Time Machine initial backup

I just used Time Machine for the first time.  I expected it to backup about 35GB (and it estimated a full backup at 35.54GB) but it actually backed up 30.06GB.  I looked at the Options screen and the only thing listed as "do not backup" is my backup drive which it lists as 2.52GB.  Any thoughts on why the initial full backup does not seem to be the size expected?

The comment from Steve Holton i think has your answer on https://discussions.apple.com/message/7884490?messageID=7884490
In short there are some things skipped by Time Machine have a look at /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist in the ExcludeByPath

Similar Messages

  • FYI: No Sleep during Time Machine initial backup

    Just an FYI - I noticed that during the first Time Machine full backup, the computer does not go to sleep.
    I would also assume that if you computer is asleep, it will not wake for each hourly backup.

    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    You need to know that backing-up that way is "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
    Kernel panics are usually caused by hardware problems, but can be software.
    Disconnect all peripherals, except keyboard and mouse. Reconnect one at a time to see if you can find the culprit.
    If that's no help, run the Apple Hardware Test: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
    And perhaps a heavy-duty memory test, such as the free Rember: http://www.kelleycomputing.com/
    More kernel panic info:
    Apple Support - About kernel panic messages
    Mac OS X Kernel Panic FAQ
    The X Lab - Resolving Kernel Panics
    Apple Developer - Technical Note TN2063: Understanding and Debugging Kernel Panics
    Tutorial: Avoiding and eliminating Kernel panics
    |
    If you still want to back up via the Airport, the first backup will be much faster if you connect via Ethernet.

  • Time Machine initial backup fails OS 10.5 with no reason but 'bus error'

    I ran into an error on the last system update and had to go back to Leopard 10.5 just to see my stuff. I managed to move my home directory into the newly installed system and all my files are intact. Now I'm trying to get a Time Machine backup before I proceed (my initial mistake was not keeping up with them in the first place).
    I had some trouble early on and at one point decided to reformat the external drive (a Fantom Drives GreenDrive, usb, 500Gb). I formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as recommended, no partitions, and then tried my first initial Time Machine backup.
    It predictably spent a long time 'preparing...' and I followed along in the system log. Eventually, the copying began but early on (within the first 45 min) the backup failed with almost no indications in the log as to why. I've pasted the system log below.
    One thought I had was that it was weird that there was an automatic request for backup at 12:36:54. I also included the CrashReport, but I can't make any sense out of it.
    any ideas?
    System log:
    6/23/10 11:57:30 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1190] Backup requested by user
    6/23/10 11:57:30 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1190] Starting standard backup
    6/23/10 11:57:30 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1190] Backing up to: /Volumes/Deep Green/Backups.backupdb
    6/24/10 12:15:13 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1190] No pre-backup thinning needed: 173.94 GB requested (including padding), 453.71 GB available
    6/24/10 12:15:13 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1190] MDBackupBegin() returned result (910) > 0, waiting
    6/24/10 12:36:54 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1190] Backup requested by automatic scheduler
    6/24/10 12:42:17 AM ReportCrash[1431] Formulating crash report for process backupd[1190]
    6/24/10 12:42:18 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[1190]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
    6/24/10 12:42:24 AM ReportCrash[1431] Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/backupd2010-06-24-004204dylan-boyds-macbook.crash using uid: 0 gid: 0, euid: 0 egid: 0
    CrashReport:
    Process: backupd [1190]
    Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd
    Identifier: backupd
    4 backupd 0x00007525 0x1000 + 25893
    5 backupd 0x00002332 0x1000 + 4914
    8 backupd 0x00015028 0x1000 + 81960
    9 backupd 0x0000ea64 0x1000 + 55908
    10 backupd 0x00008bfe 0x1000 + 31742
    11 backupd 0x00004c10 0x1000 + 15376
    12 backupd 0x000057b8 0x1000 + 18360
    0x1000 - 0x3dffb backupd ??? (???) <f50411bdb241b61699aa81b2f3dfb7d1> /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd

