Time Machine preparing lasts forever

When I start Time Machine to back up, it takes hours (last night it has been on), ad is still preparing, how long can I expact it to last before preparations are finished.
It's been a while since my last back up (because of this problem).
I back Up to a LaCie 1 terra disk Firewire.
Actually I want t erase the disk, and start it all over, but it is not possible to deactivate this disk, how can I erase the disk.
Thanx

AppleChat wrote:
Used Backup for years and tried time machine for first time yesterday.
Iy has been running or 12 hours and done 14 of 100 gb. Is that normal for an initial backup?
Thank you.
See my answer in the other thread you posted this in: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10141710#10141710
Please don't double-post the same question.

Similar Messages

Time Machine prepares backups forever

I have had Time Machine set up on my MacBook Pro for over a year without any problems, and all of a sudden in December, it begins by preparing the backup as it always did, but it never goes any further. I left my laptop open for 2 days and it hadn't gotten any further than preparing the backup. When I check the Time Machine settings it confirms that the last time it backed up was the beginning of December 2010. My roommate also has a Mac (both running Leopard with the latest updates), and his Time Machine is working fine. Any thoughts on what is causing this for my MBP?

Thanks for the link. I downloaded the widget and worked through a few of the error messages listed, as well as doing a restart of Time Machine (#A4). That doesn't seem to have resolved the issue. Below is a copy and paste of the widget. I understand that it's telling me that the drive is full, but it should know to make space on its own to store newer backups.
Starting standard backup
Backup requested by user
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://;AUTH=No%20User%20Authent@Jordan%20Simard's%20AirPort%20Extreme.afpovertcp.tcp.local/Time%20Machine%20Backups
Backup destination mounted at path: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups-1
Disk image /Volumes/Time Machine Backups-1/Jordan Simard’s MacBook Pro_00224135636b.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Jordan Simard’s MacBook Pro
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Jordan Simard’s MacBook Pro/Backups.backupdb
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Jordan's HD
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Exception writing exclusions cache. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Unable to create exclusions cache data.
Failed to write exclusions cache. Continuing anyway.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Waiting for index to be ready (906 > 0)
Waiting for index to be ready (909 > 0)
Waiting for index to be ready (909 > 0)
Waiting for index to be ready (909 > 0)

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.
Here is an extract from the console log:
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!

My Time Machine Backup Stays Forever

My Time Machine Backup Stays Forever, it says backingup and no progress, some times indexing stays a whole day ??!!

Were you able to back up before, or is this a new setup?
What are you backing-up to (external HD, Time Capsule, or what)?
It sounds like the backups may be damaged; try repairing them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Time machine preparing forever and spotlight estimating indexing time

hey guys,
Im having two problems that seem to be related. time machine gets stuck on preparing with the following error in console:
Jul 18 17:03:19 Macintosh-5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[6926]: Waiting for index to be ready (905 > 0)
Spotlight is also acting up and freezes indefinitely whilst estimating indexing time with the following console error:
Jul 18 17:03:44 Macintosh-5 mds[94]: (Error) Server: mdsync launch failed: (ipc/send) invalid destination port
I have not been able to find much on this last error on support forums. Any ideas? I have erased all spotlight indices, reset PRAM, this problems occurs when indexing both the internal and external hard drives. (The drive i am using for time machine has worked in the past.) I have also repaired disk permission etc. Any solutions without reinstalling leopard as the reason why i am trying to back up is so I can do a reinstall then!
Thanks!

I had this exact problem yesterday (Waiting for index to be ready (905 > 0)). I rebooted with the shift key held down, rebooted again, and rebuilt my Spotlight index. Now there seems to be a conflict between Spotlight and Time Machine:
Aug 26 05:03:08 Musa /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[702]: Waiting for Spotlight to finish indexing /Volumes/Backup of Musa/Backups.backupdb
I thought of adding the backup drive to Spotlight's exclusion list, but doesn't the backup drive need to be indexed by Spotlight for it to work with Time Machine?

Time Machine preparing WAY too many items

I just noticed that my Time Machine backups are taking an unusually long time. So when the last one finished, I immediately ran a second backup with Time Machine preferences open so I could watch the progress bar. It said it was “Preparing (about) 3,200 Items...” for a total of 660 KB. The backup took about 6 or 7 minutes. This now happens every time TM does a backup.
Obviously this is very wrong given that only a few seconds had passed between backups and nothing had changed. There should have been a handful of items to prepare, and the backup should have taken a few seconds. I installed TimeTracker, and it showed a few dozen items had been backed up. I made sure to open every folder/subfolder but found nothing that would account for 3,200 items.
Anyone have any idea what might be going on?

