OS upgrade= Time Machine data loss

I up graded from 10.6 to 10.8 and 2 years of time machine back up went away. Is this normal? Can lost Time Machine data be recovered? 1.5 Tb drive in Time Machine

Time Machine is not an archival backup. It keeps backups of what is currently on the volumes it is backing up. If you delete a file off of your hard drive, at some point, Time Machine may delete the backup copy of that file to make room for backups of what is there. If you don't run out of space, it may never delete them, but you shouldn't depend on it.
If you are archiving those files on other hard drives, and Time Machine is backing up those drives, then it will always keep a backup of those files that are on the other drives.
You shoul always keep at least two copies of your important data files, each on separate backups. So, if you archived the files to other drives, you need at least one backup of that drive, along with at least one backup of your internal hard drive.
If you want an archival backup, you might consider a second backup system like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper, or one of the other backup options. They will make an exact copy of your drive, then add changes as incremental backups. Everything that ever was on your Mac will still be in those backups. But, keep in mind that backup may contain the only copy of the files you are deleting off your Mac, so you would only have one copy of those files.
It sounds like you are moving those files to other disks, so that is good. But, if you are not backing up those drives, you don't really have a backup of those files.

Similar Messages

How can I remove all Time Machine data from an external HD, while retaining the other folders/files on the disk?

I recently replaced my old Macbook Pro with a new Macbook Pro Retina.
The original MBP had Time Machine set up on an external HD, and I also had some manually saved/backed up files (stuff that didn't need incremental backups; very old stuff) on the disk as well, in folders. This worked fine and well for the life of the original MBP.
When I set up the MBPr, I did not elect to transfer everything over from a Time Machine disk, as I wanted a Fresh Install; I chose to just re-download/install the apps I needed from the App Store. Much cleaner, more stable. I updated to Yosemite immediately so, it gave me more of a clean install.
The problem is, Time Machine now won't read any Time Machine backups from that disk. Migration assistant can pull data from it, but it's a bit wonky. It was easier to just manually copy over what I needed.
Now, I just want to "reset", and completely remove the old Time Machine data from the external hard drive, since it is completely useless to me now (I can't access it on this computer, and it's taking up space). I want to remove the Time Machine data, as if it were never there, but keep my other folders/files that are on the disk (so, a format is not feasible).
I will then set the disk up as a new, fresh Time Machine disk for the new MBPr.
What is the proper method for removing Time Machine data from an external disk (which doesn't seem to be associated with this machine anyway)? I know a simple rm -rf will cause problems.
Thanks for any help provided.

See the yellow box in #12 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Time Machine Data Transfer - From FireWire Drive to Time Capsule - HELP!

Time Machine Data Transfer - From FireWire Drive to Time Capsule - HELP!
I've been searching for weeks for a solution to my problem. Here's the story I've come across since I installed Leopard on Oct. 26, 2007.
I first installed Leopard on my Early 2006 MacBook and set up Time Machine with a 200GB external FireWire drive. Since then, things have been fine, until Time Machine started deleting the oldest backups. I'm a pack-rat and hated this feeling of losing data. So, I now have a few months worth of backups on my 200GB FireWire drive.
The Time Capsule is released, I finally talk myself into getting one and transferring my old data from the 200GB drive to my 1TB TC.
I did some researching through forums about how to move data from one Time Machine drive to another, so I took the concept and wanted to apply it to my Time Capsule. I made a DMG image of my 200GB drive, in order to move the data. I figured if I can make an image, copy it, and open it on the Time Capsule - all will go smoothly - just as some had mentioned they've done with external drives.
Now, I have a 164GB DMG image of my Time Machine, with no hope in sight of gaining it back. I've tried taking the image, using Disk Utility, and restoring my original 200GB external with the imaged Time Machine data, but whenever I do, I come across error messages.
In Disk Utility, I've done the following steps:
* Disk Image is found on Time Capsule
* I select the 200GB drive and select 'Restore'
* I drag and drop the Disk Image to the 'Image' field
* I drag and drop the 200GB drive into the the 'Restore' field
* Select 'Erase Destination'
* Select 'Restore'
* I get the warning message that I'll erase the drive - I proceed
* I enter my password
Error message pops up:
"Restore Failure: Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned/scanned for restore."
I select the image in Disk Utility, then proceed with the following steps:
* Click on "Image" then down to "Scan Image for Restore"
* I enter my password
After hours of waiting, I get another error message:
"Unable to scan. (Broken pipe)."
I'm going to see, after transferring the DMG to the Time Capsule, if I can drag-and-drop the files from the Time Capsule drive onto the 200GB hard drive.
IF anyone has any more suggestions, please let me know!

