Deep Traversal/Preparing Backup Solution

Hi! There's a fairly common bug where TM will get stuck on "Preparing Backup" because it ostensibly needs to re-index your entire computer to see what's changed, but will never back up. I have developed, through trial and error, a way to deal with this sort of problem with minimal hassle and (in my experience) no adverse effects. I want to share it with everyone.
If TM says "Preparing backup" and your hard disk's activity light is blinking/flashing/etc., LEAVE IT ALONE. It may take some time, but it's actually doing something.
If TM says "Preparing backup" but your hard disk's activity light is NOT blinking/flashing/etc. (i.e. staying on), then it will almost certainly never back up if left to its own devices. (No pun intended.) So:
1. Go to the Time Machine menu (activate it with System Preferences) and select "Stop Backup". It will now stop the backup forever instead of prepare it, but you've given TM some warning. Note that the System Preference panel and the menu will sometimes conflict; that is, the menu will say "Stopping Backup" and the SP will say "Preparing Backup," or vice versa. Ignore that, because I've also found that System Preferences may not close properly while TM is in an endless loop.
2. Disconnect/turn off your backup drive long enough for TM to realize that it's gone. The volume will disappear from the desktop, a "Device Removal" warning will be displayed (ignore), and the TM menu icon will change to an exclamation mark.
3. Reconnect the drive. TM will now Prepare, but only briefly, and then proceed to back up normally.
Also, try to keep the drive attached and on whenever your computer is on, although this might be difficult for laptop users. I hope this helps someone!

I ended up doing this as well. TM worked great for the first 2 weeks and then I started getting the dreaded "preparing..." that would go on for hours. I turned TM off but that didn't help, I couldn't unmount the firewire drive because OS X thinks it's being used, so I just unplugged the drive and plugged it back in. Backups work for about a day and half after doing that.
I just found out in another thread that there's a firmware update for my WD drive that will allow it to work with Leopard. I'm hoping that's the problem, I'll see tonight.

Similar Messages

  • The deep traversal woes - any solutions yet

    Maybe I should post this issue in the software forum, indeed I might. I was wondering if anyone has found a fix for the perpetual "preparing backup" issue? Before I return the TC, i want to make sure this can't be fixed by anything i can do.
    i have had this issue with both versions of the firmware and erasing my backup every three days isn't a big vote of confidence to this new system.
    cheers

    Have you, or anybody, learnt anything on the deep traversal yet? TC been working fine for a few days & now were having a fit of the deep transversals!!!

  • Initial backup disrupted, and now "Preparing backup" endlessly

    I just got a Time Capsule and my initial backup was interrupted by a dead battery on my laptop.
    Now, this AM, it seems to spin "Preparing backup" forever. Should I just wait?

    I had a similar problem and no amount of waiting (like over 24 hours) solved the problem. I initially thought that it was just taking a long time to complete a "deep traversal" because of a database inconsistency, but that was not the case. Fortunately, the solution was remarkably simple.
    Open time machine preference pane.
    Select the "Change disk" button.
    Select your time capsule or backup disk and click the "use for backup" button.
    Apparently this will cause a reindexing of the database. It will again say "preparing for backup", but if you don't get an error message in the first 3 minutes or so you should be OK.
    The next backup will probably still take hours, but after that you should be back to normal. For the first backup I would suggest that you turn off any automatic log off in the security preference pane, and also uncheck Put hard disk to sleep when possible in the energy saver preference pane. After the first "Deep traversal" backup you can go back to normal setting.
    This worked for me, I hope it helps you.
    Reid

  • Time Machine - Preparing backup - It's endless

    My C2D Mac Mini is hanging on Time Machine - Preparing Backup for the second time since "Upgrading" to 10.5.2
    I had to re-format my backup disk last time and start all the backups again.
    Here is an extract from the console log:
    29/04/2008 23:50:13 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Starting standard backup
    29/04/2008 23:50:13 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie Disk/Backups.backupdb
    29/04/2008 23:50:15 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    29/04/2008 23:50:15 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
    Does anyone recognise this? I'm a Mac novice so I don't understand what it all means. I hope I don't have to reformat and start again as I was converted to Mac from PC on the advice that "A Mac Works!"
    My backup drive is a 500GB Lacie Mini if that is of any relevance. Spotlight is told not to index the drive and also the Lacie drive is told not to back itself up.
    Can anyone help as it's driving me nuts!

