EHD/Time Machine packed up after 36 hours

[Woodsman]

I connected up an external hard disk (LaCie, 1 TB, 800 Firewire) and started Time Machine (on a 10.5.5 iMac) on Wednesday night. As I went to bed it was doing its first backup, with the progress bar progressing, and it continued doing backups every two hours thereafter. Time Machine shows me the various backups in its space opera fashion. (The System Preferences says it backs up every hour, though I can’t get excited by the difference, every two hours is more than enough, as I manually back up stuff I’m actually working on to memory-stick.) The last successful backup was at 15.23 on Friday.

About two hours later I noticed the LaCie icon revolving, which I’d never noticed before, and opened things up to look at. It said it was backing up 60 MB, but the progress bar was at zero. One and a half hours later the situation was the same. I would take some persuading that transferring 60 Meg on a 800 Firewire takes that long; anyway, it hadn’t even started. I stopped the backup, which took some doing, turned off TM, ejected the EHD and turned it off. Turned everything back on and let it try again, but the same thing happened. Seems to me that it just isn’t going to do that next backup.

Before I go back to the shop like the Wrath of Aguirre on Monday, I would like some notion of whether the EHD or the Time Machine software is more likely to be at fault.

[Mikey-San]

Quote: Originally Posted by Woodsman I connected up an external hard disk (LaCie, 1 TB, 800 Firewire) and started Time Machine (on a 10.5.5 iMac) on Wednesday night. As I went to bed it was doing its first backup, with the progress bar progressing, and it continued doing backups every two hours thereafter. Time Machine shows me the various backups in its space opera fashion.

Time Machine backs up every hour if there's something to be backed up. (Every hour, launchd invokes a Time Machine backup. If there's nothing new, TM doesn't make a new snapshot.)

Quote: About two hours later I noticed the LaCie icon revolving, which I’d never noticed before, and opened things up to look at. It said it was backing up 60 MB, but the progress bar was at zero. One and a half hours later the situation was the same.

Do you mean the Time Machine icon was revolving?

Can you start a backup and see if anything shows up in the console? (Open Console.app, click "All Messages" in the sidebar.)

Quote: Before I go back to the shop like the Wrath of Aguirre on Monday, I would like some notion of whether the EHD or the Time Machine software is more likely to be at fault.

Unfortunately, without some more investigation, it's a coin toss.

[Woodsman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mikey-San Time Machine backs up every hour if there's something to be backed up. (Every hour, launchd invokes a Time Machine backup. If there's nothing new, TM doesn't make a new snapshot.)

I know every hour is the idea, but when I open TM and look at the snapshots in the outer-space background, they're dated every two hours. Except when I'm away from the machine, as you say.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mikey-San Do you mean the Time Machine icon was revolving?

Sorry to be sloppy there. The EHD shows up in the Sidebar as an external device, in my case called LaCie, with an eject button. The eject button turned into a revolving double arrow, which I'd never noticed before while TM was doing its thing, so either it didn't do it, or only did so for a very short time. The Time Machine icon up on the menu bar, next to Lock Screen, was also revolving. When clicked, it gave me the message about backing up, and the status bar that showed zero out of 60 MB indefinitely, as did TM in System Preferences.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mikey-San Can you start a backup and see if anything shows up in the console? (Open Console.app, click "All Messages" in the sidebar.)

Sorry, I'm a newbie and have no idea what Console is. Give me some guidance and I'll see what i can do.

[Woodsman]

Some new information her. I wrote a manual backup to the external hard disk with Finder (transferred my documents, music and photos; not the same as a TM backup, I know, but not entirely pointless). This suggests to me that the EHD is okay.

Turned TM on and hit the "start backup now" option. It did the same as before, that is, churned and churned and wrote nothing, according to the status bar. I noticed that the EHD wasn't making any noise, it was asleep, so clearly nothing was being written. After a while I tried to turn it off at the menu bar. It said "stopping backup", but this was news to TM preferences. So I told it to stop there too, and got a "stopping" message for many minutes. Turned the whole TM off, which had no effect either. The only way to stop the backup-that-isn't-a-backup seems to be to eject the EHD.

So to me, no expert in anything, it looks as if it's the Time machine software that is terminally dysfunctional.

I would like to state for the record that between its last successful backup at 15.23 on Friday and its total failure at 17.23, I did not do a damn thing at the keyboard of the remotest relevance to Time Machine. I just wrote in Word and listened and so forth; did NOT mess with anything. So it happened all by its lonesome.