32 updates on this Mac since December 2007 - Hardware, software, OS...
They keep coming at about 6 or 7 a month. Some of them I don't care about, but several are essential. 10.5.3 has been seeded to the testers a couple of times and will probably show up in the next few weeks. Jaguar wasn't worth a d*mn until 10.2.6, Panther about 10.3.4, Tiger about 10.4.4 - I'd say we are ahead or on schedule Too bad I can't get Apple to fix Spaces. I wish they'd focus on what I want but I guess some take more time than others.
2007-12-18 00:32:39 -0800: Installed "GarageBand Update" (4.1.1)
2007-12-18 00:32:43 -0800: Installed "QuickTime Broadcaster" (1.5.2)
2007-12-18 00:33:07 -0800: Installed "Security Update 2007-009" (1.0)
2007-12-18 00:33:29 -0800: Installed "QuickTime" (7.3.1)
2007-12-19 09:32:03 -0800: Installed "MacBook MacBook Pro Software Update" (1.1)
2007-12-23 23:57:32 -0800: Installed "Security Update 2007-009" (1.1)
2008-01-16 09:18:07 -0800: Installed "iMovie Update" (7.1.1)
2008-01-16 09:18:14 -0800: Installed "Front Row Update" (2.1.2)
2008-01-16 09:18:45 -0800: Installed "iTunes" (7.6)
2008-01-16 09:19:31 -0800: Installed "QuickTime" (7.4)
2008-01-29 21:33:14 -0800: Installed "Keynote Update" (4.0.2)
2008-01-29 21:33:23 -0800: Installed "Pages Update" (3.0.2)
2008-01-29 21:33:31 -0800: Installed "Numbers Update" (1.0.2)
2008-02-02 01:18:43 -0800: Installed "iWeb Update" (2.0.3)
2008-02-05 20:12:17 -0800: Installed "iPhoto Update" (7.1.2)
2008-02-15 09:03:49 -0800: Installed "iLife Support" (8.2)
2008-02-15 09:04:17 -0800: Installed "QuickTime" (7.4.1)
2008-02-15 09:04:51 -0800: Installed "Leopard Graphics Update" (1.0)
2008-02-19 23:44:37 -0800: Installed "Keyboard Firmware Update" (1.0)
2008-02-25 19:24:33 -0800: Installed "iTunes" (7.6.1)
2008-03-03 17:14:18 -0800: Installed "GarageBand Update" (4.1.2)
2008-03-03 17:14:31 -0800: Installed "iPhoto Update" (7.1.3)
2008-03-12 18:11:36 -0700: Installed "AirPort Utility" (5.3.1)
2008-03-18 10:03:57 -0700: Installed "Safari" (3.1)
2008-03-20 13:00:58 -0700: Installed "Security Update 2008-002" (1.0)
2008-03-20 13:01:04 -0700: Installed "Time Machine and AirPort Updates" (1.0)
2008-03-21 22:49:16 -0700: Installed "Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update" (2.0)
2008-04-03 00:50:22 -0700: Installed "Front Row Update" (2.1.3)
2008-04-03 00:50:50 -0700: Installed "QuickTime" (7.4.5)
2008-04-03 00:51:58 -0700: Installed "iTunes" (7.6.2)
2008-04-08 17:16:02 -0700: Installed "Keynote Update" (4.0.3)
2008-04-08 17:16:08 -0700: Installed "MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update" (1.5)

How to restore my time machine data

well apparently it restored my applications and took up almost 40GBs but my mac still doesnt look like my previous one which i just replace today , so how do i restore my computer back to its old time machine data and get my GB's that were wasted back ?

