that.
Yup. Those are (or were) "hard links" (sort of like extra-fancy aliases) that are the key to how Time Machine can back up only changes, but still have every backup be, in effect, a full one. See How Time Machine works its Magic if you're interested in an overview of the details.
I'm very surprised you could see those via the Browse option.
You might try repairing the drive, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. I doubt it will help, but it's worth a shot.
I don't know if deleting the broken links will help or not.
is it safe to assume the links are messed up and I will have to recover the files manually?
It sure sounds like it.
If so, I'd put two Finder windows side-by-side; your current system and the most recent recovered backup, in List view, so you can see the contents more easily.
Start with /Users/<your home folder> unless you know you'd put stuff elsewhere.
Compare the two, and copy what's different/missing from the backups to your system. In some cases, you'll have to delete the (probably empty) folders on your system first. Note that you can't delete the "default" folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc.), so you'll have to copy the contents instead. This will be quite tedious, I'm afraid.
Then, if you can tell that things are missing, look in the previous backup for them. You might have to go back several backups for some, and may not find all the missing items anywhere.
I am most interested in documents, pictures, movies, mail and quicken files.
Assuming you hadn't moved them, docs will be in your Documents folder, iPhoto in your Pictures folder, Movies in your movies folder. Be especially careful with your iPhoto Library. Copy it all at once; it's like a database, and can't be copied in pieces.
For Mail and some other common things, see #28 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
I don't use Quicken, and don't know where it puts things. For that or other apps whose data you can't find, either check with the maker, or start the app. See if it shows a default location; if not, create a bit of data, then go hunting for a file/folder with a name similar to the app and/or with a current creation or modified date. They'll probably be somewhere in your Documents folder, your /Library folder, or your /Library/Application Support folder.
When this is done, you'll have learned a whole lot about how OSX organizes things.
Keep us posted.

Problem with Time Machine backup

Hi all,
i've been really excited about Lion and managed to get it and install it in under 50 minutes!
It works great, even with my Office:Mac software, antivirus software and so on, fantastic considering other people have had issues.
The one issue I seem to have is Lion working with its own application! Namely Time Machine!
I have a 3Tb Western Digital My Book Live NAS which I bought a few weeks ago. I only use it for backing up my Macbook Pro and my Wifes Macbook and its been faultless with Time Machine, however when I try and continue running this with Lion I get an error saying;
The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features
From what I can find on the web this seems to be something to do with the NAS as apposed to Time Machine however I would have thought this would have been addressed before people like myself had the problem - After all i'm sure everyone will agree, back-ups are extremely important!
If anyone has any suggestions how I can fix this I would be greatful
Matt

HI all,
wow, thanks for all the fast replies, at least it seems i'm not the only one having these issues.
I contacted apple support about this and there suggestion was to connect the disc up to my laptop and run diagnostics on it, however as its a NAS I only have an ethernet connection so that makes it difficult to connect directly. As it is I also logged a call with Western Digital and they have come back to me with a similar comment that Alex Lui has made in this discussion, namely that it is going to be fixed but not until August time.
I've managed to sort out my back-ups all be it using Western Digitals WD Anywhere Backup software which does make me feel a little bit safer (even though its having to back up everything and says that will take approx 34 hours!)
I'd have hoped Apple would have seen this coming, especially as I would guess its not only Western Digital drives that have this incompatability, however I suppose they were up to their eyebrows with other stuff they had to sort out before they could release Lion.

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 500GB Disconnects Unexpectedly during Time Machine backups

