Time Machine requires 4.51 TB after FileVaulting drive

OSX 10.6.8, iMac, external 3 TB user account drive, external 2 TB TM drive.
I just FileVaulted the external 3 TB drive on which my user account resides.
Now when I try to run TM to an empty 2TB drive, it gives me this error message:
Time Machine could not complete the backup.
This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup
requires 4.51 TB but only 2.00 TB are available.
Note the df command output below. The external account drive now has 2 mount points.
The FileVault mount shows 5.85 TB --- on a 3 TB drive, go figure!
When I issue a du -s on my account, it comes back with only 573 GB used.
$ df -k
Filesystem    1024-blocks       Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2    976426672   52170964 923999708     6%    /
devfs                 114        114          0   100%    /dev
map -hosts              0          0          0   100%    /net
map auto_home           0          0          0   100%    /home
/dev/disk3s2   2929930672 694447552 2235483120    24%    /Volumes/External
/dev/disk1s1   1952795648     832288 1951963360     1%    /Volumes/TM_Drive
/dev/disk4s2   5859861216 3624410864 2235450352    62%    /Volumes/External/Users/transini
Is there some way to reset TM or overcome this glitch?

fsck on the boot drive made only 2 minor corrections. For good measure I redid fsck on the other external drives. No problems found. I even ran DiskWarrior on the external drives and FileVault partition. No problems found. Still, the TM backup insists that my FileVault user "partition" is 4.51 TB. Sounds like busted software to me.
Guess I'll have to undo FileVault.

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Time Machine reverts to Macintosh HD after external drive is ejected

I've seeing a problem with Time Machine with one of my external drives. Here's my setup:
MBP 15"
OSX 10.7.4
Work external drive - Seagate GoFlex, via USB
Home external drive - Western Digital Green, via USB
I had been using both home and work drives as Time Machine backups, and things were working fine. I would have to re-designate the appropriate Time Machine backup drive when I changed locations, but everything was working.
The problem:
When I attach the work drive and point Time Machine to the drive, it works. When I eject the work drive, the Time Machine prefs panel shows "Time Machine - work" in greyed out text as the target drive, reflecting that the drive is not available.
When I attach the home drive and point Time Machine to the drive, it works. But when I eject the home drive, the Time Machine prefs panel shows "Macintosh HD" in normal text as the target drive. Worse, I think it actually attempts to back up to the internal drive, because at the next Time Machine backup interval, I get a "The identity of the backup disk has changed" error from Time Machine.
I've tried a full reset of Time Machine by deleting the prefs file. I've also tried verifying the home external disk. The problem persists. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

stevekim wrote:
I did indeed have the /Backups.backupdb folder, but deleting it did not solve the problem. I thought that was the local backup folder (disabled by executing "tmutil disablelocal")?
No, Local Snapshots are in a hidden .MobileBackups folder. The /Backups.backupdb folder was created by Time Machine trying to make actual backups to the internal HD.
EDIT: See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #30 for the gory details.
Reformatting the WD Time Machine partitiion and resetting Time Machine (turning off TM, deleting the prefs file, restarting) seems to have fixed the problem, though.
Curious. Keep an eye on it, especially when the backup drive isn't available, and a backup is scheduled. That seems to be when the trouble starts.
From your first post:
I had been using both home and work drives as Time Machine backups, and things were working fine. I would have to re-designate the appropriate Time Machine backup drive when I changed locations
Stay tuned on that one. The rumor sites say that can be automated in Mountain Lion. See the last point in the How it Works section here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Machine_(Mac_OS)
Message was edited by: Pondini

Time Machine no longer backs up after archive & install

I have just had something mysterious happen to my Macbook - it spontaneously shut down, then wouldn't restart past a gray screen with Apple logo. After trying every troubleshooting page I could find, I ended up doing an archive and (re)install of Leopard on my hard drive. (btw, I ran the Disk Utility hard drive diagnostic, and it said the HD is fine, though I'm skeptical because it's making new noises I've never heard before.)
I finished that install, restarted, everything seemed fine, and I re-connected the external hard drive that had been used for my Time Machine backups before. Now, every time it attempts to back up, it's stuck on "preparing" for 30 minutes, then starts copying SLOWLY and the progress bar says "6 KB of 10 GB." Well, I have a lot more than 10 GB to back up. Then the process halts and I get an error message: "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume." And I can't get any more specific information about the error - can't find a log file or anything.
I know that there's a troubleshooting article about Time Machine issues with only backing up 10 GB, but mine doesn't even get that far, and besides, this is not my first Time Machine backup - I have no other external drive big enough to transfer my older data to while I reformat this drive as the support article suggests.
I was thinking that perhaps a system setting got messed up somehow and that maybe I should just forget this archive & install thing I did and instead do a fresh erase & install on my Macbook hard drive and then restore from Time Machine's old backup (a day or so before my Macbook started acting weird). But 1. would that make a difference? And 2. if Leopard gives me an error while backing up in Time Machine, what if I do the erase & install and I get an error trying to restore from Time Machine? That would be a nightmare.
My Macbook has always been so reliable - I'm very confused about what's going on! Any help would be appreciated.

