Time Machine in loop after upgrade to new mac

Question

Hello everyone,
I just bought a new MacBook to substitute my old iMac.
With this upgrade I also went from OS X 10.5.8 (iMac) to 10.6.4 (new MacBook).
On installation I chose for the Migration Assistant to copy my data from the latest TM Backup.
Everything went fine.
Then TM asked if I wanted to continue to use my old backups on the new MacBook (or similar).
And I accepted. Then the first backup started ...
*... and now TM seems to be stuck in an infinite Loop. =(*
It goes like this:
1) Mounting Time Capsule/Sparsebundle
2) "Verifying XXX.XXX Objects ..."
3) "Preparing XXX.XXX Objects ..."
4) "Deleting old backups"
4) Cleaning up
5) Disk Image/Sparsebundle ejected
... and then it immediately restarts that same procedure.
Over and over again. Now for over 14 hours straight.
(I have already stopped the backup a few times, as I thought a restart of my Mac would fix anything.
Didn't help ... so now I just left it running for a night + half a day).
Also weird:
• The disk image is still called "Backup of iMac Eddy"
• And when viewed in the Finder/on the Time Capsule it's named "iMac Eddy.sparsebundle"
• There's no MAC address in that sparsebundle name ... (?)
• I changed my Mac's name in the System Prefs/Sharing ... with no change at all to time TM image ...
Anybody know a solution or can give me a heads up?
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Eddy Grzegorzitza wrote:
1) Mounting Time Capsule/Sparsebundle
2) "Verifying XXX.XXX Objects ..."
3) "Preparing XXX.XXX Objects ..."
4) "Deleting old backups"
4) Cleaning up
5) Disk Image/Sparsebundle ejected
... and then it immediately restarts that same procedure.
Over and over again. Now for over 14 hours straight.
Yes, that will happen when Time Machine has to do a very large backup (such as, of a new Mac).
Because of the way Time Machine stores the backups, it's impossible to tell how much space will be gained by deleting a single backup without actually deleting it. So it deletes the oldest one, "compacts" the sparse bundle to recover the space, then checks again. That will continue until there's enough space, or only one backup is left (then it will fail.)
So, subtract the other sparse bundle and shared data from the TC's capacity. If the result isn't at least 2 1/2 times the size of the data on your system, you're going to have to delete the sparse bundle, so Time Machine can start over. (Since TM won't delete the last backup, it needs room for it, plus a new one, plus 20% workspace.)
If there is enough room, you can speed up the process a bit, by manually deleting a bunch of old backups, then compacting the sparse bundle, per #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
There is another option.
Connect a USB drive, partitioned so there's separate space for those shared files, so Time Machine can't use up all the empty space, as it will on the TC's disk). Let Time Machine start fresh backing-up the new Mac to the USB drive, and leave the existing backups on the TC's internal HD until you're sure you don't need them, then delete them. You can always browse (and restore from) them, via the +*Browse ...+* option. See #17 in the FAQ.