I would recommend a couple of things to help you. First is complete your profile we have no idea what machine you have or the OS X version you're using. Because we don't know that no one can accurately give you any information. Next I'd recommend going to the Time Machine FAQ that is located in the version of OS X you are using. If you are on Leopard, go to that forum, if your are on Snow Leopard go to that forum. TM is part of OS X so it's logical the forums are part of the OS X section.
My last recommendation is to read the TM FAQ where you will learn more about how it works.
Roger

Move old time machine data

Hi all
I want to move a large amount (about 150GB) of old time machine data from one external hard drive to another so I can use the hard drive for other things. The time machine data is not part of my current time machine backup but an old one (from the same computer) that might come in handy one day
When I try to copy it tells me that I have 13 hours to go. I would like some ways to copy/move the data so that it the copy is interrupted I can resume at the same place.
Any ideas
Thanks
Kevin

soccerdad0071 wrote:
Hi all
I want to move a large amount (about 150GB) of old time machine data from one external hard drive to another so I can use the hard drive for other things. The time machine data is not part of my current time machine backup but an old one (from the same computer) that might come in handy one day
When I try to copy it tells me that I have 13 hours to go.
That sounds terribly long, depending on the speed and connection of the drives involved. If they're daisy-chained, or both on the same USB hub, try connecting them separately (and both directly, if at all possible). If either is USB, be sure it's connected directly to your Mac, not a port on a keyboard.
Also exclude the drive you're copying TO from Spotlight indexing (System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy), and both from any anti-virus scanning.
I would like some ways to copy/move the data so that it the copy is interrupted I can resume at the same place.
No way. A set of Time Machine backups is like a database -- the backups are all intricately linked together, so can't be copied in stages.
Do you really need all the backups, or just the final one? If just the final one, try restoring it (to the new drive instead of your Mac's internal HD), per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

I have bought a time capsule to use as time machine device. Until now I have used a external hard disk. How can I transfer the the old time machine datas to the time capsule?

I have bought a time capsule to use as time machine device. Until now I have used a external hard disk. How can I transfer the the old time machine datas to the time capsule?

This is really difficult to the point of not really worth it.
Keep the old TM backups in archive.. and start afresh on the TC.
Time Machine has a different way of backing up on Network drives cf Local drives.
Pondini does have a method to do it... but I would not recommend it.
http://pondini.org/TM/18.html

Migrating Time Machine data to Synology NAS

I have a new Synology NAS and want to migrate my existing Time Machine data from a Western Digital external USB drive.
I have set up the Synology shared folder for Time Machine and it appears as an option in Time Machine settings. But I do not want to start over with Time Machine backups and want to reclaim the external drive used for Time Machine today.
Any advice?

I was actually get things up and working towards the end of January. Somebody replied with the link below to one of the forums I posted to. Since I was already using SuperDuper, I had what I needed.
Here's the link I used, making a couple of adjustments for Mavericks.
http://www.unlikelywords.com/2009/01/05 ... e-capsule/
I had not seen this article on my many searches.
I have things now working...finally. Though I'm not using Time Capsule, I'm using Synology, I followed the spirit of the post and was able to figure things out along the way. And it took a short 45 hours to move nearly 1TB of data to the NAS. I now have TM backing up to the NAS which has all of the backups which go back to May 2010.
Good Luck!!

Loss of Time Machine data after SuperDuper! backup on replaced internal HD

Hello everyone...
The internal HD on my 20" iMac went rubber side up. It was replaced at the Apple Store as I have AppleCare.
I had the system backed up on SuperDuper! After running SuperDuper! all went fine and I found that when I opened Time Machine that ALL my past saves over a number of months were listed. However, none contain any data. Empty files in other words.
Since the data is saved on an external LaCie HD, and the folders are shown I am a bit puzzled. Would someone kindly clue me in on what is going on? Many thanks!!!!!!

It's probable that nothing is listed because your new system doesn't have the same computer named. Open Sharing preferences and change the Computer Name to that used when the backup was made. Also be sure you reselect the TM backup drive in TM preferences.
Your data should all be on the backup drive, but looking at it in the Finder will only reveal the symbolic links to the actual data stored elsewhere on the backup drive. As for restoring from the TM backup see: Mac OS X 10.5 Help- Recovering items using Time Machine and Spotlight and Mac OS X 10.5 Help- Restoring files backed up with Time Machine.
Since you have restored your system from your SuperDuper clone the easiest thing to do if changing the computer name and reselecting the TM backup drive does not reassociate your TM backup is to erase the TM backup drive and start a fresh backup.

Can I transfer Time Machine data from two separate hard drives into one new one?

