Time Machine on Snow Leopard Server

I would like to setup a backup service using Time Machine of a Mac Pro Snow Leopard Server (10.6.5) to an external hard drive connected with USB. Are there any gotcha's with this type of setup that I need to be aware of? My faint memory recalls an issue with Time Machine backing up a server.
The server is mainly used for file sharing in a small (<10) person office.

Are you backing-up the clients, or the server, or both?
Like most folks here, I'm not very familiar with the Server product, but I understand TM can do either or both.
You may find better advice in the Server forums, at: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=96

Similar Messages

Reliability of Time Machine on Snow Leopard Server

I ran across a message that even though Time Machine is included in OSX 10.6 Server, Apple does not support its use in this system.
Now I can't find it again. Is that true?
Not trying to clone an entire computer, just the Library (for WebServer and QuickTime Streaming), would it be reliable enough for this?
I am using the second internal drive for the backup disk, and already have the entire computer backed up to an external image.
Not asking about strategy, but does Time Machine work reliably for what I am doing?
Second question, is TimeMachineEditor a good way to change the backup time in OSX Server 10.6?
Want to now make it in the middle of the night.
Thanking anyone for answers.
Frank
(I have to say this new forum structure is poor compared to the last one! Much harder to find topics and subtopics, who cares about the fancy toolbar)

It's actually quite usual for backup programs to suck at databases. I believe that even the high end backup systems like Retrospect etc have to take the database off line before it'll successfully perform the backup.
Databases just don't like to be backed up! In fact, if you tail the log in OS X server, when you perform an archive on it, it checks to make sure that the parts of the database that it's backing up that moment are not in use. For a program like time machine, that would just not be reasonable considering the way that it's designed to work.
They include it with OS X server so that tech guys like us can tell it NOT to back up things like the .mach folder and the /System Folder. ...and the netboot images etc. Most importantly, we tell it NOT to back up the Database files.
What it SHOULD back up is those files that your users can delete accidentally. That way you get to look like the hero when you get it back for them!
All that said... Here's what I do with time machine:
I don't back up any files that are duplicated everywhere else. (netboot images, restore images, CD/DVD images) I don't back up Mail, MySQL, and OD. Lastly, I don't back up my Roaming Profile shared folder.
Since my Open Directory only has user information in it, and I don't often delete or add users, I only perform an archive every other month or so.
MySQL gets a back up once a month. - though I only use the MySQL databases for a Forum that I've set up for the students at my school. If they lose a months of social networking posts, I'm not too concerned about it.
Mail... Well, I don't actually use mail on OS X. Being an education institution, we get google apps for free. So I got that route. One less thing to manage.

Backing up an encrypted drive with Time Machine under Snow Leopard

In a nutshell, my question is “Can I back up an encrypted drive using Time Machine under Snow Leopard, and if so, how do I access its data from a previous day?”
I have a 1Tb USB drive connected to my MacBook, which runs Snow Leopard. The drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This drive is included in the drives that Time Machine backs up. I used Disk Utility to create an encrypted drive on the USB drive (998Gb), also formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The encrypted drive is not on TimeMachine’s list of excluded files/drives.
When I go into Time Machine, I can see the USB drive and the encrypted drive in the side bar. I can access the files on the encrypted drive as long as I’m looking at how it stands now. But if I move backward in time, the encrypted drive is grayed out and inaccessible. If I click on the USB drive, I get a window that tells me it is 75.9Gb in size, and nothing else is available to me.
When I open the back-up drive in Finder and navigate to Backups.backupdb > macbook name > some date and time, I see my MacBook’s hard drive and the USB drive. The encrypted drive is not shown. When I click on the USB drive, I see an entry for drivename.sparsebundle. When I click on that I’m prompted for the password for the encrypted drive. When I enter it, I get a warning telling me that the disk image could not be opened and that the encrypted drive has no mountable file systems.
Is my encrypted drive really be backed-up and if so, how do I access the backed-up data?

Having received a bunch of views but no replies over the last 5 days, I decided to venture into my local Apple store and ask this same question. The response I got from the geniuses was that you can't get a reliable back-up of an encrypted drive using Time Machine under Snow Leopard. So, my only alternative is to copy the encrypted drive's contents elsewhere, unencrypt the drive, and then copy the contents back. This is what I expected, but not what I wanted to hear.

