Disk Error and Time Machine Backup

I have a 2011 Mac Book Pro which has been running sluggish recently especially with Final Cut Pro X. I have 8gb memory so couldn't fathom out why.  Yesterday Time Machine also wouldn't backup either automatically or manually. Today I ran Disk Utilities and it told me that I had a disk error which couldn't be rectified meaning that I would have to reformat my disk.  I have read Apple's documentation on reformatting and taken separate backups of important data. However I'm wondering after reformatting is it safe to restore from a TM backup or is it better to reinstall all my apps (and I have a lot installed).  Does the disk error get transferred across to the TM backup as well? 
Thanking you
Mitaka27

The startup drive is failing, or there is some other internal hardware fault.
Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.
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 an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair
Apple also recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.
*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

Similar Messages

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    My Time machine won't back up.  Recently updated to OS x 10.7.5.  Error message is as follows:  "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Scott’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use."  What is wrong and how do I fix it?  Thanks.

    Have you tried restarting the computer? Also, see Time Machine Error from this pages sidebar under More Like This.

  • Verify Disk failed for Time Machine backup disk

    Thread <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7930301&#7930301> discussed a similar issue, but it was closed without an answer so I'm opening a new one.
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    John Seal wrote:
    2009-06-22 15:20:43 -0400: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400:
    2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400: Disk Utility stopped verifying “Backup” because the following error was encountered:
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    At that point the whole system was extremely sluggish, and the access light on the backup disk was flashing steadily. The pmTool process seemed to be running away, but the system wasn't responsive enough for me to do much about it, so I held down the power button to shutdown.
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    So run it. If it fails to repair everything, run it again (and again) until it either repairs everything or can't repair any more. If it can't repair it, post back and we'll discuss options.
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  • HT1338 Error preparing Time Machine backup disc- size error usually not being multiples of 512, encryption

    Trying to encrypt Time Machine backup disc getting message  - Error preparing Time Machine backup disc- size error usually not being multiples of 512, encryption.

