Problem with Time Machine, running Snow Leopard

Hi all,
Last week I had a new hard drive fitted into my iMac 8,1, after which Snow Leopard was reloaded (10.6.3 from the disc, updated to 10.6.8), followed by the restoration of data via Time Machine from my external hard drive. Whilst my Mac is now running beautifully, I am having problems backing up with Time Machine.
When I run a backup, it prepares about 100,000 items, then starts to backup, usually about 650mb. It crawls along in kb until it gets to about 1mb, then jumps quickly to the end, but then it adds extra mb on the end. Then it suddenly starts again "preparing x items....." and off it goes again.
I have tried repairing the backup disc, and it appears to be ok. I even erased it and started again. Time Machine did a full backup (139gb) in about 2 hours, then immediately added another 640mb at the end - strange, but I do at least have a full backup from yesterday. But now, everytime I run backup, it looks for the same sort of figure (650-700mb) and then goes round in circles.
Any help would be very much appreciated!
Thanks, David

Hi Eric
Thank you for your reply. Here are the screenshots for each change:
Having prepared about 95,000 items, the backup of 612mb begins
14 minutes later a message appears
Another 3 minutes and another message. You will see from this screenshot that the backup figure has changed to 613.1mb
Another 30 seconds and it all begins again....
And finally, 7 more minutes pass, another 96,000 items are prepared, and another 604.8mb backup begins.
I might add, that between posting this morning, and your reply, I also went into disk utility, chose the top leve of the external drive, clicked on the partition tab, charged current to 1 partition, renamed the drive, erased it, and did a full back up of 139GB. After 137GB it started again, looked for 602mb, backed them up and finished the backup, which is why TM states that the last back up was at 18:16 today.
Thanks again
David

Similar Messages

Problem with Time Machine backup (Snow Leopard)

Hello everyone.
So today I was doing a backup and my external hard drive fell off the tabel and disconnected itself mid-back up. Now I am getting this error when I attempt to do the backup again,
"This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 349.79GB but only 319.30GB are available."
This is understandable, except for the fact that my HD on my MPB is only 320BG.
I tried look online and I read that I should try to reset Time machine by deleting the File, com.apple.TimeMachine.plist. I tried to look, but this file does not exist on my computer.
Does anyone have any ideas as how to fix this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

BDAqua wrote:
The great Pondini seems to be the resident TM master... I don't use it & consider it the worst Backup outside of no backup at all, but check this out...
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html
Hi,
Just for future reference, I've moved my site to http://pondini.org, since Apple is dropping web hosting in June.
Both sites are active now; after a few days, I'll put redirect notices on the old one, then leave it there until it goes "poof."

HT1277 Mail has gone crazy. Header's and messages are mixed up. New Mac Book Pro. Migrated files from Time machine running snow leopard. Reinstall or new computer needed?

Mail has gone crazy. Header's and messages are mixed up. New Mac Book Pro. Migrated files from Time machine running snow leopard. Reinstall or new computer needed?

Ok; I'm not sure what you're doing. 36 hours is rather long. Seems like a new migration. Not what I intended.
Here's what I intended: from the newly-migrated and apparently-corrupt environment, create a new user, not related to any existing user, nor any migration-created user, or any other user for that matter. That is, use  > System Preferences > Users and Groups, authenticate yourself by clicking on the padlock, and then click the + and create a wholly new user. Then log in under that user and establish the mail access.
36 hours? I'm wondering if there's an error or an exceedingly slow network here? Or a really, really slow disk? Or a sick backup? (WiFi isn't the path I'd usually choose, either.)
Failing the attempted second migration, I'd try a different tactic. Does your existing (old) system work? If so, I'd bypass the backup and connect an external (scratch) USB disk drive to the (old) sstem and then boot and use Disk Utility booted from the installer DVD disk or boot and use Disk Utility from the recovery partition or booted from a recovery partition created on some other external storage (details here vary by the OS X version and what hardware you have), and perform a full-disk backup of your original internal disk to (scratch) external storage. (Make sure you get the source and target disks chosen correctly here; copying the wrong way — from the scratch disk to your existing disk — will clobber your data!) In esssence, this will clone your existing boot disk. Then dismount the (formerly-scratch) external disk, transfer it over to the new system, and use it as the source of the migration, by performing a fresh OS X installation on the new system.
Target Disk Mode is also sometimes an option for accessing the disk for a migration, but that requires the right cable, and requires systems that have the same external connection; newer MacBook Pro systems use Thunderbolt for this, and older systems tend to use FireWire. And I'm guessing you don't have compatible hardware.
The details here can and do vary by your OS X versions and your particular Mac systems — if you'll identify the specific models and hardware, somebody might be able to better tailor the above (fairly generic) sequence to your particular configuration.

