Time Machine back up takes ages.

Hi. I still got the problem that my time machine backup take ages to complete.
I installed a widged called time machine buddy, someone told me to do and now that's what it shows me.
Any idea why it looks like it does the backup twice in a row and for what reason it takes about half an hour to copy less then 1GB.
I allready deleted the HD I use for the backup and got it all new but it did not solve the problem.
Cheers.

Very good question, as I've had the same issue for over 2 months since installing a new hard drive. Pondini very kindly, patiently and astutely helped me get a hanging 2 hour back up down to a respectable 15 minutes, but that is still too long (when nothing has changed between back ups, in particular). You articulate the question and pose the dilemma far better than I ever expressed. The seeming "dual backup" seems to be the culprit. Maybe Pondidni can give us some guidance based on your post.
For point of reference, the related past links were:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3626762?start=30&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17830473#17830473
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17541942#17541942

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HT1338 Time Machine Back-Up Slow

Time Machine Back-Up takes 4+ days to do initial back-up. I am hard wired connected to my time capsule have erased the disk and reinitiated a brand new back-up. I am trying to back up about 960 G and it takes anywhere between 4-7 days. That would be OK but after 1-2 days the iMac loses connectivity to the Time Capsule and I have to start over again. I have tried everything including a complete reinstall of the Montain Lion Operatin System but nothing seems to help. This problem first happened after the Mountian Lion upgrade before that Time Machine worked flawlessly.

Hey aarthur2060,
Thanks for the question. I understand you are experiencing issues with Time Machine. The following resources may help to resolve your issue:
OS X Mountain Lion: If Time Machine is slow
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11172
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275
Thanks,
Matt M.

How long does it take to transfer data from a time machine back up?

I am in the process of transferring my data from my time machine back up from my old mac to my new mac and this seems to be taking a long time. What is everyone's experience for how long this takes?

That does seem a tad excessive. What connection are you using? Ideal is firewire; Airport would be slowest (quite possibly as long as you say).

Suppose I have two identical laptops loaded with my current time machine back up. I take one on a trip and update it with time machine but leave it. I come back w time machine HD and connect the home laptop, will it just update or start over from scratch?

Suppose I have two identical laptops loaded with my current time machine back up. I take one on a trip and update it with time machine but leave it behind. I come back with the time machine HD and connect it to the home laptop, will it just update or start over from scratch? is there a way to make it just update it?

You might have better luck using a clone.
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
Commonly Used Backup Methods

Can I use my time capsule for time machine back ups and as an external storage device?

I have a time capsule and have set it up so that my time machine back ups are saved on it, but I would also like to use it as an external hard drive. Is this possible?
I know nothing about computers so please tell me in very basic terms. thankyou!

By external hard disk we usually mean one plugged into the computer by USB or Firewire or Thunderbolt.
None of those works on the TC.. it is plugged in by ethernet or use wireless connection.. that means it is a network drive.. not an external drive. The difference might not mean much to you.. but it is totally different to the computer. In the former case the computer has full control of the disk. In the case of the network drive, the disk is controlled by the TC firmware and the files are stored and accessed by network. This has large implications.
So here is my standard response.
Store files on the TC.
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
The following are controls on the hard disk side.
Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
Even apple btw say don’t do it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32 it adds network drives.
5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya!

I have partitioned my time capsule, but I can't get it to work as a Time Machine back up and permanent media server for both mac and PC. What format do I need to partition the drive to so that it works for both mac and windows and so that it will be visab

I have partitioned my time capsule, as I want part of it to act as a media server for both mac and windows. However I don't know what format that I need to partition it to. I also can't make it a permanently accesible drive. I want to restore the drive to the original format (which I don't know) and start again and re-partition the drive in a format that can be used for media by both mac and PC and for time machine back-ups and make the media part of it permanetly accesible so I can add and acccess my files.
Thanks

