Time machine constant preparing

My Time Machine has been preparing for backup for several hours. It is an external drive that I only connect once a week for backup. It has always gone smoothly before. The drive shows up on the desktop, and I can open it. Any ideas?

If you haven't already I'd recommend book marking and studying Pondini's Time Machine FAQs and Time Machine Troubleshooting
In D1 of the Troubleshooting guide he referrs to your issue.

Similar Messages

Time machine backup preparing is stuck!

Time machine backup preparing is extremely slow if working at all? Could it have something to do with me having just replaced my hdd with an ssd? I restored my time machine backup to the ssd with no problems (didn't seem to be that slow). I also have some files which I manually move to the external hard drive instead of using time machine and they were very quickly transferred. I did an smc reset. I did a full indexing of spotlight. Nothing seems to work. Please help!

Hi there corneliusgdahling,
are you using an Apple Time Capsule or just an external drive for backup? Have you tried removing deactivating Time Machine on System Preferences and re-enabling it?
Sorry for bad English

Time Machine only preparing but doesn't run

I've been away for 3 weeks, and my time machine hasn't backed up since then. Now that I'm back and connected, the back up says "Preparing back up", but never goes through. I can't figure out how to get it to work. Any suggestions?

"Preparing" is going to take a very long time if you have not backed up recently and you have also recently installed Yosemite (10.10) on your Mac.
Make sure that you have your Mac connected to the Time Capsule using a wired connection, since that will be at least 3-5 times faster than wireless.
Start the backup again late at night, so that it will continue overnight. With luck, the process will be done by the next morning. If it's not, do not interrupt the backup and let it run until it completes.

Time machine forever preparing

Hi!
My time machine worked well for over a month, but since yesterday it's just permamently "preparing". The disk is fine, it can store and retrieve information, but the backup process itself does does not start... it only "prepares" to start.
Any help would be most appreciated!

I have this same problem. Time Machine has worked for a good time, but recently it has been just "preparing" for a good day now, and when I try to abort, it just says "stopping..." forever. The drive works well.
I have a feeling, that it has something to do with having the disk attached for a long period of time to my laptop (macbook pro, connected via fw400). Perhaps Time Machine has some problems with the computer going to sleep/hibernate while the backup drive is attached?
If I yank the drive out, and force a manual backup, it behaves normally. I haven't tested after these symptoms have risen, but previously I have had the drive attached only while the computer has been activated, and has worked fine.
Message was edited by: hpaul

Time Machine hangs 'preparing items for backup'

Time Machine continually spinning 'preparing items for backup'
TM Logs say:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/MyBook TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb
Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 UserInfo=0x100190560 "The file “bzdone_20090128_1stats.xml” couldn’t be opened." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=5 UserInfo=0x100177910 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error")
Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 UserInfo=0x100521200 "The file “bzdone_200901311.bzff” couldn’t be opened." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=5 UserInfo=0x100177910 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error")
Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 UserInfo=0x100521fa0 "The file “bzdone_20090131_1stats.xml” couldn’t be opened." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=5 UserInfo=0x100177910 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error")
Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 UserInfo=0x100521200 "The file “bzdone_200902041.bzff” couldn’t be opened." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=5 UserInfo=0x100177910 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error")
Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 UserInfo=0x1001d5530 "The file “bzdone_20090204_1stats.xml” couldn’t be opened." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=5 UserInfo=0x100177910 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error")
Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 UserInfo=0x1001d5510 "The file “bzdone_200902051.bzff” couldn’t be opened." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=5 UserInfo=0x100177910 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error")
Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 UserInfo=0x100522610 "The file “bzdone_20090205_1stats.xml” couldn’t be opened." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=5 UserInfo=0x100177910 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error")
Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 UserInfo=0x1005220f0 "The file “bzdone_200902061.bzff” couldn’t be opened." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=5 UserInfo=0x100177910 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error")
Can't find anything relevant googling the error message - seems to appear on damaged software install CDs so possibly the files are corrupt on my harddrive? I think .bzff file are from 'Backblaze' online backup, but given the date in the file name they have previously backed up successfully.

chassa wrote:
I think .bzff file are from 'Backblaze' online backup, but given the date in the file name they have previously backed up successfully.
Try excluding them from Time Machine, per #10 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If that doesn't help, it may be something else on your internal HD. Verify it, per #A5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Time machine keeps preparing backup..

