Q: Possible hardware problem?
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May 19, 2016 6:50 PMby matlinp,Linc, no change in behavior. It gets to about 335 MB and stops. I'm including a screen shot of TM - this is after having waited about 20 minutes with the backup frozen in time as it were. One interesting thing to note - the boot drive is a 1 TB external, portable drive (Seagate) and only about 126 GB is used, so I am a bit puzzled by the 822.16 GB that needs to be backed up.
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May 20, 2016 6:54 PMby matlinp,I deleted the Time Machine .plist file, reformatted the hard drive I had been using for backups (it really had nothing on it as it was a test disk for purposes of ferreting out this problem), and started up TM again. No luck. I'm in the process of clearing out another spare drive and will follow the same procedure, but I think we both know how that will turn out. Even so, I'll follow through on that and report back.
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May 21, 2016 8:49 AMby matlinp,As expected, reformatting a spare drive, deleting the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file, rebooting, attaching the reformatted drive and starting Time Machine resulted in the same thing I've seen all too many times before - gets to about 330-350 MG of copying, says it's calculating remaining time, but never gets beyond that. So, I'm kind of gravitating back to the suspicion that there's a hardware glitch somewhere.
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May 22, 2016 8:06 AMby Linc Davis,Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider. You may have to leave the machine there for several days.
If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
Keep your confidential data secure during hardware repair.
Apple recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.
*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.
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May 22, 2016 1:20 PMby matlinp,Thanks, Linc. I'll consider making an appointment, but let me as you for your considered opinion. Considering that this is a six year old iMac and I would most likely be upgrading sometime in the next year or two in any event; and also given that, while the Genius Bar will do due diligence on this machine but most likely end up recommending a mother board replacement (and, I'm guessing, a refurbished motherboard at that), is it worth while to get that done? Just asking your opinion - ultimately, the decision will be mine.
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May 22, 2016 2:03 PMby etresoft,Hello matlinp,
Do I understand correctly that you are doing all of this from an external boot drive? Running El Capitan? What exactly are you complaining about again? If the machine is usable in that configuration it would be a miracle. That machine only has USB 2 and slightly better Firewire. Backing up from one external to another would take forever. What is wrong with the internal drive? If the internal drive is broken, get it replaced with an SSD.
Unfortunately, with a 2010 iMac, your options are limited. You can increase the RAM and that will help somewhat. Replacing the hard drive requires professional service. That machine doesn't have Thunderbolt so external booting is going to be glacially slow with El Capitan. If you don't want to buy a new Mac, find a good Authorized Apple Service centre (https://locate.apple.com/) and get an SSD put in.
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May 22, 2016 4:23 PMby matlinp,etresoft, thanks for your comments and suggestions. "Complaining" is probably too strong a term for it; in fact it's not really a complaint at all. Actually booting off of an external drive is not very difficult and not at all slow, to tell the truth. I'm very thankful that this is an iMac - installing Windows on an external drive is very difficult and not at all recommended. For a Mac, as with most Unix-based machines, a drive is a drive is a drive.
There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the internal drive - I switched because I started having the problems above that turned out to be centered on Time Machine. I thought at the time that perhaps starting fresh (i.e., new installation on an external drive) might resolve things and once everything was set up just right on the external drive, I could duplicate the effort on the internal drive. Obviously, that failed.
I've already got 12 GB RAM (4 GB less than the max) and, again, speed appears to be OK. Certainly not as fast as the current models, but it's not an issue for me since I use it largely for development and doing stuff for work via Windows VMs. And as Linc Davis has stated, it's not much worth it to go about getting the hardware checked out and/or replaced, a conclusion to which I had pretty much come before posting here. The machine is still usable (in fact, except for the inability to do TM backups, it's fine) and there are other ways of doing backups if and when needed, so I may wait a bit longer before replacing it.
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May 22, 2016 6:21 PMby etresoft,Hello again matlinp,
The "complaining" was just a joke really, but now I'm confused. My wife has a similar 2010 27" iMac. It is not a fast machine. Plus, it still runs Mavericks. I can't imagine how slow that machine would be upgraded to El Capitan and booted from an external drive.
Maybe you could try a little experiment for me. Download EtreCheck from http://www.etrecheck.com, run it, and paste the results here. EtreCheck is perfectly safe to run, does not ask for your password to install, and is signed with my Apple Developer ID. EtreCheck includes a crude performance check. It just measures how long it takes to run EtreCheck. I expect a 2010 iMac (booted off the internal hard drive) to take about 3:30 minutes to run. My machine runs in about 1:30. If it take over 10 minutes to run, there must be serious hardware problems because EtreCheck isn't even very disk-intensive.
