HT203177 very long 'preparing for backup' for Time Machine

None of the issues discussed in the apple support page on this issue seem to apply to me (except one below regarding not completing the 'prepare for backup'). It still takes way too much time (a night is not enough) to prepare for time machine backup, even though there was a backup recently, and it is not a one-time event but a recurring problem, and there are no big changes to my files or disks.
And of course because most days it does not complete the backup before I have to leave to work, the condition on 'not interrupting the backup' cannot be respected. This looks like plain poor design.
The only thing that helps is to connect my laptop directly to the Time Machine by Ethernet but it is very inconvenient.
This is really annoying. I wish I had bought another disk back-up solution.

saggybaggy wrote:
The Mac Pro I'm backing up is Leopard 10.5.8, could this be the issue?
No, Time Machine works on 10.5.8.
I'm trying to back it up before I upgrade my operating system.
Good plan!
Also, for the backup I'm using the same external drive that I used to backup my MacBook Pro already... not sure if this would cause any issues in preparing.
Not in preparing, but it's usually not a good idea to use the same partition on the same drive for both. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #4 for an explanation.

Similar Messages

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up. I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up.
I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?
When I bought the new (used) iMac, I also bought an external hard drive for backups. It worked fine, but my husband stole it.
Then I bought a new external hard drive (Seagate) and it worked fine for three weeks, then died.
So I just got a new external hard drive, which was put together from an internal hard drive and a hard drive enclosure.
Time machine did the first backup today, and it should have taken 9 hours like it did on the previous first time full back up. Instead, it took 30 minutes. That can't be right. I want to start over and do a full backup to make sure everything gets onto my new external hard drive, but I can't figure out how to do that. Please help.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

After install of Lion, secondary internal hard drive used for backup and time machine is not showing on the desktop.

After an install of Lion, my secondary internal hard drive used for backup and time machine is not showing on the desktop. Cannot be located with Disk Utility either. Contains vital files! please help...

I have a TB internal drive, but this is what it shows for memory slots:
Memory Slots:
ECC:    Enabled
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1:
Size:    2 GB
Type:    DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed:    800 MHz
Status:    OK
Manufacturer:    0x0000
Part Number:    0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Serial Number:    0x00000000
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2:
Size:    2 GB
Type:    DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed:    800 MHz
Status:    OK
Manufacturer:    0x0000
Part Number:    0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Serial Number:    0x00000000
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1:
Size:    1 GB
Type:    DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed:    800 MHz
Status:    OK
Manufacturer:    0x80AD
Part Number:    0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335
Serial Number:    0x42076007
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2:
Size:    1 GB
Type:    DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed:    800 MHz
Status:    OK
Manufacturer:    0x80AD
Part Number:    0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335
Serial Number:    0x4207631E
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3:
Size:    Empty
Type:    Empty
Speed:    Empty
Status:    Empty
Manufacturer:    Empty
Part Number:    Empty
Serial Number:    Empty
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4:
Size:    Empty
Type:    Empty
Speed:    Empty
Status:    Empty
Manufacturer:    Empty
Part Number:    Empty
Serial Number:    Empty
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 3:
Size:    Empty
Type:    Empty
Speed:    Empty
Status:    Empty
Manufacturer:    Empty
Part Number:    Empty
Serial Number:    Empty
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4:
Size:    Empty
Type:    Empty
Speed:    Empty
Status:    Empty
Manufacturer:    Empty
Part Number:    Empty
Serial Number:    Empty

Amount of time for backup with Time Machine

How long should it take to backup my hard drive with Time Machine?
I have an iMac (late 2007). My hard drive has 222.88 GB of data according to Time Machine which is now running. However, it has only backed up 11.47 GB of data since it started almost 7 hours ago. It is backing up to an iOmega 1TB USB 2 partitioned external hard drive. The partion for the backup is 444 GB or so of space.
Can the backup be speeded up? It seems like an it is taking an extradordinary amount of time for the backup.
Thanks for your help.
Vernon

Hi Andy,
We have found that JMX Mbean registration is one factor in startup time, if you have JMX turned on. On joining the cluster, nodes register their MBeans with the MBean servers. If every node has management=all, every node is an MBean server node, whether its needed or not. This can result in an MBean registration storm as every node registers their Mbeans with every other node at startup. Its especially noticable if you have a lot of caches in your cluster. We suggest that only MBean server nodes have the management=all setting to minimize this registration process on startup.
Marie
[email protected]

I DONT HAVE STACKS AND I DONT HAVE ANYTHING FOR BACKUP ON TIME MACHINE HOW CAN I FIX THIS

I DONT HAVE STACK ON MY COMPUTER I THINK I ACCIDENTALLY ERASED IT AND EMPTIED THE TRASH AND I DONT NOW HOW TO GET IT BAC AND FOR TIME MACHINE IT DOESNT LET ME BACK UP ALL MY FILES HELPPPPP!!!!!

