How to repair backup disk with disk utility

My Time Capsule is suddenly telling me
"The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk."
It then goes on to say use Disk Utility to repair it, but how do I do that?
When I start up Disk Utility I cannot see the backup disk anywhere.
Thanks

Suggest that you start with #C3 in Pondini's excellent reference document Time Machine - Troubleshooting
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html

Similar Messages

How do I access Disk Utility for 10.7.1?

How do I access Disk Utility for 10.7.1? I found it in the forums a few weeks ago, used it, then lost the directions. This is a last ditch attempt
to use OS Lion. I parted my hair incorrectly when I installed and have been plagued by the dread rainbow spinning ball in EVERY application. Yes, every. Name one, Safari, Firefox, Text Edit, Mail, Excel, Word, iTunes, Garage Band, Calculator, Calender, iPhoto....yes, every, and I cannot
find a solution that works. I have back up files on two different hard drives 500 gig and 1 terrabyte with all my music, photo and writing files.
I am a writer and a musician so imagine the frustration. OS 10.6 is an option of course. My dedication to Apple and each new OS is deep so
I am hoping that somehow there will a fix, an upgrade, something that does not require me to go bac to the much more endangered species named OS.
hahhaa! Just stalled waiting for the ball to finish with it's random spinning.... SO, this is like a last desperate .... it just did two more stalls.
NO OTHER apps running, just little Firefox holding on for dear life, last desperate request for a fix.
MacKeeper has been great in sending helpful directions for getting the Antivirus to work after it mysteriously decided to stop working, Quite MacKeeper, go to Activity Monitor, force quit helper, start up MacKeeper and run program. It works!
SO before my third stall stops me, please post directions to open disk utility in administration mode so that I can do any further repairs that have not worked by using it from the open system. Also keychain synching stopped working with Lion.
Thanks to any and all who can help.

Press and hold Command-R keys and reboot. You'll then start up in the Lion Recovery HD. You'll find Disk Utility there.
Command-R to the rescue.
Just hold down Command-R during startup and Lion Recovery springs into action. It lets you choose from common utilities: You can run Disk Utility to check or repair your hard drive, erase your hard drive and reinstall a fresh copy of Lion, or restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup. You can even use Safari to get help from Apple Support online. And if Lion Recovery encounters problems, it will automatically connect to Apple over the Internet.

How Can I Reinstall Disk Utility?

Hi,
I been having problems opening Disk Utility to format an USB drive since december 2009, every time I tried it freezes like 1 minute an never opened. Then I supposed it was a problem with my hard disk maybe corrupted data.
Today I tried to use the Disk Utility using Mac OS Install DVD, holding C key. After that, I put to verify my MacBook hard disk, and after that told me that I need to repair. So I've tried to repair, but Disk Utility could not do it, and it stops booting my hard drive.
I needed to use a full restore of a Time Machine backup, but now I can't open the disk utility and give me the following message:
- You can't open the application "Disk Utility.app"; because it is not supported on this architecture.
*So how can I reinstall the Disk Utility from my Mac OS Install DVD?*
Thanks,

Use Pacifist to extract it from your Leopard DVD.

Have a mac book pro that crashed. ran disk utility to repair. comp booted and ran for short time. then crashed. ran repair again. disk utility said it could not repair files and i needed to format hard drive and start again. now nothing works

have a mac book pro that crashed. ran disk utility to repair. comp booted and ran for short time. then crashed. ran repair again. disk utility said it could not repair disk and needed to format and start again.
comp said it could not unmount disk and now when comp trys to boot all i get is a question mark on the screen. help

Erase and Install
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU after formatting completes and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
5. After restart into Snow Leopard download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Why are Java files listed as needing repair in Disk Utility?

Why are Java files always listed as needing repair in Disk Utility?