    I should have added that I've been through about half a dozen sites (including sanctioned apple sites) and their recommendations for getting Time Machine to work properly. I did format the drive once (with extended journaled format and GUID partition scheme, but I didn't zero it out. I'm trying that now and I'll try TM again in about 4 hours.
    This morning I tried turning Time Machine's automatic backups off (moved the slider to off in the preferences pane) and manually started a backup (right-clicking the TM icon in the dock and selecting "Backup Now"). It ran further along than before, but stopped again. This time, it gave an error, and I've pasted the log below. I looked but didn't find much helpful on "error 11."
    system log:
    Jun 24 09:14:08 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Backup requested by user
    Jun 24 09:14:08 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Starting standard backup
    Jun 24 09:14:08 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Deep Green/Backups.backupdb
    Jun 24 09:14:08 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    Jun 24 09:14:08 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|
    Jun 24 09:47:13 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 175.31 GB requested (including padding), 453.11 GB available
    Jun 24 10:13:46 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Previous Systems.localized/2010-06-22_2236/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Po intOfInterest.db to (null)
    Jun 24 10:13:46 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /Previous Systems.localized/2010-06-22_2236/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Po intOfInterest.db to /Volumes/Deep Green/Backups.backupdb/Dylan Boyd’s MacBook/2010-06-23-231048.inProgress/E3294B86-62B0-4ABF-9B2B-F5D46B82736D/Macin tosh HD/Previous Systems.localized/2010-06-22_2236/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources
    Jun 24 10:13:46 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Stopping backup.
    Jun 24 10:13:46 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Previous Systems.localized/2010-06-22_2236/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Po intOfInterest.db to /Volumes/Deep Green/Backups.backupdb/Dylan Boyd’s MacBook/2010-06-23-231048.inProgress/E3294B86-62B0-4ABF-9B2B-F5D46B82736D/Macin tosh HD/Previous Systems.localized/2010-06-22_2236/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources
    Jun 24 10:13:57 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Copied 13360 files (1.5 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Jun 24 10:13:57 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Copy stage failed with error:11
    Jun 24 10:14:03 dylan-boyds-macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[444]: Backup failed with error: 11

  • Time Machine Initial Backup - Partial Only

    I have a WD external drive that was erased by Time Machine. But the initial backup stops at about 1 gig of data (out of the 38 gig that is there). Then schedules another backup in an hour. Why doesn't

    Hi!
    Time Machine has worked for several months now but since yesterday i have the same issue. After reformatting the backup disk (file system was corrupt) time machine works but stops backing up after about 100MB.
    Cheers
    Silvan

  • Kernel panic during Time Machine initial backup

    Hi all!
    I've got the Airport Extreme 2009 and external WD My Passport 320GB attached to it via USB and shared to the LAN. While initial backup with Time Machine via WiFi my MacBook Pro gets kernel panic.
    My Passport has been formatted as Extended Journaled Case-sensitive file system.
    Did anybody stumble upon such problem?

    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    You need to know that backing-up that way is "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
    Kernel panics are usually caused by hardware problems, but can be software.
    Disconnect all peripherals, except keyboard and mouse. Reconnect one at a time to see if you can find the culprit.
    If that's no help, run the Apple Hardware Test: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
    And perhaps a heavy-duty memory test, such as the free Rember: http://www.kelleycomputing.com/
    More kernel panic info:
    Apple Support - About kernel panic messages
    Mac OS X Kernel Panic FAQ
    The X Lab - Resolving Kernel Panics
    Apple Developer - Technical Note TN2063: Understanding and Debugging Kernel Panics
    Tutorial: Avoiding and eliminating Kernel panics
    |
    If you still want to back up via the Airport, the first backup will be much faster if you connect via Ethernet.