MacVal wrote:
When I reinstalled my software I didn't drag any of the old preference files back over either, just in case something was corrupted. And everything I installed software-wise has been running on 10.6.8 forever with no issues. The only exceptions were Apple Remote Desktop, which I did not reinstall this time, and a new generation of Plex media server I've been trying out, which I recently upgraded to from an older version.
In theory, a incompatible or faulty kernel extension could cause this, but it's highly doubtful.
I assume there is no way that any my documents could cause strange system behaviour?
Never say never, but highly unlikely.
At times both before and after this rebuild when I've been playing around with TM preferences (selecting the drive, setting which folders to exclude) my CPU will run very high (can't recall the % exactly) and my fans will kick into high gear. Obviously this is not normal, especially with nothing else running at the time. Something is clearly messing with TM.
Ah, yes, very suspicious. I don't recall seeing this before.
Perhaps the preference file (where all that is kept) is damaged. Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If that doesn't help:
Are you running any 3rd-party disk/directory monitoring apps, such as the Directory Protection feature of Tech Tools?
Does that happen with other pages in System Preferences?
Does it happen in a different user account (if you don't have one, create one via System Prefs > Accounts). You'll have to unlock the panel to make changes from a non-Admin account.
If none of that provides any light, a clue may be lurking in your logs. See the tan box in OSX Log Files to locate your system.log, then the blue box to decipher it. Use the technique in the Monitoring the log ... section to see if any messages appear while you're using the TM Prefs window. If they do, copy and post them (or, if there are a lot of them, a reasonable portion) here.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Time Machine "preparing backup" eternally upon wake from sleep

at a bit of a loss here...
iMac 24" (version which offered 7300GT as BTO option)
10.5.5 with all updates applied
LaCie 500 gig USB 2.0 drive directly attached.
Up until about two months ago, Time machine functioned fined. Then for some reason, the following started to happen. (no known reason, no software update related etc, that I know of)
scenario... Time Machine functions correctly EXCEPT when waking from sleep. If iMac wakes from sleep and attempts a backup immediately (e.g. more than one hour has passed), it gets stuck "preparing backup" forever. I've let it run overnight (actually as long as about 30 hours), it never stops. Finder and other programs become extremely non-responsive, machine is almost unusable. Literally, the only way out is to manually shut down external drive, with attendant warnings/errors.
What I've done:
1) deleted the time machine .plist file
2) erased, repartioned (as a single partition) external drive
3) started brand new time machine backup (takes about three hours)
At this point, time machine will backup up fine... I can force a successful backup, if I leave the machine running, at one hour it does a successful backup.
BUT, as soon as it goes to sleep, time machine is hosed.
The only workable method for using time machine is to turn the external drive and time machine off when not using it, and turn the whole shootin' match on to do what essentially becomes manual backups. These backup are fairly lengthy, as time machine also does lengthy "preparing backup", but they complete in about 30 minutes to one hour.
Given that time machine doesn't give mountable/cloneable backup, I'm probably going to go back to Carbon Copy Cloner. Still, I like the ease/regularity of Time Machine, and would use it if it works.
Any ideas?
thanks

It could be a number of things. There are lots of things that Time Machine does in order to "manage" backups -- apart from just copying data to the backup drive.
It has to manage the transition of hourly backups into daily backups and must also transition daily backups into weekly backups. Each time it does this it has to move a lot of data around. It also has to maintain indexes of everything so you can quickly find backups should you want to perform a restore.
I've also noticed that there are circumstances that can cause TM to question whether it can trust it's existing backup database... I've caught Time Machine saying that it needs to do a "deep traversal" of the backup (basically it wants to check and see what it really has) and this can take a very long time.
Still... 30 hours is an extremely long amount of time. I'm almost wondering if there's a problem with either your USB bus or your drive when they wake up such that you may be getting a huge number of retries on something that should have happened quickly.
I'd suggest you start the "Console" utility, select "All Messages" at the left, and then watch the messages being written to your log file. Not only does Time Machine log all of it's progress messages to the system.log (in more detail than you'd see in the Time Machine UI), but so do lots of other system processes. If you're getting USB bus problems the error messages would likely show up in the same log. I'm especially suspicious about non-TM related causes since you said you've already blown away your TM backups & preferences and started from scratch and you're still getting the problem.
Try re-creating your problem with the Console log messages being displayed and see if you can't see something in the log that would let you get a little closer to the root cause.
Regards,
Tim