FrenchToast wrote:
Baltwo, bull's eye, as always!
X423424X's question is pertinent too: you usually need to repair permissions after some major upgrade or update, not on a regular basis. Is there a particular reason why you'd often try to repair permissions? Here's more on the subject.
Repairing permissions after an update or upgrade is harmless, but I would question the need to do it even there. The Apple update itself should set the correct Permissions. I still do this, really as a hangover from Tiger days -- not certain it was really ever needed there either -- and because it's a habit that's hard to kick, but it's never found anything to repair...but for one buggy exception, which was the 10.5.8 Combo update. Running it once and then repairing Permissions created a real error. It was discovered the Combo needed to be run twice back to back and then Permissions repair. In fact, one would have been better off not running Permissions for that update to begin with. There it wasn't harnless.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/9968141#9968141
BTW, even Flash updates, which always used to set incorrect Permissions, are coming in clean these days.
Exercises in Futility: Permissions Repair

How to repair the disk using recovery HD??

how to repair the disk using recovery HD??

ali ead wrote:
I dont understand u
What don't you understand?
Boot into the Recovery drive. See the link I posted.
The run Disk First Aid.
See this -> Disk Utility 12.x: Repair a disk

How do i run disk utility?

how do i run disk utility?

Open Disk Utility which is in the Utilities folder. Can't tell you more because you have not provided information on what you wish to do with it.

Should I backup my hard drive before I do a disk repair in disk utility?

I want to do a disk repair but I don't have an external hard drive to backup information on, so I'm wondering if I can just not back it up and do the disk repair? Does it kill information? How does disk repair even work? Is it a defragger?

You should always have a reasonably current backup and especially before any major software change such as an OS upgrade and, in this case, a disk repair. Running without a backup is like walking a tightrope without a net. External disks are inexpensive. Your data is not. Choose an external USB 3.0 disk that is double or more the size of your system disk and dedicate it as your Time Machine backup.
Time Machine Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
Most commonly used backup methods:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
A disk repair is actually a filesystem repair. It updates links that are in the filesystem directory. Usually this runs quickly and repairs any faulty links with no issues. It is a fairly safe action. Sometimes the directory cannot be repaired and the cure is to erase the disk, reinstall the OS and reload the data from a backup. Of course one does not erase the disk until they have completed the backup.
When you are ready to repair the disk:
Disk Utility 12.x: Repair a disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836

How do I undo BC Partition repair in disk utility?