  • Very slow Time Machine Initial Backup to Leopard Server on Xserve with RAID

    I'm having trouble backing up my iMac to my Xserve running leopard with dual drobos as my time machine drives
    So here is the setup:
    Server: Xserve (dual quad 2.8 xeons) backing up to Drobo array with 4x1tb drives running (dual drobos on server) fully patched 10.5 server with 16gb/RAM (showing 8gb free)
    Network: 1gbs via catalyst switches on essentially unloaded segment (a couple of folks reading emails)
    Source Machine: iMac 24" 3.06 Core2Duo with 8gb RAM
    Most important fact: nothing has changed on the server (other than usual updates)
    Doing an initial backup of the iMac over the network, and getting peak of about 100Kb/sec, and much of the time it seems to have stalled. Given that the machine has like 230GB to backup, this is going to take a real long while. When I query activity monitor on both the client and Xserve, they are both virtually idle with all resources free (lots of free RAM/Disk/CPU). Neither machine is running any apps right now during the test (other than filesharing, but nobody is using as the office is empty today)
    Now one thing to note is the staggering number of files (iPhoto library is ~120gb and holds over 500,000 files [faces?]) giving a total of 1.2M files.
    As a point of testing, copied a 500mb quicktime movie to same partition, took <5 seconds.

    Should I be concerned that the TimeMachineBuddy widget is producing tons of error messages in the system console (and doesn't seem to work)
    8/4/09 3:34:01 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.dock[233] 2009-08-04 15:34:01.438 DashboardClient[381:10b] com.bluedog.tmwidget.TimeMachine: ERROR: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma
    8/4/09 3:34:01 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.dock[233] 2009-08-04 15:34:01.439 DashboardClient[381:10b] (com.bluedog.tmwidget.TimeMachine) file:///Users/henryhbk/Library/Widgets/Time%20Machine%20Buddy.wdgt/Utilities.js: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma (line: 33)
    8/4/09 3:34:02 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.dock[233] 2009-08-04 15:34:02.359 DashboardClient[381:10b] com.bluedog.tmwidget.TimeMachine: ERROR: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma
    8/4/09 3:34:02 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.dock[233] 2009-08-04 15:34:02.360 DashboardClient[381:10b] (com.bluedog.tmwidget.TimeMachine) file:///Users/henryhbk/Library/Widgets/Time%20Machine%20Buddy.wdgt/Utilities.js: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma (line: 33)
    8/4/09 3:34:02 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.dock[233] 2009-08-04 15:34:02.620 DashboardClient[381:10b] com.bluedog.tmwidget.TimeMachine: ERROR: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma
    8/4/09 3:34:02 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.dock[233] 2009-08-04 15:34:02.621 DashboardClient[381:10b] (com.bluedog.tmwidget.TimeMachine) file:///Users/henryhbk/Library/Widgets/Time%20Machine%20Buddy.wdgt/Utilities.js: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma (line: 33)
    8/4/09 3:34:02 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.dock[233] 2009-08-04 15:34:02.885 DashboardClient[381:10b] com.bluedog.tmwidget.TimeMachine: ERROR: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma
    8/4/09 3:34:02 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.dock[233] 2009-08-04 15:34:02.885 DashboardClient[381:10b] (com.bluedog.tmwidget.TimeMachine) file:///Users/henryhbk/Library/Widgets/Time%20Machine%20Buddy.wdgt/Utilities.js: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma: Unrecognized message format: Aug 4 14:31:01 Henry-Feldma (line: 33)

  • Time machine initial backup is taking over 3 days

    I have an external network drive which I am trying to back up my MacBook Pro OS X 10.6.8 to using Time Machine.  Why after 2 days is the backup only 40% done?  I know it can take time to set it up but... really?
    I had to start over since it is a laptop computer and I do need to take it with me... but I really can't afford more than 24 hours of keeping it on the network.
    What's the deal?  Thanks!

