Slow initial backup to external HD

I purchased a WD 1TB 'My Book for Mac' and have it connected to my 1.8GHz G5 with a 500GB HD. I have partitioned the My Book into two equal halves; one for a complete Time Machine backup of my G5, and the other for any odds and ends I have lying around on other hard drives. This is the first drive I have used Time Machine to backup as I have never had a drive big enough to do so before.
So I have the drive connected to my G5 via Firewire 800, and copying large documents (1GB) to the other partition go through in a patter of seconds, but the initial backup process of Time Machine is taking FOREVER! It has done 600MB in the last hour, and has 300GB to go; at this pace it's going to be at it for a week.
Can someone tell me what I have to do to speed it up? - Keeping in mind I have not third party Anti-virus software.

bobshled wrote:
Thanks for the response Pondini,
I partitioned it using Disk Utility, and upon checking both partitions just then by going to get info, they are both formatted into Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Good. But is the *Partition Map Scheme* either GUID (Intel Mac) or +Apple Partition Map+ (PPC Mac)? Select the top line for the drive (with the make and size) to check.
I am using Microsoft Entourage, with 2 email address accounts containing probably close to around 10 000 emails total. I have read that large Entourage databases can mix badly with Time Machine, but I thought this was just to do with modifying the entire database file with every new email, resulting in a new database file backup with every Time Machine backup; not with actual backup speed (especially on the first run).
Correct on both counts. There are some ways to minimize the size of the incremental backups of Entourage, if that becomes a problem. With that much email, it likely will take a fair amount of space.
I have removed the other partition from spotlight as requested, and have actually seen a bit of an improvement to speed. It's now chugging along at almost a MB a second.
I assume you mean the TM partition?
As it is taking a long time, will putting the Computer into Sleep during this backup process simply pause and resume it upon waking it up again? I ask because the computer is in my room and the fans spinning can be quite annoying! I wont be able to sleep if its on backing up all night!
You can stop the backup, and TM will leave it as "in.Process" (won't display it via the TM interface), and should pick up there the next time. But if your first, full backup is interrupted, it will probably go through the lengthy "deep traversal" again. That could be an hour or more, and take most of your CPU, depending.

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    Message was edited by: Positron1234

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    Message was edited by: Jensen Gelfond

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    Message was edited by: Kappy

