What is Time Machine Trying to Backup

I have a 120 gb drive on my MBP, and I have set TM to backup the entire drive onto my Time Capsule. It shows an estimate of 109 gb for the entire backup, but when I start the backup it shows it is trying to backup 457 gb of data. Where is it pulling that from if I only have a 120 gb drive?

Kappy wrote:
Yes, it will if the drive is shared through File Sharing and mounted. I have tried it. As long as the drive is 'seen' in the TM devices list. TM is supposed to automatically exclude any device it cannot backup or backup to.
Are you sure? Was that perhaps in a Beta or early version of Leopard?
I just tried it, and can't get the shared drive to show up in the exclusion list. It's formatted properly (and I can copy to it over my network), and the TM exclusion prompt shows everything on the other Mac grayed-out, so I can't select it, even if I give "everyone" read & write rights on the other Mac.
And with it not excluded, if I exclude everything else, the backup fails saying there's nothing to back up.
(On Leopard, the exclusion prompt shows everything in black, and lets me select it, but it still doesn't appear in the exclusion list.)

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When my time machine tries to backup to my time capsule I get the following message"The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Kent's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. " What do I need to do to fix this?

When my time machine tries to backup to my time capsule I get the following message"The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Kent’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use. " What do I need to do to fix this?

Restart the Time Capsule.

500 GB Time Capsule Working Fine UNTIL Time Machine tries to Backup

Hi There-
My 500 GB Time Capsule seems confused. It is extending a wireless network (from another Time Capsule).
The light is green, and the signal is great---until I tell Time Machine to backup. Time Machine says that it is "Preparing Backup...". After an hour or more of "Preparing" I get an error message that says the backup failed and it was unable to connect. Then I go to the Time Capsule, and the light is blinking Amber and I can't find it.
I unplug the power source from the Time Capsule and plug it back in...and the light is back green! Furthermore, I can see the Time Capsule mounted in "Finder" under "Shared."
My computer is completely updated. The Time Capsule was working fine at one point. Now it isn't.
Thanks, guys & girls.

I'm in a similar situation with 3 Apple laptops (Macbook Pro 15" 1 week old, Macbook Pro 17" 2.5 yrs old and iBook G4 4 years old) and Time Capsule 500GB (latest model dual WIFI, bought 2 weeks ago).
Macbook Pro and iBook did backups without problems, iBook on the 2.4GHz and the other on the 5GHz band. The Macbook Pro 17" is 5 to 10 times slower in the backups than the iBook. But - still - it works.
When I connect the second Macbook Pro (15"), Time Capsule become instable and reboot casually without reasons. It reboots casually, and frequently (from 5minutes to 30 minutes intervals).
Now: turned off the iBook and connected the computers via cable LAN to TC and the problem remain the same. These 2 Macbook Pro backing up at the same time : Time Capsule become instable. Strangely only with the 2 macbook pros, not the iBook.
I really don't manage to understand why, and from where to begin to search to solve the error. The only think I did was checking the logfile in the Time Capsule but no bessages about errors. Simply the message when it restarts.
I never arrive to complete one backup. BUT only when the 2 Macbooks Pro are doing the backup at the same time! One at time works. Slow, but works.
TC worked well during these 2 weeks until I added the Macbook Pro 15" to the WIFI net. Someone knows if one "maybe somewere faulty" computer can hang TC ?
Other infos:
All the macs are on 10.5.7, all updates done. TC is on the 7.4.1 firmware. All the units are in the same (small) room. Except for these backups, all the computers works well (internet browsing, email, printing via TC, downloads, ...).
Appreciate any help / question that can help me to investigate
...sorry for my spaghetti english (-:
damon

I keep getting this error when trying to backup time capsule with time machine. The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data-1/Dan's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use.

I keep getting this error when trying to backup time capsule with time machine. The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data-1/Dan’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use.

Make sure that no other Macs are backing up at the time.
Pull the power cable from the back of the Time Capsule
Count to ten
Plug the power cable back into the back of the Tme Capsule
Wait a few minutes, then try a backup again.