Please don't SHOUT!
We're all users here and you'll get more help if you give us some coherrent information.
Firstly, do you have an external Hard Drive connected to use for your Time Machine backup?
Secondly "stacks" is not a programme; it's one method of presenting folder icons in the dock, and is accessed from the 'view options' choice which appears if you click on the folder. Right-clicking the folder will go straight to the options menu.

My external hard drive for backup and Time Machine is full. I bought a new HD. Can I just begin using it, or must I transfer old BkUp and TM to the new HD?

My external hard drive for Back Up and Time Machine is full. I bought a new HD. Can I just begin using it and rely on the old HD for past Time Machine versions, or must I transfer the old Back Up and Time Machine files to the new HD?

It is your choice.
If you don't want to be able to far back into the time slots covered by the old disk then just start using the new disk.
If you want to retain the ability to go back into those time slots then copy it.
Allan

No longer able to backup with Time Machine

I have backed up my 2.93 GHz 640 GB iMac with 4 GB of memory for years to a 1TB external drive via Time Machine. I'm using OS X version 10.7.5. I've started to run out of space on the iMac so I got a 2TB external drive to move my photos to. Before I did anything, I made sure I had multiple backups on both Time Machine and my cloud storage (Back Blaze). I had backups going back over a year. I moved my photos via Lightroom and have been able to create one successful backup but now I get an error message that there's not enough space on the 1TB to backup and only the one backup exists in Time Machine. I've run a Disk Utility on the external backup drive and there are no issues. I'm not understanding how all of a sudden I can no longer back up when I have the same amount of data, actually less since I deleted some duplicate files. And all the old backups have disappeared. I'm concerned that I only have one backup from last night. It's as though that one backup is huge. When I try to click on the folder to check the folder size, the drive keeps churning and never returns the file size. Is this a sign of a corrupted or damaged drive? Any other options or troubleshooting?

Let's try to make this less confusing:
You have a 2TB external drive for storing photos. That drive is working fine.
You have a 1TB external drive for your TM backup. That's the drive with the error message that there's insufficient space on the drive.
Now, after deleting some duplicate files, the old backups have disappeared.
I understand that you have multiple backups of your data.
If you've made multiple copies, and have the data backed up on the Cloud, wouldn't you be able to copy the Cloud copy onto your 1TB external?
Is it possible that a prior TM backup has the data you need? Are there any error messages on the 1TB external? Is the drive new? (As you probably know, drives either go bad early, or last for years.)

Unable to keep my external hard drive connected to my computer for backup with Time Machine.

I am using an external LaCie hard drive to backup my computer. In the last month or so I have noticed that when my computer is in the sleep mode for sometime the hard drive disconnects from my computer. I than get an error message that tells me that I have failed to disconnect the hard drive device before turning it off. Do I have a problem and if so is there a fix for the problem.

Hi,
I have a similar question. I have backed up my external hard drive through my computer, onto my TC. When I go into TM, it doesn't show the external hard drive unless it is connected to the computer. Can I access the info from the external hard drive that is on the TC if I don't have the hard drive plugged in? If so, how can I do that?
Thanks,
Bernadette

Backups without Time Machine?

I'm wondering what the options are for backups without Time Machine. I'm a tech support guy from a way back who's primarily worked with *nix and Windows machines, and I'm no stranger to setting up networks, NAS devices and filers, etc.
This is an all-Apple setup - MacBook Pros, iMacs, iPads, iPhones, etc. There were 2 Time Capsules in the mix, but they both began to fail so we replaced them with a single Seagate 4-bay NAS attached to 2 LAN ports. This is a 10/100/100 network with N-wireless and Gigabit switches.
Both before and after swapping out the Time Capsules for the NAS, we received the "
Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.
message on the MacBooks, less often on the iMac. Post-NAS implementation, we are still seeing on the MacBooks. I've tried relaxing the backup settings to every 3-4 hours since all machines were set to backup every hour as default and I believe they were stepping on each other.
I'm not ruling out the network, or anything at this point, but it seems odd that Time Machine will complete a backup, then at some point in the future find that it's not valid and need to go again from scratch. It's not ideal to use Time Machine if it needs a new full backup every ~2 days or more.
So I'm simultaneously looking for any advice on how to resolve the Time Machine error, and/or how to perform routine backups to the NAS without Time Machine.
Thanks in advance.
MM