Here's the summary:
8-core MacPro2,1 running 10.6.8, Paragon NTFS for Mac, Bootcamp Win7.
4 internal HDD drives: two 1.5TBs for data, one 1TB for MacOS, one 1.5TB for Win7 bootcamp.
I mostly use the Mac side for music production (but rarely), and the Win side for business and everything else. Scores and scores of Win apps installed over the years. [4 monitor system], well over 500K files on the drive.
I just backed up the data from the two data-only drives, and made a bootable clone of the MacOS drive (SuperDuper). I have never successfully been able to clone the Win7 Bootcamp NTFS drive (even with Winclone back in 2009) because of volume sizes (or something). I decided to try again, from WITHIN Windows this time (all other attempts were from the Mac OS side).
I bought, downloaded, and installed Acronis True image from within the Win7 bootcamp system. [I obviously did not know that it was gonna modify my MBR, and I had no idea at the time that the GPT and MBR areas were somehow 'mingled' on a bootcamp drive.]
So, when I performed the Acronis-requested reboot (my default boot is into the Bootcamp/Win7 drive), it failed to boot and requested some Windows recovery media or something. I was concerned that anything i put in the DVD drive would sabotage my priceless (in retrospect) stable/optimized Win7 bootcamp system. So, i just hard-powered down the Mac and tried to restart.
I did the Alt/option key, and i was presented with the Mac or Win drive icons. I selected Win, and then I got a different boot error message--'no MBR found'.
But this time i realized that Acronis had stepped where it shouldn't have, and I figured the Mac side could fix the boot problem (maybe with bootcamp assistant or something).
If i had stopped THERE, and searched the forums i could have found how to fix THAT problem--that has been answered tons of times…
But, instead, i went to Disk Utility and asked it to repair my Bootcamp partition (I have Paragon NTFS and it has worked for years, and so I did not have a reason to doubt Disk Utility's ability to Repair an NTFS volume--not that i have tried it before, of course).
Disk Utility repair ran for about 10-15 minutes and said it fixed about 10-20 things.
The drive information (in the side bar and below) still had the BOOTCAMP partition, reported that it was NTFS, said that there was 308 GB still available of the 1.5TB drive, and that it contained 1.19TB 'used'. Looked normal to me.
I closed Disk Utility and then opened a Finder window to see if DU left any 'artifacts' of its 'fixes' on the BOOTCAMP partition, and all the files were gone! Even though DU said it had 1.19TB 'used', all of my files are gone. [I rebooted also, to verify that it was not some 'delayed reporting' issue.]
When I enable 'hidden files' to show, what I get on the Bootcamp partition are these three entries:
.DS_Store (16KB), .fseventsd folder (with a 1KB UUID file inside it), and a .Trashes folder with zero KB.
At this point, I panic and assume the position of despair. There is no 'undo' key for the D/U that I can find. I do an orderly shut down of the system, physically remove the Win7 BC drive, and make/verify a sector-by-sector clone of the drive (on a Win7 laptop, using Acronis--22 hours).
In Win7 Disk Management, the GPT partition (on the original drive) shows up and the BOOTCAMP partition shows up--with the proper size--but windows does NOT recognize the partition as being NTFS. It reports it as being RAW and 'urges' me to format it (yeah, right…).
So, I place the sector-by-sector duplicate back into the Mac, boot up (only the Mac OS is given as an option), and am ready to 'work on' recovering the Win7 BC partition (if possible).
I am avoiding trying to fix the booting problem, because recovery of the 1.2TB of a working system is much more critical for me.
The clone HDD reports the same in DU, except now the GPT partition shows up as greyed-out 'disk1s1', right above the "BOOTCAMP" partition in the sidebar. [I understand from researching this that disk1s1 is somehow related to the bootloader for BC?]
I used the demo version of Data Rescue 3 to scan for recoverable files from the drive, but it doesn't even report the .files. (I am running the deep scan now, but will take about another 9 hours to complete that).
Has anybody got any suggestions on how to reclaim this partition and its system?
Here are a couple of other details from diagnostic tools:
Model Name:    Mac Pro
Model Identifier:    MacPro2,1
Processor Name:    Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed:    3 GHz
Number Of Processors:    2
Total Number Of Cores:    8
L2 Cache (per processor):    8 MB
Memory:    13 GB
Bus Speed:    1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version:    MP21.007F.B06
newmac:~ gmmx2$ sudo gpt -r show disk1
       start        size index contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34      262144      1 GPT part - E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE
      262178        2014
      264192      409600      2 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      673792 2929602560      3 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
2930276352         783
2930277135          32         Sec GPT table
2930277167           1         Sec GPT header
newmac:~ gmmx2$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.9 GB   disk0s2
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.5 TB     disk1
   1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk1s1
   2:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP               1.5 TB     disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.5 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS D3                      750.0 GB   disk2s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data DATA3                  749.9 GB   disk2s3
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *1.5 TB     disk3
   1:               Windows_NTFS SSDSUB                 1.5 TB     disk3s1
[Disk 1 is obviously the BC one]
newmac:~ gmmx2$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk1
Password:
Disk: /dev/disk1    geometry: -5415437/4/63 [-1364690128 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE    0   0   2 - 1023 254 63 [         1 - -1364690129] <Unknown ID>
2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
I cannot be the only one who has much such a catastrophic error, so I am hoping that there is something I have overlooked (being only a part-time Mac user) or there is some utility somewhere which can fix this--
Or if you need more data, let me know...
thank you for your time--gmm

