Time Machine Backup Failing For No Apparent Reason

http://i27.tinypic.com/313hg2c.png
I keep on getting that error whenever time machine tries to back up. I've completely reformatted my Time Machine drive, repaired the disk, and repaired my permissions all to no avail.
Anyone have any idea of what is going on? It just randomly started happening on day.

Time Machine Troubleshooting
Here are several articles to help troubleshoot Time Machine Problems as well as assist in properly setting up Time Machine.
Mac 101- Using Time Machine in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Is Time Machine all you need?
Some advice for those using Time Machine
TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X- Time Machine- The Good, the Bad, and the Missing Features
Mac OS X 10.5- Time Machine backups are not visible
OS X 10.5- Time Machine stops backing up to external disk
10.5- Disable the 'use this disk?' Time Machine dialog
Time Machine tips and troubleshooting
Mac OS X 10.5 Help- Restoring files backed up with Time Machine
OS X 10.5- Using Time Machine and troubleshooting Time Machine issues

Similar Messages

Time Machine Backup cancels for no "apparent" reason

Hello,
I am using Time machine with Snow Leopard and an external WD My Book 1TB HD - I am using the very latest WD firmware/software (made for Snow Leopard) and was making successful automatic backups for several days until recently when the backup started canceling for no apparent reason. I installed the Time Machine buddy widget and found this message:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/GPL III BACKUP/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.80 GB requested (including padding), 894.51 GB available
Error: Flushing index to disk returned an error: 0
Copied 7393 files (997.6 MB) from volume GPL III HD.
Backup canceled.
I tried a manual backup and the same message. I waited until the next automatic backups and got the same message - each and every time.
I have searched the Time Machine section and nothing specifically addresses the error message.
Any ideas on what is wrong and how to resolve it? I thought about erasing the HD and starting over but that seems draconian.
Thanks!

GPL3 wrote:
I checked the set-up and it looks fine except the Tips note that a GUID partition is preferred for some purposes (whatever that means) on Intel Macs (such as mine) rather than the Apple Partition Map which is what the WD HD has - although it does note that either will work. Could this be the problem?
No, I guess I need to try to reword that somehow. Was trying to keep it short. It only matters, under some circumstances, on a drive with OSX installed on it.
Jan 30 08:57:02 Peter-Lambs-iMac virusbarriers[54]: Child scanner 211 exited with exit code: 1
Jan 30 08:57:02 Peter-Lambs-iMac virusbarriers[54]: Child scanner 270 exited with exit code: 1
Jan 30 08:57:10 Peter-Lambs-iMac mdworker32[263]: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
mdworker is used by the mds process (MetaData server); Spotlight is it's main client, but Time Machine also uses it, as do some anti-virus apps. Hard to tell just what sort of problem that was.
Jan 30 08:57:20 Peter-Lambs-iMac mds[34]: (/Volumes/GPL III BACKUP/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/291AAEE8-0631-48A0-AAC8-679C66732217)(Er ror) IndexSDB in dbflushdatastore:/Volumes/GPL III BACKUP/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/291AAEE8-0631-48A0-AAC8-679C66732217/sto re.db : dbsyncdatastore: !WARNING! prior write-errors invalidate sync.
Jan 30 08:57:20 Peter-Lambs-iMac mds[34]: (/Volumes/GPL III BACKUP/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/291AAEE8-0631-48A0-AAC8-679C66732217)(Er ror) IndexCI in _ContentIndexSyncIndexBulk:preSync error:22 12
Jan 30 08:57:20 Peter-Lambs-iMac mds[34]: (/Volumes/GPL III BACKUP/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/291AAEE8-0631-48A0-AAC8-679C66732217)(Er ror) IndexSDB in dbflushdatastore:/Volumes/GPL III BACKUP/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/291AAEE8-0631-48A0-AAC8-679C66732217/sto re.db : dbsyncdatastore: !WARNING! prior write-errors invalidate sync.
Jan 30 08:57:20 Peter-Lambs-iMac mds[34]: (/Volumes/GPL III BACKUP/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/291AAEE8-0631-48A0-AAC8-679C66732217)(Er ror) IndexCI in _ContentIndexSyncIndexBulk:preSync error:22 0
These are all mds having problems in the Spotlight index on your TM drive.
Could my anti-virus SW be an issue (I am using VirusBarrier X6)?
Quite possibly. Exclude your TM disk from it, or turn it off.
Also exclude your TM disk from Spotlight indexing, at least temporarily, via SYstem Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.
That will likely fix the backup problem.
You really don't need much, if any, anti-virus on a Mac; and many anti-virus products are actually worse than a virus! For more detail, see this post by Klaus1: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10942146&#10942146 or: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2307964
If you're running Windoze, of course, the Windoze side needs all the usual anti- stuff of a PC.

