Slow backup - A Potential Culprit Found

For those of you who have been suffering from slow back ups in UK then I have finally found the culprit on my build. With all of the updates to iOS over the last couple of weeks backing up was becoming a real pain with a reasonable performance until the last ~10% before it almost stopped and took hours.
The culprit after much troubleshooting seems to have been "The Times" newspaper app. Over time you build up a cache of daily editions (~60Mb a day possibly) which seem to gum up back up.
If you go to the Settings for the app you can chose to clear the cache next time you open the app and doing this just before backing up resolves the issue.
Hopes this helps make some of your lives easier!

Pondini wrote:
Sounds like something there might not be compatible, or damaged, or something.
See what the log shows -- if TM was doing a "deep traversal," it's probably normal.
the log is here
Copied 79596 files (2.6 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.51 GB requested (including padding), 81.69 GB available
Copied 79181 files (1.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Backup completed successfully.
TM is not doing deeptraversal.
I'd say, first, double-check the things you did that seem to have caused the problem.
If it all seems fine, try Verifying your internal HD and Repairing your backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting, to be sure it isn't some sort of directory problem.
If still no help, a few folks have had a somewhat similar problem (very slow backups with huge file counts) with 10.6.8; many managed to solve it by reinstalling OSX, but only going back to 10.6.7 via that "combo." Just why is a mystery, unfortunately.
You are right, I should double-check the problem.
I will try your suggestion, and thank for your reply

Similar Messages

IPhone slow backup

I have an iPhone 4 and when I plug it in to sync, it backed up for 9 hours and still hasn't finished! What's wrong? Or how can I fix this?

Wow! That totally solved my problem! I'd been trying to back up my iPhone for the entire morning (from 9:12 am to 11:20, it had only gotten through 20% of my iPhone and I simply got so frustrated I force quit iTunes and searched online for "slow iPhone backup" and found this post. Although I don't have the Guardian App, I went and deleted every single non-Apple App, and then reconnected my iPhone and was ASTONISHED to see my iPhone get backed up in less than 60 seconds!!! I'm not sure what was the offending App in my case, but clearly, it appears that when slow backups are a problem, Apps can most definitely be a cause...

Slow backup process:10mb for 50mins

Dears,
I have a early 2008 macbook pro 15" with snow leopard, and a 500G time-capsule(1st edition,firmware 7.4.1).
They worked fine in the past 3 years.
However I found my backup process became very slow about 2 months ago, I checked the log below and it shown that it took 50mins to backup just 10mb data.
2012/2/3 下午12:29:17
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Starting standard backup
2012/2/3 下午12:29:17
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://%E8%B3%B4%20%E5%BD%A5%E5%BB%B7@Time%20Capsule%20b7dd24._afpovertcp._tcp.l ocal/Time%20Capsule%20HD
2012/2/3 下午12:29:18
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://%E8%B3%B4%20%E5%BD%A5%E5%BB%B7@Time%20Capsule%20b7dd24._afpovertcp._tcp.l ocal/Time%20Capsule%20HD
2012/2/3 下午12:29:29
com.apple.backupd[6441]
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
2012/2/3 下午12:29:35
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule HD-1/“賴彥廷”的 MacBook Pro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine 備份 1
2012/2/3 下午12:29:35
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine 備份 1/Backups.backupdb
2012/2/3 下午12:34:52
com.apple.backupd[6441]
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.60 GB requested (including padding), 228.09 GB available
2012/2/3 下午12:48:25
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Copied 25495 files (9.2 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
2012/2/3 下午12:54:31
com.apple.backupd[6441]
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.60 GB requested (including padding), 228.03 GB available
2012/2/3 下午1:06:11
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Copied 23101 files (1.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
2012/2/3 下午1:17:50
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Starting post-backup thinning
2012/2/3 下午1:17:50
com.apple.backupd[6441]
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
2012/2/3 下午1:17:52
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Backup completed successfully.
2012/2/3 下午1:17:59
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Ejected Time Machine disk image.
2012/2/3 下午1:18:00
com.apple.backupd[6441]
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
The wifi connect is fine because the video stream is good.
I think it's just because there are some small files make time machine to process, but I have no idea where can I find these files (or logs).
any ideas?