Additional information: I found the DU Repair log for that session, in case it helps:
2013-01-28 04:31:00 -0700: Disk Utility started.
2013-01-28 04:31:30 -0700: Verify and Repair volume “BOOTCAMP2013-01-28 04:31:30 -0700: Starting repair tool:
2013-01-28 04:31:30 -0700: Verifying files...
2013-01-28 04:31:57 -0700: Adjusting instance tags to prevent rollover on file 0x606f0.
2013-01-28 04:31:57 -0700: Adjusting instance tags to prevent rollover on file 0x606f2.
2013-01-28 04:31:57 -0700: Adjusting instance tags to prevent rollover on file 0x606f4.
2013-01-28 04:32:01 -0700: Files verification completed.
2013-01-28 04:32:01 -0700: Verifying meta files...
2013-01-28 04:32:01 -0700: Meta files verification completed.
2013-01-28 04:32:01 -0700: Veryfing $AttrDef.
2013-01-28 04:32:01 -0700: Veryfing $Boot.
2013-01-28 04:32:01 -0700: Verifying $UpCase.
2013-01-28 04:32:01 -0700: Correcting $UpCase data.
2013-01-28 04:32:01 -0700: Verifying $LogFile.
2013-01-28 04:32:01 -0700: Verifying $Volume.
2013-01-28 04:32:02 -0700: Verifying files with EAs...
2013-01-28 04:32:02 -0700: EAs verification completed.
2013-01-28 04:32:02 -0700: Verifying folders...
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Folders verification completed.
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Minor inconsistencies are detected on the volume.
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Creating root directory
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Verifying security descriptors...
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Clearing invalid security descriptor 0x25e
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Clearing invalid security descriptor 0x260
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Clearing invalid security descriptor 0x797
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Clearing invalid security descriptor 0x1538
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Deleting orphan $Secure::$SII entry 0x25e
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Deleting orphan $Secure::$SII entry 0x260
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Deleting orphan $Secure::$SII entry 0x797
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Deleting orphan $Secure::$SII entry 0x1538
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Deleting orphan $Secure::$SDH entry Id=0x797
2013-01-28 04:41:54 -0700: Deleting orphan $Secure::$SDH entry Id=0x25e
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Deleting orphan $Secure::$SDH entry Id=0x260
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Deleting orphan $Secure::$SDH entry Id=0x1538
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Verifying files security...
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Record 0x97c contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Record 0x99b contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Record 0xb88 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Record 0xb91 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Record 0xb92 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Record 0x5633 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Record 0x5635 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:55 -0700: Record 0x5637 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:57 -0700: Record 0xe1d4 contains invalid security Id (0x25e)
2013-01-28 04:41:57 -0700: Record 0xe1d5 contains invalid security Id (0x25e)
2013-01-28 04:41:57 -0700: Record 0xe1d6 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:58 -0700: Record 0x111c9 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:58 -0700: Record 0x111ca contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:58 -0700: Record 0x111cb contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:58 -0700: Record 0x111dc contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:58 -0700: Record 0x11285 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:58 -0700: Record 0x11297 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:58 -0700: Record 0x113c4 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:58 -0700: Record 0x113c5 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:41:58 -0700: Record 0x12528 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:42:00 -0700: Record 0x1cfe2 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:42:00 -0700: Record 0x1dce1 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:42:00 -0700: Record 0x1f6a8 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:42:00 -0700: Record 0x1f6a9 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:42:00 -0700: Record 0x1f6c4 contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:42:00 -0700: Record 0x21d57 contains invalid security Id (0x797)
2013-01-28 04:42:03 -0700: Record 0x3220d contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:42:06 -0700: Record 0x4bc2a contains invalid security Id (0x260)
2013-01-28 04:42:10 -0700: Record 0x64ff9 contains invalid security Id (0x1538)
2013-01-28 04:42:11 -0700: Can't read $SDS
2013-01-28 04:42:12 -0700: Security verification completed
2013-01-28 04:42:12 -0700: Verifying $MFT.
2013-01-28 04:42:12 -0700: Verifying $MFTMirr.
2013-01-28 04:42:12 -0700: Verifying $Bitmap.
2013-01-28 04:42:18 -0700: Volume repair complete.
2013-01-28 04:42:18 -0700: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
2013-01-28 04:42:18 -0700: Repair tool completed: 2013-01-28 04:42:18 -0700:
2013-01-28 04:42:18 -0700:

Help: grey screen with progress bar at startup, no success repairing in disk utility

I got my MacBook pro in December 2011 and never had an issue with it until this same thing happened in February 2013.
Basically, what happens is the computer starts to run really slowly, so I forced shut down. When I tried to power it back on, I can't get past a grey screen with a progrerss bar that doesn't move for about a minute, and then the computer just shuts back off. I tried to some research to figure out how to fix it myself (grateful for my ipad as a back-up computer) but I'm afraid I'm stuck now.
I tried running disk utility from recovery mode to verify and repair disk, but I only got errors saying "disk utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed up files." When this all happened in February, I bought an external HD for the Genius Bar dude to back up my files and do whatever he did over the course of 3 days to repair my system. Apparently it was only a temporary fix. However, like an idiot, even with all of that hassle, I never set up Time Machine (I know, I know, spare the lecture. I definitely will this time around). I'm really not too concerned about the data on my drive because most of my important stuff is on USB storage/my work computer. However, there are pictures on there that I'd really like to salvage.
So, before I do the walk of shame back into the Apple Store, can anyone offer a guide for saving my stuff and repairing my hard drive myself? And, if I have a worst case scenario on my hands, how expensive will it be to buy/install a new hard drive?...or just how to prevent it from happening in the future? Thanks in advance.