    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4055

  • Time machine initial backup duration

    How long should it take for Time Machine to make it's first full back up of data? I'm 92GB into a save of 496GB, and it's predicting 11 more DAYS of copying before it's done.  I did have to stop it once, but seems to have restarted.  Is this typical, or should I have just reformatted and started over? Or is this the first sign of HD failure somewhere? My HDs is WD connected via USB2, I think. 
    Jack

    How long should it take for Time Machine to make it's first full back up of data? I'm 92GB into a save of 496GB, and it's predicting 11 more DAYS of copying before it's done.  I did have to stop it once, but seems to have restarted.  Is this typical, or should I have just reformatted and started over? Or is this the first sign of HD failure somewhere? My HDs is WD connected via USB2, I think. 
    Jack

  • Time Machine thinks backup disk is full but its not

    I just purchased a new 1 Terabyte hard drive for backup. In the past I backed up both my internal Mac harddrive (250 Gb with 8gb free) and an external iOmega archive drive (DRIVE H 320Gb with 41Gb free) to a 500Gb Lacie drive. I purchased an iOmega 1 Terabyte drive (DRIVE G) because the Lacie drive was full. I went into Time Machine and changed the backup drive to the G one terabyte drive and did a full backup of my internal hard drive. When I did this I did not have the external H archive drive attached so Time Machine didn't back that up. I did it that way because I wanted to first backup the internal drive then do some work and then go backup the external archive drive over night. I plugged the H archive drive in, so it show up in the finder and then told Time Machine to Backup Now. It started the back up but right after doing the initial computations when it actually started backing up I got the standard error message that "the backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly..."  I've double checked that the backup disk is set correctly in Time Machine to the 1Tb G drive and when I do a Get Info on the G drive it shows Capacity: 1TB, Available: 713.54 GB.
    Is it possible something is wrong with the new drive? Can I test that?

    Its funny how sometimes asking a question can prompt  your thinking. As soon as I finished posting this I thought "of course Disk Utility".  I ran a check disk and got the following error message:
    Unused node is not erased (node = 107)
    I did a restore which corrected the error. Turned Time Machine back on and its backing up the rest of my data now.

  • Time Machine hourly backup seems a tad large

    Hi all
    Occasionally, my hourly Time Machine incremental backups to my Time Capsule seem a tad large. One hour the backup is a sensible size, then an hour later, when I've been doing very little on my machine, the backup is massive (as in, several gigabytes).
    Not only that, but the backup seems to grow in size as its happening. the pictures below should help illustrate.
    The backup is listed as being 719MB, only an hour after a more modest backup. Time Machine seems to be claiming that is has transferred all of the required backup:
    !http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4988/picture2gih.png!
    But then, only two minutes later, see how the situation has changed:
    !http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3739/picture3m.png!
    And the situation continues:
    !http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9339/picture5.png!
    Any ideas? This issue happens intermittently (although it is happening now... that last image was taken a few minutes ago and the backup was still going - up to 3.1GB - before I told it to stop).
    I'm not certain if Time Machine is actually transferring this amount of data to the Time Capsule or not.
    Cheers.

    Hi,
    I had the same problem today as well. The last backup was done this morning at 2 a.m. When I turned my PowerBook G4 on again this afternoon, the backup size continually grew, just like on your machine, Rob. I aborted the backup a couple of times, deleted the inProgress file, but it always got bigger and bigger. After downloading Time Machine Buddy and Time Tracker, I just let Time Machnine "do it's thing". Luckily, I had enough free space on my WD MyBook 500 GB I use for the backups, because it stopped only at 24.8 GBs, after initially displaying 61,3 MB in the menu bar, and requesting 1.05 GB according to Time Machine Buddy.
    Time Machine Buddy protocol:
    Starting standard backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.05 GB requested (including padding), 32.74 GB available
    Copied 139261 files (24.8 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.16 GB requested (including padding), 7.36 GB available
    Copied 7042 files (2.0 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Starting post-backup thinning
    Deleted backup /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb/Claas Olthoffs PowerBook/2009-03-05-202501: 7.36 GB now available
    Deleted backup /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb/Claas Olthoffs PowerBook/2009-03-05-192342: 7.37 GB now available
    Deleted backup /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb/Claas Olthoffs PowerBook/2009-03-05-123736: 7.37 GB now available
    Deleted backup /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb/Claas Olthoffs PowerBook/2009-03-05-113526: 7.38 GB now available
    Post-back up thinning complete: 4 expired backups removed
    Backup completed successfully.
    So I took a look at Time Tracker to see what was backed up. I was suprised to see, that the biggest chunk was my Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support folder. This folder is 23,9 GB in size, mainly because it contains Final Cut Studio media and templates. Time Machine backed it up completey. This seems weired, because none of the files I looked at in this folder were changed during the last couple of months, if not the last year, since I installed them. I don't know why Time Machine would backup all of those unchanged files.
    For the sake of completeness, the external drives contains other, non-backup, files as well.
    I hope this gives you some more information to work with Pondini.
    Greetings,
    Claas

