Time Machine stops backup before finished

Time Machine has stopped backing up automatically. On manual backups, it stops after backing up only part of my data. I have since reformatted my backup disk and reconfigured Time Machine, but it still does not complete the backup HELP!!!!

First, are you running Leopard or Snow Leopard? You've posted in the Leopard forum, your first post says you're running +Snow Leopard,+ and your second doesn't specify anything. (Please click +My Settings+ at the right of this page and fill-in the info, so it will appear automatically on each post.)
So you saw "Copying xxx GB of yyy GB," and the "xxx" stopped changing? If so, see #D2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Similar Messages

Time machine "stop backup now"?

I was researching on what would happen if i stopped the backup mid-backup. the help notes for time machine say that if you hit "stop backup now" it'll stop, but then if you hit "back up now" after that it'll pick up right where it left off...
i'm doing my intial backup and was at the 20GB mark and hit "stop back up now" to test it out. left it for 5 mins and then hit "back up now" and it restarted back at 0. all of this was done from the menu bar.
can anyone tell me if this is how it will be? have i set it up wrong?

This has been answered here so may times (especially by pondini, e.g. in this thread Time Machine stuck in repeating "preparing files" cycle), so please search this forum the next time before asking such a question.

Time machine stops backup

Time machine reports that I do not have enough room on my backup disk. There is enough and it will not delete older items. I am using LIon.

First, are you running Leopard or Snow Leopard? You've posted in the Leopard forum, your first post says you're running +Snow Leopard,+ and your second doesn't specify anything. (Please click +My Settings+ at the right of this page and fill-in the info, so it will appear automatically on each post.)
So you saw "Copying xxx GB of yyy GB," and the "xxx" stopped changing? If so, see #D2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Time Machine stopped backup

Time Machine has stopped the backup procedure and claims that there is not sufficient space. The disk has 750 GB out of which 580 GB are used and 169 GB free. The error message claims 48,76 GB would be needed, but only 30,02 are available. I am really puzzled. Please help!
Thanks

Download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window.
If you only have one user account, create another one temporarily, with normal privileges.
Then make some changes in your Home Folder and do a +Back Up Now+ from the TM icon in the menubar.
Then log out. Wait for a few seconds, and log back in, as the other user.
Check the widget. If TM hasn't done another backup, do another +Back Up Now+ (from the non-FileVault user account) and check again.
If TM hasn't backed-up the main user's Home Folder, or you see something there that seems suspicious, copy and post the messages here (be sure to get them all, as sometimes they overflow the small window).
If you're not sure what it actually backed-up, you might want to download the TimeTracker app, from www.charlessoft.com.
It shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.). I'm not sure whether it will show the details of the encrypted home folder, or just a big disk image, but something should appear.

Time Machine stopped backup of FileVault account at logout

Suddenly TM stopped backup of my FileVault account. Usually the backup was initiated after logout, but for a couple of weeks nothing like that has happened. It could be a little bit correlated to the time of upgrade to 10.5.6, which I did...
Has anybody faced similar problem? Rgds, Artur
Remark: I use officially not supported configuration for TM - with external drive on network SMB drive.

Download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window.
If you only have one user account, create another one temporarily, with normal privileges.
Then make some changes in your Home Folder and do a +Back Up Now+ from the TM icon in the menubar.
Then log out. Wait for a few seconds, and log back in, as the other user.
Check the widget. If TM hasn't done another backup, do another +Back Up Now+ (from the non-FileVault user account) and check again.
If TM hasn't backed-up the main user's Home Folder, or you see something there that seems suspicious, copy and post the messages here (be sure to get them all, as sometimes they overflow the small window).
If you're not sure what it actually backed-up, you might want to download the TimeTracker app, from www.charlessoft.com.
It shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.). I'm not sure whether it will show the details of the encrypted home folder, or just a big disk image, but something should appear.

