Time Machine corrupting file system

I've been using Time Machine on an external hard drive for a long time with success. Recently the volume got corrupted and I could not repair it from disk utility. After formatting the drive I did backups for a few more days and it happened again. I used diagnostic tools from the disk manufacturer and they did not indicate any physical failure in the equipment.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Thanks in advance!

That misbehavior is typical of a failing disk, diagnostics or not. Replace it.

Similar Messages

Why Does Time Machine Corrupt Files It Restores?

Time Machine does not restore MS Word files and documents correctly. In the case of a play I am writing, the formatting is completely off and there are unusual symbols appearing which are not in the original document. In trying to restore FileMaker files and documents, I found that I cannot even open the document. A window displaying the title appears and that is all. This renders Time Machine useless.

The reason is that it has corrupted itself.
See http://pondini.org/TM/C13.html
TM over wireless and with Yosemite.. is corruption in a box.
I did not need to do this with the previous Time Capsule.
I think it is more the OS at issue than the TC.. but certainly poor setup of the TC matters.. you have to have very good wireless connection single hop.. no double repeater stuff. Anytime TM stops or fails half way through a backup it is likely to corrupt itself.

Time Machine and file system errors?

Hardware:
- 15" MBP 2GHz (mid 2006) 10.5
- WD MyBook Premium 320gb
Problem:
Time Machine backs up to a partition on the MyBook (drive is GUID partition table, partition is Mac OS Extended). Immediately after a TM backup to a reformatted partition, Disk Utility may or may not detect invalid sibling links, invalid key lengths, or other errors. If it does not detect them after the initial backup, subsequent backups of recently changed files will cause said errors. This is consistent; its occurrence is not a "maybe".
Disk Utility cannot fix these errors. fsck_hfs has had success in fixing these errors once. As I type fsck_hfs is running a second time, so we'll see the results from that. The first run produced the following:
fsck_hfs -ypr /dev/disk1s2
*Invalid node structure*
(4, 44282)
*Invalid volume file count*
(It should be 832071 instead of 802858)
*Invalid volume directory count*
(It should be 181916 instead of 177095)
*Invalid volume free block count*
(It should be 13931374 instead of 14042565)
*Volume Header needs minor repair*
(2, 0)
Questions:
- Of what is this behavior indicative?
- Is the MyBook necessarily bad?
- Is TM somehow the cause?
- Could bad sectors on the MyBook be the cause?
- Is the drive within the MBP the source of these problems (Disk Utility has not previously found any errors...)?
I'm really at a loss...

Boot from the OS X installer disc that came with the computer. After the chime press and hold down the "D" key until the diagnostic screen appears.
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.

Disk utility can't repair time machine disk - File system check exit code is 8

i have a WD My Passport 2Tb external hard drive that is split in to 2 volumes (1.5 & .5 TB). I use the smaller volume as my Time Machine disk. A couple of days ago I started getting an error that the Time Machine back up had failed and to use Disk Utility to repair the disk. So I launched DU and ran Verify Disk in the Time Machine volume. It quit verifying and told me to run Repair Disk EXCEPT the Repair Disk button was still greyed out. If I select the physical drive, Repair Disk becomes available but gives me the above error. The other (larger) volume continues to work just fine.
The he Time Machine volume is read only now.
I'm running Yosemite 10.10.1.
Hoping ting someone has a fix because I would prefer not to lose a years worth of Time Machine data.
Mahalo for for any help.
Steve Hudson

i'm afraid that the disk is too corrupt to repair. This could be because the drive is failing or you will need to erase the partition (which may not succeed unless you also repartition the drive.) If you must repartition the drive then you will lose data on both partitions. This is an important reason why you should not mix storage and backup on the same drive.
You will need to erase your Time Machine volume to see if that fixes the problem. You will lose all the backup data unless you get another external drive to which you can clone the backup volume before erasing it.

Time Machine backup file corrupted and locked

This morning when I switch on my Mac there was a dialogue box telling me that my Time Machine backup file was corrupted and that Time Machine would have to create a new backup file.
I am backing up my Macs to a disk connected to my Airport Extreme. It's been working for months without any problems. Other than this morning. Time Machine buddy had the following message:
+Starting standard backup+
+Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/MyBookHome+
+Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/MyBookHome+
+QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM DIRTY+
+Runtime corruption detected on /Volumes/MyBookHome/iMac27.sparsebundle (fsck_hfs -q termination status: 3)+
+Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/MyBookHome+
+Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/MyBookHome+
+Backup verification failed for image /Volumes/MyBookHome-2/iMac27.sparsebundle!+
+Moved previous backup image to /Volumes/MyBookHome-2/iMac27_2010-11-01-032949.sparsebundle+
+Recovery backup declined by user.+
+Backup canceled.+
+Ejected Time Machine network volume.+
Has anybody seen something like this before?
I now have a locked and renamed sparsebundle on my disk and backups are not working anymore.

aschmid wrote:
Yes you are right, I know it isn't supported - as so many other things but they work!
This one is notorious for working for a while, then . . . not.
In addition to the problems above I got a pop-up from Time Machine saying the backup file is broken and it needs to create a new one. I told it to go ahead and what happened is that it actually proceeded to DELETE the old backup file before creating a new one - there goes my several months of backup history!
Yes, just as it says in the message. See #C13 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).
All I can say do now is connect my drive directly to my iMac and figure out a way how I can backup my other iMac and the MacBook I have. On the AE this just worked remotely.
Yeah. Until it didn't.
Really not much options here to backup a home with 3 Macs!?!
Sure there is. Back the others up to the same drive, over your network, via sharing. See #22 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), for details and setup instructions.