Backing up an encrypted drive with Time Machine under Snow Leopard

In a nutshell, my question is “Can I back up an encrypted drive using Time Machine under Snow Leopard, and if so, how do I access its data from a previous day?”
I have a 1Tb USB drive connected to my MacBook, which runs Snow Leopard. The drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This drive is included in the drives that Time Machine backs up. I used Disk Utility to create an encrypted drive on the USB drive (998Gb), also formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The encrypted drive is not on TimeMachine’s list of excluded files/drives.
When I go into Time Machine, I can see the USB drive and the encrypted drive in the side bar. I can access the files on the encrypted drive as long as I’m looking at how it stands now. But if I move backward in time, the encrypted drive is grayed out and inaccessible. If I click on the USB drive, I get a window that tells me it is 75.9Gb in size, and nothing else is available to me.
When I open the back-up drive in Finder and navigate to Backups.backupdb > macbook name > some date and time, I see my MacBook’s hard drive and the USB drive. The encrypted drive is not shown. When I click on the USB drive, I see an entry for drivename.sparsebundle. When I click on that I’m prompted for the password for the encrypted drive. When I enter it, I get a warning telling me that the disk image could not be opened and that the encrypted drive has no mountable file systems.
Is my encrypted drive really be backed-up and if so, how do I access the backed-up data?

Having received a bunch of views but no replies over the last 5 days, I decided to venture into my local Apple store and ask this same question. The response I got from the geniuses was that you can't get a reliable back-up of an encrypted drive using Time Machine under Snow Leopard. So, my only alternative is to copy the encrypted drive's contents elsewhere, unencrypt the drive, and then copy the contents back. This is what I expected, but not what I wanted to hear.

Restore from time machine running snow leopard

I just had my Seagate HD replaced due to a recall. Got my iMac back with the OS installed from apple and a clean machine. Trying to restore to my previous state through TM but it won't allow me to access the recovery promt upon startup. (Command+R) The only other option given was to run the OSX installer disk and go through the utilities option to restore by TM. It sounds like the computer starts reading the disk at startup but then just freezes at the gray screen with the apple logo. Any other alternatives or similar cases?

rkaufmann87 wrote:
I'd strongly recommend Pondini's Time Machine article called Restore Time Machine Backups.
I have followed that article but those methods are not working. As stated, it will not enter recovery mode upon startup so I can access Recovery HD. When I insert the disk as well as start it with C on startup it freezes at the gray apple screen.
Linc Davis wrote:
What version of OS X were you running before the recall?
Snow Leopard 10.6.8
They installed it back to the same version, however the install disk I have is for 10.5.6 if that makes a difference.

Trouble with Time Machine (runs constantly). Erase and install?

Trouble with Time Machine (runs constantly). Tried re-installation (equivalent of archive install) of Snow Leopard. Time Machine still unable to complete a back-up. Erase and install recommended at Genius Bar. Have backed up data to external HD using Super Duper. Should be a bootable backup. Last successful backup through Time Machine was 6/1/11. Not sure if I can access this back-up if I erase and re-install.
Computer shipped with Tiger (7/2007). Have original disks. Now running Snow Leopard. So: erase HD, install Tiger, then update to Snow Leopard? Start-up from Tiger disks does not appear to work (starting up holding "C" key). Suggestions? Want very much to transfer data to new iMac, but do not want to carry bugs forward. Very nervous about erasing HD. And have the questions above about reinstalling system software.
Advice desired! Thanks.