Klt10415 wrote:
I can't get past a grey screen with a progrerss bar that doesn't move for about a minute, and then the computer just shuts back off.
The fsck drive check at boot is failing to fix your drive, gets stuck and the hardware shuts down the machine if a OS isn't loaded in time.
"disk utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed up files."
Yep, it will either have to be replaced or zero erased and completely reformatted and everything installed again.
Erase, formatting, OS X installs on Mac's
How to reformat a used Mac
I never set up Time Machine
However, there are pictures on there that I'd really like to salvage.
That's ok, the TimeMachine likely would have backed up the corrupted data and fail to properly restore anyway.
Since you can boot from RecoveryHD, that means you can install OS X on a blank external powered drive and boot from it and access the internal drive for your files. Or as a last restort install Data Rescue ($100) and that can read even deleted files off the drive bypassing the file system etc.
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive

Repairing premissions/ disk utility ????? how do I fix this...

Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
68 %)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
I don't understand how to fix this, or what to do....I am still very new to mac.
thanks for your help in advance....
Chris

To repair a volume, you will need to boot from the install DVDs that came with your Mac. You cannot repair the disks that you have booted from.
Insert the DVD and hold down the "C" key while booting. Once you see the desktop, open the Disk Utility located at HD -> Applications -> Utilities and highlight the internal HD, then select "repair disk" in that window near the bottom right. Do not bother verifying the disk as that takes almost as long as repairing and only tells you that the disk needs repairing - which you already know.

How to run repair in disk utility without a start up cd

Hello,
I have a macbook pro 2.3 GHz i5. I have run disk utility and it says that my disk needs to be repaired. It says I should insert the start up CD and then run repair but my mac book did not come with a disk. I ran disk utility because there are 247GB of miscellaneous files on my computer.
Any help gratefully received.

Lion has the 'install disk' built in.
You access it by restarting your mac and holding down the 'command' and 'r' keys. When the disk icons appear, choose the 'Recovery HD' icon. In the menu up the top, you can choose Utilities > Disk Utility.

How do I use Disk Utility to help install Mountain Lion after many failed attempts?

I tried to install Mountain Lion from an App onto my MacBook.
First it said that my disk was damaged to i tried to repair it.
Didn't work.
Then it said I didn't have enough room to install Mountain Lion.
Then I tried to restore Lion.
Didn't work.
Then someone suggested I reset my PRAM.
Tried that, and now I am stuck.
I can't restore any of my backups from timeline.
I can't reinstall OSX because my drive is now locked.
And I don't know how to use Disk Utility to solve this problem!
Any suggestions welcome... I'm in way deeper than I understand and feel like anything I do is making this worse!

I gather that your computer is in a less than satisfactory state, so the process below will basically start you from scratch, but you shouldn't lose anything.
Okay, can you inspect the Time Machine Backups with the Finder? About two or so folders down you should start seeing your system files. Assuming all your files are present.
Important^
You probably have an installation disk that came with your macBook. Boot from that CD and install from the CD.
Run the verify disk utilites and repair utilities if necessary.
You may want to erase your disk from the CD's disk utility. This will erase your Hard Drive (make sure you do not erase your backups, as that would be very bad).
Once the installation is complete, run all system updates. Either look through your backup and find the Mountain lion installation app, or download it from the app store again.
Run the ML installtion app.
Once everything is up and running, move all files and folders you want from your TM backups and you should be good to go.

Bootable backups - disk utility and which external drives

hi all
(maybe) a simple question
i have been using time machine for my back ups but i am now planning to have a second backup program. i'm looking at using a bootable clone in this regard.
i started looking at super duper and ccc however a few stumbling blokes have just popped up (well at least warning signs that may be of no issue at all - hence this question)
* can ALL external drives be used for bootable backup purposes?
I have a couple of western digital ones - my book essential and my passport.
On the western digital website, it does not have my model numbers listed - does it matter?
Is it a case of any usb connected external drive can be used for intel macs? - i am getting conflicting views on various postings i have seen re this question
second part/question is:
i also understand disk utility can be used for cloning (no updates, just full clones) and as a bootable back up.
if, just for the purposes for having a back up bootable drive, can i set up a clone without too much regard for recloning it (say every 2 months) and if i need to use it, then boot the mac back up with it and then do a full restore using my up to date time machine backups? am i missing something with that method? is that too simple?
feedback much appreciated on these 2 areas
cheers
peter t

