Time Machine says 'about 200+ days left' to finish backup

Hello guys!
This has been a head scratcher for some days now, I tried various things to no avail, so now I come to you .
Obviously I've got ML installed, everything works fine (but TM hehe).
I'm trying to do my first backup to an USB 2.0 external drive which is connected directly to my mid 2010 iMac.
I've tried relaunching Finder and doing the backup again but I get the same 200+ days (I even got 200,000 days!)
I've also tried formatting again the drive, but the same is happening.
TM says the backup (which is everything) is about 236GB.
It has been running for about 20hs now and it has backed up almost 890mb .
I really don't know what to do, if you need any more info please say so and I'll be glad to help you help me.
PS. sorry for my english, it's not my native laguage .
Thanks!

Thanks for your lightning fast answer AnaMusic , I read that webpage and checked that my drive is formatted correctly; it is, so I continued to item C2, but the problem is that my backups don't fail, they simply never complete because they are too slow.
I am now verifying my drive for problems using Disk Utility and downloading TM Buddy.
I'll keep you updated!

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When I tried to back up my computer, Time Machine says 'an error occurred while creating the backup folder.' When I check the side of the partition where I manually saved old files, the folders are there, but NONE of the files are.

I haven't backed up my computer in over a year. When I tried to back it up today, Time Machine says 'an error occurred while creating the backup folder.' When I check the side of the partition where I manually saved old photos and documents (including all the pictures from the year I studied abroad/traveled a bunch), the folders are there, but NONE of the files are.
Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be, or how I could fix it? I really don't want to lose all those photos

So you were doing a time machine backup to another partition on the same hard drive? Just trying to gather some information so i can provide a helpful response.

Time Machine says it needs to make a new backup.....

I have a Time Capsule. I did the initial backup via ethernet cable as instructed, then moved my iMac downstairs where it needs to be. The Time Capsule is upstairs functioning as my wireless network router and backup disk. I then connect the iMac via wireless to the Time Capsule backup disk upstairs and begin to do my subsequent backups wirelessly. All goes well for several weeks, then one day I get a message on my iMac that basically says that Time Machine has verified that it must do a new backup. Another full backup. OK, so I bring the iMac upstairs to do another backup via ethernet cable, then back downstairs to connect wirelessly. All goes well for another several weeks, then again it tells me I need to do another full backup.
What gives? What is the point of having a Time Capsule as a router and wireless backup disk if I have to keep connecting every few months to do an ethernet backup? It kind of defeats the whole purpose. I have another backup disk connected to the Time Capsule doing daily backups via SuperDuper and that goes on and on with never a problem. Why does the Time Capsule have so much trouble with wireless backups via Time Machine?
Am I doing something wrong?
Is this happening to anyone else? If this is the case, it was a real waste of money buying the Time Capsule. I should have bought an Airport Extreme and connected a hard drive.
Thanks for any ideas or comments you might have.
Len

See Pondini info about the issue.
C13 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
And yes, we find that wireless is much less robust than ethernet.
There is too much automatic stuff in the wireless of the TC.
Lock it down.. I recommend a full reset.
Give it all new names.. short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric. That includes TC name, wireless name for 2.4ghz and different name for 5ghz.
Lock the wireless (called radio) channels. Especially for 2.4ghz .. try 11, 6, 1
Otherwise the TC can swap channels at any time.
Make sure you use WPA2 Personal security. Make sure you get good signal in your location.
Airport Extreme with disk is
1. Not authorised by Apple for use with TM.
2. Suffers the same problem.
See http://pondini.org/TM/Airport.html
TM is very exacting.. and very difficult.
SuperDuper will create a simple file structure that isn't dependent even on AFP.
As alternative to wireless you might find EOP adapters will work better for you.
Another alternative which I highly recommend for iMac, as a desktop is to simply plug in an external drive and use that.
It is cheaper, faster and more reliable than TC.. you can then do a backup from this drive to the TC occasionally by superduper as a further protection.