Hmm; the external drive had no errors, according to Disk Utility.
Here are the time machine logs from Console:
1/13/08 12:14:47 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[301]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
1/13/08 1:10:28 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[430]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
1/13/08 2:21:23 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[519]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
1/13/08 4:12:57 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[612]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
1/13/08 5:22:59 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[818]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
1/13/08 6:24:00 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[915]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
1/13/08 7:24:52 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[1012]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
Also, I tried to repair permissions on my internal drive and I got the following error messages:
Warning: SUID file "usr/libexec/load_hdi" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Versions/A/Resources /DiskManagementTool" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Reso urces/Locum" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Install.framework/Versions/A/Resources/runner " has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Admin.framework/Versions/A/Resources/readconf ig" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Admin.framework/Versions/A/Resources/writecon fig" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "usr/libexec/authopen" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/OwnerGroupTool" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Time Machine won't back up after system restore

I just restored my system after a failure, and now Time Machine won't back up my hard drive. It gets about 40 out of 90 Gigabytes done, and then gives me an error message that just says that there was an error while backing up, and doesn't give any other information. I ran a Verify Disk with Disk Utility, and there is nothing wrong with the backup drive, and there is more than 200 Gigabytes of space left on that drive.
Thank You.

zhoffmanster wrote:
Ok, so here's the thing: I tried backing up again today, and it worked just fine. Before, what would happen is a message would pop saying "an error has occurred during backup" (or something close to that). The point is, the message didn't give any detail.
No, the point is, you seem to have ignored this:
See the Time Machine - Troubleshooting post at the top of this forum.

Time Machine says both of my external hard drives require reformatting to case insensitive. What do I do?

I have been successfuly using Time Machine to back my iMac to an external hard drive (via usb) and everything has been fine for the last year. I have been using TM to back up to a HD called Terra LaCie via usb.
A week ago, my iMac hard drive was full--so I spulrged and bought a 6 TB external hard drive (Western Digital My Book-Thunderbolt). I set up the new Thunderbold HD to use RAID 1 (mirror) and copied most of my iMac hard drive over to the Thunderbolt HD.
I kept my working photographs (most recent) on my iMac and felt good to know my older photographs are on my new Thunderbolt hard drive.
For a few days, Time Machine seemed to work fine (backing up my iMac to Terra LaCie HD. I haven't been concerned with backing up the Thunderbolt drive (as I feel that mirroring is same as backing up).
Yesterday, Time Machine indicated the lastest back-up failed (for the HD called Terra LaCie). Now, when I go into Time Machine, the dialog box indicates the following message:
"Are you sure you want to erase the backup disk “Terra Lacie”? Erasing will destroy all information on the disk and can’t be undone.
The disk must be erased before it can be used for Time Machine backups because a disk you are backing up is case sensitive, but the backup disk is not."
When I open Time Machine to look at my external hard drives (I also have a third usb portable drive); two of the three drives indicate the following:
"reformat required; case insensitive disk".
The small, portable hard drive (that I'm also using) doesn't say it needs to be reformated (but my new Thunderbolt and my old usb HD both indicate the same message (above).
What should I do? I just spent days transferring my photographs from my iMac to my new Thunderbolt. Should I just not use Time Machine any longer and work from my Thunderbolt drive?
Am I to understand that my iMac suddenly become case sensitive? Sorry if this was too much information about my hard-ware set-up.
Any help someone can provide me would be greatly appreciated. I suppose I need to understand Time Machine and perhaps my Thunderbolt better.

Hi BDAqua,
Bravo, you helped me solve my problem.
The Case Sensitive Disk was the small portable hard drive that I was using termporarily.
I just disconnected it and I started TM machine and everything seems to be working just fine.
Thank you very much!!!!

How is it possible that in preference the lock by Time Machine is unlocked the day after i locked it

How is it possible that in preference the lock by Time Machine is unlocked the day after i locked it

The crossdomain security policy stuff is annoying, but it's there to prevent this sort of scenario:
Joe Blackhat writes a flash game about Bob the Goldfish. Joe Blackhat decides that a fun thing to do might be to write an SMTP client in ActionScript so that fans of Bob the Goldfish could unknowingly send spam while they play. Bob the Goldfish game goes viral. Everyone is playing it and spam volume bajillion-duples. Spam kills the internet. The End.
This is facetious and contrived, but without crossdomain security policies, the internet would be a much more dangerous place. JavaScript has even more restrictive crossdomain policies. I don't think this is going away.

