Time Machine. . . or CCC?

It seems like Time Machine is pretty inflexible in terms of what and how it backs up. There's almost nothing to the preferences, and as far as i can tell within the program all you can do is restore.
I started using Carbon Copy Cloner to backup my main drive to a slave internal drive and have always used a Terrabyte FW drive for Time Machine.
Is there anyway to specify which drives or which files on which drive TM backs up on? The whole incremental thing would be more useful if it didn't have to be every file on every drive every few hours or whatever it defaults to.
TM is currently telling me there's not enough space on my Terabyte drive and rather than delete how far the backup go I can only stop backing up Library and Apps folders, which are pretty crucial.
Should I just use CCC for everything and TM is not actually backing up my backup from CCC.
If there are any resources with these comparisons let me know also.
thanks
enzosf

I think part of what makes Time Machine such a success is how candy-coated it all is. Backup software has been around for more than a decade, yet the vast majority of people just don't back up their data. I've been guilty of it too, and have seen data loss happen more times than I care to count.
It's important to point out that you can control what Time Machine backs up. In the options, you can specify folders (and even volumes) that are not backed up. That's important, especially if you've ripped a bunch of your DVD's to your hard drive (if you ever lose something you can just rip it again), or have ripped a bunch of your CD's (again, just re-encode whatever was lost).
Time Machine's normal process does not allow for the changing of the schedule. But it's worth noting that Time Machine isn't just backing everything up all the time. Once that first backup is made, it is only backing up the data that changes. And then from there, it only keeps data on a graduated basis. It keeps the hourly backups for the last 24 hours. Then it only keeps a daily backup for the last month. And then after a month, it just keeps weekly backups. Behind the scenes, without you having to work out any complex configurations or do anything, it just manages all that. Dumps the stuff no longer needed, organizes the stuff it's been storing and keeps it at the beck and call of the color-coated end-user application.
If you still don't like hourly backups, there are third-party mods/tweaks to the OS you can use that will let you adjust that schedule. I've toyed with them, but ultimately opted to just let Time Machine do its thing.
If you're concerned that Time Machine will eat up all the available space on an external drive, then I recommend you partition that drive (using Disk Utility), which would let you specify exactly how much space you want to let Time Machine use. I highly recommend that if the external drive you're using is large.
I won't knock on CCC, I think the app has a lot of strong points, and it certainly works well for a lot of people. But my choice for backup solution is to go with Time Machine, for simplicity and elegance.

Similar Messages

Does a new name for the internal HD make my Time Machine (and CCC) backups useless?

I have a replacement 1TB internal HD that I need to clone from my existing internal HD, using Carbon Copy Cloner. Initially I'll connect it in an external enclosure via USB, no questions on that.
I'd like to give the new HD itself a new name. Is there any way to have the new drive recognize all the corresponding data on my external drive Time Machine. Or will I have to start all over? I know that means I'd lose several months' worth of TM data.
As long as I'm asking about TM, does the same principle apply to the 1:1 clones made with CCC?
Thanks for any help.

No problem with renaming the clone drive something else, in fact it's recommended.
However for best results I suggest doing so while option key booted from the clone, just in case.

Clean installation and apps reinstallation time machine or ccc?

I am going to make a clean installation of yosemite, I am hesitating because the reinstallation of all program i got will take 3 days, is there a faster way? actually i have a back up of the whole drive with ccc, but i am afraid that using it can cancel the real benefit of the formatting, any advices?

The problem with restoring applications is that you don't know what other files were installed originally. Copying over just an application may not provide all the files required. I don't recommend it. It's quite different when you are restoring a full backup or clone where everything is copied over. There is really only one thing you can reliably restore manually from a backup or clone, and that is your Home folder.
Now, if you use Migration Assistant then it will restore third-party applications and their support files. But only third-party applications.

Can time machine and carbon copy cloner use the same backup drive?

Can time machine and CCC use the same esata backup drive?

Yes, but you will need to first partition the drive so that TM and CCC will backup to their own respective volumes. This way the CCC volume can accommodate a bootable clone.
Be sure the TM volume has adequate space. A TM backup volume should have about twice the capacity of the volume it backs up.