    I got the same problem.
    But I think it cannot be related to not being a multiple of 512.
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    MattLat wrote:
    Hello -
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    I remotely mounted the Time Machine backup volume onto another Mac and was looking around it in a Terminal window and discovered what appeared to be a funny problem. If I "cd" into some folders (but not all) and do a "ls -la" command, I get a lot of "No such file or directory" errors for all the subfolders, but all the files look fine. Yet if I go log onto the Mac that has the backup volume mounted as a local volume, these errors never appear for the exact same location. Even more weird is that if I do "ls -a" everything appears normal on both systems (no error messages anyway).
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    . .DS_Store D2
    .. Documents D3
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    280678 drwxr-xr-x 5 me staff 204 Jan 20 01:23 .
    282780 drwxr-xr-x 12 me staff 442 Jan 17 14:03 ..
    286678 -rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 21508 Jan 19 10:43 .DS_Store
    135 drwxrwxrwx 91 me staff 3944 Jan 7 02:53 Documents
    729750 drwx------ 104 me staff 7378 Jan 15 14:17 D2
    728506 drwx------ 19 me staff 850 Jan 14 09:19 D3
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    <Catalog B-Tree node = 12589 (sector 0x18837)>
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    type = file (alias, directory hard link)
    indirect folder = MyBackups:/.HFS+ Private Directory Data%000d/dir_135
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    flags = 0000000000100010
    . File has a thread record in the catalog.
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    reserved1 = 0 (first link ID)
    mac1:xxx me$ cd Documents
    mac1:xxx me$ ls -a | head
    .DS_Store
    .localized
    .parallels-vm-directory
    .promptCache
    ACPI
    ActivityMonitor2010-12-1710p32.txt
    ActivityMonitor2010-12-179pxx.txt
    mac1:Documents me$ ls -lai | head
    total 17720
    135 drwxrwxrwx 91 me staff 3944 Jan 7 02:53 .
    280678 drwxr-xr-x 5 me staff 204 Jan 20 01:23 ..
    144 -rw-------@ 1 me staff 39940 Jan 15 14:27 .DS_Store
    145 -rw-r--r-- 1 me staff 0 Oct 20 2008 .localized
    146 drwxr-xr-x 2 me staff 68 Feb 17 2009 .parallels-vm-directory
    147 -rwxr-xr-x 1 me staff 8 Mar 20 2010 .promptCache
    148 drwxr-xr-x 2 me staff 136 Aug 28 2009 ACPI
    151 -rw-r--r-- 1 me staff 6893 Dec 17 10:36 A.txt
    152 -rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 7717 Dec 17 10:54 A9.txt
    So you can see from the first few lines of the "ls -a" command, it shows some file/folders but you can't tell which yet. The next "ls -la" command shows which names are files and folders - that there are some folders (like ACPI) and some files (like A.txt and A9.txt) and all looks normal. And the "hfsdebug" info shows some details of what is really happening in the "Documents" folder, but more about that in a bit.
    And here are what a "ls -a" and "ls -al" look like for the same locations on the second Mac (mac2) where the Time Machine volume is remote mounted:
    mac2:xxx me$ pwd
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    mac2:xxx me$ ls -a
    . .DS_Store D2
    .. Documents D3
    mac2:xxx me$ ls -lai
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    280678 drwxr-xr-x 6 me staff 264 Jan 20 01:23 .
    282780 drwxr-xr-x 13 me staff 398 Jan 17 14:03 ..
    286678 -rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 21508 Jan 19 10:43 .DS_Store
    728505 drwxrwxrwx 116 me staff 3900 Jan 7 02:53 Documents
    729750 drwx------ 217 me staff 7334 Jan 15 14:17 D2
    728506 drwx------ 25 me staff 806 Jan 14 09:19 D3
    mac2:xxx me$ cd Documents
    mac2:Documents me$ ls -a | head
    .DS_Store
    .localized
    .parallels-vm-directory
    .promptCache
    ACPI
    ActivityMonitor2010-12-1710p32.txt
    ActivityMonitor2010-12-179pxx.txt
    mac2:Documents me$ ls -lai | head
    ls: .parallels-vm-directory: No such file or directory
    ls: ACPI: No such file or directory
    ... many more "ls: ddd: No such file or directory" error messages appear - there is a one-to-one
    correspondence between the "ddd" folders and the "no such file or directory" error messages
    total 17912
    728505 drwxrwxrwx 116 me staff 3900 Jan 7 02:53 .
    280678 drwxr-xr-x 6 me staff 264 Jan 20 01:23 ..
    144 -rw-------@ 1 me staff 39940 Jan 15 14:27 .DS_Store
    145 -rw-r--r-- 1 me staff 0 Oct 20 2008 .localized
    147 -rwxr-xr-x 1 me staff 8 Mar 20 2010 .promptCache
    151 -rw-r--r-- 1 me staff 6893 Dec 17 10:36 A.txt
    152 -rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 7717 Dec 17 10:54 A9.txt
    If you look very close a hint as to what is going on is obvious - the inode for the Documents folder is 152 on the local mounted case (the first set of code above for mac1), and it's 728505 in the remote mounted case for mac2. So it appears that these "hard links" to folders have an extra level of folder that is hidden from you and that AFP fails to take into account, and that is what the "hfsdebug" shows even better as you can clearly see the REAL location of the Documents folder is in something called "/.HFS+ Private Directory Data%000d/dir_135" that is not even visible to the shell. And if you look closely in the remote mac2 case, when I did the "cd Documents" I don't go into the inode 135, but into the inode 728505 (look close at the "." entry for the "ls -la" commands on both mac1 and mac2) which is the REAL problem, but have no idea how to get AFP to follow the extra level of indirection.
    Anyone have any ideas how to fix this so that "ls -l" commands don't generate these "no such file or folder" messages?
    I am guessing that the issue is really something to do with AFP (Apple File Protocol) mounted remote volumes. The TimeMachine example is something that I used as an example that anyone could verify the problem. The real problem for me has nothing to do with Time Machine, but has to do with some hard links to folders that I created on another file system totally separate from the Time Machine volume. They exhibit the same problem as these Time Machine created folders, so am pretty sure the problem has nothing to do with how I created hard links to folders which is not doable normally without writing a super simple little 10 line program using the link() system call - do a "man 2 link" if you are curious how it works.
    I'm well aware of the issues and the conditions when they can and can't be used and the potential hazards. I have an issue in which they are the best way to solve a problem. And after the problem was solved, is when I noticed this issue that appears to be a by-product of using them.
    Do not try these hard links to folders on your own without knowing what they're for and how to use them and not use them. They can cause real problems if not used correctly. So if you decide to try them out and you loose some files or your entire drive, don't say I didn't warn you first.
    Thanks ...
    -Bob