Time machine requirements

how much disk space does time machine need? i never got anything close to an answer on this. i did get my question answered about whether or not you can just create a new partition on the same hard drive for time machine. now all i need to know is how large to make that partition.

No one can tell you how much space Time Machine requires because it depends on the initial amount of data that needs to be backed up and how much data changes on an hourly basis on your machine.
A good rule of thumb might be that your backup volume should be at least 2X as large as the total amount of data you initially want to backup. If you have a lot of large files that are constantly changing (for example, you are editing videos) you will want more than that. If you only change a small percentage of your data each day (for example, you primarily use the computer for word processing and web browsing) then less might suffice.
When Time Machine runs out of space it will begin deleting older backups so the more space you have available the longer backup history you will be able to maintain.
Note, that if the partition you are creating for backups is on the same drive as the data being backed up then you risk a hard drive failure destroying both your original data and your backed up copies. That is why Apple advises using a separate drive for backups.

Time Machine backup shows "stopping backup" after just a few Gb.

Time Machine backup shows "stopping backup" after just a few Gb.
Finder shown as "not responding" in Activity Monitor.
1. How to escape from that situation?
2. How to prevent it happening again?
Thanks in advance for help.

Thanks for the suggestion, and apologies for the delayed response.
I have had a couple of looks through Pondini's site, but haven't (so far) found exactly what I am experiencing.
In the meantime, I am becoming suspicious of the disk (a Toshiba e-Stor 1Tb) and/or the cable connection. A couple of days ago I set it up with the cable in one of the USB ports on the computer itself, which I understand is supposed to be preferable (to using a hub).
Initially, straightforward copying of folders via the Finder seemed to work, although some failed because the system thought they were 'in use' (another apparently known problem). However, I managed to copy three folders earlier this week, but today, they have simply disappeared from the external disk! The partial backup (from TM) is still visible.
Finder's behaviour is also still rather odd. When I clicked on the external drive to see what content it included, Finder took ages, and Activity Monitor said it was 'not responding' for a time, though that did sort itself out this time, after a few minutes.
To ensure that I have covered everything, I should point out that I have partitioned the disk using the Mac Disk Utility, so that there is a Mac partition and a Windows (FAT) partition that I intend to use for a Windows computer. Apologies for using such bad words on a Mac forum!

I restored my safari bookmark playlist from time machine.But it again missing after sometime.Again I restored the same thing happns again.plz help

I restored my safari bookmark playlist from time machine.But it again missing after sometime.Again I restored the same thing happns again.plz help

Triple-click the text on the line below to the clipboard, then copy it to the Clipboard (command-C):
~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist
Quit Safari.
Select
Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the Finder menu bar. Paste (command-V) into the text box that opens, then press return.
A folder window should open with a file named "Bookmarks.plist" selected. Move the selected file to the Desktop, leaving the folder open.
Relaunch Safari. It will open with the default set of bookmarks. Delete them all. Select
File ▹ Import Bookmarks
from the Safari menu bar. Import from the bookmarks file you moved to the Desktop. Arrange the bookmark folders as you wish.
If Safari now performs normally, you can delete the old bookmarks file. Otherwise, quit Safari again and put back the file you moved, replacing the newer one with the same name. Close the Finder window and post again.

Time Machine to back up MacBook AND External Drive?

I have a MacBook and a 1TB G Drive which holds all of my photographs and iTunes library (none of which is on my MacBook, since I ran out of space long ago), and where I have backed up my Documents folder by simply copying and pasting.
I bought another 1TB G Drive to use as a back up, but I have no idea what I'm doing. The first time I backed anything up I just copied and pasted again, from both the first drive and my MacBook, which is ridiculous and took hours and is pathetic.
I want to set up Time Machine so all of my applications and settings are backed up, in addition to my files which are in two separate places right now. I'm not sure how to set up the second drive to take care of both.
After looking at the FAQs at the top of this forum, I'm afraid that any partitions I set up may re-format the drives and thus wipe out everything I have. Any advice on how to set this up without losing my data would be appreciated. Thank you!