  • Time Machine - Preparing backup - It's endless

    My C2D Mac Mini is hanging on Time Machine - Preparing Backup for the second time since "Upgrading" to 10.5.2
    I had to re-format my backup disk last time and start all the backups again.
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    29/04/2008 23:50:13 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Starting standard backup
    29/04/2008 23:50:13 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie Disk/Backups.backupdb
    29/04/2008 23:50:15 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    29/04/2008 23:50:15 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
    Does anyone recognise this? I'm a Mac novice so I don't understand what it all means. I hope I don't have to reformat and start again as I was converted to Mac from PC on the advice that "A Mac Works!"
    My backup drive is a 500GB Lacie Mini if that is of any relevance. Spotlight is told not to index the drive and also the Lacie drive is told not to back itself up.
    Can anyone help as it's driving me nuts!

    Are Lacie really that bad? I thought that the main reason they are mentioned in these forums is that Lacie are one of the only brands of external storage that apple actively promote through their own web stores so there a good chance that quite a few Mac users will buy one. Anyway I can't afford to buy another Hard Drive at the moment and the lacie works perfectly apart from Time Machine.
    The problem seems to be with Mac OS the more I delve into these forums and more importantly the 10.5.2. update which is where Time Machine appears to be providing users with a lot of troubles.
    The Apple support self service on the website is far from comprehensive as I guess they want you to purchase Apple Care for ongoing support after the 90 days initial period but come on apple give us a break and sort it out or provide a support email address for specific problems!

  • Time machine fails backup

    Can anyone advise me?
    I use Time Machine to backup. All has been well the backups were flawless until recently when I decided that I needed to encrypt my sensitive work and personal files placing them into an encrypted Apple Disk Image on my hard disk. Ever since then at some stage Time Machine had decided that there is insufficient disk space and the backup fails.
    When it first began to fail I increased the backup disk space and began a fresh start backup.
    The backup disk is now 1 TB and the total amount on my hard disk to be backed up to backup is 183 gb which includes the disk image which is 40 gb.
    The only change has been the creation of the disk image otherwise everything else is the same. Would it be better to have a number of disk image files and spread the encrypted material across smaller dmgs?

    Thank you for your response which is very helpful. I have changed the dmg to a sparse bundle and Time Machine appears to be handling the backup better.
    Initially I was confused about the difference between a sparse image and a sparse bundle but read in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2001162?start=0&tstart=0 what the difference is and see that the sparse bundle appears to have been developed by Apple for exactly my kind of problem.
    You say that "… be aware that disk image files are not backed up at all while the image is mounted."
    I do not wish to disagree but when I was backing up the vanilla dmg and also last night backing the sparse bundle dmg the back up has worked and did work on the mounted disk. In my case the disc is always mounted as it contains the bulk of the files I work on. Perhaps I have misunderstood what you were saying.
    Thank you again for your response.