Time Machine Stopped Backups

I have been using Time Machine on a 500 GB Time Capsule for several years. Recently I got error messages indicating that TM could no longer make backups because there is insufficent space on the hard drive. I switched to another backup drive, and it seems to be making backups again, but I wouldlike to have my backups only in one place (on the Time Capsule drive). I thought TM was supposed to continually delete older backups to make room for newer ones, so it would never run out of space. How do I get it to do that so I can swich back to the TC drive? Thanks!

A clue may be lurking in your logs. Use the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to display the backup messages from your logs. Locate the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages here.
Also see #C4 there.

How can I check time machine latest backup before crash

My husband's iMac is in the shop. I can't remember if I set his computer to manual backup. (Stupid, I know) Anyway, is there a way to check our Time Capsule from my computer for last backup on his computer?
TIA

Yes, follow the info in pondini.. to open the backup from another Mac.
http://pondini.org/TM/17.html

HT4522 Time Machine's backup to Time Capsule has stopped working

TM reports "an error". The Time Capsule is visible in the "shared" tab of the Finder window, but is listed as "Not connected". It is visible and connected to another Mac on the net. Is there a solution short of using the Airport Utility to erase the drive?

Hi there Cinclus,
You may find the troubleshooting steps in the article below helpful.
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3275
-Griff W.

Time Machine stopped backing up but doesn't give warning/error

Hi,
by chance I noticed, that Time Machine doesn't backup up any more, but still doesn't give errors. In Console I see the following for a now typical run:
21.04.15 09:58:11,493 com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
21.04.15 09:58:12,043 com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/drosera-backup-02/Backups.backupdb
21.04.15 09:58:41,729 com.apple.backupd: 5.18 GB required (including padding), 96.84 GB available
21.04.15 09:58:55,149 com.apple.backupd: Copied 23 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
21.04.15 09:59:04,385 com.apple.backupd: Copied 36 files (93 bytes) from volume DATA.
21.04.15 09:59:06,100 mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
21.04.15 09:59:06,102 com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
21.04.15 09:59:07,668 com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/drosera-backup-02/Backups.backupdb/drosera/2015-04-20-183344 (24.0 KB)
21.04.15 09:59:07,668 com.apple.backupd: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
21.04.15 09:59:07,762 com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.
The 5.18 GB are never backed up. The backup drive (drosera-backup-02) is attached by FireWire. I have checked the disk with First Aid, I have disconnected and reconnected it. I removed the backup disk from Time Machine, stopped TM and reconfigured. I stopped mds, ran backups and reenabled mds. All to no avail.
I am at a complete loss and I'd appreciate to get this running w/o having to remove all existing backups. Any ideas or pointers?
I'm running Mac OS X 10.7.5 on a Mac mini
Cheers
Frank

Thx. I had already tried the hints from mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume to no avail. Your tip to rebuild the Spotlight index would probably helped, too. But just before getting yout comment and after reading http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html and http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/69054/force-time-machine-to-perform-a-d eep-traversal I had simply removed /.fseventsd and reran a backup. That seems to have fixed the problem (at least for the time being).
Interesting side note: During the non-backup phase I created a new account on the Mac and ran TM. This triggered a one-time working backup of the whole system, but all subsequent backups again failed silently. Additionally the externally attached FireWire harddrive was always backed up correctly, only backups of the local drive failed.

Time Machine stops due to computer going into Sleep/Hibernation Mode

Time Machine stops due to computer going into Sleep/Hibernation Mode then restarts to try to start the Back up process again and again vicious cycle. I have made sure all settings are turned off. I have done one or two backups since the initial first backup. My HDD is almost full and I want it backed up before I try to clone/mirror the drive to upgrade it to a 1TB HDD. Thank you in advance.

Set the Energy Saver (in System Preferences) to Never. Then reset the NVRAM, as follows:
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the third time.
Release the keys.