I am running 10.7.5 and getting Time Machine error The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Kathy P's MacBook.sparsebundle" is already in use. what do i do now?

i am running 10.7.5 on an older MacBook and getting Time Machine error The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Kathy P’s MacBook.sparsebundle” is already in use. what do i do now?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

I am trying to confirm the time at which a particular backup occurred using an external hard drive that I have since misplaced. Although time machine lists the backup times for some backups, it does not list them for all. Can someone help?

I am trying to confirm the time at which a particular backup occurred using an external hard drive that I have since misplaced. Although time machine lists the backup times for some backups, it does not list them for all, including the one in question. Can someone help?

Okay, I've sussed it. I saw a link to another discussion that hadn't turned up in any of my searches before I posted the question above.
My Tosh HDD was formatted to FAT 32 and therefore would not be backed up by Time Machine. I removed all data from it - nightmare as I hadn't enough space to put it on the macbook HDD, but, after trawling through numerous photos and deleting rubbish for hours, I finally made enough space and copied all data across. Then, after clearing the data from the Tosh HDD, I used disk utilitity to reformat it to Mackintosh OS Extended. Chose the option without kournalling because I'm not baking up onto this disk and so don't need it - according to some other discussions I found.
When it was done I check on time machine in system prefs and once I selected options, I was able to remove it from the excluded from backups list. Hey presto. Now I'm moving my photo library and my music library onto the Tosh HDD and my macbook should start to breath again. Hurray.

I am getting this error when time machine tries to back up to a time capsule. "The backup disk image "/Volumes/JUDY ARCENEAUX's Time Capsu-1/JUDY ARCENEAUX's MacBook Air.sparsebundle" is already in use." Same time capsule has worked in the past.

I am getting this error when time machine tries to back up to a time capsule. "The backup disk image “/Volumes/JUDY ARCENEAUX's Time Capsu-1/JUDY ARCENEAUX’s MacBook Air.sparsebundle” is already in use." Same time capsule has worked in the past.

First, restart the computer and the Time Capsule. In most of the cases, this should solve the problem.
If it doesn't work, see > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

What can I do when I get this message from my Time Machine? The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Jeanne's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use.

What do I do when I get this message on my Time Machine? "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Jeanne’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use."

See C12.
Time Machine Troubleshooting

Can anyone tell me what this Time Machine error means? The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features?

Can anyone tell me what this Time Machine error means? The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features?

AFP - Apple Filing Protocol
The Network Attached Storage (NAS) that you are pointing Time Machine at does not have the features needed by Time Machine in order to do its Thing. Time Machine needs some specific features that are not typically available on generic networked storage devices.
There are manufactures that support the Mac OS X HFS+ file system formats and implement all the needed AFP protocol packets necessary so that they can be used with Time Machine, but apparently yours does not.
If you are not using a networked mounted volume for Time Machine, then more information will be needed about your Time Machine setup.

What happens to Time Machine if my backup drive isn't connected?

I've got Time Machine set up to back up a MacOS Leopard Macbook to an external drive. Because of the way this computer is used, it's usually not plugged into the backup drive.
What does Time Machine do in this situation? Does it keep track of all the changes since it last saw the backup drive, or does it only keep one increment between the last backup and the current one? Does it still automatically back up, or do I have to prompt it?
I understand that Lion has a feature that keeps local backups until it sees the backup drive again, but it's not clear to me (because Apple updates the Time Machine support documents to reflect only the latest version of the OS...) whether something like this happens in Leopard.

Sockatume wrote:
***I've got Time Machine set up to back up a MacOS Leopard Macbook to an external drive. Because of the way this computer is used, it's usually not plugged into the backup drive.***
Time machine will recommence back ups from the last point backed up.
***What does Time Machine do in this situation? Does it keep track of all the changes since it last saw the backup drive.
Apple updates the Time Machine support documents to reflect only the latest version of the OS.***
It should scan and pick up alterations to previous back ups as a matter of course.
For all matters dealing with Time machine Google 'Pondini' and a variety of options about it will appear.
For trouble shooting ...Time machine. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time machine won't backup, yet plenty of space & not much used on Mac HD