Pondini wrote:
Sounds like something there might not be compatible, or damaged, or something.
See what the log shows -- if TM was doing a "deep traversal," it's probably normal.
the log is here
Copied 79596 files (2.6 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.51 GB requested (including padding), 81.69 GB available
Copied 79181 files (1.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Backup completed successfully.
TM is not doing deeptraversal.
I'd say, first, double-check the things you did that seem to have caused the problem.
If it all seems fine, try Verifying your internal HD and Repairing your backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting, to be sure it isn't some sort of directory problem.
If still no help, a few folks have had a somewhat similar problem (very slow backups with huge file counts) with 10.6.8; many managed to solve it by reinstalling OSX, but only going back to 10.6.7 via that "combo." Just why is a mystery, unfortunately.
You are right, I should double-check the problem.
I will try your suggestion, and thank for your reply

TM backup disk cannot be found after Snow Leopard install

Message from elsewhere re-posted here after helpful advice from Apple Discussions Team.
Just installed Snow Leopard (with TM switched off though not unplugged) and got all the software updates available. I re-installed the TM installation disk. Everything went ok until I wanted to restore from my Time Capsule. I switched the big switch on. TM is continuing to make backups but when I want to locate folders to restore TM won't go back further than the day I installed Snow Leopard. Having selected the TM disk and entered the password the dialogue tells me that the TM backup disk cannot be found and offers me the select disk dialogue again. I have gone through the unplug/plug routine.
Through Migration Assistant I tried the contents of my Pictures folder (including all my iPhoto libraries) but it just supplied an empty folder. Since I didn't migrate at the time of the Snow install I wonder whether it was migrating the earliest backup it had made after the Snow install. This would make sense if "the Time Machine backup disk cannot be found", as the dialogue keeps telling me.
Anyone any ideas?

I'm not sure just what you did.
Did you reinstall Snow Leopard? Did you do a full restore?
First, just re-select your Time Capsule in TM Preferences.
If that doesn't help, try a "Full Reset" of TM per #A4 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
If that doesn't help, see #E2 there.
If still no help, use the Finder to see if you have two sparse bundles on your Time Capsule. If so, try mounting one manually by double-clicking it, then using the Browse option per #E2.

Backup disk cannot be found

I have four Mac Laptops set up to back up to a time capsule.
Three laptops back up fine but my rMBP gives the "the backup disk cannot be found" error when it attempts to backup to the Time Capsule. It backups fine to a mini server and local disk. I can mount the timecapsule disk as well as the rMBP sparse image.
Its a current generation time capsule and my rMBP is OS10.9.5 (so are the other Macs). The disk is near full.
Before I start digging and blow away the TC backup I wanted to check in here. I don't see anything similar in the online guides.
The TC and rMBP have been restarted.

It seems that when waking from sleep TimeMachine is sometimes ready to backup before the wireless is connected (see complaints about wireless problems after latest OS updates). When this happens, TM seems to mark the drive not available and refuses to backup to it. Dunno, just a theory.
As you suggested, I verified the backup sparse bundle, and not an issue was found or repaired. The image was in great shape.
Anyway, I delete the problem drive from the TM preferences window and then added it back in. TM seems to find the sparse bundle just fine and presses on without issue. I hear that deleting the TM preference file also may help, but I did not try that. I think thats what you meant by full TM reset. Perhaps by deleting and adding the drive I dis a partial TM reset, just reset the problem drive.
I've been backing up four laptops to the same internal TC drive for maybe five-six years. It hasn't been a problem. There have been an occasional burp backing up to USB drives attached to a AEBS and the synology NAS has been a disaster. I just stopped doing that

Time Capsule Backup Disk Cannot Be Found

Hello,
I have a fairly new iMac (about 3 months old) running Lion OSX 10.7.4. This is my first Mac Computer. I have it setup wirelessly to a time capsule and had time machine backup. All was running fine until today when I noticed my last successful backup was June 18th. Ive spent several hour reading in apple support communities and other websites and I can't figure out what happened. I have kept all my software up to date.
All my other Apple devices are working fine on the same network: 2 Airport Expresses for Airplay, iPad, iPhone, iMac. . . I just can't get time machine to backup.
My error message is "Backup Disk Cannot be Found"
HELP!

