ANY Way to Increase TM Back up speed????

Question

ANY Way to Increase TM Back up speed????

I'm fed up with the SLOWNESS of Time Machine Backups, why is it that it's SNAIL slow??? So I went to carbon copy cloner and in FOUR minutes CCC has done more work that TM in 3 HOURS!!!!! WTH!! I'm using WD Firewire External and there is no reason at all that Back up should take a long time, is there any reason at all information is transferring dead slow over FIrewire/USB2 so slow using Timemachine?!?! FIX IT! Cause it is pathetic and a waste of time. and as I'm writing this CCC has done copying over 1.8 GB in 6 minutes, SO APPLE get your people working! Anyone having problems as I am, post please.

If the next update don't fix it, them I'm Totally giving up using timemachine let alone other worthless features of 10.6, I haven't seen this amazing groundbreaking advancement as claimed. pfft.

and yes I'm mad cause as you can see I'm using a MAC PRO and totally disappointed in performance.

anyway rant over....and fyi ccc had copied 4 gb in 13 minutes....

MacPro 2008(2.8 Octo-core) 12 gb Ram, Lightspeed drive..., Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Jan 10, 2010 3:32 PM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,842 points

Jan 10, 2010 3:44 PM in response to Polaritypictures

Mine works pretty fast. Much faster than I've seen CCC do.

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Answer 2

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jan 10, 2010 4:11 PM in response to Polaritypictures

\ sigh Why is it that every time some people have a problem, they immediately get mad, blame Apple and throw a hissy fit? Not to pick on you specifically, you're just the latest... it just gets tiring, as someone who is volunteering time to help folks out here, to see such negative and self-defeating attitudes.

Clearly, something is wrong with your machine, or Time Machine and CCC are not doing the same job (ie, not copying the same data to the same place). For me, Time Machine works nicely and is no slower than CCC at comparable tasks. I use both routinely, and usually run both backups (both incremental) one after the other... thus, they both back up the same stuff, though to different drives, and both take about the same amount of time.

What might be going on for you, I have no idea... you haven't provided very much information. You're definitely better off trying to figure out what's wrong with your particular system rather than blaming Apple and waiting for a fix (which will never come) for a non-existant bug.

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Answer 3

Gnarly02

Level 1

0 points

Jan 10, 2010 4:46 PM in response to thomas_r.

I have to agree with "Thomas A Reed" I am by no means well versed in the workings of the Mac. However I have found that there is a wealth of knowledgeable and generous people here that take of their time to help one in trying to figure out what their specific problem is. All you have to do is give them as much real information as possible and they will more than likely come back with a solution.
Now this is also assuming that you have done your due diligence and tried to do some research on your own, as you probably aren't the first one to experience this problem.
The other point you might want to consider is, that with all the Macs out there, really when we look at the number of problems, it is still a very small percentage of the total.

I have been running a Mac Pro since the fall of 2007, when Time machine came out I started running it to an external HD via Firewire 800, the initial backup took about 2hrs. Since that time (and I do hourly backups) it takes on average less than 1 min. for the backup to complete.

If I may suggest, that you give some more pertinent info regarding your system, what kind of data you have that Time machine is backing up incrementally, etc. then a solution may be at hand.

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Answer 4

Jan 10, 2010 4:52 PM in response to thomas_r.

Well I've been using apple's since late 80's, so I'm not a newbie at all.

Today I had time to do a full back up so I tried using my old 10.5 timemachine drive, but since I had upgraded to 10.6, there was a lot to change, i had about 200 gb free and set it up to back up. it took about 40 minutes to prepare files then started to back up after that, but 2 hours later it only copied 1 gb, so my mind that's a seriously waste of time. The backup size was about 57 gb so really not that big. at the moment ccc has copied 40 gb in about an hour. and yes i've tried to tweak the TM drive using several suggesstions, but no go. I can't waste 12 hours waiting for TM to do it's work when IMO it should take much less.