1980qt50 wrote:
I have a MacBook and a 1TB G Drive which holds all of my photographs and iTunes library (none of which is on my MacBook, since I ran out of space long ago), and where I have backed up my Documents folder by simply copying and pasting.
I bought another 1TB G Drive to use as a back up
That may not be large enough. It varies greatly depending on how you use your Mac, but Time Machine usually requires 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up. So add-up the space used on your MacBook's internal HD and the amount used on the other drive. If that's less than 500 GB, you'll probably be fine. If it's between 500 GB and about 750 GB, it might work, at least for a while.
I want to set up Time Machine so all of my applications and settings are backed up, in addition to my files which are in two separate places right now. I'm not sure how to set up the second drive to take care of both.
Most likely, piece of cake.
After looking at the FAQs at the top of this forum, I'm afraid that any partitions I set up may re-format the drives and thus wipe out everything I have.
No, Time Machine won't wipe out your data.
First check the Format of the media drive. You can do that via +Get Info+ in the Finder. In the General area of the Info panel it will show Format. If it's any variation of +Mac OS Extended,+ then Time Machine can back it up. If not, your best bet will be to switch drives -- format the new one for your Mac, copy the data to it, then erase and reformat the old one to be used for your backups. Post back for instructions if you need to do that.
You should erase and format the Time Machine drive with a single partition, per #5 in the FAQ.
When you're ready to start Time Machine, click the Options button in Time Machine > Preferences. See if the media drive is listed in the exclusions box; if it is, select it and click the minus sign. Then Time Machine will back it up.
You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial

Time machine problem. Switching from one external drive to another. Problem started when upgrading to Mavrics, and changing to a WD drive

I am a long time Mac user, running my business on an apple platform since 1984. I currently use a 17" MacBook Pro as my primary computer for work. when it is at work it is plugged in via thunderbolt to my monitor and a one tb back up drive. I use time machine to back up the laptop to the one tb drive. When I go home, I take the laptop with me and use another drive at home as a back up. This way I have redundant back ups, in two separate locations. I have been doing this for years, and Time machine has worked flawlessly, automaticity switching from one drive to another.
I recently switched to Maverics, and got a new drive for home. Now whether I am at home or at work, time machine fails to automatically back up. It will alert me every hour that backups cannot be completed, and I must go to the time machine control panel and manually select a drive and click, "back up now". I also see an alert that says "waiting to complete first back up" even though each backup has been completed.
This is quite annoying, and sometimes embarrassing. When giving lectures in large venues, the backup failure alert appears and shuts down my keynote presentation (again, something new since switching to Maverics and the new WD drive.
I have reformatted the WD drive, and also spent time trying to change parameters in the time machine control panel, but so far no luck.
Any advice out there?

Time machine requires a GUID partion scheme, as well as a Mac OS X extended, journaled Volume.
It needs these to correctly:
1) copy the files
2) run a modified spotlight index pass on the files
Both are required to complete a abckup, and most new drives do not conme this way from the factory.

HT201250 Time machine back up using a external hard drive connected to the Airport extreme

How can I setup a time machine back up using a external hard drive connected to the Airport extreme? Even better for time managment purposes I want to use the Eithernet Thunderbolt connection for the first back up and then through the wifi there after for daily routine Time Machine back ups.

You can attach a hard drive, but Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port at the AirPort Extreme are not supported by Apple, so it's not possible to say what your actual results might be.
If you decide to try this, it would be wise to have a secondary backup plan in place as well.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html

Since installing Lion, I have not been able to utilize Time Machine (does not recognize the back-up drive); my wireless mouse does not function properly; I have experienced unreasonable delays in the system. Is there a fix or upgrade coming?

Is there a fix or upgrade to deal with the many problems I am experiencing since I installed Lion? I can no longer utilize Time Machine (Does not see the back-up drive); my wireless mouse does not work properly; my iMac has slowed down considerably. I am reminded of having a PC machine again. Bummer!

Either downgrade to Snow Leopard or try reinstalling Lion.
Reinstalling Lion Without the Installer
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alterhatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

How can I delete time machine back up from my computer hard drive

How can I delete time machine back up from my computer hard drive?

How to Delete a Time Machine Backup - YouTube
If you want to remove an entire Time Machine backup on a backup drive, then the easiest way to do that is to erase the backup drive using Disk Utility. However, this will delete everything on the disk:
Drive Erase Snow Leopard and Earlier
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
If you are preparing an external or a non-startup drive, then open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select the volume you wish to format from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.

Time Machine will not back up external photo drive

Time Machine will not back up external photo drive, slightly different format, one case sensitive the other not. How do I resolve. Bought new external drive same format as TM in the hope that I could copy the files from photo drive but that will not copy all files as it is saying file already there. Again the case sensitive issue...
Paranoid about losing 1Tb of photos all cataloged in LR5
Possible solutions I have looked at but not yet tried.
Use the new 2Tb drive to make a new TM backup then reformat the old 4Tb drive the same as Photo drive.
Then do a complete backup of all files and photodrive to TM.
A lot of work, USB 2, so if any one has a simpler answer I would love to hear.
Roger

crash888 wrote:
I reinstalled Snow Leopard on my Mac Mini after having some issues. After reinstallation, Time Machine would no longer backup to my External HD because it will not allow me to change permissions.
What message did you get? You should never change permissions (or anything else) on a Time Machine drive -- TM does that for you.
Start with #C2 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it.
If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup (especially the destination for the backups), what you've done, and the results.

Time Machine requires 4.51 TB after FileVaulting drive

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