Disclaimer: Although EtreCheck is free, there are other links on my site that could give me some form of compensation, financial or otherwise.
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May 23, 2016 2:18 AMby matlinp,etresoft, the app took around 4 minutes to run. I selected just checking for the type of problem and here's the output:
EtreCheck version: 2.9.12 (265)
Report generated 2016-05-23 05:15:31
Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com
Runtime 4:45
Performance: Good
Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.
Problem: No problem - just checking
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]
iMac - model: iMac11,3
1 2.8 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core
12 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 0/DIMM1
4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM1
4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
ATI Radeon HD 5750 - VRAM: 1024 MB
iMac 2560 x 1440
OS X El Capitan 10.11.3 (15D21) - Time since boot: about 2 days
ST31000528AS disk0 : (1 TB) (Rotational)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /Volumes/Macintosh HD : 999.35 GB (251.40 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H ()
Logitech USB Receiver
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
VIA Labs, Inc. USB2.0 Hub 750.16 GB
Seagate BUP Slim BK 1 TB
EFI (disk2s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
ExtOSX (disk2s2) / : 999.35 GB (871.19 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk2s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
Seagate Backup+ Desk 3 TB
Seagate Backup Plus Drive (disk1s1) /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive : 3.00 TB (549.05 GB free)
VIA Labs, Inc. USB2.0 Hub 750.16 GB
Western Digital My Book 111A 3 TB
EFI (disk4s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Spare (disk4s2) /Volumes/Spare : 3.00 TB (2.71 TB free)
Seagate Backup+ Desk 5 TB
EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
TM01 (disk3s2) /Volumes/TM01 : 5.00 TB (4.88 TB free)
GenesysLogic USB2.0 Hub 750.16 GB
LaCie LaCie Hard Drive USB 1 TB
EFI (disk5s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Ext01 (disk5s2) /Volumes/Ext01 : 999.86 GB (71.46 GB free)
Verbatim USB 3.0 Desktop HD 1 TB
EFI (disk7s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Time Machine Backups (disk7s2) /Volumes/Time Machine Backups : 999.86 GB (408.99 GB free)
GenesysLogic USB2.0 Hub 750.16 GB
Seagate Expansion Desk 3 TB
EFI (disk8s1) <not mounted> : 315 MB
TM03 (disk8s2) /Volumes/TM03 : 3.00 TB (2.71 TB free)
Seagate Backup+ Desk 3 TB
disk9s1 (disk9s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Time Machine Backups 2 (disk9s2) /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 2 : 3.00 TB (663.36 GB free)
Maxtor OneTouch 750.16 GB
OneTouch4 (disk6s1) /Volumes/OneTouch4 : 750.15 GB (31.99 GB free)
Logitech USB Receiver
Apple Card Reader
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Mac App Store and identified developers
/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox
[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (5.0.14 - 2016-03-02) [Support]
[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (5.0.14 - 2016-03-02) [Support]
[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (5.0.14 - 2016-03-02) [Support]
[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (5.0.14 - 2016-03-02) [Support]
/Library/Extensions
[loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.HID Driver (3.9.1 - SDK 10.8 - 2016-05-17) [Support]
/System/Library/Extensions
[loaded] com.Logitech.Unifying.HID Driver (1.3.0 - SDK 10.8 - 2016-05-17) [Support]
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications/Parallels Access.app
[not loaded] com.parallels.virtualhid (1.0.3 - SDK 10.9 - 2015-10-27) [Support]
[not loaded] com.parallels.virtualsound (1.0.36 - SDK 10.6 - 2015-10-27) [Support]
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications/Parallels Desktop.app
[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.hypervisor (11.0.2 31348 - SDK 10.9 - 2015-10-13) [Support]
[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.netbridge (11.0.2 31348 - SDK 10.9 - 2015-10-13) [Support]
[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.usbconnect (11.0.2 31348 - SDK 10.9 - 2015-10-13) [Support]
[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.vnic (11.0.2 31348 - SDK 10.9 - 2015-10-13) [Support]
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications/Tunnelblick.app
[not loaded] net.tunnelblick.tap (20141104 (Tunnelblick build 4270.4395) Unsigned - 2015-09-20) [Support]
[not loaded] net.tunnelblick.tun (20141104 (Tunnelblick build 4270.4395) Unsigned - 2015-09-20) [Support]
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications/VMware Fusion.app
[not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vmci (7.1.2 - 2015-09-20) [Support]
[not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vmioplug.14.1.4 (7.1.2 - 2015-09-20) [Support]
[not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vmnet (7.1.2 - 2015-09-20) [Support]
[not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vmx86 (7.1.2 - 2015-09-20) [Support]
[not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vsockets (7.1.2 - 2015-09-20) [Support]