Time Machine "Preparing"

I've read the other threads on TM slowness, etc. but need some interpretation of what this Console entry means (see below.) As you can see, TM was doing fine and has been for several months until today. Then it suddenly stopped doing the hourly backups. It seemed to be locked in the Preparing mode and I tried to restart my iMac (running 10.5.2 with 2gb memory)but could not conventionally. I powered it off then back on. I do not know what deep traversal means but after reading other posts assume it means that TM is reviewing every file on my computer before commencing a fresh backup. If so, it has been at it for over three hours without going on and finishing the backup. (I have about 25gb on the iMac HD.) I'd appreciate any analysis as to what the problem is and what I should do. If just letting TM run for a day is the answer, I'm fine with that; I don't necessarily have to take radical steps to be satisfied. Thanks in advance for all help.
2/21/08 6:32:42 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[429] Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega HDD/Backups.backupdb
2/21/08 6:32:44 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[429] No pre-backup thinning needed: 5.70 GB requested (including padding), 324.57 GB available
2/21/08 6:36:35 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[429] Copied 1722 files (4.7 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
2/21/08 6:36:36 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[429] No pre-backup thinning needed: 111.2 MB requested (including padding), 319.91 GB available
2/21/08 6:36:40 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[429] Copied 389 files (129 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
2/21/08 6:36:41 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[429] Starting post-backup thinning
2/21/08 6:36:55 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[429] Deleted backup /Volumes/Iomega HDD/Backups.backupdb/Rick Davenport’s iMac/2008-01-22-082757: 323.88 GB now available
2/21/08 6:36:55 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[429] Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
2/21/08 6:36:55 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[429] Backup completed successfully.
2/21/08 6:57:56 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[588] Starting standard backup
2/21/08 6:57:56 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[588] Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega HDD/Backups.backupdb
2/21/08 6:57:57 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[588] No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.14 GB requested (including padding), 323.88 GB available
2/21/08 6:58:43 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[588] Copied 1328 files (879.1 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
2/21/08 6:58:43 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[588] No pre-backup thinning needed: 111.1 MB requested (including padding), 323.02 GB available
2/21/08 6:58:45 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[588] Copied 186 files (5 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
2/21/08 6:58:46 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[588] Starting post-backup thinning
2/21/08 6:58:46 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[588] No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
2/21/08 6:58:46 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[588] Backup completed successfully.
2/21/08 7:57:56 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[666] Starting standard backup
2/21/08 7:58:06 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[666] Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega HDD/Backups.backupdb
2/21/08 7:58:06 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[666] No pre-backup thinning needed: 123.0 MB requested (including padding), 323.02 GB available
2/21/08 7:58:12 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[666] Copied 385 files (10.0 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
2/21/08 7:58:12 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[666] Starting post-backup thinning
2/21/08 7:58:14 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[666] Deleted backup /Volumes/Iomega HDD/Backups.backupdb/Rick Davenport’s iMac/2008-02-20-073821: 323.02 GB now available
2/21/08 7:58:14 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[666] Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
2/21/08 7:58:15 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[666] Backup completed successfully.
2/21/08 8:57:56 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[751] Starting standard backup
2/21/08 8:58:06 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[751] Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega HDD/Backups.backupdb
2/21/08 11:02:06 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[251] Starting standard backup
2/21/08 11:02:16 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[251] Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega HDD/Backups.backupdb
2/21/08 11:02:16 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[251] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
2/21/08 11:02:16 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[251] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
2/21/08 2:21:37 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[240] Starting standard backup
2/21/08 2:21:47 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[240] Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega HDD/Backups.backupdb
2/21/08 2:21:48 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[240] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
2/21/08 2:21:48 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[240] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
2/21/08 3:53:21 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[186] Backup requested by user
2/21/08 3:53:21 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[186] Starting standard backup
2/21/08 3:53:21 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[186] Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega HDD/Backups.backupdb
2/21/08 3:53:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[186] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
2/21/08 3:53:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[186] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|

I am having the same problem on our server (or at least the mac we use as a server - it doesnt have any special server software as far as I know. Says 'Preparing" forever. It wont ever actually start the backup. It worked fine at first, but now it just sits and spins.
The main problem is that when it tries its backup and starts it's "sit and spin" mode, I loose connection to the server and everything im working on. The only way to get back access is to hold down the power key to restart (it wont let me restart through the apple). It also causes any programs I am working with on the local machines to crash.
I have just turned Time Machine completely off so that I can access all the files I need to work on from the server.
My time machine works perfectly at home - but its a major mess here at work.
This needs to be addressed ASAP. Hundreds of large files (brochures, annual reports, etc) are currently NOT being backed-up.