Very true, and I apologize that I do rant a bit, and shouldn't blame apple for a lot. And I do appreciate the people who help out here as well.

A back up (any backup) is better than none at all. Think that apple should give ya more settings for TM rather than make it simplistic.

My laptop TM backups are slow as well, but meh. Honestly don't think I have to reformat my drive everytime something don't work and start off fresh.

in addition Apple still hasn't fixed the finder snap feature that I hate. Select a item in the finder and scroll, then it's snaps back to that selected item all the time, prevents you from searching for things in the list view.

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Answer 5

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 10, 2010 5:01 PM in response to Polaritypictures

Polaritypictures wrote:
Well I've been using apple's since late 80's, so I'm not a newbie at all.

Maybe, but you do seem to be a newbie to Time Machine and these forums. There are two rather obvious *User Contributed Tips* at the top of this forum. One is titled Troubleshooting.

Try the things in #D2 there.

If none of them help, see #A1. Download the TM Buddy widget, then copy and post the messages from one of these slow backups here.

Also some details of your setup, like details of where the backups are going.

And please stop ranting and complaining about other problems. If you want some help, you'll get it. If you keep ranting, you probably won't.

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Answer 6

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jan 10, 2010 5:44 PM in response to Polaritypictures

in addition Apple still hasn't fixed the finder snap feature that I hate. Select a item in the finder and scroll, then it's snaps back to that selected item all the time, prevents you from searching for things in the list view.

No idea what you're talking about here... I've never seen anything like that. However, that's far off the topic. You should post about this in a separate thread, if you're interested in getting assistance resolving it. If you just wanted to complain, please don't.

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Answer 7

etresoft

Level 8

46,632 points

Jan 10, 2010 6:05 PM in response to Polaritypictures

Maybe run disk utility and check repair your file system. Cloner tools work by copying blocks while Time Machines looks at the file system. Cloner tools will give you a bit-for-bit copy of your disk, warts and all. Time Machine will just lock up when it finds a corrupted file system. Personally, if my drive is hosed, I would rather know about it.

Under normal circumstances with no disk corruption, a cloning tool should be slightly faster than Time Machine when backing up an entire drive - i.e. the first backup. Every other time Time Machine should be much faster.

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Answer 8

Russa

Level 4

1,343 points

Jan 10, 2010 6:48 PM in response to Polaritypictures

Hmm. Just some minor "frame the issues" questions.

Has TM finished the initial indexing backup without interruption? TM takes a long time for the initial backup. Are you backing up your entire disk or just your user files? You might save more time by backing up only your user files. Have you upgraded your Mac to 10.6.2? Keeping the O/S current should help alleviate any potential incompatibilities or bugs.

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Answer 9

Jan 10, 2010 10:28 PM in response to Polaritypictures

Here are my 2 cents. I can understand that CCC is faster compared to TM and that you're frustrated by the slow performance. Now I also do not know what TM all does but it sounds to me like you had a previous backup on there for your machine. In other words, from what you are saying is that really it is not an initial backup but more like a delta backup but with a huge amount of changes. Now the way TM works I believe it will then redefine links etc. on the TM drive as it does not just keep 1 copy but multiple versions of your files. So it uses links etc. for this so that each backup seems to contain everything but files that were not modified are linking to the files from the backup that ran when the file was changed.

If this is indeed the case, try complete deleting the TM backups on your backup drive and then start a new TM backup. This will reduce the amount of additional work TM has to do, something I believe CCC does not have to do.

Also, it is a backup. TM normally runs every hour so 99% of the time the amount it has to backup is minimal and accomplished in a very short timeframe. For that 1st backup, just let it run. I personally don't really care if that initial backup takes 12 hours if it is running overnight when I'm asleep and then I'm not asleep I can continue using my Mac while it is running.

