Migrate taking a l-o-n-g time

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Level 1

12 points

Migrate taking a l-o-n-g time

I’ve been having frequent kernel panics on my Mac Mini 2018. They got really bad when I updated to 10.5.6. I created a different userid and logged in, and the system seemed more stable. (I didn’t stay logged in overnight, but for a few hours, which is about how long it was taking between kernel panics on the main ID.)

I have about 600GB of data on a 1TB drive. I decided to do a wipe and restore. It started, said it would take 8 hours, so I left it alone to do it’s stuff. When I came back 7h 45m later, it was just finishing up when I got a message telling me the restore could not be completed. It booted into a blinking folder. (No OS.) But Diskmanager saw 600GB on the disk. Ok. Delete and reformat and do a clean install.

I tried a direct 10.5.6 fresh install for a day and a half. It kept loosing connection to the server for downloading the install packages and stopping with timeout errors. (I have gigabit internet and it was working fine on everything else at the time.)

I finally got it to install 10.5.6. I gave it a quick test run and it seemed to work fine, so I mounted my external 3GB time machine disk via USB3/Thunderbolt to begin the process of migrating my old files and left it to run overnight.

Woke up this morning at had the following message that told me there were 9 hours left (!!!!) at 12MB/s. Sometimes it went down to 2MB/s. The second image is where it is now, 11 hours later, still slowly restoring files bit by bit. If this thing crashes at the end like my restore did, I’m not going to be happy.

Why is this going so slow?

Posted on Jul 22, 2020 4:11 PM

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Answer 1

Hunter34 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 22, 2020 7:26 PM in response to Tesserax

Thanks! I appreciate it! Well, I went and checked on it again, and it was stuck at 3h 30m at 3MB/s. (And yes, I’m am saying megabytes per second!)

I had to reboot. At least it came back up and tried to resume the migration immediately. However, it was taking forever to progress, so I did a option-command-R and pulled up Disk Utility.

It seems the 3TB partition has something wrong. After the typical messages like “checking catalog file” it came back with the following:

incorrect number of thread records

invalid leaf record count (it should be 41200976 instead of 41200974)

checking multi-linked files

incorrect number of file hard links

checking catalog hierarchy

So, I hope the partition gets fixed by First Aid. Looks like it’s going to be a long process so I won’t find out until morning.

Thanks again!

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jul 25, 2020 6:33 AM in response to Hunter34

Thanks for the EtreCheck report ... the following are some observations/suggestions:

This report indicates that it is not being run on a "clean" macOS installation as there are numerous apps, kernel extensions, drivers, etc. included. Is this the case? That is you did not perform a complete erase and clean install of macOS Catalina?
2020-07-24 macOS Developer Beta Access Utility (1.0.0.0.1.1582910740) / 2020-07-24 macOS Big Sur Beta (11.0) - It appears that you recently installed the Apple Developer version of macOS Big Sur. Was this the developer or public beta? Regardless, if this issue is related to either, we will not be able to discuss anything related to it here ... as you should know from agreeing to Apple's terms for using their betas.
The report indicates that there may be a potential adware "infection." Have you tried using something like Malwarebytes for Mac to both detect and remove them?
System modifications - There are a large number of system modifications running in the background. This is most likely due to kernel extensions that support external devices.
Heavy I/O usage - Your system is under heavy I/O use. This will reduce your performance. This one is closely related to number 4. Not knowing what exactly you use your mini for (really none of my business), it may be too underpowered to support those uses, especially concurrently.
Plugin: ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/WebEx64.plugin / [Loaded] com.microsoft.teams.TeamsUpdaterDaemon.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2020-07-20) / Loaded] com.logmein.GoToMeeting.G2MAIRUploader.plist (LogMeIn, Inc. - installed 2020-07-07) / Zoom - Your mini has, at least, four different remote access apps loaded. Do you still need all of them? If not, remove those you don't need or use often.
Internet Plug-in: npDDRia: 0.0.14.5 (? - installed 2016-08-18) - I would suspect any plug-in that is more than 2 years old is suspect as to, whether or not, you still need it. If not sure, I suggest removing it.
Top Processes Snapshot by CPU: Other processes 121.44 % (?) - I suggest using System Monitor to see what these processes are. These may be the culprits that are causing the extreme CPU usage, as opposed to, the CPU being faulty itself.
The Diagnostics Information section of the report identifies the apps that are "hammering" your mini's CPU. They include the Photo app image conversion process (typically happens after installing macOS and when run the first time), Zoom, the backupd process, GrandPerspective, etc.

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jul 22, 2020 6:08 PM in response to Hunter34

Although more than 24 hrs may be excessive, it really depends on the amount of data that you are migrating. Again, you mentioned that your external drive is 3 GB ... I assume you meant to say 3 TBs ... correct? Does this drive support USB 3.x or Thunderbolt 3? If so I would also suspect that you should be getting better data transfer performance, but it will also depend on the drive enclosure as well.