Time Machine hourly backup seems a tad large

Hi all
Occasionally, my hourly Time Machine incremental backups to my Time Capsule seem a tad large. One hour the backup is a sensible size, then an hour later, when I've been doing very little on my machine, the backup is massive (as in, several gigabytes).
Not only that, but the backup seems to grow in size as its happening. the pictures below should help illustrate.
The backup is listed as being 719MB, only an hour after a more modest backup. Time Machine seems to be claiming that is has transferred all of the required backup:
!http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4988/picture2gih.png!
But then, only two minutes later, see how the situation has changed:
!http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3739/picture3m.png!
And the situation continues:
!http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9339/picture5.png!
Any ideas? This issue happens intermittently (although it is happening now... that last image was taken a few minutes ago and the backup was still going - up to 3.1GB - before I told it to stop).
I'm not certain if Time Machine is actually transferring this amount of data to the Time Capsule or not.
Cheers.

Hi,
I had the same problem today as well. The last backup was done this morning at 2 a.m. When I turned my PowerBook G4 on again this afternoon, the backup size continually grew, just like on your machine, Rob. I aborted the backup a couple of times, deleted the inProgress file, but it always got bigger and bigger. After downloading Time Machine Buddy and Time Tracker, I just let Time Machnine "do it's thing". Luckily, I had enough free space on my WD MyBook 500 GB I use for the backups, because it stopped only at 24.8 GBs, after initially displaying 61,3 MB in the menu bar, and requesting 1.05 GB according to Time Machine Buddy.
Time Machine Buddy protocol:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.05 GB requested (including padding), 32.74 GB available
Copied 139261 files (24.8 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.16 GB requested (including padding), 7.36 GB available
Copied 7042 files (2.0 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb/Claas Olthoffs PowerBook/2009-03-05-202501: 7.36 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb/Claas Olthoffs PowerBook/2009-03-05-192342: 7.37 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb/Claas Olthoffs PowerBook/2009-03-05-123736: 7.37 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb/Claas Olthoffs PowerBook/2009-03-05-113526: 7.38 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 4 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
So I took a look at Time Tracker to see what was backed up. I was suprised to see, that the biggest chunk was my Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support folder. This folder is 23,9 GB in size, mainly because it contains Final Cut Studio media and templates. Time Machine backed it up completey. This seems weired, because none of the files I looked at in this folder were changed during the last couple of months, if not the last year, since I installed them. I don't know why Time Machine would backup all of those unchanged files.
For the sake of completeness, the external drives contains other, non-backup, files as well.
I hope this gives you some more information to work with Pondini.
Greetings,
Claas

Time Machine stopped!?!

Time machine has appeared to have stopped for me today... just said preparing backup for hours... wont even let me enter time machine just keeps saying connecting to server... is this an OSX issue or my time capsule playing up?
i can access other items stored on my time capsule...
please help