I'm using a MacBook Pro as my primary computer. My 500 gig Time Capsule filled up a year or so ago, so I stopped using it with Time Machine for awhile so I could keep the data from those old back-ups. There were a number of things I deleted from my computer's very limited hard drive after they were backed up to the Time Capsule. I got a 1T external USB drive last year to use as my "filing Cabinet" to store files I didn't necessarily need all the time or that were filling up my small laptop hard drive--including my iTunes library--all organized in a way that made it relatively easy for me to find what I needed, even if I didn't remember exactly when I'd filed it or what I'd called it. I got another 1 terabyte external (portable) drive last July and dedicated it to TimeMachine backups and labeled it "TimeMachine".
Over the last couple of weeks, my friend has been helping me upgrade to Yosemite and clean up my laptop hard drive. Last week he cloned my laptop hard drive to a new 1T hard drive and I exchanged it for my old drive in my computer today. All good.
Here's the issue. We replaced my Time Capsule hard drive with a 1 terabyte drive with the idea of transferring the data from the old Time Capsule (500G) drive and the newer USB 1T "TimeMachine" compact drive to the new 1T Time Capsule drive and beginning using the latter for my Time Machine backups going forward. Originally he thought we could copy everything from each of my external drives (the old 500gig drive from my Time Capsule, the USB "TimeMachine" drive I've been using since July, and the "file cabinet" files) to my computer in their own folders and then start regular TimeMachine backups to the new Time Capsule drive, thus preserving all my old data and making regular backups going forward. The "file cabinet" data was no problem at all, but when I tried to copy my USB "TimeMachine" data to my computer, I was unable to. My friend found instructions for transferring old TimeMachine data to a new TimeCapsule, but I don't know if I can transfer the data from two separate disks to the new TimeCapsule drive. I'm afraid that one set of data will supersede the other and either my newer backups or my old ones will be lost if I try to transfer both.
Are my fears justified or is there a way to insure that no such problem will occur? Of course, my data will still be on those two older drives, but that won't do me a lot of good if I can't access it when I need to. Also, the 1T drive now belongs to my friend; he used a brand new drive he'd bought for himself for my new internal hard drive and plans to take my 1T "TimeCapsule" drive in exchange, once the data has been transferred, so he will, of course, erase that drive.

Should we be able to bring up the old (500G) Time Capsule Drive to rename it using a SATA to FireWire harness and then copy the whole thing to the new Time Capsule drive?
You can copy a whole sparsebundle from one drive to another. That is not a problem. Whether you can access the sparsebundle is something you should test before you even start though.
If it's on the Desktop and I don't tell Time Machine to exclude it from backups, will it just automatically back it up?
All drives you plug into the Mac are excluded by default.. you must include them. So no problems there.. but I hope I am understanding the question.
Will both volumes or directories (which is the right term?) show up when I open Time Machine?
No, Time Machine will only open what it is told to open... or its backup default location.
You can force Time Machine to open alternative/old/no longer used backups by (now I have a problem as things have changed somewhat in Yosemite and I consider it alpha release software at this point in time). The old method was to right click on the TM icon and select a different TM backup. easy. Yosemite seems to have made easy stuff harder.
Here it is on my current computer.. clearly not Yosemite.. Right click on the TM icon in the dock.. select Browse Other Time Machine Disks.. And supply the info of where that is located. Easy. If you cannot figure it out one of the other posters here (with more patience than me for Yosemite) will help you.
Or will we have to partition the new drive somehow--is that even possible?
I am getting more lost as I go down the list.. but the TC disk cannot be partitioned.
If you have included all those USB drives in the new backup on a Time a Time Capsule.. you have made life rather hard because now your files are stored another layer deeper than they were.
So to open a file from a disk you need to open the sparsebundle.. then dig down to the drive in question and then dig down to the backup.. and all of this means Time Machine has to work perfectly which is Yosemite is a very big ask.
I thought you wanted to just backup your old drives to central location.. which means copying the files to a separate folder on the Time Capsule.
One correction I need to make to my post, which will make my strategy make a bit more sense: my new Time Capsule drive is 4T
It makes it much harder.. and I have to pose a real question of long term .. if you have put a 4TB drive in a Gen1 TC.. did you also replace its power supply because I can assure you the drive might be ok but the TC itself will not last forever.. and what happens when it dies. The Gen1 power supply is already well beyond its normal life span and the vast majority are dead. When the backup device is unreliable and the backups on it are made that much harder to get access to.. is this a great plan??
If you are going to consolidate all your old files on one disk.. a task I find understandable. I have done much the same albeit the usefulness of files made on emac running OS9 may be questioned. A disk lying in the bottom of a draw is a more appropriate place for them.
You want those files as easily accessible as possible (at the point of recovery) and not buried inside a sparsebundle.. particularly not a sparsebundle from the old TC disk buried inside a new sparsebundle.. keep files as accessible as possible as you can run searches.. and that is best done on a USB 3 (or faster ie thunderbolt) drive plugged into a new(ish) computer.. not network. And since the files are not being accessed on a daily/weekly or even monthly or yearly basis.. keeping them in actively running TC network storage.. I would say is a waste of space. That is only my opinion of course.. you might consider it highly important that files you will never look at are available any time of day or night when the urge comes to track down that elusive pimpernel email you sent 10 years ago... but I find it hard to justify. What the case.. the problem with TM and things like Mail is you cannot search it.. you must restore the whole library/files/program even before you can access it.. that makes file recovery out of a sparsebundle double step process.
So.. summary.
If you want to store files on the 4TB drive in the TC.. that is not a great strategy but it can work.. simply create a folder named.. OldFilesEMac for instance.. and do a simple copy and paste of all the file to that location. Do not use TM.. Since you have already used TM.. and from what I am reading you have already done the backup with the external drives included.. then you are going to end up needing to erase the TC and start over.. which you may not be prepared to do.. which is fair enough. (I am coming across as overbearing school master.. apologies).
TM is to backup your main OS and current files.. not files from 10-20years ago.
Please do read the issues involved in Pondini..
See his FAQ. I recommend you read through Q14-17 so you understand what is involved in recovery.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I also recommend you read the first couple of articles here. http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
Particularly so you understand the complexity of Time Machine.
And the articles here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Particularly Q3 on mixing data and backups on a TC.
I wish I could spend an hour or two face to face and work it out.. the whole strategy to do this.. !!