[houltmac]

If you open Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities) and choose the LaCie drive (not the partition which is indented, the one directly above it) you should see the Partition Map Scheme in the bottom right. If this is anything but GUID (for Intel Macs) or Apple Partition Map (for PPC Macs) then it's possible you will encounter issues. I would suggest this to be the most likely cause. I listed both because you didn't say what iMac you had, just that it was running 10.5.5.

To rectify this (if this is the issue) you will need to use Disk Utility to partition the drive. This will wipe all data form the backup drive. If you still want to try this you will need to select the partition tab, change the partition drop down to 1 partition and give it a name (backup makes sense, LaCie is what you have, but it can be whatever you like). You will then want to Options and select the appropriate Partition Map Scheme for your machine before choosing Apply and confirming the dialogue. Give it a few seconds and the new partition should appear before Time Machine asks you if you want to use this as the backup volume. A while for the initial backup to compelte and you should be on your way.

[Woodsman]

Quote: Originally Posted by houltmac If you open Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities) and choose the LaCie drive (not the partition which is indented, the one directly above it) you should see the Partition Map Scheme in the bottom right. If this is anything but GUID (for Intel Macs) or Apple Partition Map (for PPC Macs) then it's possible you will encounter issues. I would suggest this to be the most likely cause. I listed both because you didn't say what iMac you had, just that it was running 10.5.5.

It says Apple Partition Map, but I have an Intel machine (don't I? Brand-new iMac). I thought I had a question in the LaCie setup program and answered Intel, not sure now.

Does it make sense that an error here would lead to it doing fine and then seizing up?

I've printed out your instructions and will run with them unless in the light of the above you say different. I'm not worried about wiping the EHD, I have everything important backed up to MacBook and a PC as well.

[houltmac]

As I say, all manner of oddities can occur with Time Machine in my experience if the backup device isn't partitioned correctly. Check out this Apple knowledge base article for more information: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1770

[Woodsman]

Well, I did the partitioning thing exactly as you said, created a new partition called Backup, changed the TM disk to point to that, and then Time Machine started up with a 100-second countdown.

Unfortunately, after backing up 25 KB of about 50 GB, it stopped. That's all she wrote. That was half an hour ago. The icon in the menu bar is revolving, but the status bar is immobile.

Now what?

[Fastmac]

The most important stage in partitioning was to create a GUID partition, is that what you did?

[Woodsman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fastmac The most important stage in partitioning was to create a GUID partition, is that what you did?

Yes. Checked it via Disk Utility just now, to be extra sure. Also did a Verify Disk, all is OK. And the backup is still stuck at 25KB, been there an hour. Stopping it now, there's obviously no point.

[Fastmac]

I'm not familiar with that model of external hard drive, it's not one of those with built in firmware, a so called smart interface or something? Other than that, you have now set it up optimized for time machine so if you still get problems I would suggest turning TM off and use SuperDuper for backing up.

[houltmac]

It may also be worth checking with AppleCare that there isn't something documented that I am failing to find or think of. I have a really strong feeling that I have seen this before, but every single issue I have seen with Time Machine has been because the backup device was not properly formatted and partitioned.

If you click this link it will take you to a page where you can contact Apple and ask for further assistance.

[Woodsman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fastmac I'm not familiar with that model of external hard drive, it's not one of those with built in firmware, a so called smart interface or something? Other than that, you have now set it up optimized for time machine so if you still get problems I would suggest turning TM off and use SuperDuper for backing up.

About the smart interface, i shall talk to the shop tomorrow, perhaps demand a replacement or annul the purchase.

Is SuperDooper on my machine, or freeware?

[Woodsman]

Quote: Originally Posted by houltmac this link it will take you to a page where you can contact Apple and ask for further assistance.

Unfortunately the shop had not yet got the AppleCare package when they sold me the machine, I'm still waiting. So I'll have to take a rain check on this, thanks.

[houltmac]

If the machine is less than 90 days old you are entitled to contact AppleCare free of charge anyway. If it's more than 90 days old and you don't have AppleCare then there will be a charge unless you purchase the plan.

Also, SuperDuper is available from www.shirt-pocket.com as a free download, though the pay version adds some abilities. It's a great little app.

[Woodsman]

Quote: Originally Posted by houltmac If the machine is less than 90 days old you are entitled to contact AppleCare free of charge anyway. If it's more than 90 days old and you don't have AppleCare then there will be a charge unless you purchase the plan. Also, SuperDuper is available from www.shirt-pocket.com as a free download, though the pay version adds some abilities. It's a great little app.

Oh, didn't know that! The machine's about 20 days old..... I'll talk to the shop tomorrow, maybe they'll ask me to contact Apple anyway. And I've bookmarked Super Dooper for if the upshot of those two tracks is tat TM is abandoned. Thanks!!!