Time machine back up and deleting photos from macbook pro

I have a macbook pro. I need to free some space on my hard drive. As I am a keen photographer I decided it was best to have at lest to back up in the event than one fails. I keep one off site at a friends. This way if the unthinkble happens.. fire, flood theft etc I do not lose all my images. To do this I require 2 hard drives. Having purchased the second I thought it would make sense to actually do a Time Machine back up as previous back ups were only of photos.
A few seaches of different forums appeared to say that you cannot delete photos from your Mac as this will be just Mirrored on your next Timemachine back up. This makes sense as it is copying the Mac so anything not on there will not be on the Time Machine back up.
SOLUTION : On your hard drive of the time machine back up create an addition folder or folders and using finder drag and drop from your macbook. This way it will not effect your Time Machine. You can replicate with the other hard drive. Having backed up away from the Time Machine will mean the photos do not get deleted by Time Machine after you have removed them from your Mac.
I hope this makes sense! It is the first time I have posted :-)
I would like to know if others have other solutions or use this method. I should say that the hard drive I use for the Time Machine if Mac formatted. It is a 2 TB WD My Book Studio. I purchased from the Apple store. It is not an apple product but is mac of the sleek aluminum and goes well with it. Having said that I keep it at a mates house!

There are several concepts that may help you create a defense-in-depth approach to securing your valuable data.
- Your data is much more valuable than external disk drives. Do not hesitate to purchase the size and number of external drives you need for great (not just good) backup practices.
- Always maintain at least two copies of any data. This means never place live (offloaded) files on a backup volume, even in a separate partition. If the drive fails the backup and the live files will go poof together.
- Do not rely on retrieving live files from a Time Machine backup. Time Machine is for restoring files that were deleted or altered by mistake or for a full restore. It is not for offloading live files.
- Place the offloaded live files on a separate disk drive. Then you will need to backup that live volume or if that offload volume fails then poof again.
- You already some of this base covered. Maintaing two copies (one backup) is good practice. Maintaining more than two copies (two or more backups) is a better practice. Maintaining multiple copies in multiple backup formats is a great practice. Time Machine is great for restoring accidentally deleted or altered data but it is a complex system that is more prone to failure than simpler schemes such as cloning. I recommend maintaining both Time Machine and cloned backups of the internal drive and cloned backups of offload drive.
Backing up the offload disk is where partitioning the backup drive can be handy. Create one partition for your Time Machine backup and another partition for your external drive backup. Backup your internal drive with Time Machine and backup the offloaded files using cloning software such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!
You could tell Time Machine to backup both your internal and external live files but then it gets tricky to do a full restore so I recommend using cloning software for backing up the external drive.
When you purchase another external drive, make it a sufficiently large one so you can divide it into multiple large partitions.
A good backup/offload map (two partitions per backup drive):
- Internal drive —> Time Machine backup partition A on the backup drives.
- External offload drive —> Clone backup partition B on the backup drives.
- Backup drives 1 and 2 (one onsite and one offsite), each with partitions A and B.
A great backup scheme includes three partitions on the large backup drives so you can backup the the internal drive with both Time Machine and CCC/SD:
- Internal drive —> Time Machine backup partition A on the backup drives.
- External offload drive —> Clone backup partition B on the backup drives.
- Internal drive —> Clone backup to partition C on the backup drives.
- Backup drives 1 and 2 (one onsite and one offsite), each with partitions A, B and C.
A great feature of having a clone of your internal drive is if the internal drive crashes you can boot off of the backup disk while you replace the internal drive. As mentioned above it also avoids Time Machine backup/restore problems. I have had Time Machine full restores fail so I do not trust them as my only backup method but I find them very handy for restoring individual files.
Create partitions sufficiently large enough for each backup source. Time Machine should be about 50% or more larger than the volume it is backing up to leave room for the older incremental backups. The cloned backup partitions need only be as large as the volumes they are backing up, or larger if you include incremental backups in your cloning scheme. This means you may need 2 or 3 TB backup drives. (4 TB drives are not yet reliable so avoid them.)
For more information on great backup schemes see:
Time Machine Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
Most commonly used backup methods:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031
PlotinusVeritas gives some great suggestions for purchasing external hard drives in this thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5602141?tstart=0