  • Time Machine same backup size every time

    Anyone have any idea why Time Machine would backup the same amount every time? Every hour mine backs up 1.8 GB, unless I've added more than that to my hd.
    I only back up the internal drive on my macbook to a 500 GB Time Capsule via wifi (802.11n only, 5GHz). Not that I figured it would make a difference, but it still does it if backed up via ethernet.
    I've also noticed that as soon as it completes the backup, it will backup all over again - and not because an hour has passed. I'm not sure if it does this every time (but I think i does), or if it does it more than twice when it happens.
    Thanks in advance!

    See if the following might give you some ideas as to why...
    *_Incremental Backups Seem Too Large!_*
    Open the Time Machine Prefs on the Mac in question. How much space does it report you have "Available"? When a backup is initiated how much space does it report you need?
    Now, consider the following, it might give you some ideas:
    Time Machine performs backups at the file level. If a single bit in a large file is changed, the WHOLE file is backed up again. This is a problem for programs that save data to monolithic virtual disk files that are modified frequently. These include Parallels, VMware Fusion, Aperture vaults, or the databases that Entourage and Thunderbird create. These should be excluded from backup using the Time Machine Preference Exclusion list. You will, however, need to backup these files manually to another external disk.
    If you do a lot of movie editing, unless these files are excluded, expect Time Machine to treat revised versions of a single movie as entirely new files.
    If you frequently download software or video files that you only expect to keep for a short time, consider excluding the folder these are stored in from Time Machine backups.
    If you have recently created a new disk image or burned a DVD, Time Machine will target these files for backup unless they are deleted or excluded from backup.
    *Events-Based Backups*
    Time Machine does not compare file-for-file to see if changes have been made. If it had to rescan every file on your drive before each backup, it would not be able to perform backups as often as it does. Rather, it relies on a process called FSEvents. This is a system log that records changes that occur with all the directories on your Mac. Moving / copying / deleting / & saving files and folders creates events that are recorded in this log. At the beginning of each backup, Time Machine simply looks at this log to determine what has changed since the last backup. [http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14]
    Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can create major changes in the structure of your directories. Every one of these changes is recorded by the OS as an event. Time Machine will backup every file that has an event associated with it since the installation.
    Files or folders that are simply moved or renamed are counted as NEW files or folders. If you rename any file or folder, Time Machine will back up the ENTIRE file or folder again no matter how big or small it is.
    George Schreyer describes this behavior: “If you should want to do some massive rearrangement of your disk, Time Machine will interpret the rearranged files as new files and back them up again in their new locations. Just renaming a folder will cause this to happen. This is OK if you've got lots of room on your backup disk. Eventually, Time Machine will thin those backups and the space consumed will be recovered. However, if you really want recover the space in the backup volume immediately, you can. To do this, bring a Finder window to the front and then click the Time Machine icon on the dock. This will activate the Time Machine user interface. Navigate back in time to where the old stuff exists and select it. Then pull down the "action" menu (the gear thing) and select "delete all backups" and the older stuff vanishes.” (http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html)
    *TechTool Pro Directory Protection*
    This disk utility feature creates backup copies of your system directories. Obviously these directories are changing all the time. So, depending on how it is configured, these backup files will be changing as well which is interpreted by Time Machine as new data to backup. Excluding the folder these backups are stored in will eliminate this effect.
    *Backups WAY Too Large*
    If an initial full backup or a subsequent incremental backup is tens or hundreds of Gigs larger than expected, check to see that all unwanted external hard disks are still excluded from Time Machine backups. Time Machine will attempt to backup any hard disk attached to your Mac, including secondary internal drives, that have not been added to Time Machines Exclusion list.
    This includes the Time Machine backup drive ITSELF. Normally, Time Machine is set to exclude its’ own backup disk by default. But on rare occasions it can forget. When your backup begins, Time Machine mounts the backup on your desktop. (For Time Capsule/AirDisk users it appears as a white drive icon labeled something like “Backup of (your computer)”.) If, while it is mounted, it does not show up in the Time Machine Preferences “Do not back up” list, then Time Machine will attempt to back ITSELF up. If it is not listed while the drive is mounted, then you need to add it to the list.
    *Recovering Backup Space*
    If you have discovered that large unwanted files have been backed up, you can use the Time Machine “time travel” interface to recovered some of that space.
    Launch Time Machine from the Dock icon.
    Initially, you are presented with a window that represents “Today (Now)”. DO NOT make changes to file while you see “Today (Now)” at the bottom of the screen.
    Click on the window just behind “Today (Now)”. This represents the last successful backup and should display the date and time of this backup at the bottom of the screen.
    Now, navigate to where the unwanted file resides.
    Highlight the file and click the Actions menu (Gear icon) from the toolbar.
    Select “Delete all backups of <this file>”.
    *FileVault / Boot Camp / iDisk Syncing*
    Note: Leopard has changed the way it deals with FileVault disk images, so it is not necessary to exclude your Home folder if you have FileVault activated. Additionally, Time Machine ignores Boot Camp partitions as the manner in which they are formatted is incompatible. Finally, if you have your iDisk Synced to your desktop, it is not necessary to exclude the disk image file it creates as that has been changed to a sparsebundle as well in Leopard.
    Let us know if this resolved your issue.
    Cheers!