Time machine backup fails; error creating folder. Western Digital drive requires password which is perhaps/likely the issue. I can't eliminate the password/encryption.

Time Machine backup fails on new WD external drive (My Passport Studio); error creating folder (after several hours of Time Machine apparently working).
Background: I purchased a Western Digital drive from an Apple Store to use for Time Machine backup. I followed the Western Digital instructions that came with the drive for Mac. I didn't get the Time Machine prompt which the instructions indicated I would receive--namely to select whether I want to encrypt my Time Macine backups. (I already have a Time Machine backup I use at another location, which is perhaps why I didn't receive a prompt.)
I decided to install the Western Digital utilities and security software that comes on the disk--with a view to potentially encrypting the disk (since I still wanted to have an encrypted backup since I was mobile). I forgot that (from experience 2-years previous) that I shouldn't install Western Digital software because it just makes life really complicated.
I tried several times to do a Time Machine backup with failures each time (error creating the backup folder). I tried to get help from WD but I don't think the technicians were following what my issue was. Potentially I was not helpful in explaining it. I deleted the WD applications from my system after the first contact with WD. However the problem persisted--I still had an encrypted hard drive. After three phone sessions with three different WD techs I still could not get a solution. (By the second call I was not at all interested in having an encrypted drive--I just wanted to format and restore the drive to an unencrypted state so that I could have SOME kind of Time Machine backup.)
I still don't have a solution--either to get Time Machine working with the WD encryption/password on the drive, or to remove the encryption so I can backup. Right now my options are to return the drive to the Apple Store -- or get a return authorization from WD. Seems crazy since the drive is fine and I have the working password.

Never install "helpful software" provided by WD and Seagate (or any HD mfg.)
All such stuff is fluff and nonsense that interferes with normal HD operation.
Always when you buy a new HD, format it for Mac and then use it to TM backup or clone a HD, or archive data.
Less is more on HD new out of box. A "blank brick", no fluff and cotton candy software

Time Machine backup fails because "volume could not be found".

I just had my logic board replaced in my Macbook Pro and went to do a backup (yeah, I didn't do this right before it crashed) and now Time Machine backup fails with the message "volume could not be found" Under Time Machine/Choose Disk, it appears that the drive is the one selected. The computer "sees" the drive and I can read files on it. The only other thing that has happened in the meantime is that a friend helped pull a file off the hard drive that I needed for a project. No apparent issues there. Any suggestions?

You might try going to /Library/Preferences, then drag the file com.apple.TimeMachine.plist to the Desktop. Reboot your Mac, then try declaring the backup disk for Time Machine. It might help if you mount the backup disk first.
Are you using Time Machine to write its backups to the disk of a Time Capsule? If not, since this discussion section is for Apple's Time Capsule AirPort base station, a discussion involving Time Machine should be held on the discussion section for whatever version of OSX that you're using.

Time Machine backup fails in extended network

Dear all,
I've recently setup an extended network using 2 additional AirPort Express units connected to the main Airport Extreme modem (all working well). I'm using the Extreme for Time Machine Backups, which used to work just fine as well.
However, when connected to the Expresses, the Time Machine Backups fail with the message that the backup file is already in use. I'm guessing the Express modem tries to connect to the backup file, while the Extreme is keeping the file stand-by or something.
Does anybody know a fix to this problem?
Kind regards,
Dennis

It took a Snow Leopard a while but after 2 days it started working again. I've checked whether the connection was directly to the Extreme, but the connection actually went through one of the bridged Expresses.
I guys one just has to hope for the best ;-)
I've upgraded to Lion last week and backup works fine with the new operating system as well.

Time machine backup fails in my seagate 3tb external drive

Time machine backup fails in my seagate 3tb external drive

Without any specifics it's impossible to assist you, however the best tool for debugging TM failures is using Pondini's Time Machine Troubleshooting guide.
Good luck.