Time machine Deleted old computer backups

Hey,
I have been using a mac pro for about a year and a half now and as all computers get it has become slow and full of garbage. So i used my time machine back up and successfully backed up all my files. I put in the OS disk and wiped the computer clean and reinstalled the OS. I plugged the time machine back up in and began to copy over only the files that i wanted. A few days later I had not yet copied over all of the files that I needed, i was prompted me to set up this computer with a time machine back up. I began the process thinking that it would create the backups in a new file on the drive or append it to the current list of back up images. It stopped half way though saying there was not enough free disk space. on the 1 TB HD there was only 5 GB remaining. So I just canceled it and was going to finish copying over all of the files i wanted and they delete the old backups. However when I went to get my old backup files, they had all been deleted.
I was using this hard drive to store other media files as well as time machine backups. taking the HD into the local computer shop i was informed that that is a terrible thing to do and perhaps the reason that my backups have been lost. the tech said there was nothing to be done but reformat the drive and start again. I am hoping this is not the case. the drive still says there is only 5GB of free space however I can only fine 300GB of files on the drive. so i believe that the files are still there. Does anyone know a solution to this issue. There are many valuable things on this hard drive that i would hate to loose.
I have tried holding the option key and clicking on the icon to view other backups, but my original backups are not there.
Thanks in advance.

Before I make any reply, note that you are responding to a topic that has been inactive for more than two years, on a system two versions out of date. In the future, you would do better to start your own topic in an appropriate forum, specifying what system you're running and what hardware you're running it on, among other things.
this exact thing happened to me as well and I must say that I find it totally unacceptable...
Well, without more information, it's impossible to say what might have happened or how you can recover. You may find some answers on Pondini's excellent site:
http://pondini.org
However, it's important to understand that this may or may not have anything to do with Time Machine. Perhaps your backup drive is dying, perhaps its directory structure became badly corrupt, perhaps one of any number of other things could have happened. Because there is no such thing as storage that is completely stable, it's important to keep more than one backup, as noted previously on this topic.
Carbon Copy Cloner seems like a much better solution at this time.
Carbon Copy Cloner is an excellent solution. Is it better? No. It is simply different, and that makes it better in some aspects and worse in others than Time Machine. The best backup strategy will involve two different backup programs. I frequently recommend using both Time Machine and CCC. I use TM with a Time Capsule for one backup, which has certain advantages over CCC. I use CCC for a couple other backups, one of which is in a safe deposit box at all times, and that has some advantages over TM. Using both, with multiple backups, means that I'm extremely unlikely to lose much data, if any at all... unless a meteor hits and destroys both my home and my bank, in which case I've got bigger problems!
Anyway, with regard to recovery, take a look at Pondini's site. If that doesn't help, or you need assistance with something, start your own topic in the appropriate forum for your system and provide additional details that may help us better assist you.

Time Machine says Backup Delayed After Upgrading to Lion

Time Machine says Backup Delayed After Upgrading to Lion on both my Macs. It backs up fine when ever I connect to the USB drive but now seems to want to back up hourly when before weekly was OK. When it does not compleye an hourly backup it reports a delayed backup - failure on both machines. How do it revert back to it reminding me to do weekly backups?

I'm having the same issue with Time Machine on OS X Lion!
According to this webpage: http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/LionChanges.html
Backups (i.e., Time Machine, SD, CCC, etc.) will only save the current "Version" of files.
The above statement sounds like the issue @iJRB and myself are having after upgrading to Lion where Time Machine shows the following error message below within "System Preferences > Time Machine"
@iJRB: Is this the error message you are seeing?

Cannot find old Time Machine backups

Recently, I had to backup my iMac from my latest Carbon Copy Cloner copy. (I have an external HD with two partitions: Time Machine and CCC, both some 750 GB; for various reasons, I choose the CCC backup.)
After that, Time Machine started to backup again. But after a while it stopped, claiming having too little space to complete: it needed 700 Gb but it found only 230 Gb.
The old TM backups had disappeared!
Yet, Disk Utility says the capacity of the TM drive is 750,82 GB, and that 232,89 GB is available.
So, the older backups must still be there… but I cannot approach them. Also, when right-clicking the TM icon in the Dock in order to find another TM disk, it does not find the original backups.
A hint, ayone?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

Should I use time machine, CCC or a bootable installer for OS X Yosemite

I am about to change my mid-2010 MBP and install a Samsung 850 pro. I have Yosemite (by the way: Yosemite performance is good, no slowness; hdd filled only 50%) - I have VPN Tracker and Microsoft Remote Desktop as main applications at the moment. I will also use it for itunes.
I have made a backup on time machine.
The process instructions on the net vary:
1) After replacing the HDD with the SSD, press down Command + R, this opens boot utility of Yosemite; then with disk utility format the SSD as MacOs ext journal. then: Back-up from time machine.
2) OR: Use Carbon Copy Cloner. Connect the SSD on a USB tray (I have one) and commence from there before installing. On re
3) OR: Should I first - Create a bootable installer for OS X Yosemite; the instruction says: Download the OS X Installer app from the Mac App Store. But I can't find it. And then clone as Kappy describes.
- Isn't that replaced by the Command + R startup procedure?
& I am looking for insight in this tip:
4) I read someone failed in installing an SSD because he forgot an I/F sensor connection (Temperature gauge??) ; but I see such a connector nowhere in the video's.
Of course I prefer 1), looks most straightforward as being within the Apple software mindset.
anything will help me.