I have a 20" 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Early 2008) iMac with 4GB Ram. A few days ago I finally took the time to upgrade from Snow Leopard to Mavericks. I have 3 Seagate external drives connected to the iMac (2 connected directly and one through a powered hub - all via USB). I use one of the external drives, a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex named TARDIS for my Time Machine backups. This has been running fine for quite a while. After the upgrade to Mavericks I started seeing it disconnect unexpectedly. There were no power fluctuations, the cord was not bumped, and this had never happened prior to the upgrade.
I searched these boards and found several people having issues with drives disconnecting after upgrading and followed suggestions regarding resetting the pram which I did to no effect, a suggestion to delete the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist preferences file which I did, also to no effect. Finally, knowing that I didn't have anything irreplaceable on the existing Time Machine backups, I re-formatted the drive - this also had no effect. Through this process I discovereed that the disconnects were always happening while Time Machine was trying to run a backup. It would get to about 20 megabytes backed up and then just sit there until it gave me the drive was improperly disconnected message.
I was getting really frustrated at this point. I read something somewhere about issues with the main drive causing errors with Time Machine (not sure the details at this point) and so I did a Verify Disk on my internal system drive. It did find some issues so I followed the instructions to repair them which worked fine. I also ran the verify on the Time Machine drive which did not discover any issues.
I reformatted the drive again, giving it a different name (Backup). I set up Time Machine again to backup to the newly named drive. It was backing up properly. I thought I had finally gotten it into a working state. I thought maybe there was a trace of the old drive name somewhere that was causing the issue. The backup finished successfully. All was good. Until the next time Time Machine started to run when it again stalled before disconnecting.
I reformatted the drive one more time, giving it yet another new name (Delorean) and have not set up Time Machine. If I don't run Time Machine, the drive does not suffer issues with disconnecting. I have tried copying a large file to the drive to see if some I/O would trigger a disconnect and I had no problems. I plan to run a few more tests like this but so far it has been connected for more than 24 hours and has not disconnected itself. This to me suggests it is something to do with Time Machine running under Mavericks. I don't have another Mac that I can try running Time Machine on to verify that this is an issue caused by Mavericks but that seems to be the case.
Any ideas?