I'm wondering what the options are for backups without Time Machine
Time machine is NOT a data backup, its a system (/emergency) backup. (whats the difference? the system is data?!, Yes, however the difference is huge).
....and most pros (nearly all) are absolutely NOT using Time machine as a source, and never as a single source to archive important data.
Time machine by definition is absolutely not a data archive, nor a storage nexus for vital data, which is secure by definition.
here you go:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
#1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
Drawbacks:
1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks include OS X Recovery. This feature includes all of the tools you need to reinstall OS X, repair your disk, and even restore from a Time Machine
"you can't boot directly from your Time Machine backups"
2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
#2. HD archives
Drawbacks:
1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
Advantages:
1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
#3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
Drawbacks:
1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
Advantages:
1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
HD cloning software options:
1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
#4. Online archives
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
Advantages:
1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
#5. DVD professional archival media
Drawbacks:
1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
Advantages:
1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data.
[*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]
#6. Cloud based storage
Drawbacks:
1. Cloud storage can only be quasi-possessed.
2. No genuine true security and privacy of data.
3. Should never be considered for vital data storage or especially long-term.
4. *Level-0 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. Quick, easy and cheap storage location for simplex files for transfer to keep on hand and yet off the computer.
2. Easy source for small-file data sharing.
#7. Network attached storage (NAS) and JBOD storage
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to RAID failure and mass data corruption.
2. Expensive to set up initially.
3. Can be slower than USB, especially over WiFi.
4. Mechanically identical to USB HD backup in failure potential, higher failure however due to RAID and proprietary NAS enclosure failure.
Advantages:
1. Multiple computer access.
2. Always on and available.
3. Often has extensive media and application server functionality.
4. Massive capacity (also its drawback) with multi-bay NAS, perfect for full system backups on a larger scale.
5. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
JBOD (just a bunch of disks / drives) storage
Identical to NAS in form factor except drives are not networked or in any RAID array, rather best thought of as a single USB feed to multiple independent drives in a single powered large enclosure. Generally meaning a non-RAID architecture.
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to HD failure but not RAID failure and mass data corruption.
Advantages:
1. Simplex multi-drive independent setup for mass data storage.
2. Very inexpensive dual purpose HD storage / access point.
3. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
Time Machine is a system hub backup, not a data hub backup
Important data you “don’t dare lose” should not be considered ultimately safe, or ideally stored (at the very least not as sole copy of same) on your Time Machine backup. Hourly and daily fluctuations of your system OS, applications, and software updates is the perfect focus for the simple user to conduct ‘click it and forget it’ backups of the entire system and files on the Macbook HD.
Bootable clones are the choice of professionals and others in that Time Machine cannot be booted from and requires a working HD to retrieve data from (meaning another computer). Your vital data needs to be and should be ‘frozen’ on some form of media storage, either in a clone, as an archived HD containing important files, or on DVD blank archival media.
A file that is backed up to Time Machine is unsafe in that if that file is deleted off the computer by accident or lost otherwise, that file will likewise vanish from Time Machine as it reflects changes on the internal computer HD/SSD.

Wireless Backup with Time Machine using Fritzbox

I have
Modem: Fritzbox 7170
Macbook white
Lacie External HD 500GB
On the back of the Fritzbox is an USB access..I would like to connect my Lacie External HD to the Fritzbox and want to split the HD into
1 part to store my music/photo's on
2nd part to use for Time Machine backups
Currently I have connected the Lacie to my Macbook using the USB cable, but I wonder if I can do it wireless by using the Fritzbox.
Message was edited by: Jaap74

Thanks for your reply. I’m not sure if I understand what a NAS is….My Modem is a Fritzbox 7170 Fon WLAN. It has a USB host for USB printers or USB mass storage media in the network. The manual says it supports FAT and GAT32. So I think I can use it for storage….but not for backups with Time Machine. That would be so convenient…not having to plug in my external HD every time I want to make a backup.