    Are Lacie really that bad? I thought that the main reason they are mentioned in these forums is that Lacie are one of the only brands of external storage that apple actively promote through their own web stores so there a good chance that quite a few Mac users will buy one. Anyway I can't afford to buy another Hard Drive at the moment and the lacie works perfectly apart from Time Machine.
    The problem seems to be with Mac OS the more I delve into these forums and more importantly the 10.5.2. update which is where Time Machine appears to be providing users with a lot of troubles.
    The Apple support self service on the website is far from comprehensive as I guess they want you to purchase Apple Care for ongoing support after the 90 days initial period but come on apple give us a break and sort it out or provide a support email address for specific problems!

  • Time Machine "preparing backup" eternally upon wake from sleep

    at a bit of a loss here...
    iMac 24" (version which offered 7300GT as BTO option)
    10.5.5 with all updates applied
    LaCie 500 gig USB 2.0 drive directly attached.
    Up until about two months ago, Time machine functioned fined. Then for some reason, the following started to happen. (no known reason, no software update related etc, that I know of)
    scenario... Time Machine functions correctly EXCEPT when waking from sleep. If iMac wakes from sleep and attempts a backup immediately (e.g. more than one hour has passed), it gets stuck "preparing backup" forever. I've let it run overnight (actually as long as about 30 hours), it never stops. Finder and other programs become extremely non-responsive, machine is almost unusable. Literally, the only way out is to manually shut down external drive, with attendant warnings/errors.
    What I've done:
    1) deleted the time machine .plist file
    2) erased, repartioned (as a single partition) external drive
    3) started brand new time machine backup (takes about three hours)
    At this point, time machine will backup up fine... I can force a successful backup, if I leave the machine running, at one hour it does a successful backup.
    BUT, as soon as it goes to sleep, time machine is hosed.
    The only workable method for using time machine is to turn the external drive and time machine off when not using it, and turn the whole shootin' match on to do what essentially becomes manual backups. These backup are fairly lengthy, as time machine also does lengthy "preparing backup", but they complete in about 30 minutes to one hour.
    Given that time machine doesn't give mountable/cloneable backup, I'm probably going to go back to Carbon Copy Cloner. Still, I like the ease/regularity of Time Machine, and would use it if it works.
    Any ideas?
    thanks

    It could be a number of things. There are lots of things that Time Machine does in order to "manage" backups -- apart from just copying data to the backup drive.
    It has to manage the transition of hourly backups into daily backups and must also transition daily backups into weekly backups. Each time it does this it has to move a lot of data around. It also has to maintain indexes of everything so you can quickly find backups should you want to perform a restore.
    I've also noticed that there are circumstances that can cause TM to question whether it can trust it's existing backup database... I've caught Time Machine saying that it needs to do a "deep traversal" of the backup (basically it wants to check and see what it really has) and this can take a very long time.
    Still... 30 hours is an extremely long amount of time. I'm almost wondering if there's a problem with either your USB bus or your drive when they wake up such that you may be getting a huge number of retries on something that should have happened quickly.
    I'd suggest you start the "Console" utility, select "All Messages" at the left, and then watch the messages being written to your log file. Not only does Time Machine log all of it's progress messages to the system.log (in more detail than you'd see in the Time Machine UI), but so do lots of other system processes. If you're getting USB bus problems the error messages would likely show up in the same log. I'm especially suspicious about non-TM related causes since you said you've already blown away your TM backups & preferences and started from scratch and you're still getting the problem.
    Try re-creating your problem with the Console log messages being displayed and see if you can't see something in the log that would let you get a little closer to the root cause.
    Regards,
    Tim

  • Time machine keeps preparing backup..

    Hi, my Time Machine linked to a 1TB Time Capsule keeps preparing the backup but no backups are done.
    I had a look at the 'backupd' in the console messages and here is what i have:
    26/07/2009 22:11:13 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[214] Disk image /Volumes/Data/The MacBook_0023df8ceb34.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of The MacBook
    26/07/2009 22:11:48 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[214] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    26/07/2009 22:11:51 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[214] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
    Anyone could translate this for me?
    Thanks,
    S.