First I would explore the potential problems you may face installing a third party SSD in a MBA running Yosemite. Just a sample:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/os-x-yosemite-and-third-party-ssds-heres-what-you-n eed-to-know/
The simplest way of installing a new storage device is to connect it to the MBP via USB and then format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in Disk Utility>Erase.
Then use CCC or Disk Utility>Restore to copy the data to the SSD from the internal HDD.
Then test to see if the external SSD will boot the MBP. If so, make the physical swap.
Ciao.

Time Machine vs. CCC, and Lightroom on Synology NAS?

For some reason, I decided that it was the perfect time to streamline my backups and photo importing/archiving two weeks before I have to be in Cancun to shoot a destination wedding... And this has proven to me that I'm a lot less literate than I thought I was. I couldn't find an obvious category for this, but it involves Time Machine which has something to do with Time Capsules/remote backups, so here goes. Let me know if I should post it somewhere else.
Here's what's going on:
I just bought a Synology DS214+ (running Synology's Linux OS Diskstation Manager (DSM) 5.0) and one 3TB drive. The immediate game plan is to import photos through Lightroom 5, keeping the LR catalog on my computer's SSD and filing the master images on the NAS drive. I might also move my iTunes library and a bunch of old video footage over to the NAS since both are taking up a lot of space on the SSD and I don't really need SSD performance for either. I would also back up my computer(s) to the NAS drive, and then back up the NAS once or twice a week to an external HDD that I keep offsite. Once the 3TB drive gets close to full and storage prices drop as they tend to do, I'd add a larger drive in JBOD, keep my photos/music/movies on the 3TB for an extra disc of redundancy, back up both that and my computer(s) to the larger drive, and back up the larger drive to the offsite external HDD.
(In the nearer future, I'd also like to get the NAS set up so that I can remotely access at least the photo library, if not everything, with my iPhone and Macbook Pro. In the farther future, I'd like to use the NAS to host my [currently nonexistent] website and mail server. Finally, of lowest priority would be hosting a Minecraft server on the NAS; I'm already financing one for my kid brothers as an ongoing Christmas gift, so for them to have a server while keeping that money in pocket would be nice. I'm not begging for step-by-step instructions on all of this right now, but if you happen to know of any good links they'd be appreciated; and I want to make sure I configure the NAS now so that I can add all this in later.)
That's a lot of stuff for one piece of equipment... Anyone who has this hardware, is familiar with DSM, or has done any of this stuff: am I out of my mind or is this doable?
Here are the current questions:
Up until now I've been using Time Machine on a directly attached external drive, but this "bootable copy" that Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) makes is intriguing. However- that requires a locally mounted drive formatted in HFS+, and since my NAS is Linux based as far as I understand any drive I install will be formatted to EXT4. I can set up an iSCSI LUN through DSM which would allow me to create the illusion of a locally attached drive, but could I format this 'phantom drive' to HFS+ so it will support OSX system files? Even if yes, would I be able to boot off it - or does the iSCSI not kick in until after OSX boots anyway, effectively rendering it useless as a boot drive? Not a huge deal since I can boot off an SD card, but it would be good to know since that would make things slightly more convenient.
If I can’t boot off the iSCSI 'phantom drive', then I should just be able to use Time Machine for backups to the NAS since it looks like DSM supports that. I thought I’d still need CCC to back up the NAS to the offsite HDD, but it looks like DSM can do that too. Would I have any other reason to buy CCC, then? Would DSM be able to routinely backup the library drive to the main backup drive once I have both installed in the NAS?
How would I set up the NAS so that it always has the same network IP when rebooting? I don't plan for this to be a frequent event, but it would be a minor inconvenience to have to go through Synology's disc assistant and change my browser's bookmark every time there's a power outage, which I’d like to avoid if possible. (From the basic research I've done in that area so far it also seems like that would be more important for remote access and using the NAS as a web host or mail server.)
I'll want to get my mac to connect to the NAS automatically upon booting or waking, but it looks like there are adequate tutorials for doing that with automator and/or terminal. Any experiences with this being fairly easy, or tips/tricks if it isn't?
I know I couldn't export them, but does anyone happen to know if I could still edit and/or display the sidecar images in my Lighroom 5 catalog while I was disconnected from the NAS containing the original files? I guess that isn’t a deal breaker, but it’d be good to know if I can or if there’s any sort of additional setup to facilitate this.
Currently the NAS is set up as "basic" since it only has one drive. When I add the second, I can convert the NAS to JBOD without erasing the current drive, right?
Should I do any sort of partitioning or formatting right now to make sure that the NAS is web hosting friendly, and that those accessing the future website or Minecraft server can’t get into or corrupt my personal files and backups?
That’s all my tired mind remembers for right now; I’ll add more questions if/when they come up.
Thanks in advance for the help!