Time Machine Backup Failed even though I still have 1.9TB of a 2TB Time Capsule. I am using Yosemite.

Time Machine Backup Failed even though I still have 1.9TB of a 2TB Time Capsule. I am using Yosemite 10.10.3 on an iMac (mid 2010)

The recent update in Yosemite (10.10.3) is causing some issues for some users.
Try a complete network power cycle as follows:
Power off each and every device on your network......modem, Time Capsule, computers, printers, etc......in any order that you want
Wait a minute
Power up the modem and let it run 2-3 minutes
Then, power up the next device that is connected to the modem an let it run a full minute
Then, continue to power up devices one at a time about a minute apart until everything is back up
Check the network
Wait for a backup to occur and report on your results

BI Server Fails for No Apparent Reason

Hi,
I have a problem I cannot explain in that our BI Server continually fails for no apparent reason.
We have OBIEE+ installed on Windows Server 2003 together with Oracle 10g. The OTM Advanced Analytics repository &.catalog has been installed with the OTM (Full HDOWNER /limited GLOGOWNER) database under pinning it (without a full OTM installation) because there is a need for an FTI environment for users to 'play' with but infratructure limitations prevent a full-blown OTM installation. The setup is unorthodox but the environment does work except for this issue.
The BI Server fails on a regular basis. I cannot find any reports in the NQSServer Log (or any other log I can think of) that points to the cause or indeed that it has actually gone down - the only clue that it has failed is the startup entry resulting from the restart of the service.
To minimise impact I have written a cmd file task that is invoked whenever the BI Server goes down - this shuts down the Presentation Server and Java Host services and then starts all the tasks in the required sequence. The resultant log from this task shows that the BI server goes down every 30 minutes. Obviously something is triggered every half-hour. So I have trawled through the various config files for a clue of what this could be but I can't find anything obvious.
In the repository Administrator, I have suspended all initiallisation blocks of repository variables except for those that are required and the refresh of those remaining is limited to 0600hrs daily so these should not contribute to this issue.
I would be grateful for any suggestions.

Hi John,
We are running the environment on a VM server with Windows Server 2003 installed with 2GB ram and 50GB disk space. Beyond that, I'm not sure what memory measurement your asking for. Currently the server is running at 1.39 GB memory usage with NQSSever currently using 50MB of that. So it still has 0.6GB of memory it can call on if needed. When I open up a dashboard from a remote workstation, the memory usage inceases to about 55MB.
I have already gone through the NQSConfig.ini file and increased space allocations, for example MAX_CACHE_ENTRY_SIZE = 10 MB (Increased from 1MB) but these changes had no effect.
Exactly which memory measurement are you after?
Thanks in advance.

Hi folks! My MacBook Air is making awkward little chipping sound... For no apparent reason. My Macbook Pro does the same. Goes like "chip... chip... chip", always three times in a row, for no apparent reason. Does anyone know how this occurs? Thanks

Hi folks! My MacBook Air is making awkward little chipping sound... For no apparent reason. My Macbook Pro does the same. Goes like "chip... chip... chip", always three times in a row, for no apparent reason. Does anyone know how this occurs?
It seems to be linked to the sound being on. When I mute the thing, it doesn't do it. When I plug headphones into it, it does it over the headphones.
Thanks for your help!

Hi folks! My MacBook Air is making awkward little chipping sound... For no apparent reason. My Macbook Pro does the same. Goes like "chip... chip... chip", always three times in a row, for no apparent reason. Does anyone know how this occurs?
It seems to be linked to the sound being on. When I mute the thing, it doesn't do it. When I plug headphones into it, it does it over the headphones.
Thanks for your help!

Time Machine backups fail with no error message

My Time Machine hasn't successfully completed a backup since 3/19. It starts the backup on schedule, indexes over 2 million objects, goes through the phase of preparing objects, and then just stops. I know that there have been many changes since that time, but it isn't backing them up. Please tell me how to fix this.