Roby,
Consider the following:
*_Time Machine May Report "Preparing..." For a Long Time_*
Consider these factors regarding an extended period of "Preparing...". Consider each topic separately and do not attempt to act on all of them at once.
*Recent Crash or Other Major System Event* (Deep Traversal)
The reasons for this process are described in an article by George Schreyer. “During the preparation step it checks the FSEvents log for consistency. If it determines that something isn't quite right it has to rescan the whole disk. This can take quite awhile. A full rescan is always triggered by a crash, an unplanned shut down event or by booting from some other bootable disk between backups…. After a crash, Time Machine must scan the whole disk to determine what it has to do because it cannot trust the information that it left behind. Connected via an Ethernet connection, this phase would typically take 20 minutes on an older PowerBook. Being connected wirelessly stretches this phase out to over 3 hours.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]
According to the following KB article it can sometimes take a very long time if Time Machine begins this “deep traversal” and has to compare data inventories. This may apply to your situation, particularly if many Gigs of data are involved. (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516) Additionally, if Time Machine has not been able to perform its’ hourly backups for 24 hours or more, then it will perform a “deep traversal” once backups are renewed.
*Anti-Virus Software*
Running anti-virus software can interfere with the backup process. Either disable it altogether, or try the suggestion outlined here, “If you use third-party anti-virus scanning software and have issues, make sure your Time Machine back up folder (Backups.backupdb on the Time Machine disk) is excluded from virus scanning.” (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)
*Software Updates* #
Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can create major changes in the structure of your Macs directories. Time Machine will backup every file that has changed since the installation.
If you take a look at the Console logs Time Machine may be reporting that your backups need "deep traversal". That's fine. Time Machine knows what is wrong and how to fix it. If you have a great deal of data, it may take quite awhile.
After an OS update (like 10.5.5) Time Machine realizes the system no longer matches what it looked like during the previous backup. So it has determined that it's earlier catalogue of what-should-be-where is 'untrustable'. So it is going to go item-by-item comparing the before and after of your system. If you have just performed an OS Update then Time Machine knows what it's doing - let it do it!
*Spotlight Keeps Indexing Backup Drive* #
It may be that Time Machine can’t proceed or complete a backup due to a Spotlight indexing error. During this period, take a look at the Spotlight icon in the upper right corner of your screen. Is there a tiny dot pulsating in the center of the spyglass? Click on the icon. Is there a progress bar displayed? Generally, Spotlight indexing is a good thing. If it has only been a couple of hours then let the process contiune.
However, at times it may hang and never progress after many hours, preventing further backups from taking place.
Go to System Prefs --> Spotlight --> Privacy Tab.
Drag your Time Machine disk into the window. It should now be among the items to exclude from indexing.
Now quit System Prefs.
Reopen System Prefs and remove ("-") the Time Machine disk from the window.
This should clear out Spotlights cache. Naturally, Spotlight should begin indexing again (maybe even for a few hours depending on how much data there is), but it should eventually stop.
*Reboot Time Capsule* #
If, though, none of the options above have helped and it has been 12 hours or more of “Preparing…”, then the Time Capsule may need to be restarted.
Stop the backup from the Time Machine menu. (Give if a few minutes while it says “Stopping backup…”)
When the Time Machine icon stops spinning, unplug the TC from the wall outlet.
Wait 10-15 seconds.
Re-plug it in again.
After it has restarted (30-60 seconds), attempt another backup.
Time Machine will report “Preparing…” again, but it shouldn’t be lasting more than a couple of hours.
Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped in your case.
Cheers!

Time Machine Wont Backup On Its Own

(Before I begin, I'm backing up to my iMac (not the one that -just- came out, but the one before that). It has a 500gb HD, and isn't used except for about 100gb of music/photo's/videos)
So, I just went through the painful 15 hours of backing up wirelessly to find out it stopped about 75% through. I checked the forums, found out wireless was a bad idea, and found out wired is the way to go.
So, I sat my new Macbook Pro up next to my iMac and let it backup via an ethernet cable I dragged across it and the iMac. The backup took about 30-50 minutes, but whatever. This stuff probably doesnt matter.
Problem: time machine will only back up if I choose the "back up now" option. I heard it was supposed to do daily, weekly, and monthly backups. Whats wrong?!

You may find some help below:
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Here are several articles to help troubleshoot Time Machine Problems as well as assist in properly setting up Time Machine.
Mac 101- Using Time Machine in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Is Time Machine all you need?
Some advice for those using Time Machine
TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X- Time Machine- The Good, the Bad, and the Missing Features
Mac OS X 10.5- Time Machine backups are not visible
OS X 10.5- Time Machine stops backing up to external disk
10.5- Disable the 'use this disk?' Time Machine dialog
Time Machine tips and troubleshooting
Mac OS X 10.5 Help- Restoring files backed up with Time Machine
OS X 10.5- Using Time Machine and troubleshooting Time Machine issues

Time Machine everytime backups everyting!