its a dying SATA bridge card, extremely common issue.
read all about it here:
Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD
I really wish people would learn about the A #1 issue that affects external HD, its a 50 cent part that makes it seem their ext. HD has failed / failing.
Thousands of people every day experience what at first seems that their external USB or Thunderbolt HD, either 2.5" portable or 3.5" desktop model is dying, is dead, or all hope is lost for it. Good news is that you have roughly a greater than 50-60% chance that your external hard drive is perfectly fine!
The great news at the end of the tunnel of an apparently failed or failing external hard drive.
When checked on another computer, and with no need for spending money on data extraction expertise or software, the very likely case is that your external USB or thunderbolt HD is in fact fine, and merely the card interface, or SATA bridge card has failed or is failing. Keeping a HD dock around handy, or cheaper still a $20 hard drive enclosure or a SATA to USB connector can be a real life saver in getting your drive back to use, when the drive itself is fine, and merely its interface card has gone bad.
The SATA bridge card inside a USB external HD has a very high failure rate in general
Typical SATA bridge cards as seen inside a 3.5" external HD with power input (#1), and 2.5" SATA cards (#3, #4, #5)
What are the realistic odds your HD is perfectly fine?
There are no hard facts whatsoever, especially since so many people discard their assumed “dead/faulty” hard drives, but a good educated conclusion from years of examining and seeing this issue is that for hard drives made since 2010, and not dropped or generally abused, is that a minimum of 50% conservatively are perfectly fine! I personally estimate however that it likely approaches 60%+.
Considering how many external hard drives ‘fail’ (rather the SATA bridge more than half the time) each day, that is a very high number of perfectly fine HD that are tossed!
This is especially common with 3.5” desktop HD that are connected 24/7 with power and see a lot of data transfer. People wrongly conclude that “X” mfg. just made a defective drive, when in fact their 3.5” drives inside the plastic enclosure is 100% fine. I have personally seen well over 200 of these dead SATA cards and additionally seen 3 fail within a one hour span of doing a large data copies.
One of the very reason pros use bare HD as inserted into HD docks is not just the saving of space and the need for endless USB cables, but the elimination of the need for this high failure-rate part.
While the shapes and sizes vary somewhat on SATA bridge cards, they all serve the same purpose and have likewise failure rates
What exactly is the SATA bridge card in your external HD?
In the middle to late of 2009, most all external hard drives both in 2.5” and 3.5” reached the shelves in SATA III. These small SATA cards or "bridges" are used to translate between the hard drives’ interfaces and the enclosures' external ports (USB, Thunderbolt, Firewire). Additionally these small bridges not only transfer power but also of course the data. Unfortunately these SATA bridge cards have a very high failure rate as they are burdened with moving power (in 2.5" HD) and of course data.
Literally, these little unreliable and fragile cards are the power conduits and of course the nervous system for all external HD data transfer.
SATA card as found inside a typical USB external hard drive
The assumption that the hard drive is bad when its not!
Countless 1000s of good external hard drives are thrown away each year because the owner thought the HD was bad when it fact it was the SATA bridge card which had failed. This card is removed in a matter of mere second once an external USB HD is cracked open from its plastic casing to reveal the bare HD and the attached SATA card which attaches between the HD and the USB cable.
To complicate this problem, even many computer professionals do not know that there is a very easy solution to the “failing or dead HD” issue since the hard drive itself is very likely just fine. Its astonishing that so many highly educated computer repair persons are unaware of this high-failure part, but this is mostly due to the fact that they do not juggle 100s of hard drives and know that of the iceberg that is a “external hard drive failure”, the mostly unseen majority are not a HD failure at all, but a bridge card failure.
To add to this great misunderstanding is the fact that people assume that "likewise symptoms seen on an external HD are the same as seen on an internal HD, therefore also the external HD must be bad". This is a compositional fallacy of logic. Since internal HD do not have a SATA bridge interface, to conclude similar symptoms "indicate the same failure" is misplaced and incorrect.
This is all not to say that HD do not fail, they do indeed, and I have seen many 100s of dead and failing hard drives. Hard drives even under ideal conditions have a life expectancy of around 4-8 years due to ferromagnetic depolarization from entropy and the main reason being mechanical failure. But of the mountain of symptoms that are seen as “hard drive failures” in comments, posts, and hearsay, half or more of these are not a HD failure at all.
What makes up an external USB HD or Thunderbolt HD?
While modern external HD boxes vary in shape and size somewhat, they're the same inside on almost 100% of them.
Four parts essentially:
1. Your 2.5” or 3.5” hard drive.
2. The plastic or metal box it rests in.
3. The USB cable and also (in the case of the 3.5” external) the power cable and block.
4. The SATA bridge card.
Clear USB HD in its case, with green SATA card at top,...not shown is the USB cable
The USB cables are almost entirely unheard of today to fail, and the box enclosure cannot fail, leaving the good HD you have taken care of and the 50 cent part which juggles both power and data to and from the HD itself, that being the SATA card.
What drives will work for this go-around fix?
Almost any drive 2010 and later, all 3.5” HD mid-2010 and on, and almost all USB 2.5” external hard drives, including firewire, and thunderbolt enclosure encased conventional platter hard drives.
The rare exception is a slimline 7mm thick "slim" external HD in both Toshiba and WD in certain models where the SATA bridge has been incorporated into the HD to save money and production costs.
Much older drives 2009 and earlier will not work for this faulty part work around.

Can I select certain drives only for Time Machine backup?

I have several internal drives and several external drives connected to my MacPro desktop computer. If I backup everything in all of the drives using Time Machine, the capacity on my designated external drive for Time Machine backup will soon be filled. Is there any way to selectively backup via Time Machine from only designated drives, not all drives connected (internally or externally) to my computer? Is so, how can that be done? I assume that Time Machine will start deleting data when its capacity is exceeded. If that is so, and I remove the designated Time Machine drive at that point and replace it with a new drive, will the removed drive thereafter be able to be reinserted and the prior material read and transferred as needed? Is there any way to utilized Time Machine after I insert the replacement drive to only archive new material saved after the switch of drives?

