Q: Time Machine backup very slow in Lion

You need to wait "for Spotlight to finish indexing /Volumes/Time Machine"

If you're backing up via WiFi, this could take hours.

Once Spotlght finishes indexing, the drive will be ejected.

Tony- Spotlight is done. Many hourly backups have been performed. The volume is not being dismounted from the desktop.

I had the same thing, hourly backups working fine but volume not being dismounted.  I also thought Spotlight wqs done but Console showed that backupd was still waiting for spotlight to finish indexing. And indeed, mds and mdworker were still indexing the backup drive (Activity Monitor). Hourly backups kept being performed and I could access the backups through time machine and all. Apart from the backup drive not being ejected, everything seemed to work fine.

First, I just let it run (it took 3 hours, making sure the computer doesn't go to sleep and connect to your backup drive with a wire).   After a while mds and mdworker processes started using a lot of CPU, but I let them be. And as I said, 3 hours later, the backup drive was ejected automatically and everything seemed to be working.

Unfortunately that was only for a day, after that I had the same problem again. I then repaired the backup drive through disk utility, deleted the spotlight index on that drive (sparsebundle) and started another backup. Time machine started the indexing all over and three hours later everything was fine again. All my backups were available and hourly backups perform just fine.

If this returns, I think I'll start over and clean out my backup drive. Would be a shame though, my oldest backup is from September 2009.  I will of course never use that but I'm a sentimental guy :-)

John Hammer1 wrote:

 

Tony- Spotlight is done. Many hourly backups have been performed. The volume is not being dismounted from the desktop.

If the TM Volume has backups from Snow Leopard, then Spotlight needs to re-index the Volume.  Hourly Backups will occur while this is happening.  The Volume will not be ejected until spotlight completes the index.  It took 5+ hours for me, and another user needed 11 hours, but once it's complete, TM will should be back to normal.

Apple should have poped-up a progress bar to inform us what is happening, similiar to a first time backup.

Thanks for the response, Tony. I've had it on for many hours at a stretch without sleep interruption before. But I guess it wasn't enough.

I haven't shut down, restarted, or slept (er, that is, my computer hasn't) since I ran the Disk Utility Repair Disk routine and deleted the index, so I'll let it go from here and report back what happens. I'll probably run out of patience in another 18 hours or so - I don't want to leave the computer running unattended while I'm out of the house for 2-3 days.

EarthBased wrote:

 

I deleted /Volumes/Mac-OS-X -KUGS-C01/Time Machine Backups/.Spotlight-V100".  So looks like I will start over.  Thx

Well I started over and backupd seems OK but MDS still is throwing the "AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1' error...

BACKUPD:

8/2/11 5:58:16.722 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup

8/2/11 5:58:17.254 PM com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://@Time%20Capsule%20KS._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data

8/2/11 5:58:17.706 PM com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/Data-1 using URL: afp://@Time%20Capsule%20KS._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data

8/2/11 5:58:17.922 PM com.apple.backupd: Creating disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Mac-OS-X -KUGS-C01.sparsebundle

8/2/11 5:59:06.993 PM com.apple.backupd: Failed to hide extension on /Volumes/Data-1/Mac-OS-X -KUGS-C01.sparsebundle, error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4 "The file “Mac-OS-X -KUGS-C01.sparsebundle” doesn’t exist." UserInfo=0x10f93dd20 {NSURL=/Volumes/Data-1/Mac-OS-X -KUGS-C01.sparsebundle/, NSFilePath=/Volumes/Data-1/Mac-OS-X -KUGS-C01.sparsebundle, NSUnderlyingError=0x10f903280 "The operation couldn’t be completed. No such file or directory"}.

8/2/11 5:59:08.744 PM com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN

8/2/11 5:59:11.085 PM com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Mac-OS-X -KUGS-C01.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

8/2/11 5:59:11.137 PM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

8/2/11 5:59:11.247 PM com.apple.backupd: Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume.  Enabling.

8/2/11 5:59:23.521 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup content size: 44.2 GB excluded items size: 18.3 GB for volume Macintosh HD

8/2/11 5:59:23.546 PM com.apple.backupd: 31.15 GB required (including padding), 463.19 GB available

8/2/11 5:59:23.594 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (101)

8/2/11 6:59:16.562 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 15.4 GB of 26.0 GB, 521316 of 632700 items

8/2/11 7:38:53.875 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 601122 files (23.7 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.