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    Jan 6 20:10:46 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb/Musa/2010-01-03-131536: 58.42 GB now available
    Jan 6 20:12:10 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb/Musa/2010-01-04-094152: 58.52 GB now available
    Jan 6 20:13:02 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb/Musa/2010-01-04-073331: 58.57 GB now available
    Jan 6 20:13:02 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Stopping backup.
    Jan 6 20:13:02 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backup canceled.
    Jan 6 20:13:08 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Jan 6 20:13:08 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
    Jan 6 20:13:30 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Completed backup disk image compaction
    Jan 6 20:13:30 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting standard backup
    Jan 6 20:13:30 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/odysseus
    Jan 6 20:13:33 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Disk image /Volumes/odysseus/Musa_002332d5c37e.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Musa
    Jan 6 20:13:33 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb
    Jan 6 20:13:41 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|
    Jan 6 20:19:36 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 72.07 GB requested (including padding), 58.57 GB available
    Jan 6 20:20:38 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb/Musa/2010-01-04-071252: 58.58 GB now available
    Jan 6 20:20:38 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Removed all 1 expired backups, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Jan 6 20:25:17 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb/Musa/2009-07-31-231155: 60.81 GB now available
    Jan 6 20:25:17 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted 2 backups: oldest backup is now Aug 15, 2009
    Jan 6 20:25:17 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Stopping backup.
    Jan 6 20:25:20 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backup canceled.
    Jan 6 20:25:24 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Jan 6 20:25:24 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
    Jan 6 20:26:39 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Completed backup disk image compaction
    Jan 6 20:26:39 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting standard backup
    Jan 6 20:26:39 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/odysseus
    Jan 6 20:26:41 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Disk image /Volumes/odysseus/Musa_002332d5c37e.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Musa
    Jan 6 20:26:41 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb
    Jan 6 20:26:49 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|
    Jan 6 20:32:46 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 72.07 GB requested (including padding), 60.81 GB available
    Jan 6 20:32:46 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Jan 6 20:47:38 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb/Musa/2009-08-15-182619: 65.12 GB now available
    Jan 6 20:47:38 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted 1 backups: oldest backup is now Aug 25, 2009
    Jan 6 20:47:38 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Stopping backup.
    Jan 6 20:47:41 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backup canceled.
    Jan 6 20:47:47 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Jan 6 20:47:47 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
    Jan 6 20:49:36 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Completed backup disk image compaction
    Jan 6 20:49:36 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting standard backup
    Jan 6 20:49:36 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/odysseus
    Jan 6 20:49:38 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Disk image /Volumes/odysseus/Musa_002332d5c37e.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Musa
    Jan 6 20:49:38 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb
    Jan 6 20:49:46 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|
    Jan 6 20:55:48 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 72.06 GB requested (including padding), 65.12 GB available
    Jan 6 20:55:48 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Jan 6 21:05:11 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb/Musa/2009-08-25-185228: 67.32 GB now available
    Jan 6 21:05:11 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted 1 backups: oldest backup is now Sep 1, 2009
    Jan 6 21:05:11 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Stopping backup.
    Jan 6 21:05:13 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backup canceled.
    Jan 6 21:05:22 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Jan 6 21:05:22 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
    Jan 6 21:06:45 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Completed backup disk image compaction
    Jan 6 21:06:45 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting standard backup
    Jan 6 21:06:45 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/odysseus
    Jan 6 21:06:48 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Disk image /Volumes/odysseus/Musa_002332d5c37e.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Musa
    Jan 6 21:06:48 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb
    Jan 6 21:06:57 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|
    Jan 6 21:12:57 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 72.06 GB requested (including padding), 67.32 GB available
    Jan 6 21:12:57 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Jan 6 21:25:51 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb/Musa/2009-09-01-060212: 69.89 GB now available
    Jan 6 21:25:51 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted 1 backups: oldest backup is now Sep 8, 2009
    Jan 6 21:25:51 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Stopping backup.
    Jan 6 21:25:53 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backup canceled.
    Jan 6 21:26:00 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Jan 6 21:26:00 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
    Jan 6 21:27:30 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Completed backup disk image compaction
    Jan 6 21:27:30 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting standard backup
    Jan 6 21:27:30 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/odysseus
    Jan 6 21:27:33 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Disk image /Volumes/odysseus/Musa_002332d5c37e.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Musa
    Jan 6 21:27:33 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb
    Jan 6 21:27:41 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|
    Jan 6 21:33:37 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 72.06 GB requested (including padding), 69.89 GB available
    Jan 6 21:33:37 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Jan 6 21:45:33 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb/Musa/2009-09-08-081225: 72.34 GB now available
    Jan 6 21:45:33 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Pre-backup thinning completed successfully: 1 backups were deleted
    Jan 6 21:45:33 Musa com.apple.backupd[7571]: Backup date range was shortened: oldest backup is now Sep 15, 2009

  • All of my imovie events are stored on an external hard drive.  How do I backup this external hard drive? If the external hard drive crashes, how do retrieve the imovie events?

    I have all of my imovie events stored on an external hard drive in order to save space on my MacBook Pro's internal drive.  I currently back up both my MacBook Pro and the external hard drive  using a second external hard drive via Time Machine. I have a few questions:
    1. How can I be sure that the external drive is actually being backed up.
    2. How do I retrieve the imovie events if the 1st external hard drive crashes?
    Thank for your help!