    Hi thezedhongkong,
    My understanding of the "node requires deep traversal" is one of a few things:
    The "backupd" process has lost track of what's contained in your backup and how much has changed since the last backup. As a result it needs to verify the integrity of the sparsebundle image, unpack it, check each file against what's on your machine currently and then run the backup again.
    Every file has a "flag" that the backupd file is looking for when it scans the drive. If the flag is "on" then that means the file has changed since the last backup. If the flag is "off" then that means the file has not changed since the last backup.
    Flag On - Backup
    Flag Off - Don't backup
    It's why Apple recommends against backing up large database files. Because if one piece of information is changed the entire database file will need to be backed up every single time. Entourage and Aperture are common offenders of this issue, iPhoto is not because it's a package (a gloried zip archive).
    Based on how large the sparsebundle is, I've seen deep traversals take as little as 1 hour to as long as 8 hours (I had a 178GB image). Unfortunately, if you stop/cancel/quit the process it has to start over again each time. So you pretty much just need to let it sit and do its thing, even if that means overnight.
    Now my understanding of the entire process could be totally wrong, so someone please correct me if that's the case.

  • TC & MacBook - endless "Preparing backup"

    Hi,
    Environment: Mac Mini, MacBook and Time Capsule.
    Since begin april my MacBook's Time Machine only shows "Preparing Backup...".
    My latest backup now is 9 april 2009, and the oldest 23 March 2008.
    I already left it running for over three days...
    I also did a verify using Disk Utility...
    TMBuddy gives the following.
    <<
    Starting standard backup
    Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Roger%[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
    Backup destination mounted at path: /Volumes/Time Capsule
    Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/BookSels_001b63b78713.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of BookSels
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of BookSels/Backups.backupdb
    Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
    Any ideas?
    Roger
    PS: my Mac Mini's backup is running without any problem.

    Roger Sels wrote:
    The Permissions scan did something, and the Verify gives me a "First Aid Failed - Filesystem verify or repair failed.".
    So, I think I need to go for the Install Disc.
    Any risks here in loosing my data? If yes, I'll schedule it for this weekend...
    Probably not, at least not anything that isn't already damaged.
    If you aren't having any other problems, and since TM's "deep traversal" never seems to finish, it may be something wrong with one file or folder, causing TM to get lost trying to examine it.
    The procedure is, insert your Leopard Install disc, then hold down the "C" key while starting up. This will take a few moments. Select your language when prompted, then on the next screen select Utilities from the menubar, then +Disk Utility.+
    Use that to +Repair Disk+ on your internal drive. If it repairs some things but not others, try again until it either fixes everything or keeps reporting only the same error(s). Then reboot normally.
    If there are errors that DU can't fix, it's possible a more heavy-duty specialized 3rd-party app can. Many experienced folks say DIskWarrior is the best (about $100 in the U.S.), but there are others, some less expensive. I don't think there are any that are downloadable, and I have no idea what's readily available in Europe, though. In the U.S., I'd say try Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com.
    But if DU can't fix it, it's also possible it's a failing drive .

  • "Preparing Backup..."

    Time machine says "Preparing Backup..." forever. Doesn't back up. Since three days ago. Using MBP only, OWC 750GB FW 800 hard drive. The thing is thinking but not backing up.