You are mixing up a couple of things here.
The TC drive cannot be partitioned without removing it.. did you do that?
If you partition it you must use a Mac disk utility and use the HFS+ ie standard Mac format. And GUID partition table not windows type.
You can select erase disk in the airport utility.. that will take the disk back to original format. No partitions. TC is deliberately not partitioned as it is not a media server.. it is a backup device for TM. Over time .. the disk will be filled with TM backups so you have a long history of file changes to your computer.
There is no media server in the TC.. it is merely disk storage.. you can serve files from it to a media device.. but the TC itself is dumb as dumb.
Now the actual format of the drive is irrelevant to the PC.. The TC offers SMB file services to the network. You can copy files to and from the TC as if it was a local disk without caring one iota about the format. The TC handles that .. it is not a local disk .. it is a network drive.
Although you cannot partition the TC. you can still copy files to it.. this does have implications for TM.. but as long as there is plenty of free space should not be a major issue.
You can create a disk image via the disk utility in a Mac.. and as stated you can create partitions if you do it on a Mac with the disk directly connected which means breaking warranty if any exists on the TC.

Huge Time Machine Back Up

I have been running Lion on my mid-2009 15" MacBook Pro for about three weeks. Time Machine was able to find my previous back up volume on an external HD and keep on recording to it.
This morning I saw a 61.3 GB back up in progress! I do not use this machine all that much, just when I travel, but I recently upgraded to 10.7.2. I tend to hook up the external drive to it for back up about once a week or so since this is not my primary work machine and I do not create much content on it. Therefore I am a bit at a loss to understand why this backup is so large. My entire boot volume on this MBP is only 66GB.
Perhaps 10.7.2 reindexed the drive and I am having the entire drive recorded this time. Perhaps it is downloading the internally stored snapshops that Time Machine takes on MacBook Pro machines. My last back up for this MBP was 10 days ago but other than updating software I have not done much with it in that time.
Has anyone else experienced a very large Time Machine back up after upgrading to 10.7.2?
Thanks in advance for your responses.
Jay

Jay Kappmeier wrote:
This morning I saw a 61.3 GB back up in progress!
Check Time Machine Troubleshooting for help in identifying what that backup was so big.
I recently upgraded to 10.7.2.
If you installed the "combo" updater that would change a lot of files.
I tend to hook up the external drive to it for back up about once a week or so
I may be mistaken, but I believe a long interval between backups can cause Time Machine to do a full backup.
Perhaps 10.7.2 reindexed the drive
That wouldn't cause Time Machine backups to be larger.

Defrag Time Machine Back Up Drive??

getwellroad
Level 1 (0 points)
Jul 6, 2011 9:50 AM
i previously posted this question, but I mistakenly clicked my own comment as the correct answer. i think this makes the thread appear to be finished; so, because i'm still not completely sure what to do, i have attempted to copy and paste the discussion here:Sorry.
Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??
Grant Bennet-AlderWest of Boston, USALevel 7 (27,805 points)
If your backups take a few seconds longer, so what. I say leave it alone.Beige G3, G4/867, G4/dual 1.25 MDD, MacPro'09 w cheap SSD, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, and 9.2, 10.5 and Server - LW IIg, LW 4/600, ATalk ImageWriter L
The hatterLevel 8 (42,475 points)
Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd. Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set. 1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price. I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there. Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB? Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopardhttps://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.
getwellroad
my boot drive is my internal hardrive which is a 250 GB drive. The drive i am using for TM is 500GB, but you are saying that is really too small. TM, as i understand it, creates a copy of everything, and then subsequent backups record any changes that were made since the last backup. and what do you mean "bootable clones" and do you mean for my internal hard drive AND each of the 3 external hard drives that i have? i'm using one of the three for backup using TM, and i am storing movie files on the other 2. i work at a church, and we use many short films that we purchase online. i then import that file into iMovie to give my volunteers a consistent second and a half of black before the clip and 4 seconds of black at the end of the clip. This provides smoother transitions, i've found, than trying to use most of the clips in their original form. i then have been filing these away in folders on the other 2 hard drives. Regarding the TM drive. Drive Genius is telling me that "the used space on the volume 02 [that's the name of the drive] is 25% fragmented (59.14% of total space).
btw, Time Machine keeps:hourly backups for the past 24 hoursdaily backups for the past monthweekly backups for all previous monthsand the oldest backups are deleted when your disk becomes full.
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB external driv