Will it work to recover from a Time machine data backed up under Snow Leopard?

Hello,
Mine a Mac Book Air that has 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and RAM: 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3.
I have time machine back up on an external HD.
Once I install the Lion os, would I be able to use the backed up data under Snow Leopard to an external HD if any eventualities on a later date? Data such as photos in Aperture library or folders with Mac version of Windows Office 2008.
[The time mechine backed up data was under Snow Leopard and my Mac Book Air now has the Lion OS]
I understand as soon as I upgraded to Lion I should create a new back up with time mechine but in case if that is not done......
I hope your understand What I mean..
Regards

What you propose should work. There could be problems with data for applications such as Mail where the application version and format of the data changed in Lion.

After Mavericks upgrade Time Machine isn't Backing up anything

Hi Folks,
after being a happy newly upgraded Imac (late2010) to OS X Mawericks, in the last days I'm angry because I'm not able to obtain a valid backup with Time Machine on a 1TB Time Capsule.
Since the middle of last week something happened and backups do NOT finish, time machine hangs for hours.
I get weird results and reponses from what I see on time machine preferences screen.
It starts backing up let's say 180MB, the first 100MB are saved in a reasonable time,then the amount of data that needs to be saved increases to maybe 212MB
but the amount of what is already being saved reaches for ex. 130MB then everything is slowing down... Time to finish backup is to be calculated again and there it stays... Hangin for hours, days... Sometimes finally time machine gives an error saying backup couldn't be completed.
I've tried also to connect timecapsule via ethernet cable, (thinking of a wifi problem) same things happen!!!
Tried to delete whole time capsule backup (anyway no valid backups are shown also older ones from a later date than Mavericks update).
Tried yesterday a disk check with disk utility over wifi and the TC disk is perfect!!
Today I want to try with a USB direct attached Disk, but I have a feeling the problem isn't the HD.
I was looking also for clearing Time Machine Cache, DB or something like that.
I'm worried that something would happen to my internal disk during this time with no backup!!!
Any clue, advice or things to test??
Will be apreciated.
Marcel

Update!
Bought an USB Disk to backup and it Worked! ...at least I have a Backup.
I left Timecapsule inside TimeMachiine configuration to be used alternating with USB disk and doing Backup, unfortunately there no Backup has finished. Most of the times I've needed to stop since it was hanging, some other times I've got an error Message.

How do I move my Time Machine data to another hard drive?