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Answer 4

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jul 22, 2020 4:45 PM in response to Hunter34

You mentioned your OS at 10.5.6 (Leopard) twice. Did you actually mean: 10.15.6 (Catalina)? I'm going to assume so since it's a 2018 Mac mini. Regardless, did you ever resolve the kernel panic issue or do you still need assistance with that?

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Answer 5

Hunter34 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 22, 2020 6:17 PM in response to Tesserax

I’m tired. Sorry! If you look at the original post, I said 3TB and 600GB of actual data. Yes, attached via USB3. It’s a Western Digital 10TB USB3.0 external drive. (https://amzn.to/2WP5vFU) I’ve got it partitioned into a 7TB data partition and a 3TB TimeMachine partition. I’ve had this setup for almost a year. No apparent problems until now.

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Answer 6

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jul 22, 2020 7:02 PM in response to Hunter34

No problem. I'm just trying to make sure I understand. Excellent drive and I don't think this is the issue.

The possibilities that I see are:

You had a device driver or other kernel extension that was causing the panics. Completely erasing and re-installing a "clean" copy of macOS would verify that.
There is a potential HW problem with your mini. FWIW, I also have an 2018 mini and it has been flawless, so I may be stretching here on this one ... but it is still possible. The end result is that you successfully complete the migration, but still experience kernel panics.

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Answer 7

Hunter34 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 25, 2020 5:31 AM in response to Hunter34

ok. I did First Aid on Time Machine and it fixed the problem.

I did a clean install and a migrate and things seemed to be going well, then I got the dreaded CPU crash overnight. (eGPU wasn't plugged in, which is what I thought it might be for a while.)

I've attached the check. Do I have a bad CPU?

EtreCheck

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Answer 8

Hunter34 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 25, 2020 9:22 AM in response to Tesserax

Thanks! Questions......

1) I did a clean format and fresh install of 10.15.6, then I used Migration Assistant to move all of the files/apps/settings from my most recent backup. In my interpretation, that is a clean install. So, to answer your question, yes I did perform a complete erase and clean install. Is there something with Migration Assistant that dirties it back up again?

2) I was trying to get the installation ISO so I could rebuild my VMWare session. The original install won't boot after log-in. Enough said. It has nothing to do with my current Catalina installation.

3) I'll look in to that. Not sure where that would have come from.

5) I've got the most powerful Mac mini available. It's attached to 3 external disks and a CalDigit docking station. The most I/O seems to be between the Mac mini and the external spinning hard drive that houses Time Machine. I always hear that disk crunching away at something. All of the other disks are SSDs. I might replace my Time Machine with an SSD. (See above for the model of the spinning drive I'm using.)

6) Well, yes, in this day and age of Covid, everyone seems to have a different method of collaboration, so between Microsoft Teams, Zoom, JoinMe, GoToMeeting, and WebEx, that's just par for the course in my world.

7) That's part of the Adobe Creative Suite. There are a bunch of files/folders in the /Applications/Utilities folder that are Adobe related and many of them are 32-bit. Not sure how to uninstall them.

8) Seems to be WindowServer more often than anything else.

9) Like I said, this Mac mini is right up there among the best with raw computing power.

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Answer 9

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jul 26, 2020 11:41 AM in response to Hunter34

Well the RAM may very well not be the culprit, but I thought it was worth asking ... and keeping in mind.

Please try the Safe Mode operation for awhile to see if the panics return. Otherwise, without any additional detailed reports, there is not much I can offer you at this time. Even with them, it may be time to make a Genius Bar appointment at your local Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider to have them take a look and provide you with your options.

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Answer 10

Hunter34 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 26, 2020 6:47 AM in response to Hunter34

Heaviest processes right now are "bird" and "QuickLookSatellite".

The unsigned files it's complaining about are in my "Downloads" folder. Not active.

Same with the Python.app that is in my Downloads folder left over from Xcode long ago.

According to EtreCheck the last two crashes were in Apple frameworks. One was Spotlight cataloguing, and the other was in XPCServices.

EtreCheck

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Answer 11

Hunter34 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 26, 2020 6:19 AM in response to Tesserax

Fresh install and only migrated my files. I got this overnight. I'll install Etrecheck and post the results momentarily.

panic(cpu 1 caller 0xfffffff0215f4cec): x86 CPU CATERR detected

Debugger message: panic

Memory ID: 0x6

OS version: 17P6065

macOS version: 19G73

Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 19.6.0: Thu Jul 9 01:45:19 PDT 2020; root:xnu-6153.145.1~7/RELEASE_ARM64_T8010