Time machine says: An error occurred while creating the backup folder

I noticed the time machine icon showing an error in the menu bar, and it displayed the following error message: Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.
This has happened 2-3 times. If I remount the drive the Time Machine works fine for about a day before giving me the same error again. I have Time Machine set to use one of the partitions on my 2TB external usb hard drive.
I used Time Machine Buddy to look at the logs and it says this:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/TIME/Backups.backupdb
Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.HostUUID path:/Volumes/TIME/Backups.backupdb/grasshopper size:37
Backup failed with error: 2

I think this is not just a problem with time machine because I had the same problem with a 4 drive raid array that was created on my MBP, then when I bought my MP i hooked it up and there were immediately problems similar to your description. First the array would spin up but was very slow to copy to. I tried to delete the array but was unsuccessful. ultimately i had to re boot the array as an incomplete (3 drives instead of 4) then zero the drives and creat a new set. I used 3 instead of 4 this time just in case it was a power issue. The new array worked fine and copied files at acceptable speeds. Then after working in itunes for about 2 hours, i started getting spinning balls which is strange for a MP 6 core with 16 gb ram and a 5870 with a striped "0" work disk. It was the raid set again. I realized that it must have something to do with conflicts between a program indirectly using the drive(mds,spotlight,time machine etc.) and the program diirectly using the drive(itunes). Anyway...this worked for me.
the instructions in the following thread fixed for the time being.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3200951?start=0&tstart=0

Time machine says it can't create a new backup folder.

Time machine fails to create a backup because it says it had an error creating a folder. When I go into finder and try to manually create a folder, I get a -50 error. I used disk utility to verify the time machine partition and it said it appeared to be fine. Any ideas?

See Pondini info about the issue.
C13 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
And yes, we find that wireless is much less robust than ethernet.
There is too much automatic stuff in the wireless of the TC.
Lock it down.. I recommend a full reset.
Give it all new names.. short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric. That includes TC name, wireless name for 2.4ghz and different name for 5ghz.
Lock the wireless (called radio) channels. Especially for 2.4ghz .. try 11, 6, 1
Otherwise the TC can swap channels at any time.
Make sure you use WPA2 Personal security. Make sure you get good signal in your location.
Airport Extreme with disk is
1. Not authorised by Apple for use with TM.
2. Suffers the same problem.
See http://pondini.org/TM/Airport.html
TM is very exacting.. and very difficult.
SuperDuper will create a simple file structure that isn't dependent even on AFP.
As alternative to wireless you might find EOP adapters will work better for you.
Another alternative which I highly recommend for iMac, as a desktop is to simply plug in an external drive and use that.
It is cheaper, faster and more reliable than TC.. you can then do a backup from this drive to the TC occasionally by superduper as a further protection.

Time Machine has lost the link with its old backup files

This has got me a bit puzzled.
I recently obtained a nice new iMac to use in conjunction with my trusty MacBook Pro. Previously the MBP was my main machine and I habitually plugged it into an external HDD for Time Machine to use. No problem there.
Now, since setting up the iMac I have the external HDD connected to that. I access the HDD on the MBP over my ethernet network, which is great: I can swap files, sync files easily and automatically with ChronoSync, and I'm very happy. The only problem is that I can't use the HDD for backing up the MacBook Pro anymore. Time Machine says there isn't enough room, "This backup is too large for the backup volume." Obviously TM doesn't recognise its own files from the days when the HDD was connected directly to the MBP.
I realise I can erase the HDD and tell TM to start backing up from scratch but I'm hesitant to do so. I have months of incremental backups on there already and I'm not keen to lose them. Is there anything I can do to pick up from where TM left off before I changed my cables around? It seems such a pity to throw months of backup out the window.

Have you thought about re-connecting your HDD directly back to your MBP - as you had it before. Provided the MBP's name has not changed, TM should pick-up from where it left off. Bear in mind that TM will only back up one mac at a time, and as I understand it, you would need Time Capsule or other networkable HD to back up both macs to. Considering the reasonable cost of external HD, you might be better off to get another one for your iMac.
The macs can still be connected over the network and you could still use ChronoSync for syncing etc.
Joe

My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available. I've never had any problems with my time machine. I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!

My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available. I've never had any problems with my time machine completing backups. I was away from house with my laptop for about 9 days so I'm wondering if there is something I need to do now that I'm home to get it working again. I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!
Thanks,
Jana

You can lose your ability to backup through TM for any number of reasons, but the most common is what happens after a update. If your drive still works, your best approach is to read this:
http://www.chriscolotti.us/technology/how-to-fix-osx-mountain-lion-time-machine/
The attached link contains helpful graphics, so don't worry if you're not tech savvy.