I have the same problem - Time Machine fails to backup with no error message - after a brief foray into Mavericks. Each time it tries to backup, TM creates a new folder in the "in progress" directory but fails to complete. Otherwise TM looks normal with no obvious errors. I have several HDDs. I installed Mavericks on an external drive, migrated my data over to it. Booted from it and after a day or two decided I just didn’t' like it and booted from my Snow Leopard partition. All was fine but apparently, I had forgotten to turn OFF Time Machine while booted into Mavericks. Thereafter, Time Machine failed to backup. Here's what I've done and the error logs:
Deleted the NEW directory that Mavericks created on TM
Done a full reset of TM (deleted: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Re-entered the exclusions
Rebuilt the directory structure on the boot disc using DiskWarrior
Repaired the TM disc using Disc Utility
Resynced the Spotlight cache on the boot disk
TM also seems not to do a deep traversal since it just stops after checking files to backup.
Here are the error logs from the TM Buddy widget:
Starting standard backup
Error loading /Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Vir tualPCDiskImagePlugin: dlopen(/Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin.bundle/Contents/Ma cOS/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:\n /Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Vir tualPCDiskImagePlugin: mach-o, but wrong architecture
Cannot find function pointer MacDiskImagePluginFactory for factory 7F1FD83E-6684-11D8-968F-000A957703C0 in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x102f00930 </Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin.bundle> (bundle, not loaded)
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Mac Pro Data
Forcing deep traversal on source: "Mac Pro Data" (mount: '/Volumes/Mac Pro Data' fsUUID: B4BEA50F-15B1-34BB-92F1-B7605139B852 eventDBUUID: BA019CB5-8123-4C99-9806-C9593D4EFA34), {1, 1, 1, 0}
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Music HDD
Forcing deep traversal on source: "Music HDD" (mount: '/Volumes/Music HDD' fsUUID: FF1EF8F5-30D0-34C0-BC02-ACDB5AD18B3A eventDBUUID: 92A95F63-5F4A-4987-90DB-5444ADF33D40), {1, 1, 1, 0}
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|
Error: Flushing index to disk returned an error: 0
Backup canceled.
I don't know what to do next. Any ideas?
Thanks,
John

Time Machine backup fails about once a week

I'm backing up to an external firewire drive.
About once a week, a Time Machine backup will fail.
I have no other information on the failure. There are no errors in any of the log in
Console.app. Time Machine simply reports "Last Backup Failed", and that's it.
I looked through system.log, and found this;
system.log:Nov 25 08:59:51 kilroy-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3897]: Error: (-43) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/mauroj/Notebook/.DS_Store to /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/kilroy/2008-11-25-085528.inProgress/D2D3A 24A-4AC2-4BBE-B95B-70F6C122AA07/MacIntosh HD/Users/mauroj/Notebook
Nov 25 08:59:51 kilroy-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3897]: Copied 1132 files (90.0 MB) from volume MacIntosh HD.
Nov 25 08:59:51 kilroy-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3897]: Copy stage failed with error:11
Nov 25 08:59:56 kilroy-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3897]: Backup failed with error: 11
I'm not 100% sure this is the reason Time Machine failed and aborted, but it correlates
time-wise. So it appears backupd (aka Time Machine) is reporting it can not or will not
copy one particular file. There is no indication as to why.
This is buggy behavior for backup software. The message is broken, because there's no
"why" to the failure mode, and the software is broken, because it should be able to
recover from this, complete the backup, and simply report that a specific file was not
backed up.
If I can, I'll file a bug. Note to Apple - We RELY on backups. Stuff like this in the backup
software does NOT make us feel warm and fuzzy.
/jim

this is a known bug introduced by 10.5.3 update. lots of people have it (including myself). it's been acknowledged by apple. there is nothing you can or should do about it yourself. we have to wait for a fix from apple.

Time Machine Backup fails after Restore

Had my 500GB HD on my iMac fail. After being replaced by Apple, I performed a restore from 1TB time machine backup. After this was done, I set time machine back up to back up to this 1TB drive. I want it to append to the previous backups. However, the backup fails due to "backup is too large for the backup volume". It doesn't seem to want to append to previous backups but thinks this is an entirely new backup, which I guess is mostly true. I suspect this has to do with UUIDs of the new and old drives, but I'm not sure how to correct it (I'd prefer not to just wipe the backup disk and start over). I migrated backups before from one extenal HD to another but can't remember what I did... If anyone has steps to fix this, let me know em. Thanks.
Here's the time machine log:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/MyBook-Mac/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|
Starting pre-backup thinning: 506.55 GB requested (including padding), 502.31 GB available
No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
Backup Failed: unable to free 506.55 GB needed space
Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
Message was edited by: Delmonte3161