    Here is what I have. Haven't been able to backup since June 25. All it does is say "Preparing backup." I did install OS X on the backup drive to use as a startup volume in case of emergency, but not sure why that would make a difference.
    7/6/08 8:26:01 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[125] Waiting for index to be ready (915 > 0)
    7/6/08 8:26:31 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[125] Waiting for index to be ready (915 > 0)
    7/6/08 8:27:01 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[125] Waiting for index to be ready (915 > 0)
    7/6/08 8:27:31 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[125] Waiting for index to be ready (915 > 0)
    7/6/08 8:28:01 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[125] Waiting for index to be ready (915 > 0)
    7/6/08 2:51:39 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Starting standard backup
    7/6/08 2:51:49 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Backing up to: /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive/Backups.backupdb
    7/6/08 2:51:50 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Mac Attack
    7/6/08 2:51:50 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
    7/6/08 3:08:02 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.04 GB requested (including padding), 427.33 GB available
    7/6/08 3:18:47 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Error: (-36) copying /Users/kim/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Office.prefs.plist to /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive/Backups.backupdb/Mark Rougeux’s iMac/2008-06-28-080130.inProgress/E44DB91E-D2F2-4272-BED5-1B6B4AA1E376/Mac Attack/Users/kim/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
    7/6/08 3:18:47 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Stopping backup.
    7/6/08 3:18:47 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Error: (-8062) copying /Users/kim/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Office.prefs.plist to /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive/Backups.backupdb/Mark Rougeux’s iMac/2008-06-28-080130.inProgress/E44DB91E-D2F2-4272-BED5-1B6B4AA1E376/Mac Attack/Users/kim/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
    7/6/08 3:18:48 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Copied 40323 files (710.7 MB) from volume Mac Attack.
    7/6/08 3:18:48 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Copy stage failed with error:11
    7/6/08 3:18:54 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Backup failed with error: 11
    7/6/08 3:18:54 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] 11 days since last backup
    7/6/08 5:33:25 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Starting standard backup
    7/6/08 5:33:29 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Volume at path /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer. (Cookies do not match)
    7/6/08 5:33:34 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[228] Backup failed with error: 18
    7/6/08 6:07:51 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[404] Starting standard backup
    7/6/08 6:07:55 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[404] Volume at path /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer. (Cookies do not match)
    7/6/08 6:08:00 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[404] Backup failed with error: 18
    7/6/08 6:16:01 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[436] Starting standard backup
    7/6/08 6:16:10 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[436] Volume at path /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer. (Cookies do not match)
    7/6/08 6:16:15 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[436] Backup failed with error: 18
    7/6/08 8:36:00 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[543] Starting standard backup
    7/6/08 8:36:04 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[543] Volume at path /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer. (Cookies do not match)
    7/6/08 8:36:09 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[543] Backup failed with error: 18
    7/6/08 8:56:31 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[593] Starting standard backup
    7/6/08 9:14:23 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[593] Volume at path /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer. (Cookies do not match)
    7/6/08 9:14:28 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[593] Backup failed with error: 18
    7/6/08 9:17:41 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[630] Starting standard backup
    7/6/08 9:17:41 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[630] Backing up to: /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive/Backups.backupdb
    7/6/08 9:17:42 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[630] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Mac Attack
    7/6/08 9:17:42 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[630] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|

  • Time Capsule gets stuck at "Preparing Backup..." every time.

    This has been happening for about two months now. I was sure 10.5.5 would fix the problem, but it still occurs. My Time Capsule seems to not work any more - it gets stuck "Preparing Backup..." permanently. I have left it running for two days straight and it makes no visible progress. Any ideas? I don't even know where to start.

    Jeffrey,
    Consider these factors regarding an extended period of "Preparing...":
    *Recent Crash or Other Major System Event* (Deep Traversal)
    The reasons for this process are described in an article by George Schreyer. “During the preparation step it checks the FSEvents log for consistency. If it determines that something isn't quite right it has to rescan the whole disk. This can take quite awhile. A full rescan is always triggered by a crash, an unplanned shut down event or by booting from some other bootable disk between backups…. After a crash, Time Machine must scan the whole disk to determine what it has to do because it cannot trust the information that it left behind. Connected via an Ethernet connection, this phase would typically take 20 minutes on an older PowerBook. Being connected wirelessly stretches this phase out to over 3 hours.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]
    According to the following KB article it can sometimes take a very long time if Time Machine begins this “deep traversal” and has to compare data inventories. This may apply to your situation, particularly if many Gigs of data are involved. (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)
    *Software Updates*
    Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can created major changes in the structure of your directories. Time Machine will backup every file that has changed since the installation.
    *Anti-Virus Software*
    Running anti-virus software can interfere with the backup process. Either disable it altogether, or try the suggestion outlined here, “If you use third-party anti-virus scanning software and have issues, make sure your Time Machine back up folder (Backups.backupdb on the Time Machine disk) is excluded from virus scanning.” (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)
    *Stalled .inProgress Files:*
    It may be that the previous backup attempt was ungracefully interrupted leaving remains that Time Machine can’t deal with.
    Open your Time Machine drive.
    Open the folder labeled “Backups,backupdb”.
    Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
    Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.
    (For Time Capsule Users)
    Select the TC in the SideBar of the Finder window.
    Click "Connect as...". Enter your TCs password.
    Double click the blue folder that appears in the finder window. The sparsebundle should now be visible.
    Double click the sparsebundle and then click “Skip” in the checksum message.
    Once “Backup of (Users Computer)” mounts in the Sidebar, click on it and open the “.backupdb” folder. Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
    Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.
    Unmount the sparsebundle, then unmount the TC, and try backing up again.
    Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped.

  • TM froze while deep traversing the node?