Well, this is yet another "Time machine won't backup becuase there is not enough space" thread. I have searched Google and threads here but it's still a mystery why this error is occurring and it seems there is no clear solution. I also looked at the Apple Time Machine errors FAQ as well.
Here are my specs and what I have tried so far.
2010 Mac Pro Quad Core with 1 TB hard drive with 12 GB RAM. (137 GB used so far on internal Mac hard drive disk, so about 863 GB free space).
- New external 1 TB hard drive initialized as Time Machine backup disk when inserted for the first time.
The exact error I am getting is this: "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 1.80 TB but only 999.20 GB are available."
I have tried deleting the Time Machine system preference, reinitializing the external disk, clearing the system caches with Cocktail, restarting and letting Time machine ask me all over again if I wanted to use the external drive for Time Machine. Still the same error.
My question is how on earth can 1.80 TB be required for the backup when I only have 137 GB of used space?

danomatic12 wrote:
My question is how on earth can 1.80 TB be required for the backup when I only have 137 GB of used space?
Two possibilities:
There's another disk (or disks) connected to your Mac. If they're formatted HFS+, Time Machine is trying to back it/them up as well. You can exclude them per #10 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). The 1.8 TB includes 20% for temporary workspace on the TM drive, so TM is estimating the backup at about 1.5 TB.
Something on your internal HD is corrupted, causing an incorrect calculation. Verify your internal HD, per #6 in [Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Using Snow Leopard+ forum).

Time Machine does not backup home/user directory (on separate drive)

I recently installed a SSD into my Mini. Due to size restrictions, my home/user directory has to be kept on another drive. I retained the stock 1TB drive that came with the Mini for this.
Ok, installed the SSD, restored a Time Machine backups (sans user data). Used a different admin user and configured my user to use the 1TB drive for it's home directory (/Volumes/1TB/home/<user>). Restart, log in as my user, all is good. All data, settings, etc is there. Everything looks normal.
Time Machine REFUSES to backup this directory. It will backup the 1TB drive and anyting else I create in it, but not the home directory. I tried every permission trick I could think of or found online. I even tested it further by formatting the 1TB drive fresh, adding a new user, configuring the user to use the 1TB for their home directory and it still won't back it up (this was a test of permissions the OS set, to make sure I didn't change my data perms somewhere along the way). Time Machine would not backup the new user's home directory on the 1TB drive.
Any thoughts? I can't be the first person to have their home directory on a non-OS drive.
If I were to create a folder/file in /Volumes/1TB/<test file> ... Time Machine gets it perfect. It just will NOT touch /Volumes/1TB/home/<anything here>
Thanks!

Open the Time Machine preference pane and unlock the settings, if necessary. Click the Options button. If there is one particular folder with items that are not being backed up reliably, add it to the list of excluded items. If there are many such folders, add your home folder to the list, or add a whole volume (i.e., what Apple calls a "disk.") Save the changes.
Start a backup, or wait for one to happen automatically. When it's done, open the preference pane again and remove the exclusion(s) you made earlier. Back up again and see whether there's a change.

How do I restore data from my hard drive from time before time machine tried to back up on it

I used to have a WIndows PC, than I finally joined Apple Family and Iam pretty happy.
But today I tried to get some data from an old WD Passport Hard Drive and Time Machine immidately tried to backup itself on it.
Before I understood time machine startet to backup on my hard drive and everything I had on it before was gone.
What to do?
How can I get my data back?
Thanks

In order for Time Machine to back up to a HDD, it must be formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in Disk Utility. Formatting will erase all user data on that HDD. Time Machine will only delete TM data on a HDD that may have other data on it (non TM data).
If you formatted that WD HDD for use with Time Machine, all data that was on it is gone. If you put data on the WD HDD after formatting, it still should be there.
Ciao.

Time Machine: "Partially Deleted Backup"

Last night, after Time Machine performed a backup and began its post-backup thinning, it got stalled on "Finishing backup... ." The system log showed that it was attempting to delete a previously partially deleted backup:
Starting standard backup
Starting post-backup thinning
Found partially deleted backup - trying again to delete: 2009-09-30-110803
The backup it was trying to delete was the last one on its list (i.e., the oldest one on that TM volume). And when I opened it up, it indeed appeared to be a partially deleted folder. So I let TM run. However, it never finished "Finishing backup... ," so after letting it run all night and all day, I simply told TM to stop. It did, and the system then added two more messages to the log, acknowledging my cancelation as well as TM's current success:
Starting standard backup
Starting post-backup thinning
Found partially deleted backup - trying again to delete: 2009-09-30-110803
Backup deletion was canceled by user
Backup completed successfully.
However, the next time TM ran, it began all over again:
Starting standard backup
Starting post-backup thinning
Found partially deleted backup - trying again to delete: 2009-09-30-110803
It's still sitting there in its "Finishing backup..." mode.
I was thinking about entering Time Machine, selecting that backup, and telling Time Machine to delete that backup—and only that backup. But I'm (a) not sure that will address the actual problem, and (b) wondering if deleting that particular backup (i.e., the oldest one on the list) is advisable.
Suggestions?