Delmonte3161 wrote:
Had my 500GB HD on my iMac fail. After being replaced by Apple, I performed a restore from 1TB time machine backup. After this was done, I set time machine back up to back up to this 1TB drive. I want it to append to the previous backups. However, the backup fails due to "backup is too large for the backup volume". It doesn't seem to want to append to previous backups but thinks this is an entirely new backup, which I guess is mostly true. I suspect this has to do with UUIDs of the new and old drives,
yes, that's correct. TM will make a full backup after a full system restore on a new hard drive because the UUIDs of the new drive is different from the old one.
you may try the following hack to get around it
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090213071015789
But I make no promises about how well it works.
but I'm not sure how to correct it (I'd prefer not to just wipe the backup disk and start over). I migrated backups before from one extenal HD to another but can't remember what I did... If anyone has steps to fix this, let me know em. Thanks.
Here's the time machine log:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/MyBook-Mac/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|
Starting pre-backup thinning: 506.55 GB requested (including padding), 502.31 GB available
No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
Backup Failed: unable to free 506.55 GB needed space
Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
Message was edited by: Delmonte3161

Time Machine Backup Failed, don't have old backups

Last night I ejected my external hard drive to use that USB port to plug in a card reader and download a bunch of videos and images. This afternoon, when I plugged my external drive back in, I got a Time Machine Error: "This backup is too large for the backup volume". When it tries to back up, I get the more detailed message that this backup needs 6.7 GB of space but there are only 6.2 GB available.
This is the only computer I've ever attached to this external hard drive, so the 49.38 GB that are currently being used should be being used by Time Machine to back up this computer (and so Time Machine should delete old weekly backups to make room for the most recent backup). However, when I open Time Machine to go look at my backups, it says I only have one backup, from last night.
I do like the fact that I can go restore old stuff I've deleted or disastrously edited, so, if possible, I'd like to get my old backups back. Failing that, I guess I need to clear the external drive and just do a new back up.
If someone can help me 1) get my old back ups back or 2) get Time Machine do a successful completely new backup, I'd be really grateful.

My first reaction was that that couldn't possibly be the problem (because I've had no problems at all backing things up for the past year and a half), but it appears that you are correct.
Apparently, all of the pictures and videos are, in fact, too much for my Time Machine external hard drive. I don't have anything else on the external hard drive, but my TM drive is, in fact, much, much smaller than my internal HD.
Time Machine Backups
Capacity: 55.57 GB
Available: 6.19 GB
Used: 49.38 GB
Macintosh HD
Capacity: 232.57 GB
Available: 175.45 GB
Used: 57.12 GB
I see the problem. I guess I'll move all of the videos to a folder that I can exclude from backups. (I much prefer to have excel spreadsheets I put data on every day backed up than blizzard videos shot with my spouse's camera: those I can lose.)
I was so certain that I wasn't running out of space that I didn't check, so I was thinking that I should still have old backups. Since they've been deleted, that's fine with me.
Thanks for asking me to check the relevant sizes!

Time Machine Backup Failed: Error (12): Link of previous volume failed

I am having troubles with Time Machine, backing up to a new Time Capsule, after I have switched one of the drives being backed up. I replaced a 250 GB external drive with a 500 GB drive, but have given it the same name (otherwise lots of links break). Now I get the following error everytime Time Machine runs:
Error (12): Link of previous volume failed for Athena Disk 2
Where 'Athena Disk 2' is an external USB drive being backed up, which was swapped with a new drive.
Disk Utility reports the drive is clean. I've seen a few other references to similar problems in the forum, but no solution. Console reports that the first (internal non-switched) drive has a bunch of files being backed up, but it seems to abort when it tries to backup the drive that was switched.
I've tried disabling backups, removing the Time Capsule disk and then setting it up again, in an attempt to 'reset' something, but to no avail.
Any ideas? I'm guessing there is a filesystem ID or something similar that Time Machine is using, and it notices that something has changed, but doesn't know what to do about it.
Thanks,
Dave Filip.