Transfer time machine data (snow leopard) to new mb air (lion)

MB Pro died. How do I transfer external Time Machine backup (Snow Leopard) to new MB Air (Lion)?

Your best bet, by far, is to use Setup Assistant when your new Mac first starts up, to transfer your 3rd-party apps, user accounts, data, settings, etc. from the backups. See Using Setup Assistant on Lion for detailed instuctions.
If the backups are on a Time Capsule, get a USB-to-Ethernet connector, so you can do this via Ethernet -- it's 2-3 times faster, and much more reliable, than WIFIl.

HT1277 Mail has gone crazy. Header's and messages are mixed up. New Mac Book Pro. Migrated files from Time machine running snow leopard. Reinstall or new computer needed?

Mail has gone crazy. Header's and messages are mixed up. New Mac Book Pro. Migrated files from Time machine running snow leopard. Reinstall or new computer needed?

Ok; I'm not sure what you're doing. 36 hours is rather long. Seems like a new migration. Not what I intended.
Here's what I intended: from the newly-migrated and apparently-corrupt environment, create a new user, not related to any existing user, nor any migration-created user, or any other user for that matter. That is, use  > System Preferences > Users and Groups, authenticate yourself by clicking on the padlock, and then click the + and create a wholly new user. Then log in under that user and establish the mail access.
36 hours? I'm wondering if there's an error or an exceedingly slow network here? Or a really, really slow disk? Or a sick backup? (WiFi isn't the path I'd usually choose, either.)
Failing the attempted second migration, I'd try a different tactic. Does your existing (old) system work? If so, I'd bypass the backup and connect an external (scratch) USB disk drive to the (old) sstem and then boot and use Disk Utility booted from the installer DVD disk or boot and use Disk Utility from the recovery partition or booted from a recovery partition created on some other external storage (details here vary by the OS X version and what hardware you have), and perform a full-disk backup of your original internal disk to (scratch) external storage. (Make sure you get the source and target disks chosen correctly here; copying the wrong way — from the scratch disk to your existing disk — will clobber your data!) In esssence, this will clone your existing boot disk. Then dismount the (formerly-scratch) external disk, transfer it over to the new system, and use it as the source of the migration, by performing a fresh OS X installation on the new system.
Target Disk Mode is also sometimes an option for accessing the disk for a migration, but that requires the right cable, and requires systems that have the same external connection; newer MacBook Pro systems use Thunderbolt for this, and older systems tend to use FireWire. And I'm guessing you don't have compatible hardware.
The details here can and do vary by your OS X versions and your particular Mac systems — if you'll identify the specific models and hardware, somebody might be able to better tailor the above (fairly generic) sequence to your particular configuration.

Is Time Machine bad on Leopard Server?

Hi,
I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to setting up osx server, however is it true that using time machine to backup Leopard Server is bad? Our office is running leopard server off a G5 dual-core 2.0 with 2.5GB ram. The boot drive is mirrored in a raid 1, and we have a Sonnet D800RAID (RAID 5) connected via ATTO raid card. All employees will work off the server, meaning all projects will be stored there on the RAID 5.
We wanted to use time machine to do incremental backups of the RAID 5, however apparently from what I hear, using time machine on a server is a no,no. Why though? Does it really use a lot of the CPU running in the background?
I really want to implement, but not if there's a BIG problem going to arise from it in the future.
Thanks in advance~
noiceT

Hi
I guess it depends? The current version of the Server Admin Manual available here:
http://images.apple.com/server/macosx/docs/ServerAdministration_v10.5_2ndEd.pdf
does not have a lot to say about it one way or another. However the previous version of the Admin Manual clearly states on page 37:
*+"Leopard’s Time Machine feature is not recommended for server file and system backup of advanced configuration servers"+*
If you purchased the boxed copy of Leopard Server 6-9 months ago it may still state this in the provided manual? There have been some who have used it successfully when the server is configured as Advanced. I have no personal experience of this but if you search the Mail Forums you should find recommendations to not use it if configured as Advanced/Mail Server. Its not so much backing up but rather problems develop when restoring.
I've not had chance to test with Open Directory, perhaps others have?
Just a thought but I would consider carefully (depending on server role) if I had need to use it for the Server itself. On the other hand I think it works fine as a source for client backups.
Tony

When I try to enter a time machine with Snow Leopard backups Lion I get an error code -6584 ... how to fix?