1st) A fragmented drive is not evil. It will not hurt anything. At worse it might slow down reading a file. However, as has been pointed out by others in this thread, who cares as this is a backup device, not a device you are going to be reading a lot.
2nd) The time you spend defragmenting the drive will far exceed the time you will save when writing new data to the drive.
3rd) Defragmentation will just increase your energy consumption, as all the reading/writing needed to move the files around in order to defragment it, will cause the drive to consume more energy than if it was just sitting idle waiting for the next hourly Time Machine backup.
4th) Defragmentation (if done frequently) may shorten the life of your drive. Not mentioned in "3rd" above is that the extra energy used translates into heat, plus you are moving the read/write heads back and forth all of which affect the drives mechanical and electrical components.
NOTE: There are situations where having a defragmented drive is useful, but mostly it has to do with needing to stream media at a high rate of speed, and fragmented files can affect that. However, a backup drive being used for incremental Time Machine backups is not in that category, and most home Mac usage does not need a defragmented file system either.

Can Time Machine back up to a Western Digital "My Passport Wireless" over wifi?

I bought a Western Digital "My Passport Wireless" external hard drive / NAS to use as a Time Machine backup for my new MacBook Pro. I plugged it in via USB, formatted it to HFS+, and ran Time Machine. All good.
This hard drive has a wireless chip in it, so one can connect to it via wifi, either directly or through a router. When I dismounted the drive and connected via wifi (via my router), my expectation was that I could run Time Machine and do periodic back-ups without having to remember to plug in the drive, etc.
I can see the drive and read/write to it. I am connected as 'admin', not 'guest'. It is named "MyPassport", both when connected via USB and via wifi. When I try to use the drive via wifi for Time Machine, I'm asked: "Do you want to stop backing up to “MyPassport” and use “TimeMachineBackup/TimeMachine” instead, or back up to both?" When I select "Use both", I'm then told: "Time Machine can’t access the backup disk “TimeMachineBackup/TimeMachine”. The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 2.)"
Should it be possible for Time Machine to recognize the same archive, whether connected via USB or wifi?
If I cannot, can I at least back up a new archive over wifi. I recognize that the first go at this would take a long time due to slow wireless transfer speed. What does OSStatus error 2 mean?

So you think that you know better than Apple.
NAS is not supported by Time Machine, you can take all the risks you like but do not advise others to do so. It doesn't matter what WD say, they want you to buy one, Apple are the deciders of what is supported or not.
Here's what WD say:
Note: WD does not provide technical support for Time Machine related issues. For assistance with backing up to a WD NAS drive, using the Time Machine application please contact Apple. As the backup application is built into the OS, they are the only ones qualified to diagnose a Time Machine related issue.
Good luck.

Sharing Time Machine Back Up with Desktop and MacBook

Hello,
In preparation for my work on the road I back up my desktop using Time Machine on my Time Capsule, wipe my MacBook clean and Migrate my files to the MacBook so I can take everything. In recent years I notice when syncing my devices, that process has improved and the iPhone,iPad recognises the MacBook as basically the same as my desktop and I don't have to wipe and sync the device. Thank you Apple engineers for that improvement.
This year is a bit different. I have done the migration, but am delayed departing. I would like to share my Time Machine back up across the two computers. Sort of a poor mans macbook sync. I would treat the Macbook as disposable and the Desktop as primary. Make changes to the iMac then update the MacBook before I leave.
Can I use my desktop , back it up to Time Machine, then update the macbook as required? I would do this until I leave.
Also I noticed for the first time the MacBook is running a different OS to the iMac. Will this matter to me?
Thanks,
Ken
Desktop is an iMac 24 running MacOS10.6.8, 2.4 GHz C2D
MacBook is an early 2008 running MacOS 10.6.3, 2.4 GHz C2D
Time Capsule 802.11n, 1st Generation, version 7.6.4
iPhone 3GS iOS 6.1.6
iPad 2 , iOS 7.1.2

So, the macbook today, I did get this message from the OS re TimeMachine
"Would you like to reuse the backup "/Volume/....sparsebundle"
The backup was created on a different computer. If you reuse this backup it can no longer be used by the original computer.
I selected Reuse Backup. This is very convenient. I am wondering now.
How do I select back and forth on the computer to reuse the various back ups?
Ken