Crows2012 wrote:
1) there is no way to make a BOOTABLE clone using disk utility or time machine whatsoever, right? DU will only allow me to make clones and Recovery HD essentially allows me to restore the system (ie software) AFTER booting up?
Correct with respect to TM; all you get is a copy of the Recovery HD.
Disk Utility will make a bootable clone, but there are downsides. First, it can only do a whole copy; unlike a specialized cloning app, it won't copy just what's new or changed, so takes a long time. Second, as I understand it, it won't copy to a smaller volume, even if there's plenty of free space on the internal. For example, if you have a 1 TB internal with only 400 GB on it, DU won't copy it to a 500 GB drive. I may be wrong, but I've seen that posted here by folks who seem to know.
does file b here mean aliases of file b in each backup?
It acts sorta like that, but no.
There's one copy of the actual file, but two hard links to it, one in each folder. The file actually "belongs" to both folders at the same time! The good part of that is, if you delete either backup folder, the other one remains intact. The downside is, how the heck do you count the size of each folder accurately?
that was a great read to understand TM workings and attain some level of piece of mind re my question of incremental v differential backups
It is a bit hard to get your head around! I've been revising and editing that for several years trying to make it clear.
And remember, this only applies to TM as far as I know, at least for consumer-level backup apps.
While it may be possible to boot your computer to an external hard drive, Western Digital does not provide technical support for booting your computer using an external hard drive. If you intend to make a copy of your boot drive, or install your operating system, please use a second internal drive (EIDE or Serial ATA), rather than an external drive.
Yup. WD doesn't exactly have a good reputation for support.
i guess i'll trial CCC or SD and see what happens with the drives that i have re BOOTABILITY
I use CCC myself -- it's a great product with great support.
I downloaded SD a couple of times, but never got around to experimenting with it. Lots of folks swear by it, and say it also has excellent support. To a large degree, it just seems to be a matter of which approach and GUI you prefer, but CCC does allow "archiving" of changed and deleted stuff (differently from TM), and can copy Recovery HDs. I don't think SD does either, but it may have other advantages.
4) and, i think one final question, and a simple/naive one at that.....if my internal hard drive physically collapses then what are the benefits of that bootable clone v not having one?
You can start up from the clone and run normally (but likely a bit more slowly), although you probably won't be as up-to-date as you would after restoring to a new or repaired internal, or an external, from TM. The reason is, running a clone backup, even an incremental one, takes much longer and far more CPU than one of TM's quick incrementals, which it will do hourly if you let it. Few folks using a clone for an OSX drive do it more than once per day, many only once a week.
The downside is, if you run from the clone, you no longer have a backup -- the clone has the only copy of your stuff. That's one reason many folks who use only a cloning app have two (or more) externals with them.
Apart from (obviously) being able to start up immediately to do whatever i wanted to do at the time, after i replace the hard drive (if that was to be the case) are there further expenses or much inconvenience suffered due to not having a bootable drive in getting things all sorted internally on the mac? what is the process in that regard, generally speaking
Just clone the external to the new internal, and you're back in business.
thanks heaps for your time to answer these and previous questions and to build up my understanding of these topics
You're quite welcome.

Time Capsule hangs at end of full backup, Disk Utility "not responding"

I'm running a Mid 2011 iMac 27" with OSX 10.8.4 and using a WiFi connected 3TB Time Capsule (4th Gen).
I've noticed that the Time Capsule seems to get stuck at the end of a full back-up (let's say 260 GB of 260 GB) and won't end, even after hours of being left alone.
When I mount the Time Capsule Sparse Disk Image Bundle and then try to run Disk Utility, Disk Utility is shown as "Gathering Information," but the Finder and Activity Monitor list Disk Utility as "not responding." (No disk information is shown in Disk Utility.) This happens both when I connect via WiFi to the Time Capsule and when I connect directly using an Ethernet cable. If I don't mount the Sparse Disk Image Bundle, Disk Utility works fine, immediately showing my iMac's Hard Drive, so it only happens when the Time Capsule Sparse Disk Image Bundle is mounted.
1. Is Disk Utility truly "not responding" or is it just taking forever to load because of the 3TB hard drive?
2. If it truly isn't responding, what can I do to see if the TC needs to be "repaired"?
3. What's going on with my TC that it hangs up at the end of a full backup?
Thanks.