Mac with Lion is about vista standard as far as networking goes.. did you turn it off and on again??
Turn off the whole network.. off not sleep.. reboot in the right order.. modem.. router.. TC if different to router.. then clients.. I think the TC should reappear.. if not connect to it by ethernet.. do not use extended wireless.. it is too flakey.
If it still doesn't appear press reset and do the setup again.
For lion make sure you download, install and use the tool utility.. not the toy utilty built into windows lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Tell me if the hard disk appears.. if so you know the procedure the next time.. in a few days when it happens again. It will happen again btw.. it is windows.. lion

Time Machine Backup Disk Cannot be found

While my iMac was in sleep mode, I disconnected the power to my external, firewire time machine backup disk. The backup is a Western Digital hard drive.
Now I get the error message "Your Time Machine Backup Disk Cannot be Found"
I have rebooted the computer with the disk connected and the disk still doesn't show up on the desktop.
I rebooted the computer with the disk powered up but the firewire disconnected, then connected the firewire. The disk still doesn't appear on the desktop.
I tried Disk Warrior, and Disk Warrior doesn't see the external Time Machine disk.
What to do?

Dan Mackey1 wrote:
While my iMac was in sleep mode, I disconnected the power to my external, firewire time machine backup disk. The backup is a Western Digital hard drive.
That might corrupt your backups, but shouldn't make the disk completely un-usable.
Disconnect it and power it off for several minutes, turn Time Machine OFF, then Restart your Mac again. Let your Mac get powered-up and running before connecting and powering the disk on. Then see if Disk Utility can see it.
Is this a dual-mode disk? If so, try connecting via USB -- it may work that way.
Can you tell if it's running? Is it one with a light, and/or can you hear it run or feel it vibrating?

"The storge location for time machine backups can't be found"

I posted this on the TIme capsule forum and got no reply. PLEASE somebody, I need help with this.
Time machine on my new MBP (Leopard 10.5.2) is now failing on my new Time Capsule and I am unable to connect to my backups. Whenever I open Time Machine I get the error message: "The storge location for time machine backups can't be found"
I've tried rebooting, going into "Set up time machine" and changing the disk to none and then back to both the Time capsule Volume and the Time capsule backup volume (should there be 2?).
I AM able to open the Time Machine Drive through Finder.
Has there been a recent update which renders Time Machine useless?

I don't have an answer, but I get this error when I try to mount the sparcebundle to my hd to try to get Time Machine to mount as stated in this article http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1329.
I've had this problem before I upgraded to 10.5.3

Slow Backup. Brand New iPad... 8+ hours already!

I got a brand new iPad the other day, and when I first turned it on and activated it I downloaded a few apps. The main app I've been using is MangaDL to read manga on the go (comics). Last night, before sleeping I tried my first sync/backup and now when I wakeup it's still not done!!! This is absolutely not right. I barely even have 2GB worth of things inside the iPad!
Now I've read other forum posts about slow backup speeds... but as soon as it gets technical it seems everyone is talking about Windows. Just as a note, I'm using Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4. I just upgraded from Tiger 2 days ago.

HI,
No way it should take that long.
Since you just upgraded from Tiger to Snow Leopard, check the startup disk for errors that may need repairing. You need your Mac install disc for this. Your profile indicates you have two Macs. Make sure and use the machine specific disc that came with the Mac you tried the backup with.
Insert your install disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu and launch Disk Utility.
(In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first from the installer menu)
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart
While you have the Disk Utility window open, look at the bottom of the window. Where you see Capacity and Available. Make sure there is always 10% to 15% free disk space
Carolyn

Slow Backup after SP7

Hi all,
hopefully somebody may able to help me ...
After updated my Netware 6.5 server with SP7 the backup performance was seriously degraded...No changes were made. Performance was fine on previous support pack ( SP5 ).
My backup tool is Backup Exec 9.1 for Netware...and I backed up few Netware server remotly...
cheers Peter