    The problem is Mac to Mac - the volume that I'm having the issue with is not related in any way to Time Machine or to TimeCapsule. The reference to TIme Machine is just to illustrate the problem exists outside of my own personal work with hard links to folders on HFS Extended volumes (case-sensitive in this particular case in case that matters).
    I'm not too excited about the idea of snooping AFP protocol to discover anything that might be learned there.
    The most significant clue that I've seen so far has to do with the inode numbers for the two folders shown in the Terminal window snippets in the original post. The local mounted case uses the inode=728505 of the problematic folder which is in turn linked to the hidden original inode of 135 via the super-secret /.HFS+... folder that you can't see unless using something like the "hfsdebug" program I mentioned.
    The remote mounted case uses the inode=728505 but does not make the additional jump to the inode=135 which is where lower level folders appear to be physically stored.
    Hence the behavior that is seen - the local mounted case is happy and shows what would be expected and the remote mounted case shows only files contained in the problem folder but not lower-level folders or their contents.
    From my little knowledge of how these inode entries really work, I think that they are some sort of linked list chain of values, so that you have to follow the entire chain to get at what you're looking for. If the chain is broken somewhere along the line or not followed correctly, things like this can happen. I think this is a case of things not being followed correctly, as if it were a broken chain problem then the local mounted case would have problems also.
    But the information for this link in the chain is there (from 728505 to the magic-135) but for some reason AFP doesn't make this extra jump.
    Yesterday I heard back from Apple tech support and they have confirmed this problem and say that it is a "implementation limitation" with the AFP client. I think it's a bug, but that will have to be up to Apple to decide now that it's been reported. I just finished reporting this as a bug via the Apple Bug Reporter web site -- it's bug id 8926401 if you want to keep track it.
    Thanks for the insights...
    -Bob

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    Hello, I currently have a macbook pro retina and have about 600 gig of content. I am tired of hauling around an external hard drive with him to hold it all.
    Who is him?? The MBPr.. interesting choice of pronoun if it is.
    Do you really need 600GB of content.. ??
    You can buy a 1TB 2.5" drive in a tiny holder now. In terms of the amount of lugging.. I doubt you will feel that much extra.
    I was thinking of getting a Time Capsule but wanted to know if it can serve as both an external hard drive for my content as well as the destination disk for a time machine back up. If not, can I attach an external hard drive to the time machine to use as the backup drive. Oh one more thing, will I only be able to see the content if I connect to the same home internet network or will I be able to access it with any internet connection regardless of where I am??
    We do not recommend the TC as an external hard disk to store your files. It has no.. repeat NO ability to back itself up.. it is a sealed unit without spare parts available.. If it dies.. apple will replace not recover. Say goodbye to all your files.. and frankly that are not that reliable.
    TM cannot backup a network drive.. and you cannot backup without using a 3rd party software and another USB disk or NAS.. so.. to cut the long story short.. buy the right box.. a NAS.. QNAP and Synology make real NAS, with fully integrated backup that can do TM backups.
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    A real NAS will be accessed by SFTP directly using dynamic dns or static public IP .. even better.. but the same limitation applies.. speed of the convoy is the speed of the slowest ship.
    A dropbox in the cloud is often a better way although accessing 600GB is still not easy.. and getting it up there.. harder still. But download speed is a lot better than upload.

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