HT3275 Time Machine says there isn't enough room on my external hard drive to perform a backup.

But there was until very recently. The difference is about 100 times what Time Machine says is needed, and I know I didn't add that much stuff in the course of a few days.

Derby Dave wrote:
But there was until very recently. The difference is about 100 times what Time Machine says is needed, and I know I didn't add that much stuff in the course of a few days.
Sorry I am unclear.. how much space does TM say it needs and how much is free on the TC?
Sometimes it reports wrongly.. have you reboot the whole network.. restart modem, router / TC..clients.. and test again.

Time Machine says not enough room on disk

Time Machine says that I do not have enough room on my backup disk. It is a 1 TB Drive, with 992 GB available.
I only want to back up my programs and data, which, if a full backup, is 662 GB, but for some reason, I am being told that I have 2.6 TB of data to back up. I have no idea where all of this other data is coming from, is there any way I can select what I want backed up? Effectively I want to back up my boot drive, and my data drive, that's it. I do have two other drives in my tower, and they are full of data, but I do not need to back them up, and they may be what is causing the problem, but I don't know how to remove them from my backup list.
Any help or direction would be appreciated.
Thank you.

About TM "Backup Drive is Full" Alert
TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

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 says the backup is too large but it is not

Time Machine says the backup is too large but it is not.
While it is true my hard drive is very full (150 Gb used of the available 160Gb), this is way less than 42 Pb!!!!
I have tried numerous time to reset it and still the same issue.
Here is the reoccurring message:
Advice?

PB.. what the heck is a PB.. I kind of thought TB are still in fairly low digits.
Do a disk verify.. something is seriously stupidly wrong.. Otherwise ring Apple support and give them an earful about nonsense popups.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html A5

HT3275 what do I do when time machine says: Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder?

I am trying to back up my imac using an external storage: My passport Studio 1TB. Each time it trys to back up Time machine says: Unable to complete back up. An error occurred while creating the backup folder. Does anyone know how I can fix this problem? Thanks

Plowie,
Do a search in Discussions, "An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
Many of us are having this problem and no fix has been offered, that I could find.
Unless you call "eject the external HDD; turn off; turn back on" a fix. That's what I have to do every 2 or 3 days; I even have to "force eject", with the concomitant warning message that you could lose data, etc.

Time machine says back up is too large but there is room in my HD

ok searched the forums but could not find the answer....time machine was working perfectly...then..suddenly stated that the back up was too big. TM says the back up is 255.5mb but when I do a get info on my HD here is what it says...capacity 232.76gb available 11.77gb....i thought TM overwrites older stuff...can anybody help. my external HD is 250 gb. the other odd thing is tm only shows two back ups now.
Message was edited by: Chris Harmount

Chris Harmount wrote:
my back up drive is supposed to be 250G total. It says it has 185G available.
My computer drive is also 250G total. It says that I have about 20G available.
Time machine says my current back up is 260G??? I thought that 1. time machine overwrites old backups as the hard drive fills up. 2. I no longer see the history of when I first started theTM back ups. I only see one back up now and I can no longer use TM due to the error message?
It sounds like you internal drive has about 230 GB of data and the entire TM drive is 250GB? that will never work. TM needs some head room to operate. I don't know how much exactly but I know that it does.
also, i suspect that 250Gb is the advertised decimal GB capacity. the actual binary capacity is smaller and is probably around 230GB or less.
You definitely need a bigger TM drive.

My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya!

I have downloaded Mountain Lion and Time Machine says that my Free Agent Goflex (Seagate) external 2gb drive cannot be used as it is read only. I tried disc utility to repair permissions but that block is greyed out. The disc verifies as being OKI

Since installing Mountain Lion, Time Machine says says that my Free Agent Goflex (Seagate) external 2gb drive cannot be used as it is read only. I tried disc utility to repair permissions but that block is greyed out. The disc verifies as being OKI What next?

Ok, I solved this problem! I ejected the drive and then disconnected it both from the power supply and the USB connector. I then reconnected everything and powered it up again and Then went into TM preferences and chose the drive as the backup. TM did a new backup (well over an hour) and now works as advertised.

Time Machine says 'about 200+ days left' to finish backup

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