IMac freezes while Time Machine updates the back up. What to do?

Ever since I upgraded to Lion my iMac freezes or nearly freezes for 5 - 10 minutes every hour while Time Machine updates the back up. What to do?
I have tried everything I can think of but its only improved from total freeze while Time Machine backs up to freeze with an occasional few seconds of activity.
I am really fed up with this.

When I first updated to Lion everything was a mess with freezes happenng constantly like every two or three minutes. Then when looking at the app store I noticed in purchased items that Lion was showing install instead of installed so I downloaded and installed again.
After this install every time Time Machine updated a backup my iMac froze for about 5 or 10 minutes while the backing up was in progress. I was getting really fed up and started this thread. Then one morning I got up and the iMac would not start up. It just sat there with the progress thingy spinning. I started in T mode to look at it from my MacBookPro and two copies of the HD appeared. Both showing zero files. I ran Disk utility on the MacBookPro to try to fix the disk. It showed 8 copies of the disk and all not reparable.
I then created a startup USB drive using my MacBookPro, used it to start up the iMac and restored everything from the previous day's backup. Since then it has been running smoothly with no freezes so maybe the answer is simply to restore a recent backup.
I am using Imation external drives and I don't believe the problem is drive specific.

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My iMac freezes when time machine is running a backup

Hi Guys, this is an iMac that had tiger and I upgraded to 10.5.8
I am using time machine with a 2TB external flex drive from seagate (brand new item)
The back ups went smooth for the first few days but now my iMac totally freezes up at least once a day and the time machine status indcator shows that it is running the whole time.
I tried apple/option/escape but that does nothing so I have to force shut down using the start button on the back of the iMac.
I don't know what to do next so any help would be awesome.

bassplayer360 wrote:
Hi Guys, this is an iMac that had tiger and I upgraded to 10.5.8
I am using time machine with a 2TB external flex drive from seagate (brand new item)
Start by making sure it's set up properly, per #C1 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
The back ups went smooth for the first few days but now my iMac totally freezes up at least once a day and the time machine status indcator shows that it is running the whole time.
That sounds like something may be corrupted, either on your internal HD or the TM drive. Verify the internal, and repair the TM drive, per #A5 in Troubleshooting
I tried apple/option/escape but that does nothing so I have to force shut down using the start button on the back of the iMac.
If a backup hangs, try to cancel it, either via +Stop Backing Up+ from the TM icon in your menubar, or by right-clicking the TM icon in your dock. If it won't cancel after a few minutes, see #D6 in Troubleshooting.
Then see #A1 for a handy widget that will display the backup messages from your logs. Look at the ones for the backup you cancelled; a clue may be lurking there.
If in doubt, copy and post them here.

Time machine error - the back up disk is not available. Time machine no longer backs up.

My time machine quit backing up 2 weeks ago. How can I fix it?

Did you try the simple stuff?? Reboot the TC.. next.. reboot the whole network restarting in correct order?? ie modem.. TC.. client computers.. with 2min gap.
No luck we need to know more..
What modem.. is it a router?
What TC.. what firmware.. how is it connected?
What OS on the computer?

Why when time machine does the back up on the time capsule atbthe end of the back up it starts again on a reverse mode?

i mean that i does the back up and time machine says for example 45 of 220 gb but when the count down is to 0 time machine start doing the opposito count for example 2gb of 2gb and few minutes later 3 gb of 3gb and so on. it seems it never stop

i mean that i does the back up and time machine says for example 45 of 220 gb but when the count down is to 0 time machine start doing the opposito count for example 2gb of 2gb and few minutes later 3 gb of 3gb and so on. it seems it never stop