    After several successful backups to time capsule, time machine writes
    Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: OSX
    Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
    in log and them seems to be sitting forever in "preparing backup" state.
    I've started backup at 8pm, now it's nearly 8am, and still no noticeable changes.
    I've tried to connect to TC via ethernet, but neither AirPort Utility, nor TM finds it in this case (I have all the global Bonjour announcing checkboxes set).
    The last problem, is that running TM backup makes OSX quite unresponsive. Programs like iPulse (generic system monitoring) and Quicksilver just float without updating their GUI. So it's hard to continue working, while TM is re-indexing all the HDD.

    Farcaller,
    Welcome to the Apple discussions!
    *_Time Machine May Report "Preparing..." For a Long Time_*
    Consider these factors regarding an extended period of "Preparing...". Consider each topic separately and do not attempt to act on all of them at once.
    *Recent Crash or Other Major System Event* (Deep Traversal)
    The reasons for this process are described in an article by George Schreyer. “During the preparation step it checks the FSEvents log for consistency. If it determines that something isn't quite right it has to rescan the whole disk. This can take quite awhile. A full rescan is always triggered by a crash, an unplanned shut down event or by booting from some other bootable disk between backups…. After a crash, Time Machine must scan the whole disk to determine what it has to do because it cannot trust the information that it left behind. Connected via an Ethernet connection, this phase would typically take 20 minutes on an older PowerBook. Being connected wirelessly stretches this phase out to over 3 hours.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]
    According to the following KB article it can sometimes take a very long time if Time Machine begins this “deep traversal” and has to compare data inventories. This may apply to your situation, particularly if many Gigs of data are involved. (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)
    *Anti-Virus Software*
    Running anti-virus software can interfere with the backup process. Either disable it altogether, or try the suggestion outlined here, “If you use third-party anti-virus scanning software and have issues, make sure your Time Machine back up folder (Backups.backupdb on the Time Machine disk) is excluded from virus scanning.” (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)
    *Software Updates* #
    Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can create major changes in the structure of your Macs directories. Time Machine will backup every file that has changed since the installation.
    If you take a look at the Console logs Time Machine may be reporting that your backups need "deep traversal". That's fine. Time Machine knows what is wrong and how to fix it. If you have a great deal of data, it may take quite awhile.
    After an OS update (like 10.5.5) Time Machine realizes the system no longer matches what it looked like during the previous backup. So it has determined that it's earlier catalogue of what-should-be-where is 'untrustable'. So it is going to go item-by-item comparing the before and after of your system. If you have just performed an OS Update then Time Machine knows what it's doing - let it do it!
    *Spotlight Keeps Indexing Backup Drive* #
    It may be that Time Machine can’t proceed or complete a backup due to a Spotlight indexing error. During this period, take a look at the Spotlight icon in the upper right corner of your screen. Is there a tiny dot pulsating in the center of the spyglass? Click on the icon. Is there a progress bar displayed? Generally Spotlight indexing is a good thing. But at time it may hang and never progress, preventing backups from taking place.
    Go to System Prefs --> Spotlight --> Privacy Tab.
    Drag your Time Machine disk into the window. It should now be among the items to exclude from indexing.
    Now quit System Prefs.
    Reopen System Prefs and remove ("-") the Time Machine disk from the window.
    This should clear out Spotlights cache. Naturally, Spotlight should begin indexing again (maybe even for a few hours depending on how much data there is), but it should eventually stop.
    *Reboot Time Capsule* #
    Stop the backup from the Time Machine menu.
    When the Time Machine icon stops spinning, unplug the TC from the wall outlet.
    Wait 10-15 seconds.
    Re-plug it in again.
    After it has restarted (30-60 seconds), attempt another backup.
    Time Machine will report “Preparing…” again, but it shouldn’t be lasting more than a couple of hours.
    Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped in your case.
    Cheers!

  • Which backup solution to use?

    I didn't see anything here, but only looked a few screens deep, so sorry if this comes up a lot.
    I just found out from reading here that I was running BOTH the Windows backup AND the Lenovo R&R backup. Nowhere does the computer warn about this (something that should be fixed, IMO).
    I deleted all the R&R backups and recovered almost 60GB of disk space.
    Can someone provide a link or an explaination as to which service is "better", or at least a comparison. From reading, it seems it is recommended to only run one of them. I saw one post which said R&R was better at recovering, etc, but I see other posts which says it just fails (for that person)...
    I have a 142gb drive (reported size for C  Thinkpad T61p purchased in Dec 2007, running Vista Ultimate with SP1
    Thanks.

