Six months later: still cannot get Time Capsule to back up my PowerBooks

Question

I have a 500g TC and two Powerbook G4 (Al) computers. I have the same problem with both computers. I reinitialize the TC disk ("Erase" in the Airport Utility) then do an initial backup over hardwired Ethernet. Both PBs have about 60GB of data on them. The initial backups take the expected 12-18 hours. Thereafter, the automatic Time Machine backups work for about 3-5 days, then they stop. Time Machine gets into the "Preparing Backup" state and stays there for hours (I give up after 24 hours).
I tried turning off TM and doing the backups manually (selecting "Backup Now" from the TM menu). That has the same problem, although it takes longer to appear.
I have no reinitialized my TC disk 5 times and had the same problem 5 times.
I have turned off Spotlight indexing of the backup disk and of the PB disk. That has not helped.
Can anyone suggest anything to get this to work?

Answer 1

Rob & tubwreck,
Thanks for the redirect. However, I have already revised that info with new data. See below...
*_Spotlight And Time Machine_*
*Runaway MDS Process*
For Spotlight searching to work, it needs to have metadata. Every time a file is created, modified or deleted, the system notifies Spotlight that it needs to update the meta-data store (mds). First, Spotlight (mdworker) seizes the file, determines its’ type, and then assigns an appropriate importer (mdimport).
While some bits of metadata (modification dates, file type, path name) are easy to gather, most of the interesting data is embedded inside the file. To gather this embedded information Spotlight must use an importer (mdimport), a small plug-in that extracts information from files created by various applications. Each file type has its’ own importer. For instance there are unique Spotlight importers for JPEG, MP3, Word, PDF files and so on.
It’s the importer’s responsibility to read the data file and construct a dictionary that contains the appropriate metadata. When finished, the dictionary is delivered to Spotlight (mdworker), which then updates the meta-data store (mds). The original file is then released to the system to complete the originally intended action.
Ordinarily, this process is virtually instantaneous and invisible to the user. At times, however, it can hang, or loop causing Spotlight (mdworker) and the meta-data store (mds) to monopolize the CPU and interfere with other system events like Time Machine backups. The Console logs may report the following over and over again for perhaps hundreds of times.
+“mds(32): (Error) Import: importer:0x8f8c00 Importer start failed for 503”+
Eventually, the Time Machine backup may fail with the Console logs reporting
+“Indexing a file failed” / “Copy stage failed with error: 11”.+
Or a backup may be completely stalled in midstream, never seaming to end.
Go to Applications --> Utilities folder and launch Activity Monitor.
Clicking the “Process Name” column and scrolling down to the “m”s will reveal that one or all of the Spotlight components (mds, mdworker, mdimport) is maxing out your CPU.
Highlight “mds” and click “Quit Process” in the toolbar.
In the dialoge box that appears click “Quit”.
Enter our Admin password and click “OK”
The stalled backup should now resume and complete. If not, choose “Stop Backing Up” from the Time Machine menu or click the tiny “x” icon in the Time Machine Preferences. When the backup has completely stopped, select “Backup Now” from the Time Machine menu.
*Waiting for index to be ready (909 > 0)*
One of the processes Time Machine relies on for accurate backups is the indexing of the backup disk. With this index, Time Machine can quickly search the backup disk for files the user wishes to restore. When a routine backup begins, often the “Preparing…” stage will include a phase that permits Spotlight to update its’ index of the backup disk. Momentarily the Spotlight icon in the menu bar will pulsate and the Console logs will report “Waiting for index to be ready”. Generally, this phase is so quick that the user is unaware that it occurred.
Unfortunately, this phase can hang thus preventing Time Machine from completing a backup. During this period, the Spotlight icon will continuously pulsate. Clicking on the Spotlight icon will reveal a progress bar with no estimate of the remaining time or it will indicate many hours of indexing still remains. The Console logs will continually report “Waiting for index to be ready”.
Ordinarily, Spotlight indexing is a good thing. And at times, if an index has become corrupt or untrustworthy, Spotlight will require a period of time to rebuild the index. If it has only been a couple of hours then let the process continue. However, if it has been many hours, and the Spotlight menu progress bar still does not indicate an estimated time of completion, then things have hung. You will need to force Spotlight to clear its’ indexes and re-catalogue all volumes. [http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2409]
*Force Spotlight to Rebuild Indexes*
Go to System Preferences --> Time Machine.
Using the slider on the left, turn OFF Time Machine backups for now.
Next, click “Show All” in the toolbar.
Select the Spotlight Preferences.
Click the Privacy Tab.
First, drag your Macs’ internal hard disk from the desktop to the Privacy list.
Wait 10 seconds, then highlight the Macs’ hard disk in the list and click the tiny “-” button at the bottom to remove it from the list.
Spotlight will initiate a reindex of the hard disk. If you click on the Spotlight menu icon you may see the message:
+“Spotlight helps you quickly find things on your computer. Spotlight will be available as soon as the contents of your computer have been indexed.”+
A progress bar will indicate perhaps 10-20 minutes remaining depending upon how much data there is.
Once completed, drag your Time Machine backup disk into the Privacy list of the Spotlight Preferences.
Wait 10 seconds, then highlight the Time Machine backup disk in the list and click the tiny “-” button at the bottom to remove it from the list.
Spotlight will now initiate a reindex of the hard disk.
Once completed, if you have any other hard disk attached to your Mac that are also being backed using Time Machine, then force a reindex as well using the procedure outlined above.
*For Time Capsule / AirDisk Users*
To properly force a reindex of networked disks, you will need to mount the Time Machine disk image so that it appears on the desktop. This will appear as a white drive icon. There is no need to index the green Time Machine drive with the clock icon on it.
Drag the white backup disk image to the Spotlight Privacy list.
Wait 10 seconds, then remove it using the “-” button.
Reindexing disk images can often take much more time, particularly if this is being done wirelessly. Initially it may report upwards of 15-20 hours of indexing remaining. However after a period if time this estimate can begin to drop to just a few hours. Let is proceed without interruption. (Note: This period of reindexing can be reduced by connecting the Time Capsule to your Mac via ethernet cable, and then forcing the reindex to occur.)
Once completed, turn Time Machine Preferences back ON.
Now initiate a backup.
Naturally, the first backup after a Spotlight reindex may be a lengthy one.
*Deleting the .Spotlight-V100 Directory*
At times, simply forcing Spotlight to reindex a volume is not enough to clear corrupt indexes. Additionally, stopping a Spotlight index while in progress can itself introduce further anomalies. In these instances, it may become necessary to delete the .Spotlight-V100 directory on the backup disk entirely. [http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/stopspotlightindex.html] This can be accomplished with the following Terminal command:
+sudo rm -ri /pathtovolume/.Spotlight-V100+
where /pathtovolume is the path of the volume in question.
The volume can then be reindexed by any of the following methods:
Restarting your Mac.
Using Disk Utility to first unmount, then mount the volume.
Issuing the command: +sudo mdutil -E /pathtovolume+
*Redirect the Backup to a Different Hard Disk*
It may be that directing backups to a different hard disk, performing a full backup, then redirecting Time Machine back to the original hard disk clears this issue up.
One contributor reported: “However, I have fixed the problem by accident! Concerned at not having a backup, I did a new backup to an external USB drive which worked fine. I then set my backup device back to the Time Capsule, ran backup and it now works fine. Doing the backup to a different device appears to have cleared the Spotlight problem.” [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8272650#8272650]
Let us know if any of this helps further.
Cheers!