Time Machine Preparing ad nauseum

Folks,
As of the 10.7.1 update my Time Machine enters the Preparing mode and never exits same. I allowed it to "prepare" for 12 hours yesterday with no change.
I then stopped the backup & entered Time Machine.
The time line indicated several backups (about every two hours) for the past day? It also showed all backups for the last month. However, the backups for the last day were labeled in white, but the previous backups were in purple (except for 2?).
Does that indicate a difficulty in reading the data?
Should I wipe the backup drive & start over?
Regards,
Jack

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 "prepares" slowly and then does NOT complete B-U.

Since Christmas day, I've had a Time Machine problem. First it takes about 40 minutes to "prepare" to back-up and then it only backs-up 15gb out of 105gb.
And the animated icon keeps rotating for hours without completing the task. Could someone please share their knowledge on how I might be able to fix this issue? It would be greatly appreciated.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showning, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Time Machine prepares backup but cancels without error message before starting backup

Hello.
I'm running OS 10.9.1 on a 2013 iMac. Time Machine has not backed up for a few weeks. Have tried verifying the backup with no problems reported. Can't mount 1TB Time Capsule or relevant sparsebundle in Disk Utility. Went to Console and copied the relevant logs:
1/12/14 8:25:06.310 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Starting manual backup
1/12/14 8:25:06.320 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Data
1/12/14 8:25:29.000 AM kernel[0]: hfs: mounted Time Machine Backups on device disk4s2
1/12/14 8:25:31.268 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Disk image /Volumes/Data/Macintosh.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
1/12/14 8:25:31.284 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Backing up to /dev/disk4s2: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
1/12/14 8:25:31.481 AM mds[65]: (Error) Volume: Root store set to FSOnly with matching create! (loaded:1)
1/12/14 8:26:00.273 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Deep event scan at path:/Users/[redacted]/Pictures/iPhoto Library cellphone/Database/apdb reason:contains changes|must scan subdirs|fsevent|missed reservation|file event|
1/12/14 8:26:04.372 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Finished scan
1/12/14 8:26:04.376 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Not using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
1/12/14 8:26:44.000 AM kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xc005 (UNDEFINED).
1/12/14 8:26:51.000 AM kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
1/12/14 8:26:51.601 AM diskimages-helper[1470]: terminating disk4 - image is no longer available
[here follows various repeated disk4s2 undefined messages]
1/12/14 8:26:51.603 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Stopping backup to allow backup destination disk to be unmounted or ejected.
[here follows various repeated disk4s2 undefined messages]
1/12/14 8:26:52.000 AM kernel[0]: hfs: Runtime corruption detected on Time Machine Backups, fsck will be forced on next mount.
1/12/14 8:26:52.000 AM kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
[last two lines repeated about a dozen times]
1/12/14 8:26:52.000 AM kernel[0]: hfs: cat_delete() failed to delete thread record id=81 on vol=Time Machine Backups
1/12/14 8:26:52.000 AM kernel[0]: hfs: Runtime corruption detected on Time Machine Backups, fsck will be forced on next mount.
1/12/14 8:26:52.000 AM kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
1/12/14 8:26:52.000 AM kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
1/12/14 8:26:52.239 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Backup canceled.
1/12/14 8:26:52.000 AM kernel[0]: hfs: BlockMarkFreeInternal() trying to free unallocated blocks on volume Time Machine Backups
1/12/14 8:26:52.000 AM kernel[0]: hfs: Runtime corruption detected on Time Machine Backups, fsck will be forced on next mount.
1/12/14 8:26:52.000 AM kernel[0]: hfs: unmount initiated on Time Machine Backups on device disk4s2
1/12/14 8:26:57.284 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Ejected Time Machine disk image: /Volumes/Data/Macintosh.sparsebundle
1/12/14 8:26:57.000 AM kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_unmount: /Volumes/Data, flags 0, pid 1500
1/12/14 8:26:57.000 AM kernel[0]: ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0xffffff8054511530
1/12/14 8:26:57.000 AM kernel[0]: ASP_TCP Detach: Reply queue not empty?
1/12/14 8:26:57.759 AM com.apple.backupd[1456]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
This basic sequence seems to have happened every time I've tried to run backup lately. Pondini's A6 mentions the deep event scan related to iPhoto but not what to do about it. Help?