Well if you can hold option and boot off the Superdupes clone and it works fine then you should be set to do what you need to do to the original boot drive.
Disconnect all drives and c boot off the Snow Leopard install disk, use Disk Utility to Erase > format HFS+ journaled your internal boot drive.
Quit and reinstall OS X Snow Leopard, setup (do not use Setup/Migration Assitant!) and update to 10.6.8
When you setup the new install, use the same hard drive name and user name as you did before.
Now the free iLife that came on the Tiger disks you won't get naturally, but you can pick them off the disk with the shareware program called Pacifist.
install your programs from fresh sources, this way you don't get the "crap" from the older setup.
Once your machine is up and going. Hook up the clone and transfer your user folders over manually. With iTunes just replace the whole folder. Because you kept the same user and boot drive name as before, the playlists should be fine.
Once your all peachy, take the opportunity to clone this new setup to a external drive, label and disconnect.
Make another clone for day to day, or week to week clone updates and your just a hold option boot away for recovery.
You know Superdupes and Carbon Copy Cloner both have auto-scedualing/updating ability, so you can leave them plugged in and it will perform a update so your clone stays fresh and recent.
But you should keep a clone timed back about a couple of weeks back just in case you install something bad and don't learn about it right away.

HT1338 problems with time machine and parallels desktop, mac osx mountain lion 10.8

have a good day, i have been problems with time machine and parallels desktop, dont work in mac osx 10.8, i upgrate two mac´s (macbook air, imac), in the two machines shows problems, could you help me please.
two machines have good ram memory (macbook air 11.1 2010 early , imac 2009 late).
i am waiting for your help.
thanks.
Jesus.

Take a look here:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Specifically, you'll probably want to try item #A5 on that page, but there's a lot of other info there that may be useful.

Transfer time machine data (snow leopard) to new mb air (lion)

MB Pro died. How do I transfer external Time Machine backup (Snow Leopard) to new MB Air (Lion)?

Your best bet, by far, is to use Setup Assistant when your new Mac first starts up, to transfer your 3rd-party apps, user accounts, data, settings, etc. from the backups. See Using Setup Assistant on Lion for detailed instuctions.
If the backups are on a Time Capsule, get a USB-to-Ethernet connector, so you can do this via Ethernet -- it's 2-3 times faster, and much more reliable, than WIFIl.

Can I share my CD/DVD drive from my laptop running OS 10.4.11 with my MacPro running Snow Leopard?

Can I share my CD/DVD drive from my laptop running OS 10.4.11 with my MacPro running Snow Leopard?

Hi, no idea if this works in 10.4.x, but...
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2009012605560521
Might have a couple of other ideas if it doesn't.
Hmmmm, looks like 10.5.2 might be required for that, let me know...
http://www.mariasguides.com/2008/02/14/mac-os-x-1052-adds-dvd-or-cd-sharing/

Another problem with Time Machine

This is the second time I have experienced the following problem with Time Machine. After 2 months of backups it gets to a point where backups fail and I cannot enter time machine. In each instance I have only used 110GB of the 500GB space.
Is there a better solution to fixing this problem than deleting the sparsebundle? That seems to be the only way to get it to back up again.