Originally Posted by Dirk Emmermacher
Hello Kleinpeter.
Check for TSA updates. TSA5UP22.ZIP is most actual version I mean. In the
omline help there is a solution:
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/302187.htm (for BackupExec 11d)
Best regards.
Dirk Emmermacher
>>> Kleinpeter<[email protected]> schrieb am Montag, 17.
November 2008 um 16:26:
> Hi all,
> hopefully somebody may able to help me ...
>
> After updated my Netware 6.5 server with SP7 the backup performance
> wasseriously degraded...No changes were made. Performance was fine
> onprevious support pack ( SP5 ).
> My backup tool is Backup Exec 9.1 for Netware...and I backed up
> fewNetware server remotly...
>
> cheers Peter--
Kleinpeter------------------------------------------------------------------
------Kleinpeter's Profile:
> NOVELL FORUMS - View Profile: a10425 this thread:
> slow Backup after SP7 - NOVELL FORUMS

The storage location for Time Machine backups can't be found

I recently purchased a Time Capsule and have successfully backed-up both a PC (via ethernet) and my MacBookPro via wireless. However, after a few hours of inactivity on my MacBook Pro, the Time Capsule icon on my desktop is gone. When I launch Time Machine, I get the following message:
"The storage location for Time Machine backups can't be found". I have browsed the forums and noticed some answers to similar queries to check the "Remember password" option when establishing the connection. I do not have this option when I reconnect. What am I missing?

Glasses,
It does work! I have successfully use DW on my TC both wirelessly and via ethernet. Ethernet is of course much quicker. And I have run into more DW errors trying wirelessly, so I avoid that method whenever possible. As for other NAS device - I wouldn't know.
Glenn
BTW RetroBot - That post was over 6 months ago!

Time Machine Endless/Very Slow Backup

Hi All,
I've recently encountered a situation in which Time Machine never seems to think it's finished backing up. In the screenshot below you'll see that it's backing up the exact same amount of data from my HD and an external drive called "Movies" (first time 234.6mb & then started again and updated 41.5mb). The thing is, absolutely nothing was changed in the "Movies" drive, it hasn't been touched or synced with anything since the last backup. I'm thinking that's some kind of clue, but not sure what kind of clue it is. I have done many of the things listed here (including "full reset of time machine" and :
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2057525?threadID=2057525
As well as run Clean My Mac, Repaired Permissions, verified & repaired "Movies" (it was OK), and run Yasu.
Last backup ran for :31min and nothing much had changed. This just started happening recently as outside of major activity TM used to back up in just a few minutes. The good news is the backup was completed successfully, but would love to know what anybody thinks might be the culprit. Oh also backing up to external HD with 1.3TB avail (MB Pro with 750gb HD).

Following the advice of the great Pondini and others, I found a series of steps that worked to correct this situation on ALL my machines!
Here is a link to Pondini's excellent troubleshooting site, which is where I found most of these steps. You might consider just going there and ignoring my steps below, because he is definitely the expert in this field.
http://Pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
The below is kind of a "nuclear option." Not sure which step does what, but know that after doing all of them my incremental backups are now running at :10 - :20 SECONDS where they were taking 40 minutes to an hour before (be forewarned, it takes a while to do all this).
Turn TM off!
Use Disk Utility "repair disk" function on ALL disks (TM, Mac HD, any others that get backed up). Open Disk Utility, select disk, then select "repair disk."
Instead of #2, you might consider using Disk Warrior to rebuild your directories. It costs about $100, but it's an extremely valuable tool and can save your sauce in many ways. Honestly I would advise buying DW and doing that instead of the Disk Utility option, which, while free, does not seem to be as robust a solution.
An alternative to repairing the TM drive is to just start over with a clean, correctly formatted drive (see below). You should still repair/rebuild your MacHD and any other drives that get backed up, though.
Trash this file: com.apple.TimeMachine.plist (found in MacHD > Library > Preferences).
Repair Permissions on MacHD
In System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy add MacHD (your main/boot drive) to Privacy pane, close system preferences, then reopen and remove it (add and remove using -/+ at the bottom of the window). This will force Spotlight to re-index MacHD (wait until it's finished to do anything else).
Make sure your TM HD is formatted properly: should be using the GUID partition table (even if it's not partitioned) and be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). These settings will appear at the bottom of the Disk Utility window when you select the HD itself (not by its volume name). If you are not formatted this way, it's recommended that you reformat. Unfortunately, this means your existing backups will be no more (unless you have another drive you can use and preserve the old one until you're safely backed up again).
Reset PRAM. Restart your mac and hold down these keys simultaneously: option command p r. Hold them down until you hear the second "restart" chime.
Enter TM preferences and re-select TM disk (when you trash plist TM will "forget" the drive, but all the info is still on the drive) but don't let TM run yet.
In TM options make sure any disks you prefer to exclude/include are either entered or not (TM HD should always & automatically be excluded)
In System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy make sure TM disk is excluded from Spotlight (using +/- as above).
Finally, enter Time Machine and go through your backups to see if there are any backups that shouldn't be there: should be one backup every hour for the past day, one backup every day for the past month and weekly backups before that. If you find more than one backup on a day 3 weeks ago, for example, delete all but the most recent one for that date (on the window of the backup you want to delete you should see the "gear" icon with a dropdown arrow - click on it and select "delete backup."). You have to delete them one at a time so depending on how many you find & how big your backups are this step can take a very long time but it's critical to making sure TM doesn't get hung up on the "finishing" phase. If TM looks back in time and finds more backups than it wants it's supposed to just delete them but it doesn't always work that way and that's one of the issues that can make the finishing stage of the backup take forever.
Restart your Mac.
Restart TM & hope for the best.