Kernel UUID: 8553BA4F-50DC-3A66-B04B-483F3A49E6E7

iBoot version: iBoot-5540.140.12

secure boot?: YES

x86 EFI Boot State: 0xe

x86 System State: 0x0

x86 Power State: 0x0

x86 Shutdown Cause: 0x1

x86 Previous Power Transitions: 0x20002000200

PCIeUp link state: 0x94721614

Paniclog version: 13

Kernel slide: 0x0000000019628000

Kernel text base: 0xfffffff02062c000

mach_absolute_time: 0xa1af63d1cd

Epoch Time: sec usec

Boot : 0x5f1c6985 0x000d059c

Sleep : 0x5f1d1655 0x0003f1d3

Wake : 0x5f1d1682 0x0005d78f

Calendar: 0x5f1d16b2 0x0000a2e3

Panicked task 0xffffffe00088fc00: 2324 pages, 158 threads: pid 0: kernel_task

Panicked thread: 0xffffffe000c20548, backtrace: 0xffffffe016d534b0, tid: 300

lr: 0xfffffff020e80860 fp: 0xffffffe016d534f0

lr: 0xfffffff020e806bc fp: 0xffffffe016d53560

lr: 0xfffffff020f9b770 fp: 0xffffffe016d53610

lr: 0xfffffff02144d5d8 fp: 0xffffffe016d53620

lr: 0xfffffff020e80024 fp: 0xffffffe016d53990

lr: 0xfffffff020e8037c fp: 0xffffffe016d539e0

lr: 0xfffffff021bce974 fp: 0xffffffe016d53a00

lr: 0xfffffff0215f4cec fp: 0xffffffe016d53a30

lr: 0xfffffff0215e611c fp: 0xffffffe016d53aa0

lr: 0xfffffff0215e8044 fp: 0xffffffe016d53b50

lr: 0xfffffff0215e5854 fp: 0xffffffe016d53be0

lr: 0xfffffff0215accb8 fp: 0xffffffe016d53c10

lr: 0xfffffff0213bab14 fp: 0xffffffe016d53c50

lr: 0xfffffff0213ba398 fp: 0xffffffe016d53c90

lr: 0xfffffff021458514 fp: 0x0000000000000000

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Answer 12

Hunter34 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 22, 2020 5:05 PM in response to Tesserax

Sorry, yes, Catalina 10.15.6

No idea if I still need help on the kernel panics. I really hope not as this clean install was supposed to fix it. I posted this almost 2 hours ago. I just checked and it’s still showing 3h 30m at 3MB/s. I still hear hard-drive heads in motion. This is frustrating. It shouldn’t take over 24 hours to do a migration.

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Answer 13

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jul 25, 2020 10:55 AM in response to Hunter34

Yes, that would be a "clean" install. My concern here is having done the Migration Assistant restore may have put back something that may be the culprit of the kernel panics.
No problem. I'm on the Developer beta myself and was unable to get it to install as a VM under Parallels. Had to use another one of my Macs for this instead.
EtreCheck sometimes finds them as well, although I didn't see anything that stood out in the report you provided.
--
--
Not challenging your use, just pointing out that there were a number of them installed. These apps have been known to introduce performance issues ... even if not actively being used.
The Adobe installer should also provide you with the means to remove "all of the pieces." Of course, that is not always true in reality. EtreCheck does point out where they are located and you should be able to manually remove them.
The WindowsServer process is a core part of macOS, and acts as a liaison between your applications. As you can imagine the more apps running concurrently, the greater the demand will be for this process.
Yep, and mine is pretty much configured (internally) the same as yours. However, I do have only a single WD My Book Pro directly attached (I use a Synology NAS for my main storage & other needs,) other than a monitor, mouse, & keyboard. The latter two are Logitech wireless devices.

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Answer 14

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jul 26, 2020 9:03 AM in response to Hunter34

Per chance did you install 3rd party RAM or is the 32 GB in your mini installed by Apple when you purchased it? Just a hunch that I would like to rule out.

Try booting up in Safe Mode, and use your mini in this mode for, at least 6-8 hours, or until another kernel panic occurs. Does it?

Finally, please provide the full panic report via the Console app.

In the Console app sidebar, select the folder named Library/Logs.
Select the DiagnosticsReporter folder.
Select the .crash report of interest to view it and post it via the Additional text tool if you want assistance in interpreting it.

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Answer 15

Hunter34 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 26, 2020 10:16 AM in response to Tesserax

I do have 3rd party ram. Very reputable. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1333839-REG/crucial_ct2k16g4sfd8266_32gb_kit_16gbx2_ddr4.html

I installed it the day it got here. It’s been working fine since last September (2019.) I know that doesn’t mean it couldn’t go bad. Wouldn’t this have shown up in “D”iagnostics? There used to be a super extended Diagnostics for Macs in the past. “Perform Extended Test.” I didn’t see that option for my Mac. It just went straight into Diagnostics. Any other way to fully test the memory?

I did look in the /Library/Logs folder earlier and I did see one log with a _MEM_ error, but I don’t recall the full crash name and I’ve since blown the disk away and am trying a plain vanilla install with nothing else.

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Migrate taking a l-o-n-g time

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