    977220 wrote:
    Hi ,
    We have Oracle 8i DB running on Windows with Backup using CA client.
    We are planning to migrate all backups from CA to Netbackup but since Oracle 8i is no longer supported by Netbackup so we need to use either RMAN or User managed backup .
    Can somebody guide,which backup solution to use on Oracle 8i (we will migrate DB to MS-SQL) so this will be temporary solution for DB backup.
    1) shutdown IMMEDIATE
    2) OS file copy all the files
    3) STARTUP

  • I want a better backup solution.

    My current network consists of a 1Tb Time Capsule backing up a 500Gb HDD in an iMac and a 500Gb HDD backing up a MacBook Pro via the wireless network.
    I have a 3Tb HDD attached externally to the iMac that I use for large file storage and remote access with my MacBook Pro. It's been a few years since I made the purchase and began using the drive in this way, and I feel like it's time to prepare for the failure of the drive. I've been present for many drive failures of friends and family. I don't take risks of losing my data.
    I was curious of the backup solutions you all must have, drive brands that you trust (I'm a WD fan), and if you use RAID 1 or RAID 1 Mirroring.
    Thank you.

    I use a number of Lacie D2 Quadra drives + OWC Mercury Elite enclosures with WD Caviar Black SATA drives.   They have been 100% reliable for many years.   (I formerly used Seagate Barracuda drives, but gradually migrated to the Caviar Blacks).  In practice, I have 3x backups on separate drives.  The drives are only connected during backup operation, otherwise they are disconnected from my Macs, each other and power.  I keep one set offsite.
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  • My Time Capsule/Time Machine has been showing Preparing Backup for past 48 hours  continuously!

    My Time Capsule reported Full the other day.  I now have only 26.8MB of 497.96 GB available. Since then it seems to backing up continuously. The Time machine preferences window shows "Preparing Backup" andnothing else, and it has been doing so for at least past 48 hours.  Any ideas as to the problem?
    Stuartyboy

    Yes, the problem is the drive is full.
    If you have other files or TM back from other computers, TM on your computer having issues will not be able to delete enough to get sufficient space to backup.
    Read how to clean up and delete parts of backups.. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
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    Solution.
    1. Buy a new bigger TC.. cheaper (Than the original 500GB at least), faster and now the smallest is 2TB.
    2. Plug in a USB drive.. archive the TC.. then erase it and start a fresh set of backups.. April 1st great day to do it.
    3. Open up your old TC.. remove the 500GB drive and install a 2TB (if Gen1 a 3TB might even work). Google for how to do a hard disk upgrade.
    Problem.. old power supply could die the day after and then the total cost would approach 1. Better to backup, wipe the 500GB and sell it on ebay and buy a new TC with 2 or even 3TB (2TB is better value IMHO).
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  • Time Machine wont go past "Preparing Backup"

    For some reason today the time machine is stuck on "preparing backup" I've read some other posts and tried their solutions but noting yet. This is ridiculous. I have an important paper to write and I cant afford to lose it due to a computer crash and an unresponsive Time Machine. The computer itself has been acting up too much. This is off topic but does anyone notice if you have AIM for your computer if you put more than one finger on the trackpad it crashes the program. Also if you insert a long web address in microsoft word then hit enter it also crashes the program. Is it just mine or anyone else having these problems. But anyways I need to focus on Time Machine
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    Ok I just let it run for 10 to 15 minutes and it ended up backing up and now its fine. Problem solved!

  • USB drive randomly disconnects (and causes deep traversal in Time Machine)

    I have two external drives connected through a USB hub and they get sometimes randomly disconnected. Sometimes when I plug the drives in, only one appears on the desktop. Then I unplug them, plug them back in and just the other drive appears.
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    Thanks,
    Peter
    8/5/08 Aug 5, 7:20:33 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[27374] Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/monster reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|
    8/5/08 Aug 5, 7:24:31 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[27374] Starting pre-backup thinning: 203.69 GB requested (including padding), 43.57 GB available
    8/5/08 Aug 5, 7:24:31 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[27374] No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room

    The USB hub could have a problem (or not enough power); try connecting the drives directly to the Mac and see what happens. Is it a powered USB hub, and are the drives self-powered (i.e. each drive gets its own power from a wall socket/surge protector)?

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