Getting Time Machine back up to a Sparsebundle on external HDD (Drobo)

Hey,
I've been chasing this issue around for a while but can't seem to find the answer.
There are a lot of resources out there describing how to get your Mac to backup to a Sparsebundle on a NAS, and more resources telling you how to write protect the Info.plist file so that Mac OS doesn't resize the image to take up all of your NAS.
However I've got a Drobo connected directly to my Mac Mini. The Drobo pretends to have a 16TB drive so that you can add storage as and when you need it.
I am already using it to back up my MBP over the network to a Sparsebundle and until recently I was using the same scheme (a size limited sparsebundle) to back up the Mac Mini that the Drobo is connected to.
I achieved this by following the excellent directions on http://anitechtalk.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/time-machine-dns323/ (one of the only sites that mentions the new way that Apple handles Time Machine Sparsebundles)
However this has recently stopped working and no matter what I do I still cannot get my Mac to see the Sparsebundle as a TimeMachine aware 'drive'- instead it just backs up to the root of the '16TB' Drobo- and at some point it's going to get rather full.
Argh.
(And yes, I know that the other solution is to re-partition my Drobo to have a small partition at the start of the disk for Time Machine to use- but it's too late for that as I've already got 1.85TB of data on there and I doubt that I can re-partition that without losing all of the data.)
Can anyone help me get Time Machine to accept my Sparsebundle as a 'disk' that it can backup to?
Thanks in advance.

Thank you for the video link. I did it pretty much exactly the way the young man explained. The one thing I didn't do was click "customize" as he does and unclick the multiple language support and he also clicks "rosetta" to support older programs. I wonder if that's the issue? The guys at Macmall told me that I would need to update the o.s. before I restored. I did that originally but have since (as mentioned before) erased the main drive. I noticed that when he does his install, his external drive does not show up on the list in which you want to install the o.s. on... should I unplug my external? I'm just trying to look at ever detail. I know the recovery file is there. The one thing it (the external) did say before I started posting here was "in progress". I'm not sure what that means? I promise I'm not an idiot. I consider myself an above average user. I usually help other that have issues... but I've yet to restore from a Time Machine back-up and I'm looking forward to learning how to do it.... the right way. I appreciate all of the advice. I have some pretty important files on my external back-up. I am really hoping that this is possible. I'm beginning to think the external is where the issue lies. The "in progress" next to the file name concerns me. I know there's a lot of data on the drive because it's nearly half full. So there's stuff there....
Deep breath in...... reeee laaaaaaaxxxx

Running more than one time machine back up drive

I have a back up drive assigned as my offices time machine back up drive.
I need to set up an off site back up drive too. I know that time machine will only allow a connection to one back up destination at once.
What problems could i encounter if i set up a off site drive as another time machine drive, disconnect on site drive and connect the off site drive to back up.
Thanks

That will work just fine, other than the hassle of having to tell Time Machine every time you swap.
Give the drives at least slightly different names (that's for you; Time Machine knows they're different).
Each set of backups will be complete and independent. When you do a backup to either one, it will contain all the changes you've made since the last backup +*to that drive.+*
The first backup after a swap may take a bit longer than usual, as there may be more changes to "catch up" with, but otherwise there should be no troubles.

How to transfer time machine back up to new hard drive

How to transfer time machine back up to new hard drive?

You may like to take a look at this thread... https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4207670?start=0&tstart=0

Problem Emptying Trash filled with Time Machine Back Up Files

I have needed to create more space on an external hard drive that I use for TIme Machine back up of my hard drive. I took some of the Time Machine back ups [2011 and 2012] and dumped them into my trash. I have gone into my Preferences and removed the check mark beside the "empty trash securely" so that I can get rid of the folders faster. I have a Mac X snow leopard operating system 10.6.8.
However, it takes about 1o hours to have the trash "preparing to empty trash" identify about 175,000 files. I don't know how many I have in their but it has got to be over a million.
What can I do to get rid of all of these files from my Time Machine back up? I don't want to wait five or six days before the trash starts to empty. Appreciate any help you can give. Thanks.

http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

Time Machine back up takes ages.

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