Hi, my Time Machine linked to a 1TB Time Capsule keeps preparing the backup but no backups are done.
I had a look at the 'backupd' in the console messages and here is what i have:
26/07/2009 22:11:13 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[214] Disk image /Volumes/Data/The MacBook_0023df8ceb34.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of The MacBook
26/07/2009 22:11:48 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[214] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
26/07/2009 22:11:51 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[214] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
Anyone could translate this for me?
Thanks,
S.

Hi thezedhongkong,
My understanding of the "node requires deep traversal" is one of a few things:
The "backupd" process has lost track of what's contained in your backup and how much has changed since the last backup. As a result it needs to verify the integrity of the sparsebundle image, unpack it, check each file against what's on your machine currently and then run the backup again.
Every file has a "flag" that the backupd file is looking for when it scans the drive. If the flag is "on" then that means the file has changed since the last backup. If the flag is "off" then that means the file has not changed since the last backup.
Flag On - Backup
Flag Off - Don't backup
It's why Apple recommends against backing up large database files. Because if one piece of information is changed the entire database file will need to be backed up every single time. Entourage and Aperture are common offenders of this issue, iPhoto is not because it's a package (a gloried zip archive).
Based on how large the sparsebundle is, I've seen deep traversals take as little as 1 hour to as long as 8 hours (I had a 178GB image). Unfortunately, if you stop/cancel/quit the process it has to start over again each time. So you pretty much just need to let it sit and do its thing, even if that means overnight.
Now my understanding of the entire process could be totally wrong, so someone please correct me if that's the case.

What's a reasonable amount of time for time machine to "prepare" a hard drive?

I'm trying to put my time machine backup onto a new 3TB external hard drive (my iMac has 500Gb of data). The first external drive said it would take 11 days to back up. After it was running for 3 days I asked an apple genius how long it should take to create this time machine using USB 2.0 and was told it should take no more than 10-11 hours. He informed me that the hard drive was probably bad. I have since purchased a new hard drive and am currently trying to put a time machine backup on it. I started 4 hours ago and the time machine still says it is "preparing backup." At least the first drive was quicker to prepare the backup and gave me a time estimate.
Is this an appropriate amount of time to set up time machine? Is something wrong with my iMac? Can both hard drives be bad out of the box? Am I too impatient?

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Spotlight constantly indexing and Time Machine endlessly preparing backup

Hi,
I have a Macbook Pro 5,5 and Mac OS X 10.8.4
Lately I noticed that Spotlight was pretty much constantly indexing, so I went to "System Preferences/Spotlight/Privacy" and I dragged my HD there to prevent Spotlight from indexing it. Then rebooted my laptop and removed my HD again, which caused my Spolight to start indexing again.
After a night of indexing, everything seemed to be working fine. Nevertheless, today Spotlight is once again constantly indexing my computer, and the bar just won't go beyond "Estimating Indexing Time". What could I do to solve this issue?
Related to this, I assume, is my inability to backup through Time Machine. I feel like Time Machine is waiting for Spotlight to complete its indexing in order to start its backup-job, is that correct?
Thanks for your help,
Sander

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender mdworker -o -k Sender mds | grep -v boxd | tail | open -f -a TextEdit
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

Time Machine says "Preparing..." indefinitly while Spotlight is indexing

It appears that TM will not proceed with a backup as long as Spotlight is indexing a volume.
1. Is there a way to disable indexing while in progress?
2. Is it possible to set TM to override the indexing?
Thx.