I decided, based on various clues from Pondini's page, that the hard drive in my Time Capsule was failing. I started a full backup on my second Time Capsule and am currenly only using the original as an internet router.

MY POSSIBLE FIX for Time Machine preparing for ages every hour

Like many others, i have had problems with Time Machines backups - ever since upgrading to 10.5.2. Every hour it would say 'preparing' for ages, and then, when it did finally backup, the data transfer was incredibly slow. Not to mention the amount of cpu usage it was using during the preparing status!
I have no idea if this is a FIX, or if i was just lucky, but Time Machine now works as it should, i.e. it backs-up seamlessly.
Anyway, this is what i did: booted from my Tiger disc (yes, even though i have Leopard) and went into its 'disc utility', from there i selected 'repair permissions'. Once the Tiger disc had completed repairing the permissions, i quit out of it and restarted my MacBook normally, i.e. not from the Tiger disc. When it had finished restarting, i went to disc utility and selected 'repair permissions'.
Ever since, TM has been just perfect. Coincidence? - i honestly do not know.
By the way, i don't know if repairing the permissions from within Leopard did anything or not, but this is the sequence i used. Plus also, it might be good to note that i had repaired permissions many a time, but with no success in fixing TM, but once doing it from the Tiger disc it fixed TM.
I hope it helps someone, because i know just how annoying it was when TM was not working correctly!

I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, which is why i believe i have had trouble.
What is 'A&I or E&I'?

Time Machine Folder Calculating forever

Hey Guys,
I have a Time Machine Backup folder from July. If I try to connect to my MacBook Pro and read contents of the folders, I am unable to.
There is a red '-' Icon attached to some folders and when I click on them, the preview pane shows 'Calculating' and it stays like that forever (I left it overnight). From Terminal 'You have no permissions to access' or something like that.
There is a lot of stuff I need in that backup. Any help is really appreciated.
Thanks guys!
Uday

Yosemite is a dog..
Do you have another computer on the network running some functional Mac OS??
If not buy a USB drive. plug it into the Mac.. boot from recovery and try and use the TM to restore the whole backup (at a suitable time for your files) to the USB drive. Do this over ethernet with no wireless turned on.
Once you have a working recovery restart the computer from Yosemite.. and pluck the files you need from the USB drive.
You can also have a try with finder to do a manual restore.
Can't access old files on time capsule

Time Machine - It Hangs Forever Before Starting Backup

Don't know why this might be happening, the thing took about 15 minutes to prepare. Got a note that said something like "preparing backup". And now it's hung up, saying "6K of 11.8G". I had to do a restore recently, and it was a pain. I had to recover a huge mail folder. Maybe this is why the data amount seems large, and why it is "preparing" for so long? Can any tell me if this is typical, or strange?
Thanks...

Programs like Entourage, Outlook, VM Fusion and Parallels store their data in one big file. If you make even the tiniest change Time Machine will back up the whole file. Those types of files are best excluded from Time Machine backups and backed up by other means. Also, working on large video or graphic files can chew up disk space quickly. You might want to work on those files in a folder that is excluded from Time Machine backups and only allow Time Machine to back up the final versions.
To exclude volumes, folders or files go to System Preferences > Time Machine > Options. You can drag items to the "Do not back up" pane or use the "+" button to include them in the excluded list.
If you can't figure out why your Time Machine backups are so large you can use a program like WhatSize to help locate large files and folders. Once you have sorted out what might be taking up so much space on your Time Machine backups you can delete entire backups or files from your Time Machine backups with the Time Machine browser. If you have a file or folder selected in Time Machine's browser clicking on the button with the gear will give you the option of deleting all instances of that folder/file. If no files or folders are selected it will give you the option of deleting an entire backup. Deleting an entire backup will not free up as much space as you might expect as Time Machine uses hard links to keep track of its previously backed up files. You can read about how Time Machine uses hard links in this Ars Technical review.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14

Time machine keep last N backups

is there a way to configure time machine to only keep the last, lets say, 5 backups instead of every backup ever done?

zeroelink wrote:
is there a way to configure time machine to only keep the last, lets say, 5 backups instead of every backup ever done?
TM does not keep every backup ever done.
Your very first backup, and the first of that same day of every week, is kept as long as there's room on your TM disk/partition.
The first backup of all other days is kept for a month.
All other backups are kept for 24 hours.
If you want to limit the amount of space TM uses, you can partition the drive, so TM has it's own, exclusive space. See items 3 and 6 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.

Time Machine preparing lasts forever

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for