thefliss wrote:
I see an occasional deep node traversal, but sounds like that can be normal.
Not normal, exactly, but TM's way of handling a problem. See below.
Aug 17 21:35:50 Erics-iMac.local fseventsd[48]: event logs in /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (86990 10 86991)
Aug 17 21:35:50 Erics-iMac.local fseventsd[48]: log dir: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/.fseventsd getting new uuid:
Something went wrong with or on the TM drive (Time Capsule in your case), such as a power failure or abnormal disconnection, where OSX was unable to "close it out" properly, so is unsure if all the changes are in the File System Event Store. If you're not familiar with the Event Store, see the blue box in How Time Machine works its Magic for details (it's talking about the one on your internal HD, but OSX keeps one on every drive/partition and disk image, including your TC backups.)
Aug 17 21:36:07 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.backupd[1728]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
That's one of the causes of a deep traversal. The UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier, the long string of numbers and letters) for the Event Store on your internal HD doesn't match the one in TM's records from the previous backup, so it must do a deep traversal instead, comparing everything on your Mac to the latest (completed) backup.
Aug 17 21:42:09 Erics-iMac.local diskarbitrationd[22]: mds [39]:22019 not responding.
Aug 17 21:42:09 Erics-iMac.local diskarbitrationd[22]: fseventsd [48]:17923 not responding.
Aug 17 21:42:15 Erics-iMac.local fseventsd[48]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/.fseventsd/0000000000362fde (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/.fseventsd
Trouble talking to a disk. The first two probably involve the TC, the third one definitely does -- it's trying to create the new Event Store.
Aug 17 21:44:03 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent[1789]: [Warning] Denying xpc connection, task does not have entitlement: com.apple.private.imcore.imremoteurlconnection (IMTransferAgent:1786)
Aug 17 21:44:03 --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Aug 17 21:44:03 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.imtransferservices.IMTransferAgent[1786]: [Warning] Remote loader crashed for request: <NSMutableURLRequest http://init-p01md.apple.com/bag>
Aug 17 21:44:03 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.imtransferservices.IMTransferAgent[1786]: [Warning] Bag loading failed! Error (__kIMRemoteURLConnectionErrorDomain:-1): The operation couldn’t be completed. (__kIMRemoteURLConnectionErrorDomain error -1.) (null)
Out of my comfort zone, but sure looks like some sort of connection problem . . . with something.
Aug 17 21:48:08 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.backupd[1728]: Deleted 3 backups containing 299.76 GB total; 300.65 GB now available, 209.78 GB required
TM did (finally) connect, figured out how much sp it needed, and started deleting old backups to make room. Since it did, actual copying would have started just after that was sent.
Aug 17 22:07:03 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.SecurityServer[15]: Session 100018 created
Aug 17 22:07:06 Erics-iMac.local ScopedBookmarkAgent[1853]: CFURLCreateByResolvingBookmarkData failed with error [Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4 "The file doesn’t exist."].
Aug 17 22:07:08 --- last message repeated 7 times ---
Aug 17 22:07:08 Erics-iMac.local QuickTime Player[1845]: It does not make sense to draw an image when [NSGraphicsContext currentContext] is nil. This is a programming error. Break on void _NSWarnForDrawingImageWithNoCurrentContext() to debug. This will be logged only once. This may break in the future.
Aug 17 22:08:37 Erics-iMac.local WebProcess[1866]: objc[1866]: Object 0x7fec4841c8c0 of class NSUserDefaults autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking - break on objc_autoreleaseNoPool() to debug
Aug 19 16:35:11 Erics-iMac.local mds[39]: (/)(Warning) IndexQuery in bool preIterate_FSI(SISearchCtx_FSI *):Throttling inefficient file system query
Most of that is also out of my area, but doesn't seem related to the TC or backups.
Hard to tell so far, but it looks like problem is on your network, or power, or with the TC. Trying backups to a directly-connected external HD would be a quick way to confirm that, and especially if these are your only backups, a wise thing to do anyhow.
It's always prudent to keep "secondary" backups, more so if your main ones are on a network, and especially if there's the slightest doubt about them. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for more info and some suggestions.
And/or, start through the list in the green box in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

How to repair backup disk with disk utility

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