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skerb1 Author

Level 1

8 points

10.6.3 Resizing Sparsebundle Disk Images

Hi All,
I just updated to OSX 10.6.3 and am noticing a strange issue. First off I am using an unsupported NAS device for my Time Machine backups, however I have actually seen the box (Promise NS4600) sold at Apple Stores. Anyhow I have several Macs backing up to this NAS. Before 10.6.3 I had set a maximum size that the sparsebundle could grow to for each of the sparsebundle images. The problem is that when running time machine, it appears that if the sparsebundle is not the same size as the volume, the system automatically resizes the sparsebundle.

com.apple.backupd[1575]: Resizing backup disk image from 476.8 GB to 2743.0 GB

This is definitely not what I want. Does anyone know a workaround/fix? Is there a plist file I can edit where I can tell time machine not to resize my sparsebundle? Any ideas? Thanks.

Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Mar 31, 2010 8:42 AM

75 replies

fracai

Level 1

10 points

Apr 8, 2010 4:53 AM in response to Pondini

I've been experiencing this problem as well and have reported it as radar://7839823

Further reports will direct greater attention to this issue. Please report.

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Apr 8, 2010 7:27 AM in response to fracai

I've filed at: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Apr 8, 2010 8:27 AM in response to skerb1

Instead of formatting or limiting your Drobo, you can change the maximum size allowed for the TimeMachine backup.

Type this command in the terminal where the size is specified in MB (100MB in this case).

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize 102400

Kj ♘

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Apr 8, 2010 8:50 AM in response to skerb1

Drobo Partitioning (no volume resizing allowed):
http://www.suitetake.com/2009/08/21/the-dark-side-of-drobo/


Kj ♘

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Apr 8, 2010 11:17 AM in response to KJK555

KJK555 wrote:
Instead of formatting or limiting your Drobo, you can change the maximum size allowed for the TimeMachine backup.

Type this command in the terminal where the size is specified in MB (100MB in this case).

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize 102400

Are you sure about that? I've tried it (on a local backup), and it does show up in the preferences file, but does not limit the size of the backups.

To limit to 20 GB, I used 20100200 (just so I was sure to get the right number of zeros). Did a small initial BU of 11 GB, then removed a 20 GB exclusion and ran a backup; then removed a 6.4 GB exclusion and ran a third.

All ran normally, and +Get Info+ on the partition with (only) these backups shows 27+ GB used.

This would be a great help to many folks . . . if it works!

Any thoughts?

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Apr 8, 2010 11:39 AM in response to Pondini

Tried it again, using 20100 (if it's really measured in MB, not KB, that would be 20 GB).

Same results: appears as 20100 in the preferences file, same 3 backups, 11 GB + 10 GB + 6 GB, totals 27.5.

fracai

Level 1

10 points

Apr 8, 2010 3:22 PM in response to skerb1

My bug was just marked closed because the sparsebundle may be moved to a new disk and there currently exists no way to detect that an Apple created image should be increased to provide additional backup history.

I'm following up and will at least create a feature request.

Very disappointing.

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Apr 8, 2010 3:26 PM in response to fracai

Did you try/have any luck with the Terminal command in KJK555's post?

fracai

Level 1

10 points

Apr 8, 2010 5:00 PM in response to Pondini

I haven't tried, everything I've seen, including posts in this thread, suggest that this doesn't work.

fracai

Level 1

10 points

Apr 8, 2010 8:03 PM in response to Pondini

Feature request posted as rdar://7843424
http://openradar.appspot.com/7843424

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Apr 8, 2010 8:07 PM in response to fracai

fracai wrote:
Feature request posted as rdar://7843424
http://openradar.appspot.com/7843424

But have you filed/reported to Apple? (That's not an Apple site.)

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Apr 9, 2010 1:28 AM in response to Pondini

It used to work!, but Apple's 10.6.3 modifications to Time Machine may have disabled it too.

Kj

fracai

Level 1

10 points

Apr 9, 2010 5:56 PM in response to Pondini

OpenRadar isn't an Apple site, but it's the best way to let others see the bug that I did submit.

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Apr 9, 2010 6:14 PM in response to fracai

fracai wrote:
OpenRadar isn't an Apple site,

Yes, I know.

but it's the best way to let others see the bug that I did submit.

Ok, so you did send to Apple. Great!

Apr 10, 2010 7:27 AM in response to skerb1

This problem has also been reported via the BackMyFruitUp forum - http://groups.google.com/group/backmyfruitup
One of the contributors there has found a fix that worked for him.
Resize sparsebundle using hdiutil.
hdiutil resize -size 100g /Volumes/Drobo/DroboCapsule/MacBookPro_nnnnnnnnnn.sparsebundle
Using Disk Utility, Verify the drive and then Verify the sparsebundle.
This didn't work for me. Can anyone else try this and see if it works for them?

10.6.3 Resizing Sparsebundle Disk Images