Very long time preparing for backup to Time Capsule

Hi folks,
Long time reader, first time posting a question. I got my new Time Capsule and set it up yesterday as my wireless router and backup system for two computers-a new iMac running 10.5.2 and an older MacBook laptop (~ 2 yrs old) also running 10.5.2. The wireless networking worked fine, I was able to print, and the full backup of the iMac worked. It's even done several incremental ones today, and I'm able to access the backups using Time Machine. So far, so good, BUT the laptop is still "preparing" the backup- more than ten hours later! I've got it in the same room as the Time Capsule, hooked up via an ethernet cable right now. It's not a particularly big hard drive (~75 Gb, about half used). What gives? Should I start over and, if so, what can I do to get it past the preparing stage?
Marca

If you double-click on your time capsule icon in the Finder and open the folder therein, you should see a file
called something like "computername_xxxx.sparsebundle. If your first attempt to backup that computer failed
(as mine did) and then you fixed the problem and tried again, the second attempt at backup may also fail if you don't remove that sparsebundle file. The second backup attempt should then work and a good sparsebundle file will be recreated.
It's been a few weeks now, and my Time Capsule seems to be working fine-backing up both my computers. I'm also able to access and retrieve files from the backups. What I learned from this setup attempt is 1) fix your permissions before trying the initial backup and 2) do your first backup via an ethernet connection, subsequent backups can then be done wirelessly.
Hope that's "ladybird book" enough for you-not sure what that means here on the other side of the pond! It's sounds intriguing though.

Once I upgraded to ML, I'm now finding that my Seagate Free Agent external hard drive is no longer being backed up by Time machine. Do I have to wait for Seagate to update their drivers for this hard drive?

Once I upgraded to ML, I'm now finding that my Seagate Free Agent external hard drive is no longer being backed up by Time machine. Do I have to wait for Seagate to update their drivers for this hard drive?

I tried your suggestion, and it's been giving me the message "Preparing for Backup" for the past 8 hours. Does this mean TM is backing up my hard drive? I'll give it a few more hours, but if nothing else happens, I'm not sure what else to do. I'm not sure if there are any new external hard drives that are compatible with ML yet.

Why won't my Western Digital (2TB) My Book for Mac backup to time Machine?

This past fall (2012) I was notified by apple that the hard drive on my 2010 iMac might need to be replaced due to issues. Before doing so I was prompted to back up all of my data with an external hard drive using Time Machine. I purchased a Western Digital 2TB external hard drive and set it up easily. The setup parameters were such that the thing should backup my iMac to Time Machine on the hour every hour. This worked well and also allowed me to restore my user preferences for nearly everything when I got my computer back with its new hard drive. This was around October.
Recently (mid-March), my WD My Book no longer backs up to Time Machine. The computer recognizes the drive, allows me to access it, but will not backup to Time Machine. I have no hypotheses as to why this has started happening, but it just did. I have tried shutting Time Machine off and turning it back on to the particular external hard drive. This has not worked. I have tried to prompt a manual backup, but the computer gets stuck when preparing to back the drive up. It never actually commences the backup.
I understand that just like anything else that things fail. I also understand that sometimes things fail within the first few months of purchase (half a year-ish in my case). I just cannot understand what might be causing it. Any speculation?
Here are some screenshots associated with my current problems:

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Backup with Time Machine for 6 iMacs

I want to to use an external drive to backup with Time Machine my 6 iMac's. I know that Time Capsule is good for this kind of stuff but I would prefer to be able to plug my Storage Device with an Ethernet cable. And Time Capsule is offering 2 or 3 TB, I would need minimum 5 TB. Any idea what should I buy and what is good for that purpose?
Thanks a lot

Time Capsule has 3 Eth ports so only 3 iMacs via cable.
You can do it with two 3TB Time Capsules if you wish.
With 6 iMacs you may need to think about small business solution.
On Mac networks we use Gigabit switches and NAS drives such as Buffalo TeraStation III 8TB on RAID5.
Those support Apple Time Machine, have dual Gigabit Eth port which can be trunked with manageable switches and all works very well and fast.
There are many scenarios you may want to consider.
Let me know if you have any questions regarding the above setup.

Old computer I had is OSX Snow Leopard with Entourage. New one is OSX Mavericks. Using Mail where are my addresses and old address book. Transferred old computer backup by Time Machine and other things work? Can't see a symbol for address book.

Old computer I had is OSX Snow Leopard with Entourage. New one is OSX Mavericks. Using Mail where are my addresses and old address book. Transferred old computer backup by Time Machine and other things work? Can;t see a symbol for address book.

Where are addresses kept on MAIL? I don;t like the new format at all. Frances
Begin forwarded message:
From: Frances Topping <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: - Old computer I had is OSX Snow Leopard with Entourage. New one is OSX Mavericks. Using Mail where are my addresses and old address book. Transferred old computer backup by Time Machine and other things work? Can't see a symbol for address book.
Date: August 25, 2014 at 9:46:01 AM EDT
To: discussions-replies <[email protected]>
Old Entourage is POP and new Mavericks MAIL is IMAP I believe. I don;t know how to export in the forms you mention. Frances

HT203177 very long 'preparing for backup' for Time Machine

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