That's the problem with using a 3d-party NAS with Time Machine; it has it's own software that's supposed to interact with OSX, and when something goes wrong, it can be very hard to sort out just what and where the problem is.
First, make sure that model is fully compatible with Time Machine on Lion (some are, some aren't), and install any software/firmware updates Synology has for it.
Second, make sure the names (of all odd things) of your Mac and network aren't too long and don't contain any special characters, per #C9 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Third, make sure you're following Synology's instructions exactly.

Safety survey: do you prefer CCC or time machine ?

Hi to all, reading along made me very curious, there are so many people who know nothing about clones and don't know that time machine won't allow them booting from the external HD.
Is there any way to let them constantly be reminded to make a real clone to speed up any disk restore ?
Who uses cloning utilities like CCC and who prefers to lean on TM ?

Paolo it's not a matter of a bootable clone or TM to be honest. I would STRONGLY recommend using both solutions. Both have their strong points particularly if you have critical information on your computer. It's wise to get a 2nd external HD and use TM on one and either CCC or SuperDuper on the other. DO NOT repeat DO NOT put both TM and a bootable clone on the same EHD. The reason being is if your external HD crashes you have lost all of your backup.
I would recommend reading these three articles from MacWorld. Frequently MacWork publishes backup strategies of individuals, I believe you will gain some valuable insight by reading them. You will see a common thread and that is redundant backups.
http://www.macworld.com/article/157414/2011/02/mybackupplanlex.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/156643/2011/01/howi_back_up_frakes.html?lsrc=top1
http://www.macworld.com/article/141363/2009/07/backup.html
Roger

CCC or Time Machine

Dear Friends,
Hi, I bought a refurbished Macbook 4,1 at present it is running Lion 10.7.5( although it is an older machine circa 2008) I would like to transfer everything from my old machine( early intel Macbook Pro) to the newer machine. My older machine runs Mac OS x 10.6.8 and that allows me run some very old software. Should I make a time machine back up?and restore it or use CCC? to transfer everything, the system, applications and data.
Thanks for your help
-Walt

You can't transfer OS X to a different model of Mac, however if you CCC the old machine to a external drive and then use Migration/Setup Assistant on the new machine against the old Mac's clone, it's faster than doing it from TimeMachine drive and if it borks up or you want to do things cleaner, you always have the option of accessing the old clone manually and dragging and dropping files.
Most commonly used backup methods

Using CCC and Time Machine

My HD is partitioned into 3 volumes: one with all Apps, Library, System, Users, etc, and two other Volumes are set for each person who uses this computer. Should all my data be OK if I CCC the first Volume with all system files to one Seagate Ext HD (to use as a bootable), and TM the other two Volumes with all our individual files on a second Seagate Ext. HD? Seems right but I'm new to TM and just started with it yesterday. Previously, I'd been using one Seagate backup with DejaVu but TM appears to be aneasier way to retrieve files, just not bootable.
And just a thought: is it possible to CCC the first Volume and TM the other two Volumes to the same Seagate Ext. HD (excluding the first volume from TM)? Would this create a bootable backup with everything on it or is it too 'iffy'?

Not sure I was able to follow your various volumes; however, in general:
if you want more than Time Machine on an external, you need to partition that external first. Mare sure it is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the GUID Partition scheme. Make one for TM, one for CCC, and/or a third for drag & drop stuff if that is what you want.
Now, if you want a second backup, just do the same thing there - it's best to have more than one backup - hard drives do fail and if you have both TM and a bootable clone on the same drive, they'll both be gone if it fails.
Also not sure I understand what you have on your internal: you do have a complete system on one partition (including applications, Library, System, etc), right?

Can I use my time capsule for time machine back ups and as an external storage device?