I had exactly the same problem. You can open the Spotlight preferences in the System preferences. Under the "Privacy" pane add all of your drives. This will basically turn on Spotlight. Now you should be able to do a proper Time Machine backup.

Time Machine - Constant Deep Traversals

10.6.8 Partition; Mavs on the other.
Keep getting deep traversals on every TM backup on the SL partition.
I posted a lot more info at Time Machine - Deep Traversal Issues - Please Help but that is stale now; and maybe this will give someone a clue as to how to help me.
Here's Time Machine Buddy:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:contains changes|must scan subdirs|fsevent|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 12.47 GB requested (including padding), 803.47 GB available
Copied 1240 files (10.4 GB) from volume Snow Leopard HD.
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:contains changes|must scan subdirs|fsevent|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 12.44 GB requested (including padding), 793.08 GB available
Copied 1221 files (10.4 GB) from volume Snow Leopard HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
I've done every trick Pondini's site suggests plus more; even wiped the external clean; run Disk Warrior on everything ...
I get this running Time Tracker:
Those yellow triangles - could they be the culprit?
If so - what do I do to fix?

Something is clearly wrong, and the backup is hung. You might as well cancel it. If it doesn't stop after a while, use the +Activity Monitor+ app (in your Applications/Utilities folder), to force-quit the backupd process.
Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Copy and post them here; they may contain a clue. Also post the details of your setup, especially the destination for your backups.
Also, try all the things that apply in #D2 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

Time Machine stuck in Preparing Data Mode

In the past two days my time Machine has not made a successful back up. It seems to be stuck in "preparing data" and will stay like this all day. Even when I click the time machine preferences and stop it, it never changes. Does anyone have any solutions to this or has experienced it.Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!

