Post-restore Time Machine/bundle backup problem

Earlier this week the HD in my iMac died. I had the drive replaced and performed a full restore from my Time Machine backup. The four hour restore went fine.
The next day I turned Time Machine back on. I expected it would want to perform a complete backup of the restored machine. It appeared to start okay, calculating changes and deleting old backups. But then it started doing that in a loop: checking changes, deleting backups, cleaning up, checking changes, deleting backups, etc. After about five cycles I just left work and let it do its thing. Twelve hours later when I got home it still hadn't done a backup, and appeared to be stuck in 'deleting old backups.' So I went ahead and stopped Time Machine.
Now, if I turn TM on or initiate a manual backup, it checks for changes, spends a long time at 99% during that process, then eventually unmounts the bundle, goes to cleaning up, and then hangs there until I manually stop it.
I've tried disk utility, but anytime the backup bundle is mounted, Disk Utility locks up with the spinning beach ball before I ever get to drag the bundle into the window and try to verify/repair.
Any suggestions? At this point I'd be fine erasing the entire bundle and starting new backups from scratch, but I'm not sure how to properly "reset" Time Machine, and of course I can't the bundle to appear in Disk Utility.

blevenstein wrote:
Earlier this week the HD in my iMac died. I had the drive replaced and performed a full restore from my Time Machine backup. The four hour restore went fine.
The next day I turned Time Machine back on. I expected it would want to perform a complete backup of the restored machine. It appeared to start okay, calculating changes and deleting old backups. But then it started doing that in a loop: checking changes, deleting backups, cleaning up, checking changes, deleting backups, etc.
Yes, that cycle could go on for a very long time. Assuming the TC's disk was near full, TM would have to delete a whole lot of backups to make room for a new full backup. Unfortunately, it has to mount the sparse bundle, delete a single backup, dismount the sparse bundle, compact it, then mount it again to see if it's made enough room. The word "excruciating" isn't enough!
Now, if I turn TM on or initiate a manual backup, it checks for changes, spends a long time at 99% during that process, then eventually unmounts the bundle, goes to cleaning up, and then hangs there until I manually stop it.
It's probably still deleting old backups, although it's possible there's one that it can't delete, and is stuck on it.
I've tried disk utility, but anytime the backup bundle is mounted, Disk Utility locks up with the spinning beach ball before I ever get to drag the bundle into the window and try to verify/repair.
That does sound like the sparse bundle is now hopelessly corrupted.
Any suggestions? At this point I'd be fine erasing the entire bundle and starting new backups from scratch, but I'm not sure how to properly "reset" Time Machine, and of course I can't the bundle to appear in Disk Utility.
First, of course, turn TM "off" via TM Preferences.
If there's nothing else on the TC's disk, erase it. Use the +*Airport Utility+* app, in your Applications/Utilities folder. Select +*Base Station > Manual Set-Up+* from the Menubar, then Disks in the tool Bar, then Erase.
If there's other stuff there that you want to keep, and can't copy elsewhere temporarily, just delete the sparse bundle via the Finder.
Then you should be able to turn TM back on and have it start fresh (I'd strongly recommend connecting your Mac to the TC via an Ethernet cable to speed up the initial backup, if at all possible). If there's a problem, you can try the "reset" procedure in #A4 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.

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