Very frequent Time Machine corruption since I upgraded to Mountain Lion

Since I upgraded to Mountain Lion, I encounter very frequent Time Machine corruption.
A few backups are OK, and then, I get an error "Time Machine has verified your backups and needs to create a new copy in order to enhance fiability...".
In the console, I can see a lot of these errors :
29/07/12 11:10:33,384 com.apple.backupd[17480]: Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 "The file “objects.xib” couldn’t be opened." UserInfo=..... {NSURL=file://localhost/Volumes/Copies%20de%20sauvegarde%20Time%20machine/Backu ps.backupdb/...objects.xib, NSFilePath=/Volumes/Copies de sauvegarde Time machine/Backups.backupdb/....objects.xib, NSUnderlyingError=... "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error"}
29/07/12 11:37:53,834 com.apple.backupd[17758]: Error: (-5000) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/VLC.app/...
29/07/12 11:47:52,633 com.apple.backupd[17758]: Error: (-43) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications to /Volumes/Copies de sauvegarde Time machine/Backups.backupdb/...
Everything has been working perfectly well on OSX Lion for months...
I already have reselected my Time Machine volume, and already have accepted a full new backup (3 times !) and it always finish like this...
Any idea ?

I had the same general problem: every few minutes I would get the message "There was a problem connecting to the server 'myserver'. Contact your system administrator for more information."
The problem went away for me when I reset the sync server.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627
I hope this works for others as well.

My mac 10.8 does no have the file, com.apple.desktop. plist I wentto lIbrary, preference and look for it and it is not where in my mac. I also launch time machine and file is no where on my Mac. How do I get this file back?

My mac 10.8 does no have the file, com.apple.desktop. plist I wentto lIbrary, preference and look for it and it is not where in my mac. I also launch time machine and file is no where on my Mac. How do I get this file back?
thanks

System files are hidden by default in Finder now, search for what you want then click the little + button on the top right of the bar that appears when you do a search. A new bar comes up and click the first box (that says "Kind"), change it to "System Files". Then change the box that says "aren't included" to "are included" and your file should show up.
http://osxdaily.com/2009/02/25/show-hidden-files-in-os-x/

Using external HDD for Time Machine and files in one single partition ?

Hello everybody.
I've been searching for some time now and have encountered some contradictory answers, so I turn to you.
I would like to know if it's possible (one) and safe (two) to use a single partition for both Time Machine and file storage. I've read that this should be ok, since TM is actually only a single folder, which means the rest can easily be used as a standard Finder drive. Some people say however that this is not good to do so, because TM will run out of space quicker. But if the -let's say- 30Gb used for files where used by TM after a month, that would be the same, wouldn't it ? It would simply erase older backups. But is it safe to do so ? Will Time Machine not makes errors when accessing files or doing an entire system backup ? I don't won't to make a new partition really, that's why I'm asking you here, to let me know some arguments about it.
Thank you very much for your answers.

Marekova wrote:
Yet, overlooking that, you say "safe: mostly", why is that ? where's the "danger" or, what where you thinking when you said that ? Aren't these simple folder's ? Do you mean that, because during a full backup, these "stranger" files could be a problem ? It would be great if that was clarified, since I've found no indication about it elsewhere, has anyone tryed it ?
Oh, yes folks have tried it. That's why I (and many others) recommended against it.
Here's a similar thread from just the other day: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1926893 Note the responses from the top 2 "gurus" on this forum.
I probably should have asked you what you mean by "safe." If you mean, will TM delete other files on it's partition, no, it won't. If you mean, can there be problems, then yes, there can be conflicts and difficulties, as mentioned.
As to whether TM backups are simple folders, no, they aren't. They look like normal files and folders, but they actually contain what are variously called "hard links," "multi-links," and (my own personal favorite term) "ghost clones." Think of them as very fancy aliases. So they're not to be fooled with directly, by us mere mortals.
If you want more on this: http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14
and/or: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/12/roadto_mac_os_x_leopard_timemachine.html
and, if you haven't seen it yet: http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#tutorial=leopardtimemachine
You should also know that, for some reason, TM stores it's backups differently when it does them wirelessly. In that case, they're in a "SparseBundle," very different from the structure used for directly-attached backups.
All the more reason to put each Mac's backups in a separate partition, and if you want to store other data there also, a 3rd partition for that.
I've been using Mac since many years now, but I have no idea about backups, so excuse me if the statements appear a little childish.
Nope. Even those of us who are "older than dirt" and have used many flavors and varieties of backup systems for decades are in a whole new world with Time Machine.
And most of the folks on this forum who found themselves in deep trouble got there because they assumed things or didn't ask.