I have a time capsule and have set it up so that my time machine back ups are saved on it, but I would also like to use it as an external hard drive. Is this possible?
I know nothing about computers so please tell me in very basic terms. thankyou!

By external hard disk we usually mean one plugged into the computer by USB or Firewire or Thunderbolt.
None of those works on the TC.. it is plugged in by ethernet or use wireless connection.. that means it is a network drive.. not an external drive. The difference might not mean much to you.. but it is totally different to the computer. In the former case the computer has full control of the disk. In the case of the network drive, the disk is controlled by the TC firmware and the files are stored and accessed by network. This has large implications.
So here is my standard response.
Store files on the TC.
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
The following are controls on the hard disk side.
Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
Even apple btw say don’t do it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32 it adds network drives.
5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

Repeated error: 11 problems while trying to backup to time machine

A few months ago I purchased a 750GB NESO external hard drive and have never been able to back up using time machine on it. I can manually back up files no problem, but I have yet to get time machine to finish a complete backup, despite trying every fix I could find on the internet.
This includes reformatting the external, making sure there is a separate partition for the Time machine backup, making sure that partition is formatted as Mac OS extended (journaled) and GUID.
Every time I try to back up I get the same error message: "An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume". This happens at various time during the backup process. Sometimes after a few MBs, sometimes after 1.5 Gigs have been backed up.
This is what I get from the system log every time-
*Feb 3 18:34:59 Computername com.apple.backupd[1228]: Copied 137 files (1.2 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.*
*Feb 3 18:34:59 Computername com.apple.backupd[1228]: Copy stage failed with error:11*
*Feb 3 18:35:04 Computername com.apple.backupd[1228]: Backup failed with error: 11*
*Feb 3 18:35:05 Computername UserNotificationCenter[1282]: Error loading /Library/QuickTime/DivX Decoder.component/Contents/MacOS/DivX Decoder: dlopen(/Library/QuickTime/DivX Decoder.component/Contents/MacOS/DivX Decoder, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:\n /Library/QuickTime/DivX Decoder.component/Contents/MacOS/DivX Decoder: no matching architecture in universal wrapper*
*Feb 3 18:35:54: --- last message repeated 37 times ---*
I have tried excluding the divx decoder.component file I located in the Quicktime folder, I have excluded the whole Divx application, I have even excluded the entire Quicktime folder. I also reseted the time machine setup including erasing the existing "/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/nameOfComputer/date.inProgress" file as advised in the troubleshooting guide in this forum after excluding each. Still the same error every time.
After having tried all suggested solutions including those listed in the troubeshooting guide here I am truly baffled as to what the problem is. Please advise.

brocktoon4 wrote:
Any idea how this is possible? Did the smaller partition isolate the defect? Thank you again for all your suggestions and help. I am relieved to finally get time machine working. If you can shed some light on this little mystery as well I would be grateful.
I don't have a lot of expertise there, but yes, if there's a bad spot on the disk, in the area where TM was trying to put new backups, that could do it.
Partitions aren't like folders, where their data may be scattered; each one is on a +*physically separate+* part of the disk.
Usually, if there's a bad spot, it will be discovered when writing to it; any time you do a write, it's automatically read back and compared. If there's a problem, it's retried a certain number of times, and if it still fails, the sector is marked "damaged" so it won't be re-used, and a different sector used.
I would strongly* recommend that you not trust your backups to a drive that's had such trouble, especially if they're your only backups.
I learned many years ago (the hard way, of course ), not to trust my backups to a single app or piece of hardware. No app is perfect; neither is any hardware.
You might want to keep a secondary backup, such as a "bootable clone" of your system, on a separate external disk. This is commonly done with CarbonCopyCloner (which I use in addition to full Time Machine backups) or SuperDuper. There are variations, but typically a clone is an exact copy of your system, with none of the previous copies of things you've deleted or changed, like Time Machine keeps. Unlike Time Machine, you can boot and run your Mac normally (but a bit slower) from them.
This gives you the advantages of both types of backup, and protects you from a problem with one of them (external drives fail, too). Some folks do the "clone" to a portable external HD, and take it to their safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, or other secure location periodically. Others have a pair that they swap weekly or so. Thus they're also protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on their power lines, etc.
CCC is donationware, so you can use it free for a while. If you decide to keep it, send them some $$ so they can keep it up to date. SD has a free version, but to do updates (rather than a full replacement) or automatic scheduling, you need the paid version (about $30).
Either is available via Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com.

Time Machine. . . or CCC?

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