Freeze/Hanging/Slow Backups

I noticed since having the iPhone 3G, Backups in iTunes takes 5 mins, contacts freeze and if you make a call then text someone when ended, it runs slowly.
Found the fix is to restore the firmware in iTunes. It downloads a copy of the firmware, and although not perfect, does make it perform better.

Mike72677 wrote:
My Time Machine backups are slow
look for pointers here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2057525#D2.
JGG

IMac - slow to boot, bluetooth not found.

System:
iMac 24" (Early 2009) 2.66GHz
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 memory (upgraded from original 4GB with 3rd party memory about 4 years ago)
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB Disk (upgraded from original 640GB about 2 years ago)
NVIDIA GeForge 9400
OS X: 10.10.1
The issue began about 3 months ago when my mother-in-law had the machine. According to her, the machine became very slow to boot (taking from 20min to over 1 hour) and her wireless mouse was not working. Fortunately she was already using a wired keyboard and had a spare wired mouse, so she was able to use the machine. Other than the slow boot and mouse issue, the system was stable. We decided to replace her machine in any case, primarily because it's not easily serviceable - especially where she lives (rural Alabama). I took the machine back (it had been mine originally). At that point it was running 10.8.5.
I observed the following:
1) The system was, indeed, very slow to boot as she described.
2) None of the bluetooth devices were working.
3) The bluetooth device shows as "No information found" in the System Information report
4) Bluetooth preferences were not visible in system preferences.
5) Coincident with her first report or problems, the following messages began appearing in the system logs:
Dec 30 14:25:05 localhost kernel[0]: USBF:    3.195    AppleUSBHubPort::FatalError - Port 3 of Hub at 0x6100000 reported error 0xe00002c0 while doing clearing port feature (1)
Dec 30 14:25:05 localhost kernel[0]: USBF:    3.195    AppleUSBHubPort::FatalError - Port 1 of Hub at 0x6100000 reported error 0xe00002c0 while doing clearing port feature (1)
Dec 30 14:25:05 localhost kernel[0]: USBF:    3.206    AppleUSBHubPort::FatalError - Port 2 of Hub at 0x6100000 reported error 0xe00002ed while doing getting port status (4)
Dec 30 14:25:05 localhost kernel[0]: USBF:    3.206    AppleUSBHubPort::FatalError - Port 2 of Hub at 0x6100000 reported error 0xe00002c0 while doing clearing port feature (2)
Though she originally had external peripherals attached, all have been removed - the only things plugged into any USB or Firewire port are the keyboard and mouse.
So, that's how the machine was when I got it back... I have tried the following:
1) First I tried AHT - booting from the original disks provided with the system (AHT version 3A170). AHT hung while probing system hardware; it just stalled for several hours (I think I let it try overnight, only to return to see no progress). I've tried AHT a couple of times through this ordeal and can never get to the point where I can even initiate the test.
2) I tried removing the bluetooth preferences file.
3) I tried resetting NVRAM
4) I tried resetting SMC
5) I've booted in verbose mode, but nothing really stood out as clearly (or even vaguely) indicating a problem.
People did suggest booting in "safe" mode - thought it was never clear what I was supposed to do after that. In any case, an attempt to boot in safe mode caused the machine to just reboot itself. I even set safe mode in the boot-args and sat back and watched as the machine consistently rebooted itself each time... about 7 or 8 times before I got sick of hearing the boot chime. I did have verbose mode turned on in boot-args as well, an each time it rebooted at the same point, while initializing drivers. Interestingly, booting in "normal" mode has never been an issue - save for the exceptional amount of time it takes.