My main system disk "Macintosh HD", 500 GB
Media disk is exernal disk named "Media", 1000 GB.
My Time Machine disk is named "DeLorean" and its external 1,500 GB.
I have about 340 GB more free space in the Time Machine disk than my data currently uses up.
My problem is that the Time Machine VERY often starts its backup FROM THE SCRATCH!
Doing FULL BACKUP! Deleting over 800 GB of data. If you see my logs, you will see it doesnt like something about the external "Media" disk.
It does this thing called "Deep event scan at path:/Volumes/Media reason:must scan subdirs|"... * see logs later.
Funny thing is, if i delete/erase the backup, or let it do the FULL backup when it wants, it usually after that does the normal smaller backup just fine.
BUT if I unmount the Media disk even once and do one incremental backup(which it does fine), then after i mount the Media back, next time it does this FULL backup and says in the logs about the Deep even scan.
All my disks are encrypted via FileVault2. Shouldnt time machine still work or is this setup fine?
Here are the logs. Yesterday i even shuffled all my disks and erased the Media and the time machine disk and encrypted them again.
You can see the first full backup starting at 2 am, then ONE succesfull incremental backup while both disk were still mounted. When i woke up at (13:20 pm) I did one incremental backup without the Media (ummounted it) and then again new one with media mounted (13:29 pm) and BAM ! It started FULL backup (deleting 800+ GB of data). Nothing has been changed on the media disk during that time. Weird !
Logs showing fresh first new backup stuff:
Dec 18 01:03:48 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 81.9 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1469 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 02:03:49 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 172.8 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1516 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 03:03:50 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 264.8 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1563 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 04:03:50 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 357.1 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1615 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 05:03:51 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 449.1 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1666 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 06:03:51 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 541.5 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1696 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 07:03:52 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 633.6 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1741 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 08:03:52 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 725.6 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1786 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 08:10:55 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 1796 files (736.3 GB) from volume Media.
Dec 18 09:03:53 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 773.9 GB of 1047.6 GB, 621723 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 10:03:54 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 803.6 GB of 1047.6 GB, 936589 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 11:03:54 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 878.4 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1019840 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 12:03:54 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 951.6 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1107382 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 13:03:54 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 1034.6 GB of 1047.6 GB, 1110125 of 1156879 items
Dec 18 13:13:49 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 1140722 files (1041.4 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Dec 18 13:13:58 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: 1.72 GB required (including padding), 341.53 GB available
Dec 18 13:13:58 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 6 files (0 bytes) from volume Media.
Dec 18 13:14:15 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copied 6665 files (1.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Dec 18 13:14:17 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Copying Lion Recovery set
Dec 18 13:14:42 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Backed up Lion Recovery to /Volumes/DeLorean/Backups.backupdb
Dec 18 13:14:45 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Starting post-backup thinning
Dec 18 13:14:45 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Dec 18 13:14:45 imac com.apple.backupd[95130]: Backup completed successfully.
Ends.
This backup i Initiated after i woke up, with both system disk and external "media" mounted:
Dec 18 13:22:02 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Starting standard backup
Dec 18 13:22:02 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Backing up to: /Volumes/DeLorean/Backups.backupdb
Dec 18 13:22:05 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: 1.70 GB required (including padding), 340.96 GB available
Dec 18 13:22:05 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Dec 18 13:23:05 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Dec 18 13:23:48 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Copied 6 files (0 bytes) from volume Media.
Dec 18 13:23:55 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Copied 1780 files (8.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Dec 18 13:23:56 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: 1.37 GB required (including padding), 341.39 GB available
Dec 18 13:23:56 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Copied 6 files (0 bytes) from volume Media.
Dec 18 13:23:59 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Copied 1596 files (268 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Dec 18 13:24:00 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Starting post-backup thinning
Dec 18 13:24:00 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Dec 18 13:24:00 imac com.apple.backupd[5781]: Backup completed successfully.
Ends.. This seems to work like it should.
Now, see the time stamps, i just toke some coffee and came back....
This next backup is done while "Media" drive has been umounted:
Dec 18 13:28:00 imac com.apple.backupd[5962]: Starting standard backup
Dec 18 13:28:00 imac com.apple.backupd[5962]: Backing up to: /Volumes/DeLorean/Backups.backupdb
Dec 18 13:28:01 imac com.apple.backupd[5962]: 1.37 GB required (including padding), 341.39 GB available
Dec 18 13:28:04 imac com.apple.backupd[5962]: Copied 1455 files (78 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Dec 18 13:28:04 imac com.apple.backupd[5962]: 1.37 GB required (including padding), 341.39 GB available
Dec 18 13:28:05 imac com.apple.backupd[5962]: Copied 115 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Dec 18 13:28:05 imac com.apple.backupd[5962]: Starting post-backup thinning
Dec 18 13:28:05 imac com.apple.backupd[5962]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Dec 18 13:28:05 imac com.apple.backupd[5962]: Backup completed successfully.
Incremental backup seems to finnish ok, without the "Media" drive.
This backup is the third one done just after couple minutes after i mounted the "Media" drive back on:
Dec 18 13:31:49 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Starting standard backup
Dec 18 13:31:49 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Backing up to: /Volumes/DeLorean/Backups.backupdb
Dec 18 13:31:49 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Deep event scan at path:/Volumes/Media reason:must scan subdirs|
Dec 18 13:31:49 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Finished scan
Dec 18 13:31:51 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: 884.92 GB required (including padding), 341.39 GB available
Dec 18 13:31:51 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
Dec 18 13:31:52 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Deleted backup /Volumes/DeLorean/Backups.backupdb/imac/2011-12-18-131415 containing 8.7 MB; 341.40 GB now available, 884.92 GB required
Dec 18 13:31:52 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Removed 1 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
Dec 18 13:32:02 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Deleted backup /Volumes/DeLorean/Backups.backupdb/imac/2011-12-18-132359 containing 736.30 GB; 1.05 TB now available, 884.92 GB required
Dec 18 13:32:02 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Deleted 2 backups containing 736.31 GB total; 1.05 TB now available, 884.92 GB required
Dec 18 13:32:02 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Backup date range was shortened: oldest backup is now Dec 18, 2011
Dec 18 13:35:02 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Copied 526 files (4.3 GB) from volume Media.
Dec 18 13:35:03 imac com.apple.backupd[6025]: Backup canceled.
I canceled that scan(it would take about 12 hours again
OK. Couple questions:
- Why time machine does this deep scan? What does it actually mean?
- Why time machine thinks that it needs to do a 800GB worth of new backup. Those data have not changed a bit (they are movies).
- How its related to the unmount/mounting the Media drive?
I would really hope some answers from somebody. I have strugled with this issue almost a month now.
Thanks!