Hi.
I had a first gen time machine with backups all on Snow Leopard.
This died (power supply), and I bought a new time capsule, because to fix the old one would cost nearly the same amount.
Since, I have started using Lion, and backed up onto my new time capsule in Lion.
Unfortunately, there was a file I deleted that I really need for a Logic Audio project, that is only present on the old time capsule.
I got the old time capsule fixed, so it powers up. I even extended my current wireless network with it. I can see inside it -- all the data that I dragged onto its HD in the past is present, and the "Sparse Bundle" containing the data for the time capsule save-states is present too.
Now, when I try to "Enter" my old time capsule, I get this error message:
I tried entering the time machine via WiFi and via ethernet, to no avail.
Can anyone help me to access these old save states on my old "snow leopard" time capsule?
I was thinking maybe I need to try to access it from a machine with Snow Leopard?
Please help.
Thanks in advance.
JM

I have the same issue. Does anybody know why this has happened

Time Machine on Snow Leopard just doesn't work.

So I've had huge nightmares over the past few days over Time Machine.
So I've always been a big proponent of Time Machine. I always tell everyone that you NEED a backup solution, and while Time Machine may not be the be all and end all, it's a great starter solution for those that don't want any fuss.
But perhaps not anymore.
It just works, right? Well apparently not.
So a little while ago I performed a Time Machine-assisted hard drive swap for a MacBook (not mine). That is, I install a new drive, boot from SL DVD, perform a HD wipe, then restore from Time Machine. It seemed to go well.
Fast forward to more recently, I went on a trip overseas (Taiwan). While there, I obviously took a lot of photos, and it became that time again - purchase a new hard drive with more capacity for my MacBook Pro! HD were a little cheaper where I visited, so I not only bought a new drive for my MBP, but also a new drive for my wife's MB, as well as new external drives to upgrade our Time Machine drives.
While I was there, I decided to update my own Time Machine first - following the instructions from Apple's own knowledge base on the matter:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
I transferred my existing backups to the new drive to continue my Time Machine. I didn't notice any problem at the time.
Then I returned to my home country (New Zealand). First thing I did when I got back was to perform the Time Machine-assisted HD swap after making sure the OS were up-to-date as were their respective backups, on both my own MBP and my wife's MacBook.
That's when the troubles started.
First off, I noticed that a few images from my Aperture Library were missing. The album data and everything were there, but the actual files were not. They also did not exist anywhere on the Time Machine drive and as such never made it over to the new HD. Weird, I thought. They were there, clear as day on my original drive. They simply weren't backed up.
Now I'm aware of a few TM niggles, such as the false backups after verifying a disk, but I hadn't done that.
The second issue was much more major. My Wife's MB would be endlessly stuck on the white boot screen with the grey Apple logo. As it turns out, it's exactly this issue here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2738620?threadID=2738620&tstart=74
In short, the fresh Time Machine backups I made before transferring to the new HD showed no sign of updating the /System/Library/Framework/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security package, which is REQUIRED for the Mac to boot into 10.6.7 (it had an old one from before).
Great, I thought, but maybe I can fix that by installing a fresh 10.6.7 combo update on the MB via target disk mode.
No dice. On trying, it goes all the way to the end, and then fails installation. I had to resort to copying over the correct, more recent security package just to get it to boot.
After booting, what to do? Who knows what other files Time Machine failed to update, and what consequences they would have. After putting back the original security package, I tried updating 10.6.7 again. Nope, no dmgs would open - i HAD to use the new Security package for anything to open. Fair enough, but even with that, the installation would inevitably fail.