Judith,
The following might contain an explanation for what you are experiencing.
*_Time Machine May Report "Preparing..." For a Long Time_*
First, it’s good to determine WHY Time Machine is "Preparing..." for an extended period of time. Examining the Console logs during this event can reveal what is actually going on behind the scenes. It may be “Preparing…” for a genuinely good reason. How long is 'too long' to wait for Time Machine to finish "Preparing..."? Some times, "Preparing..." is required to perform the normal housekeeping that Time Machine does periodically. Other times, it really is "stuck" and never proceeds after more than 24 hours.
*”Deep Traversal” (Recent Crash / Forced Restart / System Update / Extended Period Between Backups)*
According to the following KB article it can sometimes take quite a long time if Time Machine begins a “deep traversal” and has to compare data inventories. This may apply to your situation, particularly if many Gigs of data are involved. [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516]
You see, Time Machine *+does not+* ordinarily perform file-by-file comparisons to determine what has changed and thus determine what needs to be backed up. Rather, Time Machine relies on FSEvents notifications. This is a log that the system uses to keep track of changes to directories. Rather than scan tens of thousands of files for changes each time, Time Machine simply looks at this log and narrows its’ scan to only the directories that have experienced changes since the last backup. Otherwise, Time Machine would have to be running constantly just to catch every change on its own and thus eat up precious CPU.
Every event that FSEvents records has its’ own ID which includes a time stamp. At the end of every backup, Time Machine stores the last event ID that it processes. When the next backup is initiated, Time Machine looks at this stored ID and determines that it only needs to backup events that have occurred after the time stamp on this last event ID.
If, due to a system crash, power failure, forced restart, or some other major system event, Time Machine cannot find this last event ID in the system logs then it will consider the FSEvents log “untrustable” and it will go into what’s called “deep traversal”. The Console logs may report +“Event store UUIDs don't match”.+ In this event, Time Machine will by-pass the system log entirely and perform its’ own file-by-file comparison to determine what has changed since its’ last backup. Obviously, if tens or hundreds of Gigs are involved, then this process can take quite some time and should be allowed to proceed.
Additionally, it appears that if Time Machine has to go back too far to find the last event ID, then it will give up and simply go into “deep traversal” and do the file-by-file scan on its’ own. This can occur if Time Machine has not been able to perform its’ hourly backups for some time, as is the case for users who only backup once a week or so. This is also the case with major Mac OS system updates that change thousands of files at one time. There are simply too many events logged by the system for Time Machine to bother looking for the last known event ID.
*Consolidation / “Thinning”*
At the beginning, when Time Machine is first used, incremental backups are relatively quick events. But as time goes on, and backup files grow, Time Machine requires time to perform house-keeping on the backed up data. This maintenance is referred to in the Console logs as "thinning". The larger the backup files become, the more time Time Machine requires.
To prevent the backup drive from filling up too fast, Time Machine will periodically consolidate, or 'thin', backups to free up space for new data. After a certain period of time, each hourly backup becomes "expired". This occurs about 24-48 hours after the hourly backup took place. At that point Time Machine begins consolidating, or "thinning", all the hourly backups of a given day into one daily backup. Then, after about a month all daily backups for a given week “expire” and are consolidated into a single weekly backup.
Obviously, since the Time Machine process (backupd) does not run continuously, it has to do this "thinning" during routine backups. That is where "Preparing Backup..." and "Finishing Backup..." come in. It is during these initial and closing phases of a backup that "thinning" occurs. As a result, while not every backup will be accompanied by extended periods of "Preparing..." and "Finishing...", periodically Time Machine will require extra time to perform these space-saving consolidations.
*Anti-Virus Software*
Running anti-virus software can interfere with the backup process. Either disable it altogether, or try the suggestion outlined here, “If you use third-party anti-virus scanning software and have issues, make sure your Time Machine back up folder (Backups.backupdb on the Time Machine disk) is excluded from virus scanning.” (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)
*Software Updates* #
Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can create major changes in the structure of your Macs directories. Time Machine will backup every file that has changed since the installation.
After an OS update (like 10.5.5) Time Machine realizes the system no longer matches what it looked like during the previous backup. So it has determined that it's earlier catalogue of what-should-be-where is “untrustable”. So it is going to go item-by-item comparing the before and after of your system.
*Spotlight Keeps Indexing Backup Drive* #
It may be that Time Machine can’t proceed or complete a backup due to Spotlight indexing. During this period, take a look at the Spotlight icon in the upper right corner of your screen. Is there a tiny dot pulsating in the center of the spyglass? Click on the icon. Is there a progress bar displayed? Generally, Spotlight indexing is a good thing. If it has only been a couple of hours then, stop the backup, turn Time Machine OFF, and let the indexing continue.
However, at times Spotlight may hang and never progress after many hours, preventing further backups from taking place.
Go to System Preferences --> Time Machine.
Using the slider on the left, turn OFF Time Machine backups for now.
Next, click “Show All” in the toolbar.
Select the Spotlight Preferences.
Click the Privacy Tab.
First, drag your Macs’ internal hard disk from the desktop to the Privacy list.
Wait 10 seconds, then highlight the Macs’ hard disk in the list and click the tiny “-” button at the bottom to remove it from the list.
Spotlight will initiate a reindex of the hard disk. If you click on the Spotlight menu icon you may see the message:
+“Spotlight helps you quickly find things on your computer. Spotlight will be available as soon as the contents of your computer have been indexed.”+
...and a progress bar will indicate the time remaining.
Once completed, drag your Time Machine backup disk into the Privacy list of the Spotlight Preferences.
Wait 10 seconds, then highlight the Time Machine backup disk in the list and click the tiny “-” button at the bottom to remove it from the list.
Spotlight will now initiate a reindex of the hard disk.
Once completed, if you have any other hard disks attached to your Mac that are also being backed using Time Machine, then force a reindex as well using the procedure outlined above.
Then turn Time Machine back ON and initiate a backup.
*Run Away System Process*
It’s possible that Time Machine is stuck “Preparing…” because another process is monopolizing your Macs’ CPU. Launch Activity Monitor and sort the items by “CPU”. Is there a process that is at or near 100% that might be preventing the backupd process from moving forward?
One poster stated, “I took it to my local Genius Bar and they found a Syslogd daemon running, taking up 100% of my CPU….This resulted in the "Preparing..." mode running forever.” [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1755600&tstart=15]
You may be able use Activity Monitor to “kill” the offending process. Or you may be able to resolve it simply by rebooting your Mac. Then try backing up again.
*Verify/Repair Mac Hard Disk & Permissions*
It may be that your Macs’ internal hard disk has so many file/directory issues that Time Machine simply has trouble making sense of it. Some users have had success using Disk Utility on their Macs’ hard drive.
Launch Disk Utility and click “Repair Disk Permissions”.
Once complete, attempt a backup.
If Time Machine appears to hang at “Preparing…” again, then do the following:
Insert your Macs’ original install DVD and reboot holding down the “C” key.
At the Welcome screen go up to the “Utilities” menu and select Disk Utility.
Select your Macs’ hard disk on the left and click “Verify Disk” on the right.
If problems are found click “Repair Disk”.
Reboot to your normal desktop and try backing up again.
*For Time Capsule Users* #
If, though, none of the options above have helped and it has been 12 hours or more of “Preparing…”, then the Time Capsule may need to be restarted.
Stop the backup from the Time Machine menu. (Give if a few minutes while it says “Stopping backup…”)
When the Time Machine icon stops spinning, unplug the TC from the wall outlet.
Wait 10-15 seconds.
Re-plug it in again.
After it has restarted (30-60 seconds), attempt another backup.
Time Machine will report “Preparing…” again, but it shouldn’t be lasting more than a couple of hours.
Let us know if any of the above was helpful in resolving your issue.
Cheers!