ECONOMAN wrote:
Time Machine Incremental Backups S...L...O...W and seem to bog down things so as to make the machine unusable. Why doesn't it simply backup changes, not the entire drive (less exclusions)?
Normally, that's exactly what it does. So start by calming down.
And, it gobbles processing power so I can't even check mail.
Can you schedule the frigging thing or do I just stop it all the time in order to get anything done?
It's cute, but kind of worthless.
First, are these backups larger than you think they ought to be? If so, that's likely at least part of your problem. See #D4 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum, for some possible causes and a way to find out just what's going on.
If that's no help, or they're still slow, try all the things in #D2 of the Troubleshooting Tip.
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 Stops when using External Drive

I recently purchased Seagate GoFlex Desk 3TB external drive. It is connected in USB port for MacPro. Unfortunately, Time Machine starts backup, but it is discontinued after several minutes with message "cannot create backup folder." The backup seems to stall before it gives message, since the file count on the backup seems to stop. Any suggestions as to why this external drive will not work with Time Machine? Any suggestions on how to resolve the problem?

The external Seagate GoFlex Desk 2.0/3.0 usb drive starts and runs the backup for awhile, and then after 40-50 gb of backup quits, and I get a message that backup failed. When I restart the Time Machine backup, the prior backup seems to be on the disk, but it will only run for a period of twenty minutes or so, and then it will stop the backup. I thought that there might be a problem with the 2.0 usb capacity as too slow, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that the speed would be the problem. I also have seen that the GoFlex Desk drive has a problem with Lion OS, but the Seagate site seems to say it is compatible. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Time Machine stops backup before finished

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