I have a WD Passport 250 external that I want to move my current TM data out of, and put in my new WD My Book 1TB. I tried moving over the Backups.backupdb file directly to a new whatever partition on my 1TB drive (I have two partitions, one for TM and one for whatever). Every time I do a copy and paste, it doesn't do anything. I can't even rename the Backups.backupdb folder. Is it locked? I want to move it over to my 1TB drive so I can format this Passport and use it for something else.

Fine - if you wish to use Apple's DU feel free to do so. However, you might ask yourself why Apple does not expose the DU's feature in its Time Machine Help docs for restoring a TM volume to another volume.
SuperDuper! version 2.5 was a long time coming because dealing with the Time Machine 'innards' was a non trivial task. It now works perfectly.
Do not assume that DU and the TM innards will always be in sync.
SD! is dedicated to ensure its customer base has a robust, reliable and up-to-date facility for cloning a TM volume which by the way can be on the same Volume as a cloned boot disk/volume.

Time machine data recovery from a Raw disk

Hi everyone!
I have been backing up my data on an external HDD with time machine. The HDD is 1TB and I needed some storage space to back up some other files form work, so I created a partition. After creating the partition the HDD became RAW, so I was not able to read files from my MacBook Pro. Between Ubuntu and Mac I have been able to access the information in the HDD but I can't find Pictures and Music which is the only information I need to recover. I need help please, if anyone knows a way to find my pictures, I will really appreciated, those are my live pictures.Thanks.

I forgot to mention that my Pictures were store in iPhoto and my music in iTunes

Time Machine - data to back up keeps on increasing as it's backing up!

Apologies if this has been asked and answered before, but I couldn't find anything on it when I searched.
I want to install Mavericks on my iMac, currently running 10.8.5, but before I do so, I want to do an up-to-date Time Machine backup.
I already had Time Machine set to back up to an external 1TB drive, but after several versions of backups over the past few months, and also me adding and creating several GBs of new data on my iMac, Time Machine ran out of space to do any more backups to the external HD.
So to be safe, before the Mavericks install, I wanted a fresh new up-to-date backup of all my data. I did a quick erase of the external HD to clear the space on it, and also deleted quite a few GBs of unnecessary data on the iMac. After that, I had 999GB of free space on the external HD and just 850-ish GB of data on the iMac to backup. So I set my Time Machine to run, and watched it start backing up... 1GB of 850GB... 2GB of 850GB... 3GB of 850GB... And so on. All going as expected. No problems there.
So then I leave my Mac to get on with it, as it estimates it's going to take several hours.
After the estimated time has passed, I come back to see if it's done, but to my surprise, the progress bar is now reading something along the lines of 850GB of 900GB. Where did the extra 50GB come from to take it up to 900GB?
Worse still, as I sit and watch it continue, it progresses along the lines of 860GB of 920G (60GB remaining), then 870GB of 940GB (now 70GB remaining), then 880GB of 960GB (now 80GB remaining) and so on.
So not only is the total amount increasing for some bizarre reason, but it's also increasing faster than it's backing up!
What on earth is going on here?!
It may be worth mentioning that I originally tried doing this with approx 900GB of data to back up to the external 1TB disk, and a similar thing happened, but when I came back to check on that a couple of hours after it was due to complete, I came back to see an error message stating that Time Machine could not do the backup because it needed an additional 100mb of space. Just 100mb, that's all.
After that error, I removed approx 50GB, way more than 100mb, and got my data down to 850GB before starting this again. But the same thing is happening. The total amount just keeps on increasing and increasing and increasing as it progresses!
It's worth noting that I am not doing ANYTHING else on my Mac whilst this is running that would take up data / disk space. No apps are running at all.
Can anyone please tell me what's going on here, and more importantly, how can I fix it?
Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestions.
I am aware that you can turn Time Machine on and off completely via the preferences, but that basically defeats the purpose of having a "set and forget" backup. Especially since Time Machine specifically includes an option to not backup when on battery power.
I'll try the "full reset" option described in the link to see if that helps.

Since upgrade, Time Machine starts and stalls. Waited 24 hours. Formatted disk-no change.

Since upgrade to Mavericks on Mini, Time Machine starts and stalls. Says "292 Mb of 147.68 Gb", wheel spins. Waited 24 hours, no change. Formatted disk-no change. Tried every solution found in threads; no fix. Doing manual backups. Help!

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 that corresponds to an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showning, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. 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 to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
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.

OS upgrade= Time Machine data loss

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