HT201250 Can Time Machine backup files stored on external hard drive

Can Time Machine back up files that are stored on external hard drive and save them on a different external hard drive?
I have my pictures stored on an external hard drive connected to my iMac. I want to make an exact copy of the pictures folder on a separate external hard drive. Can Time Machine do that?
If yes, how?
If no, what's a good way to create a mirror of the folder on External Hard Drive #1 (the original) on External Hard Drive #2 (the backup)?
I am not opposed to manually copying every couple weeks or month, but (1) it's less convenient and (2) I got an error message the first time I tried this saying the files couldn't be copied because some of the files being copied had the same name as each other (not exactly that, I'm at work and don't have the message in front of me right now, but that was the gist of it).
Thanks!

1. Yes, if both drives are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
2. Reformat the drives if needed, open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and remove the drive with the pictures from the list of items set to be excluded.
(110331)

MAC OS 10.7 Trying to Delete from TRASH Time Machine FOLDER (file)

Trying to delete time machine Folder(files) from TRASH. even used secure option, goes through ok. but will not delete from TRASH. files delete from
Time Machine Drive ok, deletion gives you more space on TM DRIVE Time Machine runs ok, How to Delete the Folder (Files) From TRASH?

Hello Mtaff,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information, take a look at:
You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1526
press Shift-Option or Option key combination while emptying the Trash
Have a nice day,
Mario

I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive. I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB. I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive. 10.6.8

I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive. I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB. I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive. 10.6.8

Unfortunately, Time Machine backups that are stored on a drive that has been connected directly to a Mac are completely different than Time Machine backups that are stored on a Time Capsule.
Frankly, it is not worth the effort and trouble to try to transfer the old backups to the new Time Capsule.....my opinion....having done this in the past.
It is possible though, but I would not recommend it due to the complexity and downsides involved with this. To give you an idea of how to do this, check out this support article.
http://pondini.org/TM/18.html
Even if you transfer the "old" backups over to the Time Capsule successfully, Time Machine will not simply "add on" to the old backups.
Time Machine will make a new complete backup of your Mac and then add incremental backups from that point.
My advice.....start a new backup on the Time Capsule and move forward. Keep the USB hard drive around for a month, maybe 2 or 3 in case you need to go back to an old backup for some reason. At that time, you will not likely need the old backups at all since you will have a current 2-3 month history of new backups. At that point, you can erase the USB drive and use it for another purpose.

Hi, Question about secure empty trash. I moved some Time Machine backup files to the trash from an external hard drive. Now I can't secure empty trash. It starts, finds 74,003 files, and does nothing. The external hard drive shows it's empty, but it isn't

I moved some time machine backup files from an external USB hard drive to the trash. Tried secure empty trash. It counts 74,003 items, then just sits there. The external hard drive window shows it's empty, but the info pane says it only has 50G of memory left. I left the secure empty trash on over night. It did nothing. Ideas?
Thanks,
Ron

Relaunch the Finder, then from the Finder menu bar, select
Finder ▹ Preferences ▹ Advanced
and uncheck the box marked Empty Trash securely. Try again to empty the Trash.

HT3275 When I press "select backup location" in the Time Machine section of System Preferences, my external hard drive doesn't appear as an option. How do I change this?

When I press "select backup location" in the Time Machine section of System Preferences, my external hard drive doesn't appear as an option. How do I change this? My external hard drive is a FreeAgent GoFlex Drive.

Hi, what Format is the external Drive?
They usually come PC Formatted for Fat32/MSdos, or NTFS... is there anything on it now?
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

HT201250 Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?

Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac? IOW....if I need to restore a whole back-up, I don't want to restore previously deleted files.

Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?
Not immediately. When space starts to get tight, Time Machine will start to delete the oldest file(s) to make more room, but this won't occur for some time.
if I need to restore a whole back-up, I don't want to restore previously deleted files.
You won't if you choose to restore from a backup that occurred after the date that you deleted the file.
If you absolutely do not want to keep the file in your Time Machine backups at all, you do have the option to go into Time Machine, find the file, and manually delete all versions of the file from past dates.

Time Machine Copied Files

I'm trying to restore time machine backup files that I copied from one hard drive to another. After reading some posts it looks like I might have made a mistake in thinking I could just drag and drop the files. I have the files all starting with cpbfxxxxxxxxxxx. I would like to put them back into time machine but that doesn't seem to work. Any ideas?
Thanks

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
If you copied files from one disk to another, they should still exist on the first disk, unless you deleted them.
Please clarify what you did or want to do: did you copy from your backups to a different disk? Or from one disk to another?
What is your setup: what drives are being backed-up to where?

Time Machine corrupting file system

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