Yes, mount the drive by opening a new Finder window and clicking on your base station's name in the left column that says 'Shared'. Then double click on the drive name to mount it on your desktop. From there, open Time Machine prefs and select that mounted drive as your backup disk. Time machine will then back up to it. Theoretically.
If you want that disk to automatically mount every time you login to your computer, go to Sys Prefs Panel and select 'Accounts'. Then click 'Startup Items'. From there, drag the mounted drive's icon from the desktop in to that startup items list. It will then auto-mount from there forward.
I have had many problems backing up this way with Time Machine. It will, 9 times out of 10, fail over a wireless backup with an Airport Extreme Gigabit base station and a 1TB Western Digital My Book. Nothing seems to fix, so I have given up. When TM is finally fixed - I will use it. Until then, it's junk software as far as I'm concerned.
But - best of luck. The instructions above are how it's 'supposed' to work..

External Hard Drive ejects during Time Machine Backup

I've read through all the troubleshooting pages that I thought had anything to do with this problem, but none of my error messages seemed to match. This is my first backup with Time Machine onto my external hard drive, and it never gets past about 60GB before deciding that the drive has improperly ejected itself and aborting the backup. The error message from my Time Machine Buddy is below:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Backup content size: 147.2 GB excluded items size: 5.1 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 170.49 GB requested (including padding), 930.54 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Copied 56.0 GB of 142.1 GB, 112101 of 886988 items
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/errors.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/http.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/socks4.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/socks5.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy, /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Aborting backup because indexing of file failed.
Other details:
My external drive is a WD 1TB drive. The partition for the Time Machine Backup is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), as is my Macintosh HD. The Partition Map Scheme on the external drive is GUID Partition Table.
I have tried reformatting the external drive for good measure, but this doesn't seem to solve any problems. I also tried searching for the file that the error message says NO Copying for (/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/g ems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/...) but I'm unable to find the files. I can get as far as /System/Library/Frameworks, but can find no folder in Frameworks titled Ruby.
Please help.

The Ruby folder is probably hidden. That is why you don't see it.
You may want to add System/Library/Frameworks to the exempted sync list until you can figure out which file is causing this. You can do this by opening Time Machine Preferences ( > System Preferences > Time Machine) and clicking on Options…
After that click the small + key and browse to the folder you want to exempt from the sync. In your case: Macintosh HD > System > Library > Frameworks
Next hit the exclude button with the Frameworks folder highlighted.
Try your backup again and see if it fails.

Can I manually recover files from a Time Machine backup?

I'm just about to perform a fresh install of OS X Lion. I plan to re-install the apps I need from scratch so only need my files backed up (iTunes/Aperture library, documents folder etc). At the moment I have time machine backing up to an external USB disk.
Do I need to copy my Music/Pictures/Documents folders to another USB disk before doing a fresh install of Lion or can I just copy/paste them from my time machine backup disk (would save a lot of time)? I don't want to do a time machine recovery, recover preferences or apps etc - just manually recover my data.
Thanks.

JBF80 wrote:
I want to copy all of my files, but not settings or applications. I'm happy to copy/paste the Documents, Pictures and Music directories from the TM disk.
Well, that is what I said ("You can customize what to transfer")

Microsoft Word for Mac Freezes During Time Machine Backup

Since upgrading to Lion, I have found that when Time Machine is performing a backup that word for Mac freezes. I have all software updates for both Mac and MS. Running on 17" MacBook Pro.
Any ideas?
This appears to be the same issue:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2403912?start=0&tstart=0
Thanks in advance.

The Time Machine backup data on the network device is corrupt. The first thing you should do, if that's your only backup, is to make another complete backup to a locally attached storage device. One backup is never enough to be safe. Network backups are less reliable than local ones.
After that, hold down the option key and select Verify Backups from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar (not the Dock icon.) This operation may take a long time. If the menu-bar icon (a clock that runs backwards) isn't showing, check Show Time Machine in menu bar in the preferences.
If you continue to get panics, erase the backup device. With an AirPort device, you do that from within the AirPort Utility application; see its built-in help for details. All backups will be lost, so don't do this until you've backed up to another device. After erasing, select the device again as a backup destination in the Time Machine preference pane. The first backup should be made over a wired connection, if possible.
If you still have problems after erasing the device, it should be replaced.

Can't force quit applications problem during Time Machine backups

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