Since the data on the disk was of no use to me, I created a 10.10.1 install package on a USB stick and installed fresh - verifying and reformatting the hard drive before performing the install. The installation was uneventful (i.e. worked just like it should).
So, now I am running 10.10.1 and still no Bluetooth. I tried the AHT again and again it gets hung probing the hardware and I can't even initiate the test. I even tried a suggestion from another thread (hold ctl-shift-option and the power button for about 6 sec while the power is off)... that had worked for a number of folks but not for me.
One other piece of info I just confirmed while writing this, 0x6100000 is the Location ID associated with the BRCM2046 Hub - i.e. the Bluetooth device. Why this shows up as a hub on the USB Bus but the device itself doesn't appear to exist is confusing. I certainly would expect to see this as a USB hub on a correctly functioning system, it's just confusing why it's there when the underlying bluetooth device is not recognized.
So, I am pretty much convinced it's a hardware issue of some kind - given this is a "spare" Mac that I was simply trying to re-purpose to host a film scanner that requires a FireWire interface, I am not sure how much I want to invest financially in getting this resolved. I have heard that Apple no longer services these machines, but I could be wrong... As I see it my options are kind of limited:
1) Take it to a repair facility (even if Apple doesn't work on them, there are at least 2 places near by that do) and pay them $$ just to tell me that it's going to be $$$ fix it.
2) Get my hands dirty, open this thing up and see if I can fix it.
I'm leaning towards option 2, but I am really reluctant to go on a fishing expedition. Based on what I have observed, it seems to be a problem with the bluetooth module itself, and as I understand it that is a separate part from the main logic board... which means that I can replace it for about $35 and the cost of the right tools; which all together total about the same amount as the "diagnostic" fee any local repair shop would charge. If it's not that, then it's the logic board and the best price I can find for that puts it in the "not worth the trouble" category anyway. I don't want to rule out some other component - memory, disk drive, or power supply... but any of those, at least to me, seem like the kind of components which would cause more erratic behavior when they fail.
So, what's my question - simple ... have I missed something here. Before I perform open heart surgery are there any last tricks I can try or is my conclusion that this must be a hardware problem pretty solid?

If your EHDs are formatted OS X Extended (journaled) and your using them as normal EHDs you don't need all of the WD software installed. The OS can use the disks without it. Uninstall all of the WD software:
WDSecurityHelper    Application (/Applications/WD Security.app/Contents/WDSecurityHelper.app)
WDDriveUtilityHelper    UNKNOWN (missing value)
WDDriveUtilityHelper    Application (/Applications/WD Drive

VERY slow backup to external Hard Drive

I have an older external HD case (New Motion) with a Western Digital 120GB Hard Drive that I use for backup, firewire only.
I use this drive on my old slot loading iMac G3 (10.3.8) and it runs very fast, copying 16GB from the iMac to the backupin about 15 minutes.
When I connect the backup drive to my G5 iMac (10.4.2) it runs VERY slow at night, taking 6 hours to copy the same amout of information.
I notice that during the day it takes less time, but still about 1.5 hours. (The night/day differences are consistent).
Is this an issue with Tiger or a setting in Tiger or how Tiger talks to firewire, or an issues with the G5 iMac? (Both firewire ports work fine with my iPod updating music).

Hi robfromkinglake west,
Try and isolate the issue. Check if it's only with this drive.
Check the drive with Disk Utility
Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1782
I've never seen a drive take 20 minutes to mount.
Nubz

Slow backup - A Potential Culprit Found

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