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/[redacted]/Downloads/WD Essential and Elite Firmware Updater.app
[not loaded] com.wdc.driver.WdDeviceType00 (1.1 - 2010-08-25) [Support]
/Volumes/Spare/From My Book/Passport/Second Copy/Applications/Toast 10 Titanium/Toast Titanium.app
[not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6 - 2011-06-28) [Support]
[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0 - 2011-06-28) [Support]
[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks
[loaded] 162 Apple tasks
[running] 67 Apple tasks
[not loaded] 44 Apple tasks
[loaded] 151 Apple tasks
[running] 92 Apple tasks
[running] com.Logitech.Control Center.Daemon.plist (2015-09-18) [Support]
[loaded] com.malwarebytes.MBAMHelperTool.plist (2015-11-28) [Support]
[not loaded] org.virtualbox.startup.plist (2016-03-02) [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-03-02) [Support]
[loaded] com.shirtpocket.backupbytime.plist (2016-05-22) [Support]
[not loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist (2016-03-02) [Support]
iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Solar Service Application (~/Library/Application Support/Logitech/SolarService/Solar Service.app)
VMware Fusion Start Menu Application (/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/VMware Fusion Start Menu.app)
Garmin Express Service Application (/Applications/Garmin Express.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/Garmin Express Service.app)
[running] com.Logitech.Solar-Service.58592
[running] com.garmin.renu.service.1309152
[running] com.google.Chrome.61152
[loaded] com.trendmicro.ATLoginItemHelper
[running] com.trendmicro.DrCleaner.142752
[running] com.vmware.fusionStartMenu.561632
[loaded] 420 Apple tasks
[running] 183 Apple tasks
Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-01-20)
QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-01-20)
WebEx64: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 (2015-11-06) [Support]
Open in Internet Explorer - Parallels - http://www.parallels.com (2016-02-25)
Logitech Control Center (2015-11-24) [Support]
Time Machine not configured!
3% Google Chrome Helper(5)
2% WindowServer
2% kernel_task
1% fontd
0% askpermissiond
948 MB kernel_task
823 MB Google Chrome Helper(5)
479 MB softwareupdated
467 MB mdworker(10)
307 MB mds_stores
3.43 GB Free RAM
8.56 GB Used RAM (2.05 GB Cached)
0 B Swap Used
May 22, 2016, 10:47:58 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/secd_2016-05-22-104758_[redacted].crash
/usr/libexec/secd
May 21, 2016, 05:56:51 AM Self test - passed
May 20, 2016, 08:25:58 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Google Chrome_2016-05-20-202558_[redacted].hang
/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome
May 10, 2016, 08:00:01 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Kernel_2016-05-10-200001_[redacted].panic [Details]
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May 23, 2016 7:14 AMby etresoft,Hello again matlinp,
I must say, I'm impressed. It doesn't surprise me that you would have trouble doing a backup though. It is one thing to backup from internal to external USB. It is something else to scan the external USB to prepare for the backup and then both read and write the backup all over USB.
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May 23, 2016 8:01 AMby matlinp,Hello again, yourself. I'm a bit flattered that you're impressed, but it shouldn't be all that surprising since the external boot drive only has 150-160 GB used out of 1 TB. What may be more impressive is that I used a 2008 era iMac with another portable boot drive (El Capitan) to use Migration Assistant and essentially recreate my current external boot drive. I set it up before going to bed last night so I can't say for sure how long it took, but it looks as if it took about 3 hours and change - over WiFi. That's about 50 GB per hour if I'm right. That transfer rate impresses me. I also, at the suggestion of a good friend, got a copy of SuperDuper which essentially creates a bootable copy of your boot drive and then does periodic updates to keep the clone in sync with the original. So, I now have two usable backups. I can't go back and retrieve deleted files as I can with Time Machine, but at least I can do OS updates now at not have to worry about something going wrong.
Thanks again for the help and suggestions.
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May 23, 2016 8:32 AMby notcloudy,etresoft wrote:
Hello again matlinp,
I must say, I'm impressed. It doesn't surprise me that you would have trouble doing a backup though. It is one thing to backup from internal to external USB. It is something else to scan the external USB to prepare for the backup and then both read and write the backup all over USB.
pure guess but his processing is the equivalent of work place where you are using your desk top to copy a file from one server to another -- even though they are side by side - the data still has to pass through your PC -- worse over a home connection where the upload is slower the the download.
Wondering if the problem with his TM is it is going from the internal drive to the external drive to the internal drive to pass to the external time machine drive - eventually slapping each other silly on the way.