    Let me give you some thoughts. I can tell you my plan, but ultimately you will need your own plan that makes sense for you.
    I do not think that your idea of having two separate Time Machine destinations will work. You can have two external drives as Time Machine volumes, but they will both back up the same data set. You cannot dedicate one to iMovie and one to everything else. They will both have everything, so you may still have a space problem.
    One way to overcome this is to back up the iMovie volume by using a tool like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. The good news is that your Event files should be pretty stable and there is no need to back them up every 15 minutes. So something like SuperDuper, which you can set to automatically backup once a day, for example, is probably fine. I am pretty sure that this would work if you kept the Projects on the same external drive. As long as Projects and Events are on the same drive, then the cloning stragy should work (but you should always test.)
    Because projects change more often than events, and projects can become corrupted, I would definitely back up the Project Library to Time Machine. You can do this even though it is on an external drive. (And even though you may be periodically backing up the entire drive that contains the projects.)
    Here are some thoughts on how I approach backup, copied from an earlier answer...
    ============================================================
    Great question. I think the issue of backup is a important one, and one I always worry about since I have a lot of video footage that is irreplaceable.
    For back-up, it is helpful to define the risk you are trying to protect from.
    For example,
    1) risk of corruption in iMovie --> I  use Time Machine
    2) risk of hard drive failure --> I use SuperDuper! nightly for bootable backup) and Time Machine all the time
    3) Risk of theft or fire --> offsite backup
    Here is what I do...
    1) I back up my boot disk with SuperDuper automatically each night so I always have a bootable system.
    2) I back up my original video files. For my Motion JPEG, VHS-->AIC, DV, and 8MM to DV, the EVENT is the copy I back up. (I keep the tapes, but I never want to have to import the tapes again.)
    For my AVCHD high def video, I back up the camera archive of the AVCHD, but I am not currently backing up the Event files, because I would need from 4 to 8 TB to back up these events depending on whether I made one copy or two. I can always re-create the Event from the camera archive.
    3) I use CrashPlan for my offsite backup. It costs less than $4 per month, and I seeded the initial backup to an external drive to minimize having to transfer video files over the Internet. I currently have over 2TB of data backed up to CrashPlan, which includes my entire boot drive, and the files described in #2.
    4) All of the above is automated, so I don't have to think about it too much. If I have to manually do stuff, I tend to get behind.
    You have to consider the value of total multiple redundancy vs. the likelihood that 2 or three unlikely events would all happen at once. For example, CrashPlan could lose my data. My hard disk could fail. I could lose everything in a fire. But it is unlikely that they would all happen at once, except in nuclear war, in which case, who cares?

  • Initial Backups Failing

    I've tried to research the answer to this problem, but have found only advice for people who have had Time Machine work correctly for them before, and suddenly stop backing up correctly after a while.
    +My problem is that Time Machine will not complete the initial backup.+ When I set it to backup from my MacBook Pro running 10.5.5 (just upgraded from Tiger a week ago, woo-hoo!) to my FireWire 500GB WD drive, the backup starts correctly. All is fine until it gets to a certain point, typically in the 6-10 GB area of backing up (that is, after backing up about 6-10 GB of data). At that point, an error message pops up, saying the backup could not be completed. If I tell it to do it again, it might back up an additional 4 or 5 GB, but then it stops again, and after that it only gets about 100 MB of additional data backed up before it just stops.
    I have 80 GB of data on my internal drive, and hundreds of gigs free on the external drive, so space is not an issue. When I first encountered this problem, I did some research and found an article on this website by Apple to reformat the external drive. I did so, but it seems to have made no difference. I also later found some advice to, after a failed backup, drag the incomplete backup file from the TM disk to the trash and then start the backup over again, but that did not work either.
    Does anyone know why this will not work for me? I can't even get passed the initial backup, and for me that is a little concerning.

    UPDATE:
    I have been playing around (frustratedly) and I do not think the problem lies in the external hard-drive, but in the internal one. The reason why TM won't back up seems to be because of the files on my computer. I look through the console to find out what files TM stumbled over, and I've begun excluding them as they come up. First it was the system folders, then it was my Aperture library, and now it's my iPhoto library. More specifically, there are data files for specific photos in my iPhoto library that seem to be corrupt. The console tells me that TM stumbled on them, and when I locate the corrupt files in the Finder to delete them, Finder crashes before I can do so.
    I'm becoming very irritated with Time Machine and my computer. Please help me get this to "just work", I know it's probably something I did accidentally that's causing this but I don't know what or how to remedy it.

  • Very slow initial back up

    I have just got my new 1TB Time capsule and set it up but it appears VERY SLOW!!!! in 12 hrs it has done 10gb?
    I have tried restarting with a LAN connection? I just wondered if anyone else is having the same problem? or any idea why it is so slow?
    thanks

    If you haven't read it already I would check put the following Apple KB article with tips on TM initial backup to TC:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307525
    Ethernet cable would be the fastest way to go. There are some applications run in OS X that can slow down TM such as virus checkers. Also file corruptions can slow TM down from OSX running client Mac. If slowness persists frequently delving into the console logs can provide insights into where problems lie. It's also worth bearing in mind wireless networking factors that can slow down network transmission speeds to Mac clients such as interference or range from the wireless access point.

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