  • Time machine error - backup fails due to sparsebundle already in use

    Since upgrading, Time machine reports backup error:
    TIme Machine Error
    The backup disk image ...sparsebundle is already in use.
    Any thoughts?

    Thanks russ. After the initial upgrade to Mt Lion, no backups have been made. Every attempt reports the sparsebundle error. I recently updated to 10.8.1 and a whole new set of problems have shown up which is having me question the wisdom of continuing to invest in Apple product.
    I have decided to pack it in with regard to the timecapsule product, as it is just too unreliable, and certainly not worth the continued time and effort it has been taking to try and get it to work. I have instead gone with an online backup service, Crashplan. I have the backup service I am seeing and I am no longer frittering away valuable time on something that ought to just work.
    Problem solved.

  • Time Machine nuking backups, starting from scratch!

    ok, i just received this warning:
    and now i't doing a backup that is slated to take more than "several hours."
    is this common? how often can i expect this?

    Hello,
    Should you click “Start New Backup”? Not yet! If you see the dialog above, your existing Time Machine backup is corrupt, and you might not be able to recover data from it. But you can save a copy of the corrupt bundle and, perhaps, extract some data from it if needed.
    Ask yourself if Time Machine has saved data you might need before deciding what to do next:
    If you are sure you won’t need anything backed up before today, click “Start New Backup” and let Time Machine do its thing.
    Otherwise, click “Back Up Later” and save a copy before letting Time Machine start a new backup. Just look for a file called “computername.sparsebundle” (for network backups) or “Backups.backupdb” (for local ones) and create a copy with a different name. You can open sparsebundle files with DiskImageMounter and browse them like any other disk. More information is available here.
    There you go. If you click “Start New Backup” when you see this dialog box, Time Machine will erase all of your old backup data and start a new bundle. It won’t be corrupt, but it will be empty.
    Note that you can manually initiate a Time Machine backup integrity check by option-clicking the “Time Machine” icon in the menu bar and selecting “Verify Backups.”
    http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/08/11/time-machine-completed-verification-backups- improve-reliability-time-machine-create-backup/
    According to This Time Machine resource   “This appears only on Snow Leopard, and started with the Time Capsule Backup Update 1.0 in mid-May of 2010.  It also seems to have been included in the 10.6.3 v1.1 update and 10.6.4.”
    So, what can you do about it?  Grin and bear it, it seems, until Apple fixes it.
    One thing you can do to make the backup take less time is to connect your machine to your Time Capsule or other backup drive via Ethernet for the duration of the initial backup.
    http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/the-dreaded-time-machine-has-completed-a-verifi cation-of-your-backups-to-improve-reliability-time-machine-must-create-a-new-bac kup-for-you-message-and-why-you-are-seeing-it/
    Time Machine: About "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."...
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4076

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