Pondini wrote:
Maxwell’s Demon wrote:
I'm aware of the multilink nature of TM's backups. What I don't understand is how you immediately concluded that the backups were corrupted.
TM finding partially deleted backups, trying repeatedly to deleted them, and failing to.
(And yes, I though you meant that you'd tried to delete the backup yourself.)
It took forever. I ran TechTool Pro, and it "choked" (i.e., ran out of memory) trying to rebuild the directory. When I asked Disk Warrior to graph the directory, it revealed that it was more than 40% fragmented!
I'm not sure fragmentation is a problem, or even applies, given the structure of TM backups.
So I ran Disk Warrior. It ran without incident. When I then looked inside the TM drive, I discovered that along with rebuilding the directory—which is what I understood its job to be—DW apparently removed/deleted the offending (partially deleted) backup. The next time Time Machine ran, everything went smoothly. It's been running fine ever since.
Great! And yes, there are times it can repair/rebuild TM backups that nothing else can (I guess that's why it costs $100!).
I'm obviously quite pleased with the results: Not only did DW perform an incredible directory rebuild (fragmentation went from more than 40% to less than 1% !!) but it cleared out the partially deleted backup that was causing TM to stumble. But I remain awfully curious: Had I simply gone into Time Machine and deleted the partially deleted backup myself, wouldn't that have fixed the problem? (Granted, DW not only got TM back on track, but it also rebuilt its directory, which is a definite plus in my mind...I'm just trying to understand.)
It's possible you couldn't have deleted it completely, any more than TM was able to. Remember, a single backup folder has hard links to hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of other items. Just one of those being screwy can have a ripple effect through the whole structure.
And if you could have, it might well have left some of the actual backup files "abandoned" -- some or all of the hard links to them deleted, but still somewhere in the disk directory, so still taking up space.
I got the idea from
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090515063602219
which provided a link to the "solution" when partial backups remain that result in TM "error: 11" failures:
http://www.bytebot.net/blog/archives/2008/08/13/fixing-time-machine-backup-faile d-with-error-11
Admittedly, mine wasn't an "error: 11" problem, but it sure seemed similar. My hesitation/concern was due to the fact that the partially deleted backup was the last one (i.e., the "oldest") in my TM volume: I wasn't sure if deleting it would screw up all of the links used by the remaining backups. However, since DW removed it without causing any problems, it seems like I may have been able to accomplish the same result by removing it "manually" from within TM. If that is the case, then it suggests that there may not have been any actual "corruption."
Again, I am very happy with the result, and likely will resort to DW again the next time I have similar problems. The only reason I'm harping on it is simply to try to gain a deeper understanding of how to determine when such problems are indeed due to corruption as opposed to simply an errant file that causes TM to stumble. (Had TM indicated that it stumbled and was unable to successfully perform the backup, then I would have little doubt that there was actual corruption.)

Time Machine - mysteriously large Backup?!

I use Time Machine for hourly backups to a TimeCapsule. The most recent BU seemed to be taking a long time (most of mine are far less than 1GB), and after checking the progress, found it was trying to do a 28GB BU. I have no explanation for this, and checked the available space on my Mac's drive, but was about where I expected it to be (No additional mysterious 28 GB added to it).
Any ideas on what this could mean, or ways to investigate what the TimeMachine is attempting to BU?
Thanks!

Howdy -
I don't know what those are, and I can't imagine anything I have that would produce that much data. I did, however, do a shutdown and restart (afer stopping the backup attempt), and things seem to be normal again.
Thanks for the response - I'll be back here if things get wacky again...

What is Time Machine Trying to Backup

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