Time Machine backup painfully slow all of a sudden

For some reason my time machine backups have become painfully slow for some reason. They were fine earlier today, then IIRC I booted windows, then booted back into OSX to run a backup. Despite there being only 1 or two changes (files added to the system) time machine began "preparing backup" by going through all the files on my HDD! Now, it is backing up, but at the rate of about 5 Kb/s!
Something is wrong. I've tried deleting the progress file in the backup folder and "resetting" TM by deselecting the backup drive and selecting it again. Nothing worked. Why would TM be so slow all of a sudden?
Has anyone any ideas?

iBookguy wrote:
No pre-backup thinning needed: 18.98 GB requested (including padding), 205.25 GB available
Copied 105384 files (7.2 MB) from volume Mac OSX.
That is a bit suspicious, but not necessarily wrong. Something caused it to think about 16 GB had been changed (it adds 20% for the "padding" in the message).
How are you running Windoze? Is it on a separate partition? If you're running it via virtualization software, with the vm file on an OSX disk but excluded from TM, that's a possible explanation.
105384 files in only 7.2mb? I doubt it...something seems fishy
Those counts are nearly always very high, and sometimes crazy high. There's some indication it's counting all the metadata, extended attributes, etc., as separate files.
If in doubt, boot up from your Install disc and do a +*Repair Disk+* on your boot volume. Then reboot normally and run another backup. That should trigger a "deep traversal," where TM will compare everything on your system with it's backups, to be sure it's got everything it should.

Time Machine Error "Unable to complete backup"

I have not backed up my hard drive for about 30 days. When I plug my external hard drive in, Time Machine "prepares backup" for a while, then gives me the following message:
*Time Machine Error*
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume.
I tried unplugging and re-plugging, rebooting my computer, trashing the ".inprogress" backup file and restarting. It did not help. While it time machine is preparing the backup, my computer runs crazy slow, with the rainbow pinwheel spinning for about 5-10 seconds just about every time I click the mouse, in any program.
Per someone's suggestion, I put "sudo grep backupd /var/log/system.log" into terminal, and this is what came up:
"No pre-backup thinning needed: 4.98 GB requested (including padding), 70.16 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (906 > 0)
Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
Indexing a file failed. Returned -12 for: /Applications/iChat.app, /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/My Computer (2)/2011-01-13-113417.inProgress/CB0D491E-EF04-48A0-9AE9-32AE43E9209C/Macintosh HD/Applications/iChat.app
Aborting backup because indexing a file failed.
Stopping backup."
This time, it was apparently iChat, but in each of the three times I've tried to backup and gotten this error message, a different file has been the culprit for the indexing error.
Any suggestions?

orchestr wrote:
Indexing a file failed. Returned -12
see [this_|http://web.me.com/pondini/TimeMachine/C3.html] user tip by Pondini.
JGG

Server 10.5.8 and time machine

I am running a 10.5.8 server in standard mode. I have a replaced a 750GB external with a 1TB external HD which I want to use for Time machine (I intend to use it for time machine on 4 other 10.5.8 macs as well, which previously did work). My 750GB used to work but now I have replaced it with a new 1TB external, Time machine just "prepares". It prepares for days and does nothing. I only have 1 1TB RAID configured with 350GB used. I have zeroed the 1TB external and reformatted with no success. Any suggestions please?
Thanks

I am running a 10.5.8 server in standard mode. I have a replaced a 750GB external with a 1TB external HD which I want to use for Time machine (I intend to use it for time machine on 4 other 10.5.8 macs as well, which previously did work). My 750GB used to work but now I have replaced it with a new 1TB external, Time machine just "prepares". It prepares for days and does nothing. I only have 1 1TB RAID configured with 350GB used. I have zeroed the 1TB external and reformatted with no success. Any suggestions please?
Thanks

Time Machine Backup only one-fifth the size of my disk. Where's the rest?

I have a startup disk with about 250 gigs in my G5 dual. I have a 500 GB disk for Time Machine. It runs when it's supposed to and I've used it to recover a few lost files successfully. I felt safe until I noticed that the Time Machine disk has only about 50 GB on it! How is this possible? What do I need to do?
When I click on options in the TIme Machine preference pane, I see the Time Machine Backups disk excluded (as I would expect) and I have excluded an additional disk, and it says in the lower right "Total included: 250.0 GB" What is going on? I feel as if I definitely cannot rely on Time Machine if I had to do a complete restore. I'd be missing 80% of my files!

If Time Machine runs into a problem with a corrupted file, it may skip the balance of the entire folder holding that file (or more), and then if there are no changes in the folder it is skipping, it doesn't pick up on it in later backups. Obviously this is not ideal behavior, but that's the way it works right now.
Here's what you can do:
Reboot from your Leopard install DVD (hold the "c" key while booting until you see the spinning gear on the gray Apple screen, and, if the DVD is not already inserted, insert it just after you press and release the power button).
When asked, select your language.
At the next screen, where you would normally begin an Install, INSTEAD Quit out of the Leopard Installer using the menu bar. Select your main hard drive as the drive to boot from.
When it boots up, log in as normal. Then open Applications / Utilities / Console and select "All Messages" in the column on the left. If this is the first time you've done this, it will take a while to get itself organized and the initial list of messages may be empty.
Then open System Preferences / Time Machine so you can watch what is happening.
Then right-click (or CTRL-click) on the Time Machine icon in the Dock and select Back Up Now from the pop up menu.
Booting from the Leopard install DVD like this will cause Time Machine to ignore the file system event logs of what's changed (because the drive may have been altered without those logs reflecting it), and instead do a Deep Traversal of your main hard drive's file system looking at everything for changes since the last backup. You will see a message to this effect in the Console. Time Machine's "preparing" stage will be unusually long -- for your size of file system it could be an hour or so -- but eventually it will finish the Deep Traversal and it will backup whatever needs to be backed up.
NOW, look at the Console for any error messages during this. The infamous -1088 error is the one most people have found. That indicates a file Time Machine has decided is corrupted -- causing it to give up on a folder. Get rid of those files/folders or put them in the Do Not Back Up list, and do another backup until you have no more such errors.
You should now have a complete backup on your Time Machine disk.
--Bob

Time machine constant preparing

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