IMac Awakes Unscheduled - Time Machine Updates - Reverts to Full Off

My iMac is manually placed in sleep mode at night. This morning it would not awake normally. However, startup achieved only through on/off button.
Follows are the first 5 entries from All Messages (console):
8/26/08 2:45:48 AM kernel System Wake
8/26/08 2:45:48 AM kernel USB caused wake event (EHCI)
8/26/08 2:45:48 AM kernel E:[AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController][StartInterruptPipeRead] ClearPipeStall failed with error 0xe00002ed.
8/26/08 2:45:48 AM kernel [InterruptReadHandler] Received kIODeviceNotResponding error - retrying: 1.
8/26/08 2:45:48 AM mDNSResponder[23] NOTE: Wide-Area Service Discovery disabled to avoid crashing defective DNS relay 192.168.0.1:53
These messages indicate that the iMac was provoked into unscheduled awakening at 2:45 AM.
There are further entries covering the following few seconds, but no "obvious" indication when full shut down was achieved (all messages have been retained).
Are there any explanations for why this awakening/shut down took place?
Advised further steps on my part?

Executing "Repair Disk" from Disk Utility (bootable backup) reveals no obvious problem.
Unless this becomes a known fluke, I'll just wait until the next time it occurs.
I now suspect that this has happened at least two other times in the past 9 months. I say this because I found that it was necessary to use the on/off button to activate the iMac (which should have been in sleep mode). On those occasions, however, I failed to check the Console for confirming messages...

Imac freezes while it is sleeping....what could it be?

My imac will not wake from its sleep quite frequently. What is the cause of this
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Very interesting. Tests (Tech Tool) also does not show anything all passed.
However, I now found that simply putting the computer to sleep from the menu shows the same symptoms. The indicator light blinks as usual but the screen does not wake up. Upon hard restart - this is what it says on console -system log:
Sep 13 02:20:09 localhost kernel: AppleSMU -- shutdown cause = -110
Sep 13 02:20:10 localhost kernel: Jettisoning kernel linker.
Sep 13 02:20:10 localhost kextd[87]: registering service "com.apple.KernelExtensionServer"
Sep 13 02:20:11 localhost kernel: Resetting IOCatalogue.
Sep 13 02:20:14 localhost kernel: Matching service count = 1
Sep 13 02:20:14 localhost kernel: NVDANV30HAL loaded and registered.
Sep 13 02:20:14 localhost kernel: AppleRS232Serial: 0 0 AppleRS232Serial::start - returning false early, Connector or machine incorrect
and later
Sep 13 02:20:18 localhost SystemStarter: Starting Apple Multicast DNS Responder
Sep 13 02:20:18 localhost mDNSResponder[169]: mDNSResponder-58.8.1 (Jan 31 2005 21:11:41) starting
Sep 13 02:20:18 localhost SystemStarter: Starting Virtual PC OS Services
Sep 13 02:20:18 localhost ConsoleMessage: Checking disks
Sep 13 02:20:19 localhost SystemStarter: Starting timed execution services
Sep 13 02:20:19 localhost SystemStarter: Initializing network
Sep 13 02:20:19 localhost SystemStarter: Checking disks
Sep 13 02:20:19 localhost mDNSResponder[169]: SetupAddr invalid sa_family 0
Sep 13 02:20:19 localhost kernel: IOSMUPwrController:: power button pressed
Sep 13 02:20:19 localhost configd[89]: WirelessConfigure: 88001003
Sep 13 02:20:19 localhost configd[89]: initCardWithStoredPrefs failed.
Sep 13 02:20:19 localhost configd[89]: WirelessConfigure: 88001003
Sep 13 02:20:20 localhost kernel: NVDA,Display-A: vram [a0000000:08000000]
Sep 13 02:20:20 localhost kernel: NVDA,Display-B: vram [00000000:01000000]
Sep 13 02:20:20 localhost configd[89]: executing /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Kicker.bundle/Contents/Resources/set-hostna me
Sep 13 02:20:21 localhost set-hostname[190]: setting hostname to orca.local
Sep 13 02:20:21 localhost SystemStarter: The "HasShadow" window property is obsolete. Use CGSSetWindowShadowAndRimParameters(cid, wid, 0.0,0.0, 0,0, CGSNoShadowStyle) to turn off the window shadow instead. Set a break-point on CGSLogMessage to find out where this property is set.
and
Sep 13 02:20:22 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk startup
Sep 13 02:20:22 localhost ConsoleMessage: Starting Now services
Sep 13 02:20:23 localhost ConsoleMessage: Loading Shared IP extension
Sep 13 02:20:23 localhost syslogd: /dev/console: Input/output error
Sep 13 02:20:23 localhost init: kernel security level changed from 0 to 1
Sep 13 02:20:23 localhost ConsoleMessage: Starting Apple File Service
What is invalid sa-family?
Thank you
p.s there is also a lot of AppleTalk start and shut downs and fails
Sep 13 02:20:37 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk startup
Sep 13 02:20:37 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk already running, restarting
Sep 13 02:20:37 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk shutdown
Sep 13 02:20:37 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk shutdown failed, status = 71 (retrying)
Sep 13 02:20:38 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk shutdown
Sep 13 02:20:38 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk shutdown failed, status = 71 (retrying)
Sep 13 02:20:39 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk shutdown
Sep 13 02:20:39 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk startup complete
Sep 13 02:20:39 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk shutdown complete
Sep 13 02:20:39 localhost configd[89]: AppleTalk startup