Problem with the package? Nope. Tried a fresh download, and checked the SHA and everything.
Time to do some blitzing. I pulled out my trusty Snow Leopard DVD and did a reinstall on top. That's gotta get my problem, right? Well, nope. After resetting to 10.6.0, the 10.6.7 combo updater STILL failed on installation. Furthermore, the updater no longer worked on MY MBP either.
What gives?
As it turns out, it was related to this:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11317470?messageID=11317470
In short, some files had the user immutable flag switched on, preventing changes from being made to those files (manifests as a little lock icon on the file icon). They included (and I'm sure not limited to) the Acknowledgement.rtfs in /Library/Documentation/, as well as a majority of the fonts in /Library/Fonts.
Checking back in the backup drives, it was clear that Time Machine was the culprit - instances of those files in the backups were also locked. When did that happen? Looking back, it looks like it happened when I transferred the backups from one Time Machine drive to another. But it wasn't all at once - in the first backup on one drive, one of the Acknowledgement.rtf files was locked, and the other one wasn't, but in the second onwards, both were. It was clear that Time Machine seemed to be doing it to those files. Which files and why? I have no idea.
So removing the uchg flag with "sudo chflags -R nouchg /" in terminal finally allowed me to apply the 10.6.7 combo update without failure.
So were the troubles over then?
Nope.
While checking if everything was fine, I noticed iPhoto on the MB had all the thumbs missing - after rebuilding, they weren't back, and only a .plist trashing fixed it (I consider this pretty normal - probably looking for the files on the old UUID drive or something).
But what gives? ALL the photos taken on the trip were gone! Not just the thumbs - the actual files were missing from the iPhoto Library! The data in the albums existed, just the actual files, just like my instance in Aperture on my own MBP.
Checked the Time Machine - again, it was clear Time Machine had completely stuffed up - the files were nowhere to be found on the Time Machine drive.
So currently, I've returned the original internal drive to the MacBook, performing a FRESH on new reformatted disk Time MAchine, and will use THAT to restore.
Nightmares, indeed. It's several days of work doing all the restores, considering I have limited drives to work with. And yes, rest-assured, I was doing enough permission repairs, and PRAM resets to ensure they weren't issues.
It occurs to me there are several faults with the most recent version of Time Machine (maybe 10.6.6 or something as that's when people had some of the issues above):
1) At some point in time, Time Machine may not update a necessary Security package (and probably other files too - I believe the files around it were also not updated), meaning that if you use that Time Machine to restore, the outdated package will cause your computer to fail to boot.
2) Transferring your backups to a new destination Time Machine drive may cause certain files to become user immutable or 'locked', with one consequence being you cannot update the OS.
3) Time Machine may fail to backup image files with the Aperture or iPhoto Library. Trying to remember back, I *think* this may be related to the fact that we changed time zones, as the unupdated image files were after the zones were changed. Strangely, every other file within the Library packages were updated, as album data was updated - just not the actual image files and folders.
Conclusion? I no longer trust Time Machine. The basic foundation of a backup service is that you trust it to do what it's supposed to do. After all this, how can I?
You might think they are isolated incidents, but they were occurring on two Macs that I have, and they same errors can be found in others.I think I have detailed some root causes, but who really knows.
At any rate you should keep an eye on at least these files I have detailed. Would love to hear Pondini on the matter, as I know he knows a lot about Time Machine.

