Error 109 With Time Machine

unless SN corrupted the sparse image... which is likely the case.

I assume by SN you mean snow leopard. If SL corrupted the disk then just starting over should take care of it, but it doesn't

Same problem here, if you try to mount manually the immage, it will give you an error an a clue.
The problem is on the sparseimage that is corrupted, I think because of too many disconections by ethernet or airport.

What it's annoying is that formating and do a new TM will eventually presents the same problem (it's my thirth time...)

VERY ANNOYING =(
PS: Doing it by USB works fine all the time

If Snow Leopard corrupts the disk.. reformatting the disk and starting over will work... until Snow Leopard corrupts the disk again.

I have been running manual Time Machine backups after starting from scratch with no problem; however, others that have started over and are using the automated backups are running into this problem again. This is especially the case with wireless disk backups.

I'm having the same issue. I've got a USB hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, and I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.1. I'm getting the following error when Time Machine attempts to backup:

"The backup disk image “/Volumes/DRIVE NAME/COMPUTERNAME.sparsebundle” could not be accessed (error 109)."

I've noticed that the name of the backup volume has changed a few times- for example, in the Time Machine system preference pane, the drive name is listed as COMPUTER_NAME-2. A few days ago it was COMPUTER_NAME-1. In other words, numbers are being appended to the drive name for some reason.

I suspect this is the root issue. Time Machine is looking for a drive without the appended numbers, but the system only sees the drive name with those numbers appended. Hence, confusion.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to get the system to see the drive without the appended numbers, and while I'm not a betting person, I'd bet that will fix the issue.

Since this is a "error 109"-specific forum, I've reposted my query here this morning as well as in the main Time Machine/Snow Leopard errors forum. My apologies for the repost, but I'm at my wit's end.


Beware of the dreaded returning "error 109"

As I stated back on August 31, I remapped my Time Machine to a new, second 1TB harddrive and created a brand new backup using Time Machine. And it ran, flawlessly, until this morning during it's second hourly backup! The dreaded "error message 109" has returned.

ARRGGGHHHH!!!

So now I can't access my nine-month-old backup on my first 1TB harddrive, or my spanking new weeks-old backup on my new harddrive. And as much as I enjoyed hanging out with everyone last month as we tried to solve this problem, I'm about to abandon the whole backup concept.

So, for the record, I'm receiving the same error message as before: "Time Machine Could Not Complete Backup" - "The backup disk image '/Volumes/my name_backup-1/myname's mimi mac.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error 109)"

The harddrive chirps on when TM begins its hourly backup, I heard the drive spinning up, it chatters for a few minutes, then I get the error message. I've noticed the Time Capsule icon that used to appear on the desktop during the backup is no longer popping up - I simply cannot remember if that is a new clue or not.

As always, any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Until then, I'll re-delete the preferences and attempt manual updates. Unfortunately, even that isn't working.

Cheers,

Jamie

moncriefj@uncw.edu

minimac'er wrote:

So, for the record, I'm receiving the same error message as before: "Time Machine Could Not Complete Backup" - "The backup disk image '/Volumes/my name_backup-1/myname's mimi mac.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error 109)"

For what it's worth, I've noticed that long names, and punctuation and spaces in names may not play well in this situation.

I removed all punctuation and spaces (using only letters and numbers) in my AEBS name, my network name, and the partition names on the external disk attached to it for TM backups, and kept them all fairly short ("JPsAirportExtreme", for example).

TM Preferences > +Change Disk+ used to take several minutes to list the partitions, and to apply a selection once it was made; now it's near-instantaneous. Why, I have no idea.

I was not having any trouble with the actual backups, though, so all I can do is suggest giving it a try.

Whether this is related to TM backups to AirPort disks not being officially supported is also unclear.

Interesting idea - since the file names are generated, I assume, by the preferences panels (i.e. "James Moncrief’s Mac mini_00254bb40536.sparsebundle") And you're right, it would take a bunch of file, folder and computer re-naming to get a more generic mapping of harddrive names - that said, my last harddrive was simply named "1tb"...can't get a whole lot easier than that. Again, interesting idea - I'll try sacrificing a couple more small mammals first...

minimac'er wrote:
Interesting idea - since the file names are generated, I assume, by the preferences panels (i.e. "James Moncrief’s Mac mini_00254bb40536.sparsebundle") And you're right, it would take a bunch of file, folder and computer re-naming to get a more generic mapping of harddrive names - that said, my last harddrive was simply named "1tb"...can't get a whole lot easier than that. Again, interesting idea - I'll try sacrificing a couple more small mammals first...

You can change your network name, Airport Extreme name, and partition names without a problem.

And I just changed my System Name (System Preferences > Sharing), and TM did not start a new backup sequence, as it sometimes would in Leopard.

Then I changed the sparse bundle name (via +Get Info+ ), ran a backup, and TM happily did an incremental.

So, while there do seem to be some new bugs, SL seems to have some fixes/improvements, too!

As always (and especially with TM), your mileage may vary.

All great suggestions Pondini - I'll give them a try, along with some small mammal sacrifices.

Cheers,

jamie

This is one club I didn't want to join, but I started getting these 109 errors yesterday, just 4 days after a bare metal install of Snow Leopard on 24" iMac. Like many others, I ran TM under Leopard for about 45 days without any complaints. Actually performed several recoveries (its a new system) under 10.5. I was (WAS) impressed with TM.
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My setup is a WD-1TB attached to AEBS. 3 partitions - 2 for two 10.6 machines and 1 not yet in use but for a 10.5 mini. Oddly, the other 10.6 box hasn't had any 109 errors (yet <G>)
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I've tried a number of things, stopping TM, setting disk to none, restarting, renaming the old sparsebundle (thinking it would create a new one), DU repairing. Several combinations of that.
The only thing that got TM going again was using DU to erase that one partition.
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The name of the AEBS is only 7 chars long. The hostname is 11. The mount point is 13 chars long. All names are plain alpha, with just one underscore _ . So I don't think this 109 thing is a naming issue.
Right now it is re-doing its initial backup. Which is less than satisfactory since that means all previous is lost.
I'll post back if I come up with anything.

i started getting this 109 error as well on one of my two 24 inch imacs. This, so far, has been the biggest problem I've discovered with Snow Leopard. Has anyone heard if apple is working on a fix?

I was just wondering if attaching a hard drive to AEBS as an Airport Disk creates all these 109 error issues. Will Time Capsule with built in hard drive solve all these issues?

I've joined this painful club now as well.

Has anyone opened tickets with Apple to see what they have to say, other than, "reformat the disk and try again"?

Hi all,

I encountered the "error 109" after upgrading my Synology 207+ NAS with the latest firmware. Disk Station 2.2 now allegedly "supports Time Machine". The result of this support seemed to be two instances of the NAS mounted in my sidebar; one appended with "(AFP)". Within the Time Machine preferences only one instance of my backup partition on the NAS was displayed. Despite selecting the partition labelled "backups" it would not be able to access the sparsebundle. The subsequent attempt could not mount the sparsebundle in "backups-1".

I seem to have fixed the Time Machine backup problem by:

1. Turning off AppleTalk support in the Synology NAS. This results in only one instance of the NAS showing in my sidebar again.
2. Connecting to the NAS and entering my password, to mount the required partitions.
3. Selecting the "backups" partition in the Time Machine preferences once again.

Backups are now running successfully.

I'm not at all sure why the problem lies, but thought I would share this "fix" in case it rings any bells with others.

Brian