backup is failing again:
Oct 28 08:39:58 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8307]: Starting standard backup
Oct 28 08:40:02 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8307]: FSMatchAliasBulk returned 0 while resolving alias to backup target
Oct 28 08:40:07 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8307]: Backup failed with error: 19
Oct 28 09:22:57 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Starting standard backup
Oct 28 09:22:58 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Network mountpoint /Volumes/MPTC not owned by backupd... remounting
Oct 28 09:22:59 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/MPTC-1
Oct 28 09:22:59 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Backup requested due to disk attach
Oct 28 09:23:28 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Disk image /Volumes/MPTC-1/MBA_001f5bd2c764.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of MBA
Oct 28 09:23:32 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of MBA/Backups.backupdb
Oct 28 09:23:32 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Backup requested due to disk attach
Oct 28 09:25:44 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 242.1 MB requested (including padding), 351.94 GB available
Oct 28 09:41:34 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Copied 990 files (72.4 MB) from volume MacBook Air HD.
Oct 28 09:41:35 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 159.6 MB requested (including padding), 351.94 GB available
Oct 28 09:44:09 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
Oct 28 09:46:13 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Copied 879 files (2.2 MB) from volume MacBook Air HD.
Oct 28 09:47:18 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Starting post-backup thinning
Oct 28 09:49:15 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of MBA/Backups.backupdb/MBA/2008-10-27-090710: 351.94 GB now available
Oct 28 09:50:46 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of MBA/Backups.backupdb/MBA/2008-10-27-061332: 351.94 GB now available
Oct 28 09:52:53 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of MBA/Backups.backupdb/MBA/2008-10-27-050805: 351.94 GB now available
Oct 28 09:52:53 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Post-back up thinning complete: 3 expired backups removed
Oct 28 09:52:53 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Backup completed successfully.
Oct 28 09:53:11 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8464]: Attempt to eject diskimage failed with status: -47, dissenting pid: 0
Oct 28 10:23:16 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8603]: Starting standard backup
Oct 28 10:23:19 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8603]: Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/MPTC-1
Oct 28 10:23:27 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8603]: Disk image /Volumes/MPTC-1/MBA_001f5bd2c764.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of MBA
Oct 28 10:23:27 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8603]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of MBA/Backups.backupdb
Oct 28 10:23:28 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8603]: Error: (-50) Creating directory 2008-10-28-102328.inProgress
Oct 28 10:23:28 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8603]: Failed to make snapshot container.
Oct 28 10:23:33 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8603]: Backup failed with error: 2
Oct 28 10:23:33 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8603]: Attempt to eject diskimage failed with status: -47, dissenting pid: 0
Oct 28 11:23:16 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8729]: Starting standard backup
Oct 28 11:23:16 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8729]: Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/MPTC-1
Oct 28 11:23:20 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8729]: Disk image /Volumes/MPTC-1/MBA_001f5bd2c764.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of MBA
Oct 28 11:23:20 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8729]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of MBA/Backups.backupdb
Oct 28 11:23:21 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8729]: Error: (-50) Creating directory 2008-10-28-112321.inProgress
Oct 28 11:23:21 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8729]: Failed to make snapshot container.
Oct 28 11:23:26 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8729]: Backup failed with error: 2
Oct 28 11:23:26 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8729]: Attempt to eject diskimage failed with status: -47, dissenting pid: 0
Oct 28 11:24:05 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8729]: Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Oct 28 11:24:11 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8747]: Backup requested by user
Oct 28 11:24:11 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8747]: Starting standard backup
Oct 28 11:24:11 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8747]: Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/MPTC-1
Oct 28 11:24:12 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8747]: Disk image /Volumes/MPTC-1/MBA_001f5bd2c764.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of MBA
Oct 28 11:24:12 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8747]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of MBA/Backups.backupdb
Oct 28 11:24:12 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8747]: Error: (-50) Creating directory 2008-10-28-112412.inProgress
Oct 28 11:24:12 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8747]: Failed to make snapshot container.
Oct 28 11:24:17 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8747]: Backup failed with error: 2
Oct 28 11:24:17 MBA /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8747]: Attempt to eject diskimage failed with status: -47, dissenting pid: 0

I am having problems with Time Machine and having enough space to finish my last back up.

I am having problems with Time Machine and having enough space to finish my last back up.

Take a look at this link, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

Time Machine and Snow Leopard installation problem

I'm trying to install Snow Leopard, but keep getting an error saying that my hard drive is used for time machin back ups. I have unplugged my external device, turned off time machine, yet this keeps happening. What am I doing wrong? I have been able to install Leopard on the computers that I haven't used time machine.

BusyChris18 wrote:
1) Do I have to do anything special with Time Machine BEFORE I install SL? I have been doing regular backups with TM.
Do a "final" backup and turn TM off.
2) should Time machine disc be off/disconnected when I do the install?
It's safest to eject and disconnect it, "just in case."
3) After I reconnect TM disc after SL install, do I have to "migrate" stuff from TM? OR will it just do a new backup and work like normal from that point forward.
If you do the normal install, there's no migration needed. 99.9 % of everything will be fine. In some rare cases of 3rd-party apps putting things in unusual places, there may be a problem, and you may need to re-enter some 3rd-party app purchase codes.
If you erase the drive, then install SL, then yes, of course, you'll have to transfer your data. There should be no reason to do that, but some folks seem to do it out of habit. If you do that, when your Mac boots up again, you can transfer your data from the TM backups. And if you do that, I'd strongly recommend making a separate full backup on a second external drive, again "just in case," preferably a "bootable clone." CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper are the most common. (There was a post here just last week where someone did this, the restore got to 99%, then BAM! the TM disk failed.)
TM backups should just continue normally, although there will almost certainly be a long "Calculating Changes" phase (used to be called "Preparing"). And they've added a progress bar, which doesn't seem to be particularly accurate.
However, it may try a new, full backup. If it does, cancel the backup and do a Restart. That may reset whatever confused it. If not, there's nothing you can do to prevent it.
4) Will I be able to access files that were backuped when I have just Leopard?
Yes.