Someone has suggested just installing Snow Leopard on the machine. Will that work?
If you can find a copy of the workstation version of Snow Leopard shipped with the same model of Mac mini, yes. Apple has not, to my knowledge, shipped a retail version of Snow Leopard new enough to boot your mini.
I've also heard there is a way to install SL while connected to my old Powerbook in order to suck the entire old drive onto the new machine in an operable manner. Is this accurate, and can this be done if my old machine is the Powerbook on the old apple chip when the new machine is intel based
No, it's not accurate. The OS on your PowerBook will not boot your mini.
what are the differences between the single pack and the family pack?
If you mean single and family pack of Mac OS X, the single pack is licensed for installation on one computer only, while the family pack is licensed for installation on up to five Macs.
Regards.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Time Machine: Missing Snow Leopard backups after Lion Upgrade.

I regulary use Time Machine for backups to my WD drive through my network. After I upgraded to Lion I could not back up to my network drive I learned through various forums that my WD drive required a firmware update, to work with Lion. I upgraded the firmware and now I no longer have my Time Machine backups from Snow Leopard, only backups from Lion, any idea how I can locate my Snow Leopard backups?

Pondini wrote:
I'd be the first to agree that keeping two sets of backups, one a "clone," is prudent.
But if you have a Snow Leopard clone, then upgrade to Lion, the next time you update the clone you'll lose the Snow Leopard version entirely.
Yes, I was caught out early, so I have a selection of backup drives now to keep everything backed up as safely as possible. Although at the moment, I'm not seeing any reason to go back to Snow Leopard, and all my media is safe. Hopefully in the near future my SL backups can go and I can get ready for the next OS when it comes along.
Thanks

Time Machine from Snow Leopard missing in Lion

My time machine was working perfectly with Snow Lepoard and prior to my upgrade to Lion I turned off the time machine located on an external drive.
After my successful upgrade to Lion including all my files and applications I wanted to use the Snow Leopard backup but it was no longer showing in time machine at all.
Is my Snow Leopard backup gone forever? I would like to have it back.
Thank you.
Mackbook Pro 13-inch, Mid 2009 - 2.53 C2D, 4GB (10.7.3)
Message was edited by: Dunamis7

Did you simply upgrade, or do something like erase and reinstall, or install Lion on a different drive or partition? If so, what, exacty?
Did you eject the drive before turning it off? If not, that may have damaged the backups. In any event, try to Repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Time Machine and Snow Leopard installation problem

I'm trying to install Snow Leopard, but keep getting an error saying that my hard drive is used for time machin back ups. I have unplugged my external device, turned off time machine, yet this keeps happening. What am I doing wrong? I have been able to install Leopard on the computers that I haven't used time machine.

BusyChris18 wrote:
1) Do I have to do anything special with Time Machine BEFORE I install SL? I have been doing regular backups with TM.
Do a "final" backup and turn TM off.
2) should Time machine disc be off/disconnected when I do the install?
It's safest to eject and disconnect it, "just in case."
3) After I reconnect TM disc after SL install, do I have to "migrate" stuff from TM? OR will it just do a new backup and work like normal from that point forward.
If you do the normal install, there's no migration needed. 99.9 % of everything will be fine. In some rare cases of 3rd-party apps putting things in unusual places, there may be a problem, and you may need to re-enter some 3rd-party app purchase codes.
If you erase the drive, then install SL, then yes, of course, you'll have to transfer your data. There should be no reason to do that, but some folks seem to do it out of habit. If you do that, when your Mac boots up again, you can transfer your data from the TM backups. And if you do that, I'd strongly recommend making a separate full backup on a second external drive, again "just in case," preferably a "bootable clone." CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper are the most common. (There was a post here just last week where someone did this, the restore got to 99%, then BAM! the TM disk failed.)
TM backups should just continue normally, although there will almost certainly be a long "Calculating Changes" phase (used to be called "Preparing"). And they've added a progress bar, which doesn't seem to be particularly accurate.
However, it may try a new, full backup. If it does, cancel the backup and do a Restart. That may reset whatever confused it. If not, there's nothing you can do to prevent it.
4) Will I be able to access files that were backuped when I have just Leopard?
Yes.