I'm having a similar problem, which seemed to start coincident with either a 10.5.6 update OR the replacement of my internal drive with a larger drive (I don't remember which...).
Time Machine backup logs now start similar to this one:
2/9/09 9:30:03 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Backup requested due to disk attach
2/9/09 9:30:03 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Starting standard backup
2/9/09 9:30:04 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Backing up to: /Volumes/H. G. Wells/Backups.backupdb
2/9/09 9:30:14 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
2/9/09 9:30:14 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|
2/9/09 9:30:23 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Backup requested due to disk attach
All of this seems right except for that business about UUIDs, but then we get this:
2/9/09 9:48:52 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] No pre-backup thinning needed: 113.94 GB requested (including padding), 327.41 GB available
2/9/09 10:13:23 AM com.apple.backupd[35512] CoreEndianFlipData: error -4940 returned for rsrc type FREF (id 133, length 7, native = no)
2/9/09 10:13:24 AM com.apple.backupd[35512] CoreEndianFlipData: error -4940 returned for rsrc type FREF (id 133, length 7, native = no)
2/9/09 10:13:29 AM com.apple.backupd[35512] CoreEndianFlipData: error -4940 returned for rsrc type open (id 128, length 12, native = no)
2/9/09 10:13:29 AM com.apple.backupd[35512] CoreEndianFlipData: error -4940 returned for rsrc type open (id 128, length 12, native = no)
2/9/09 10:13:40 AM com.apple.backupd[35512] CoreEndianFlipData: error -4940 returned for rsrc type FREF (id 128, length 7, native = no)
2/9/09 10:13:40 AM com.apple.backupd[35512] CoreEndianFlipData: error -4940 returned for rsrc type FREF (id 128, length 7, native = no)
2/9/09 11:43:10 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Copied 409803 files (94.1 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
2/9/09 11:43:10 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Error (12): Link of previous volume failed for Macintosh HD.
2/9/09 11:43:10 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Error (12): Link of previous volume failed for Macintosh HD.
2/9/09 11:43:16 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[35512] Backup failed with error: 12
which leaves me with a few questions:
a) I don't have fresh backups, and that leaves my system a bit vulnerable. Can I fix this somehow?
b) I don't want to have to start over, but if I do how can I salvage the existing backups at least for the next year or so?
c) What the heck are those "CoreEndianFlipData" errors all about?
Thanks in advance.
Ron

Time Machine: backups failing because "connection failed"

I have a 500GB external HD connected to my Airport Extreme base station base station via USB, and I use it for wireless Time Machine backups for my iMac and my MBA.
(Yes, I know this setup isn't officially supported. But, it's been working well for a couple years now.)
But over the last few months, backups keep failing because the HD keeps getting disconnected. If I go to find the drive in the finder, it appears, but when I click it, it says "connection failed".
I've found that if I reset the AEX (via airport utility) that allows it to connect, but, never long enough for a full backup to happen.
And, several times recently I've gotten some message about how the backup needs to be verified or something like that- the bottom line is always that the old backups are lost and I need to start all over with the initial backup that takes days. But of course I can never finish it, because it always drops the connection.
At first I thought the problem was only with the iMac backups, which would lead me to believe the drive/router/etc isn't the problem and that it's something on the iMac, but then I had the problem with the MBA too, so I'm guessing it has to be something with the AEX base station (firmware maybe?), or the HD itself...
Is my HD dying? I've run disk utility on it and it checks out OK. Not sure how else to troubleshoot that.
I used to have tons of problems with my internet dropping out when backups were running, but an airport firmware update eventually solved that, and things had been running fine...
I'm running Lion and all the latest software/firmware updates.
Ive found tons of threads about this problem, but they're all at least a year old, and none had a solution...
Does anyone have any thoughts??
Thanks!!

Alexroet wrote:
And, several times recently I've gotten some message about how the backup needs to be verified or something like that- the bottom line is always that the old backups are lost and I need to start all over with the initial backup that takes days.
That's not one of Apple's clearest messages -- it means the backups are corrupted beyond OSX's ability to repair them. See #C13 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Is my HD dying?
Possibly.
But more likely is the usual cause -- network or power problems that the Airport can't deal with well enough to prevent corruption.
Part of the reason you're seeing problems now may be more networks, cordless phones, microwaves, etc., in your area causing more network problems. Another part may be that it's only in the last 18 months or so that Time Machine started running the periodic checks to find the problem. You may have had trouble earlier but didn't know it.
Bottom line, you need to find a reliable way to back up.
In your case, it's actually easy: Delete the sparse bundle containing the iMac's backups, and start backing-up to it directly. Then back the MBA up to the same drive (preferably to a separate partition) via your network. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #22 for setup instructions. Also see #33 there.

Time Machine Backup Failing For No Apparent Reason

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