Problems with Time Machine restore

Hi - am hoping someone can help me.
My laptop got stolen last week and I bought a new one yesterday. The old one was kind of messy - I'd had it for a while and had been living with some weird error messages and that sort of thing - so I only wanted to transfer certain files - photos, music, movies and a few documents - to the new one from Time Machine via an external hard drive.
I set up as a new user and chose to use Migration Assistant to transfer the files afterwards. It seemed to work fine but on closer inspection no files created after 2008 (ie any new music or photos) transferred. It's the photos I'm mostly worried about as I used Senuti on my iPod to recover the music and the video files were saved to the same external hard drive Time Machine was using but seem to be accessible. When I 'browse other Time Machine disks' and go into the last backup the Pictures folder has the little red minus/stop symbol on it, so I'm thinking it might be a permissions issue? I've tried restoring that folder but nothing changes.
I'm wondering if I need to go back to migration assistant and start again but transferring everything this time? Will that even make a difference? Am hoping the files aren't lost forever (I'm a mum)!
Please don't tell me how hopeless I am at all this or get narky - I know it and I'm already in a world of misery about the stolen mac and missing pics...

Supermonk61 wrote:
I recently had to do a restore all with time machine. I made sure everything was backed up before hand and ran the Leopard install disk. Went to utilities and did a restore all from time machine backup with no problem. Chose the date I wanted of March 24, 2009 and began running the restore which took about 2 hours. When everything came back up it seemed to have restored no problem but it used one of my backups from a year ago.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Why do you think it restored the wrong backup?

Problems with Time Machine Restore all

I recently had to do a restore all with time machine. I made sure everything was backed up before hand and ran the Leopard install disk. Went to utilities and did a restore all from time machine backup with no problem. Chose the date I wanted of March 24, 2009 and began running the restore which took about 2 hours. When everything came back up it seemed to have restored no problem but it used one of my backups from a year ago. I tried running a restore all again choosing a different date of March 23, 2009 and it keeps restoring to the random backup from a year ago. Has anyone else had a problem like this?

Supermonk61 wrote:
I recently had to do a restore all with time machine. I made sure everything was backed up before hand and ran the Leopard install disk. Went to utilities and did a restore all from time machine backup with no problem. Chose the date I wanted of March 24, 2009 and began running the restore which took about 2 hours. When everything came back up it seemed to have restored no problem but it used one of my backups from a year ago.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Why do you think it restored the wrong backup?

TIme Machine and Snow Leopard

I'm getting a problem. I updated to SL last week, backed up before I updated just in case. The update went without a hitch.
I went to do a weekly backup using Time Machine (I had turned off automatic backup under 10.5.x as it was taking over the machine and stopping me working), but could not get it to go past 40Mb before it stalled. This has happenned constantly. When I look at Timemachine none of the previous back-up records are there, and my Finder now seems to crash too.
I am getting really fed up with Time Machine. It is nearly as bad as a Windows experience, and now with this new OS upgrade it will not work at all.
I'd appreciate some word from Apple admitting to a problem.

Philip Grifffiths wrote:
I'm getting a problem. I updated to SL last week, backed up before I updated just in case. The update went without a hitch.
I went to do a weekly backup using Time Machine (I had turned off automatic backup under 10.5.x as it was taking over the machine and stopping me working), but could not get it to go past 40Mb before it stalled. This has happenned constantly. When I look at Timemachine none of the previous back-up records are there, and my Finder now seems to crash too.
Start with the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip.*
It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it.
If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup (especially the destination for the backups), what you've done, and the results.
It sounds like you were having problems on Leopard, too, so it's unclear just what started when.
I am getting really fed up with Time Machine. It is nearly as bad as a Windows experience, and now with this new OS upgrade it will not work at all.
I'd appreciate some word from Apple admitting to a problem.
Then you need to talk to Apple, not us: this is a user-to-user forum. Call AppleCare, and be sure to tell them what you've done to diagnose and solve your problem, since it doesn't appear to be widespread.

Problem with Time Machine, running Snow Leopard

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for