Time Machine in Snow Leopard much better but still problematic

I've found Time Machine backups to a Time Capsule to be much faster under Snow Leopard than under previous versions of the OS, and I've found that TM seems to avoid some of the extra backups that always seemed to get scheduled:
Jan 8 11:27:01 Musa [0x0-0x188188].backupd-helper[3527]: Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - less than 60 minutes since last backup completed.
Jan 10 20:33:34 Musa com.apple.backupd-auto[14230]: Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - less than 10 minutes since last backup completed.
But the question is, why would Time Machine try to backup less than 60 or 10 minutes after the last backup in the first place?
In addition, TM doesn't always avoid the extra, unnecessary backup:
Jan 11 07:01:29 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Starting standard backup
Jan 11 07:01:29 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://odysseus@Time%20Capsule.afpovertcp.tcp.local/odysseus
Jan 11 07:01:37 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://odysseus@Time%20Capsule.afpovertcp.tcp.local/odysseus
Jan 11 07:01:39 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Disk image /Volumes/odysseus/Musa.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Jan 11 07:01:39 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jan 11 07:01:51 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.07 GB requested (including padding), 331.17 GB available
Jan 11 07:03:08 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Copied 9532 files (60.6 MB) from volume Gigas.
Jan 11 07:03:08 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.00 GB requested (including padding), 331.17 GB available
Jan 11 07:03:18 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Copied 734 files (201 KB) from volume Gigas.
Jan 11 07:03:19 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Starting post-backup thinning
Jan 11 07:03:19 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Jan 11 07:03:19 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Backup completed successfully.
Jan 11 07:03:23 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jan 11 07:03:23 Musa com.apple.backupd[14508]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.'
11 minutes later:
Jan 11 07:14:52 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Starting standard backup
Jan 11 07:14:52 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://odysseus@Time%20Capsule.afpovertcp.tcp.local/odysseus
Jan 11 07:15:00 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://odysseus@Time%20Capsule.afpovertcp.tcp.local/odysseus
Jan 11 07:15:04 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Disk image /Volumes/odysseus/Musa.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Jan 11 07:15:05 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jan 11 07:15:32 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.00 GB requested (including padding), 331.17 GB available
Jan 11 07:16:30 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Copied 8407 files (1.4 MB) from volume Gigas.
Jan 11 07:16:30 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.00 GB requested (including padding), 331.17 GB available
Jan 11 07:16:38 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Copied 510 files (53 KB) from volume Gigas.
Jan 11 07:16:40 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Starting post-backup thinning
Jan 11 07:16:40 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Jan 11 07:16:40 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Backup completed successfully.
Jan 11 07:16:43 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jan 11 07:16:44 Musa com.apple.backupd[14563]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
These were the first two backups that occurred after my MacBook Pro had been sleeping all night. Why does another backup happen so soon?

odysseus wrote:
I've found Time Machine backups to a Time Capsule to be much faster under Snow Leopard than under previous versions of the OS, and I've found that TM seems to avoid some of the extra backups that always seemed to get scheduled:
Jan 8 11:27:01 Musa [0x0-0x188188].backupd-helper[3527]: Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - less than 60 minutes since last backup completed.
When OSX wakes from sleep, Time Machine immediately checks to see if a backup is needed. Since one was done less than an hour before, it doesn't do another one. This message is just telling you why it didn't do a backup upon wake. (Under Leopard, it would do one automatically, which some folks complained about. So Apple changed it.)
Jan 10 20:33:34 Musa com.apple.backupd-auto[14230]: Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - less than 10 minutes since last backup completed.
Most likely, you did a manual backup a few minutes before this. That does not re-set the schedule; but when the next scheduled backup time arrives, TM checks, and if less than 10 minutes has elapsed, resets the schedule and tells you why it didn't do the scheduled backup. Another thing foks complained about under Leopard that Apple changed.

Time Machine to Snow Leopard not working

Ok, so this issue appears to be multi-faceted so please bear with me as I try to fully explain what's happening.
I have a mid-2009 Macbook Pro with OSX 10.6.8, and I decided to give Yosemite a try since it was free. Before upgrading, I did a Time Machine backup on an external 500GB WD drive in case I wanted to switch back to Snow Leopard.
I did the upgrade, but wasn't very pleased with the results. Seeing as how the computer was older I figured it would slow down a touch, but what broke the deal was when I tried to run After Effects and had plugins - that never gave me trouble before - crashing. I decided to restore from Time Machine and rebooted into Recovery Mode. However, by accident I selected the External Drive with the backups as my boot disk. I quickly rebooted AGAIN and selected the Recovery drive, but the TM drive wasn't showing up when I tried to access it for the backup.
I rebooted back to Yosemite and found that the drive was not mounting despite lighting up and making spinny sounds. Disk Utility could see it but was unable to repair, so I used DiskWarrior instead. Everything seemed to work out ok and the drive was reading on my desktop as a TM backup. I rebooted AGAIN to recovery mode, selected the appropriate backup, and let the computer do it's work overnight.
When I woke up in the morning and checked in on it, I got an error message saying that the restoration had FAILED at some point along the way. I tried to reboot normally, but the grey screen of death would appear after a few seconds and I'd have to shut down.
I went back to Recovery mode, tried to access the TM drive, but once again it was not showing up! So I reinstalled Yosemite and was able to login to my desktop. The TM drive was still showing up, and according to a reinstalled DiskWarrior the drive was fine. I rebooted in Recovery, selected the TM backup, and it only took about 20 minutes before the restoration failed! This time the computer appeared to be wiped clean, with no OS.
Fortunately I still had my Snow Leopard install DVD, so I managed to reinstall it from there. However, now I CANNOT login. My username shows up but the password I've used for FOUR YEARS is constantly rejected. I can't even login to the GUEST account!
If you've made it this far, PLEASE HELP!!!!