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Answer 10

Jan 11, 2010 1:06 AM in response to Pondini

Read them, and node id's are ok,

1. Exclude your TM disk/partition from any anti-virus scanning. (NO ANTI-VIRUS)
2. Exclude it, at least temporarily, from Spotlight (System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy). <- Didn't do, but doubt that's the cause.
3. Do a Repair Disk on your backups, per section #A5 above. <- No Didn't do cause there was only one back up on the disk.

I don't have a Time capsule or external connected to Airport
If backing up to an External hard drive:

7. At least temporarily, de-select Put the hard disk(s) to sleep ... in System Preferences > Energy Saver. <- Nope, Wasn't on.
8. Be sure it's connected directly to your Mac (no hubs, and not the USB port on the keyboard, as some are USB 1.0). <- Direct Firewire 400
9. Try different port(s), cable(s). <-Nope, cable and ports work, cause I rarely use it.
10. See if your drive has an automatic sleep or "spin down" feature you can disable. <- nope.
11. Check the maker's web site (support or forum) for any driver or firmware updates<- Didn't do, but since the drive was only used 3 times I seriously doubt that was the problem.

I just got back home and haven't had the chance to get the widget and it's 1 am now so not gonna go into TM and mess with it this late.

The backups are going in to a WD mybook 500MB External HD.

Sorry again for the ranting.

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Answer 11

Jan 11, 2010 1:10 AM in response to thomas_r.

Posted here
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2172966&tstart=0

I would like to get it resolved, but I don't know where the pref settings(plist or some other file) are for the finder and what to change to fix it. thanks.

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Answer 12

Jan 11, 2010 1:16 AM in response to Russa

Yes it has finished indexing, but would start off really slow, the first 3 hours it got to 1.1 gb and I cut it off and deleted the file. Think it was relinking the changed files and comparing what to update. Since I had time that afternoon, I thought I'd do a backup, TM decided to do a 50 gb backup on top of the previous TM backup on the external Disk which was 100 gb already.

and yes I'm using 10.6.2

thanks

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Answer 13

Jan 11, 2010 1:23 AM in response to Pondini

Polaritypictures wrote:
Well I've been using apple's since late 80's, so I'm not a newbie at all.

Registered: Dec 6, 2000 <- :P

thanks for the help.

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Answer 14

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jan 11, 2010 3:47 AM in response to Polaritypictures

2. Exclude it, at least temporarily, from Spotlight (System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy). <- Didn't do, but doubt that's the cause.</div>

Pondini is perhaps the most knowledgeable person on these forums when it comes to Time Machine. If he says that this might help, it's something you ought to try. What is your basis for doubting that this might help?

3. Do a Repair Disk on your backups, per section #A5 above. <- No Didn't do cause there was only one back up on the disk.</div>

Huh? That doesn't make any sense. You should definitely repair both the backup drive and the boot drive with Disk Utility! What does the number of backups on the disk have to do with this?

11. Check the maker's web site (support or forum) for any driver or firmware updates<- Didn't do, but since the drive was only used 3 times I seriously doubt that was the problem. </div>

Again, doesn't make any sense. Availability of driver or firmware updates has nothing to do with the number of times the drive was used. Go check!

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Answer 15

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,842 points

Jan 11, 2010 4:36 AM in response to Polaritypictures

Polaritypictures wrote:
Since I had time that afternoon, I thought I'd do a backup, TM decided to do a 50 gb backup on top of the previous TM backup on the external Disk which was 100 gb already.

Is that how you use Time Machine, when you feel like you have the time?
If TM determines that there might be a discrepancy in it's logs then it will rescan the entire drive file by file before it starts backing up. If you are only connecting it occasionally, then it is probably doing that every time. TM is designed to do its thing on its own. If you only do a backup randomly, use something else. TM is not for you.

Do you have something that stores data in a single database like Entourage or a virtual machine like VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop? If so, you should find another way to back them up. Every time there is a minute change in the underlying files, the whole database is changed so it is backed up again.

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