Data are back-upped correctly, but in Time Machine mode the stacked panes are all black

I can access the files on the Time Capsule disk manually. After entering Time Machine mode the back-up dates and times are displayed correctly on the right side of the screen. But all panels are black, except the top one. (On all my computers.) Is this a known problem? Erasing the disk and starting over didn't help.

Tryagin wrote:
Wow. I spent all day researching and even spoke to Apple and didn't find that anywhere! Where did you come up with it? Yes it works, but I do have to mount the disk image, and then Time Machine sees all of my backups including the most recent. So there should be a way to make it see this as the regular time machine disk and save the extra steps, no?
Probably not.
Have you had any of the following lately: hardware repairs to your Mac (if so, what); done a full restore; gone several days without a successful backup; changed your System Name (via System Preferences > Sharing)?
Do you have a Time Capsule, or a USB drive attached to an Airport Extreme?
There's another thing you need to watch for. TM may not delete ("thin") the backups in the old set of backups, which means when it runs out of room, it may delete newer ones instead.
If none of your backups appear via +Enter Time Machine,+ you're probably ok. But if recent ones do, and older ones don't, you may not be.
To monitor this, Download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window.
Among other things, each deleted backup will be documented here. If the proper ones are being deleted, you're not going to have a problem. Note that many recent backups ("daily" backups) should be deleted after 24 hours, in accord with the schedule on the TM Preference panel.
More info on some of the common messages are in item 7 of the +Frequently Asked Questions+ post at the top of this forum.

HT201250 Does time machine compress the data in backup?

I have got to replace my internal hard drive so have to back up just everything to an ext drive.
When I use 'time machine' to back up to an external disk, does that disk have to be larger than the file size on my iMac?
Does Time machine compress the data?( eg will 1TB fit on a 500 gig external drive?)
Thanks

No, Time Machine doesn't compress the data. I recently started a new TIme Machine backup, and the first backup required the same amount of space as it was backing up (actually a little bit more during the backup process).

Having downloaded Mavericks to my IMac I now find Time Machine couldn't back up to the Time Machine HDD. I am using a WD 1TB independent Hard drive

Having downloaded Mavericks to my IMac two weeks ago, I now find Time Machine couldn't back up to the Time Machine HDD. I am using a WD 1TB External Hard drive. I understand that a number of people have lost data since installing Mavericks on their Western Digital external drives. Has anyone any futher info. Or is there a better way of backing up my computer. Thanks. Lee

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Side note: Seagate tech support is awesome; they tried everything to solve the problem, and they even bent their rules a little to send me a new drive, even though it wasn't a malfunction issue with their drive. Really helpful, friendly people, which is much more than I can say for Apple at this point...

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go to options again, plus sign, go to users, control +A then deselect your user account
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IMac freezes while Time Machine updates the back up. What to do?

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