Pondini - I have an issue too. And so I went to the troubleshooting tips you listed here and was not able to find a solution. Specifically, I don't get a message. I plain ole don't get nothing. After I installed Snow my first backup failed. Funny thing is the backup on my wifes computer also failed. She does not have an Intel Mac. It's a PowerBook G4. Hence no Snow Leopard there. I have a iMac 24 Aluminum. My Time Capsule backup worked fine until Snow. My TC is wired via ethernet. There is no latest date. When Time Machine backup starts the TM preference pane says it's "Making disk available" Something to that effect. And that's where it stays. If I then try to do anything with the preference panel - like close it - I find out the Preferences are not responding. So I force quit. I try to stop Time Machine backups and it's no good. The TM indicator - that little backwards running clock - in the menu bar just keeps on it's merry little way. The only way to stop it - shutdown. Strange thing is shutdown then refuses to - well, shutdown. I end up having to hold the power button for 5 seconds. I don't get error messages. I get nothing indicating what may be causing this problem. I have been searching these and other forums looking for an answer. I had hoped the user tips you listed would have a solution, but, alas, no. I deleted the timemachine plist in the "higher" library. No luck. I have powered down everything. No luck. Those were two ideas I saw that said they worked. So where do I go from here? Where do I look for error messages that will point me in the right direction? I'd appreciate any help from anybody.

I am having trouble with my Time Machine on Snow Leopard

I am using 10.6.8 and have a 500Gb internal hard drive. No partitions. No external drives back up to my 1.5Tb (no partitions, entirely dedicated to Time Machine backup) hard drive. The error message appears as:
Time Machine Error
"This backup is too large for the backup disk.
The backup requires 456.65 GB but only 34.73 GB are available."
I have been reading different threads and have gone to Pondini's website but have not found the answer. I installed Time Machine Buddy and here is what it says for yesterday:
"Starting standard backup
Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
Backup failed with error: 19"
And for today:
"Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Backup content size: 456.9 GB excluded items size: 103.8 GB for volume Macintosh HD
Starting pre-backup thinning: 425.29 GB requested (including padding), 32.34 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 425.29 GB needed space
Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!"
Those are the only 2 messages that it lists.
Any help to get me backing up again would be greatly appreciated!

First off, thank you so much to everyone who is trying to help! I really appreciate it!
I opened the "backups.backupdb" folder as you suggested "jeffreyfromtas" and found 2 folders:
dvlynn's iMac and
dvlynn's iMac 2.
The 1st folder seems to contain all the backups from the 1st time it backed up in Sept. 2010 until the last time it backed up without error in January of this year.
The 2nd folder contains one file titled "2014-01-03-175020.inProgress"
I purchased this time machine backup drive in 2010 after the origional drive on my iMac crashed and was replaced. When that happened my system was updated to Snow Leopard where it is now. The only major changes I have made are that I moved a lot of large video files off my main drive onto external hard drives to make more room on the iMac.
Other than that everything has stayed the same.
I'm asking it what size the 2 folders are but it's taking forever to answer and I venture to guess it will be 99.99% in the 1st folder and 0.01% in the second folder.
Let me know if that makes any sense.
And thanks again!

2TB Time Capsule and Time Machine on Snow Leopard 10.6.1 slooooooow

I have a 2TB Time Capsule on a 100Mps LAN that is shared by my Mac Pro and an iMac G5. No USB devices are connected to the Time Capsule. The Time Capsule and both computers are connected to the LAN through a LinkSys 8-port Cable/Router/DHCP.
While in Time Machine (about 30 backup folders) looking for a file to restore, it takes 2-5 minutes for Time Machine to change between backups. The time line on the right responds extremely slowly.
Whether or not the iMac is backing up has no effect.
Is this normal?
Thank you,
Don

See: http://www.codedifferent.com/2009/09/02/howto-reactivate-your-kyocera-printer-un der-mac-os-x-snow-leopard/
We have a KM-2550 and this solved it. HTH.

Time Machine on Snow Leopard Server

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