Time Machine stuck halfway through initial backup

Question

I've been having trouble getting Time Machine to complete its initial backup. After having tried many of the suggestions offered throughout various posts here and elsewhere, I'm really at a loss. My setup:
* G5 Quad running 10.5.3
* 250GB internal drive (Boot volume)
* 750GB internal drive, split into 2 partitions, one of which I've designated as my Time Machine drive
* Drobo connected via USB with 2 500GB drives in it.
Every time I try to get my initial backup going, I get 107.41GB (of 157.37GB) into it, then TM just hangs. For hours. Even days. No errors, no response, no forward motion. I can't stop it unless I kill the backupd process via the command line.
I've tried the following suggestions to get it working which I've found elsewhere:
1) Repartitioning and zeroing out the 750GB drive, formatting it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2) Deleting and rebuilding the spotlight index on all Volumes
3) Excluding numerous folders from TM, including Applications, Caches, my Aperture library, Desktop and trashes.
4) Repairing the permissions on my boot volume.
5) Trashing the TM preferences and starting again.
6) Trashing the incomplete backup and trying that again.
I always end up with the same thing, hanging at that point. As an aside, is there any simple way to figure out what file it's trying to copy here?
For the record, here's what's in my console log from my most recent attempt:
Jun 9 10:05:35 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Told to rescan.
Jun 9 10:06:42 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Backup requested by user
Jun 9 10:06:42 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Starting standard backup
Jun 9 10:06:42 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
Jun 9 10:06:43 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: The Mothership
Jun 9 10:06:43 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Drobo
Jun 9 10:08:04 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Backup content size: 130.4 GB excluded items size: 11.8 GB for volume The Mothership
Jun 9 10:08:36 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Backup content size: 86.1 GB excluded items size: 47.3 GB for volume Drobo
Jun 9 10:08:36 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 188.84 GB requested (including padding), 447.14 GB available
Any ideas you may have are much appreciated.

Answer 1

Kimili wrote:
I've been having trouble getting Time Machine to complete its initial backup. After having tried many of the suggestions offered throughout various posts here and elsewhere, I'm really at a loss. -----------------------------------
Jun 9 10:05:35 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Told to rescan.
Jun 9 10:06:42 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Backup requested by user
Jun 9 10:06:42 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Starting standard backup
Jun 9 10:06:42 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
Jun 9 10:06:43 Mothership /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[272]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: The Mothership
Welcome to the Apple forums:
That last line is the problem AFAICS; you are trying to backup a file or folder that you do not own. "UUIDs don't match..."
I suggest starting by running DU repair on all HDs and repairing permissions.
You might also see if you can exclude some suspicious folders or do a binary folder exclusion: ie:
Exclude half your folders. It you can backup, add half the remaining folders, etc.
If you cannot backup the first batch, exclude half of that first half until you eventually arrive at the errant folder. Then you can diagnose the cause.
Usually, however, repairing permissions fixes these kinds of errors.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe