Time machine won't back-up to Freecom disk

[RDijkgraaf]

Together with my new iMac I bought a 3TB Freecom HD Quattro to backup to with Time Machine. It is Mac OS-formatted, (extended, journaled). After the first succesful backup I keep getting this error message:

'Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to (...) An error occurred while creating the backup folder'.

If I force ('one or more programs might be using ...') eject the disk and remount it, one new follow-up backup is being made. After that I get the error again with every new backup attempt of Time Machine.
Does anyone know what's going wrong here?

[NovaScotian]

Is there anything else on the Freecom HD or is Time Machine backing up to a partition on it?

[DeltaMac]

Pondini's Time Machine FAQs is a good site to check.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

[acme.mail.order]

Since it's new lets start from first principles and check the formatting. The partition also needs to be correct. (aftermarket drives often contain odd setups)

Open Disk Utility, select the disk, then select Partition. Choose "1 Partition" from the menu and click "Options...". Choose "GUID Partition Table" and apply. Then try Time Machine again.

[RDijkgraaf]

Thanks very much for your help. I partioned the disk according to your advice and backed-up. But again: the initial back-up went fine, but the automatic second backup gave me the same error as before. I had to force-eject the disk.
Could it have anything to do with USB 3.0? (The disk has no thunderbolt connection and my computer no firewire slot.)

[trevor]

When you see the error message, "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to (...) An error occurred while creating the backup folder." in your GUI, note the time. Then check your logs using the Console app, found in /Applications/Utilities, and look for error messages that appear in your logs at the same time as the error message appeared in the GUI.

Let us know what you find.

Trevor

[RDijkgraaf]

Around the time of the error message I got about 100 messages stating:

[3/16/13 2:04:53.163 PM Microsoft Word[254]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context 0x19028360

and:

3/16/13 2:05:52.048 PM mdworker[1435]: Unable to talk to lsboxd

and also


3/16/13 2:05:52.000 PM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(1437) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd

And:


3/16/13 2:06:59.564 PM lsboxd[284]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 2d270001, actual seed is f8609560
1 OSServices 0x00007fff95158720 _ZL26ISGetIconFamilyFromStoragejPP17CIconStorageArrayPj + 140
2 OSServices 0x00007fff951588c8 _ISReleaseStorageRefInternal + 33
3 OSServices 0x00007fff9515888e _ISReleaseStorageRefWithCache + 40
4 OSServices 0x00007fff951587cb _ZL25ISReleaseImageRefInternalP16OpaqueISImageRefPPK9__CFArray + 72
5 OSServices 0x00007fff9515875e _ISReleaseImageRef + 49
6 OSServices 0x00007fff95151b01 _ZN18SFLMutableListItem7DestroyEv + 23
7 OSServices 0x00007fff95151acf _Z14SFLItemReleaseP16OpaqueSFLItemRef + 36
8 OSServices 0x00007fff95153539 _ZN11SFLListBase7DestroyEv + 41
9 OSServices 0x00007fff951534e6 _SFLReleaseSnapshot + 49
10 lsboxd 0x000000010688a376 lsboxd + 9078
11 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff941490b6 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
12 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff9414b29b _dispatch_source_invoke + 691
13 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff9414a305 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 72
14 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff9414a448 _dispatch_queue_drain + 180
15 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff9414a2f1 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 52
16 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff9414a1c3 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 249
17 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8d281d0b _pthread_wqthread + 404
18 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8d26c1d1 start_wqthread + 13

I hope you understand this, because it's all Greek to me.

[trevor]

Quote: Originally Posted by RDijkgraaf [3/16/13 2:04:53.163 PM Microsoft Word[254]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context 0x19028360 and: 3/16/13 2:05:52.048 PM mdworker[1435]: Unable to talk to lsboxd

Microsoft Word is not related. mdworker is the process behind Spotlight search, so that's also not related.

Quote: Originally Posted by RDijkgraaf 3/16/13 2:05:52.000 PM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(1437) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd

Now, that's interesting, and potentially related. Check out this article, and also make sure to read the text under 'Click for an Alternate Fix'.

Trevor

[NovaScotian]

@trevor: going to safe mode and back solves the problem. Is it unlikely to be a permanent fix? Is that why the alternative substantially more dangerous solution is suggested?

[trevor]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaScotian @trevor: going to safe mode and back solves the problem. Is it unlikely to be a permanent fix?

Given that RDijkgraaf reports that 'repartitioning' the drive succeeds once and then fails on the second backup, and that ejecting the disk and remounting it also succeeds once and then fails on the second backup, I'm guessing that going to safe mode and back might succeed once and fail on the second backup. But this is a guess, and I'm curious to see if it's true.

As for the more dangerous solution, I don't have enough information to recommend it.

Trevor

[NovaScotian]

Well, I can report that it worked for one SuperDuper! cloned backup afterward, having failed in 2 hours the day before, and I'll report back if the next backup fails to finish in roughly the appropriate time.

[RDijkgraaf]

I started up in safe mode and subsequently in normal mode, but that didn't cure the problem, unfortunately. I 'm too insecure by nature to try the 'more dangerous solution', so maybe I am convicted to backupping manually bij ejecting and remounting the disk daily. (Pretty annoying, though.) Strangely enough the backups I made that way are functioning fine. The TM prefs after each error message read 'Oldest backup: none' and 'latest backup: none'. After force ('disk in use') quitting the disk these statements are correct again. Is that a clue? Thanks everybody for your efforts anyway!

[RDijkgraaf]

My suffering with the stalling Timemachine backups to my Freecom disk has ended: everything is running smoothly since I switched from a USB connection to Thunderbolt > Firewire > disk.

[MariaPeter]

Although time machine is a good free alternate to backup your data but it can be failed and leave you in a disaster situation. We must keep a second option like clone important data to an external drive for a safer side if drive crashed or time machine did not work.