8/2/11 7:39:16.862 PM com.apple.backupd: 2.79 GB required (including padding), 436.43 GB available

8/2/11 7:39:16.863 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:40:17.751 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:41:17.960 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:42:18.239 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:43:18.691 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:44:19.883 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:45:20.302 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:46:21.308 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:47:21.995 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:48:22.989 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:49:24.104 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:50:24.750 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:51:25.135 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:52:25.357 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:53:25.629 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:54:26.128 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:55:26.761 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:56:27.289 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:57:28.026 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:58:28.567 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 7:59:29.161 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 8:00:29.702 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 8:01:30.471 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

8/2/11 8:03:41.589 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 1495 files (15.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

8/2/11 8:03:44.335 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning

8/2/11 8:03:44.335 PM com.apple.backupd: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist

8/2/11 8:03:44.478 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.

8/2/11 8:03:51.734 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine disk image.

8/2/11 8:03:52.193 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine network volume.

8/2/11 8:57:51.321 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup

8/2/11 8:57:52.593 PM com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://@Time%20Capsule%20KS._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data

8/2/11 8:57:53.196 PM com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/Data-1 using URL: afp://@Time%20Capsule%20KS._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data

8/2/11 8:58:04.430 PM com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN

8/2/11 8:58:06.963 PM com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Mac-OS-X -KUGS-C01.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

8/2/11 8:58:07.022 PM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

8/2/11 9:01:38.584 PM com.apple.backupd: 1.93 GB required (including padding), 434.74 GB available

8/2/11 9:02:32.198 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 1448 files (15.2 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

8/2/11 9:02:32.304 PM com.apple.backupd: 1.91 GB required (including padding), 434.74 GB available

8/2/11 9:02:36.896 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 496 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.

8/2/11 9:02:37.390 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning

8/2/11 9:02:37.390 PM com.apple.backupd: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist

8/2/11 9:02:37.402 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.

8/2/11 9:02:39.668 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine disk image.

8/2/11 9:02:39.944 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine network volume.

…..

8/3/11 2:57:49.103 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup

8/3/11 2:57:49.673 PM com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://@Time%20Capsule%20KS._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data

8/3/11 2:57:50.199 PM com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/Data-1 using URL: afp://Dan%@Time%20Capsule%20KS._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data

8/3/11 2:58:01.132 PM com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN

8/3/11 2:58:03.544 PM com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Mac-OS-X -KUGS-C01.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

8/3/11 2:58:03.635 PM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

8/3/11 3:01:38.955 PM com.apple.backupd: 1.93 GB required (including padding), 434.74 GB available

8/3/11 3:02:42.543 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 1609 files (15.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

8/3/11 3:02:42.628 PM com.apple.backupd: 1.91 GB required (including padding), 434.74 GB available

8/3/11 3:02:46.584 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 101 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.

8/3/11 3:02:47.049 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning

8/3/11 3:02:47.049 PM com.apple.backupd: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist

8/3/11 3:02:47.086 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.

8/3/11 3:02:49.055 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine disk image.

8/3/11 3:02:49.330 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine network volume.

MDS:

8/2/11 5:56:41.348 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/2/11 5:57:25.508 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:25.509 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:25.510 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:25.513 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:25.540 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:25.540 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:25.540 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:25.541 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:25.541 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:25.541 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:57:31.455 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/2/11 5:58:17.814 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/2/11 5:59:11.576 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.577 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.578 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.579 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.579 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.579 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.579 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.579 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.579 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.580 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.654 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.654 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:11.655 PM mds: (Warning) Volume: Work-around <rdar://problem/9118220>

8/2/11 5:59:23.547 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:1 for volume

8/2/11 8:03:44.264 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/2/11 8:57:53.270 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/2/11 8:58:06.126 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Root store set to FSOnly with matching create! (loaded:1)

8/2/11 8:58:06.128 PM mds: (Error) Volume: volume:0x7f98a11f4000 ********** Repairing FSOnly setting of root store.  (didBootstrap:0)

8/2/11 9:02:37.384 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/2/11 9:57:52.043 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/2/11 10:03:11.026 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/2/11 10:57:51.825 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/2/11 11:02:33.023 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/2/11 11:41:56.646 PM SubmitDiagInfo: Submitted shutdown stall report: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2011-07-27-071249_Mac-OS-X-KUGS-C01.shutdow nStall

8/2/11 11:42:10.765 PM SubmitDiagInfo: Submitted shutdown stall report: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2011-07-29-081917_Mac-OS-X-KUGS-C01.shutdow nStall

8/2/11 11:42:29.916 PM SubmitDiagInfo: Submitted shutdown stall report: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2011-07-30-113258_Mac-OS-X-KUGS-C01.shutdow nStall

8/2/11 11:42:58.208 PM SubmitDiagInfo: Submitted shutdown stall report: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2011-07-31-070913_Mac-OS-X-KUGS-C01.shutdow nStall

8/2/11 11:43:15.044 PM SubmitDiagInfo: Submitted shutdown stall report: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2011-08-01-064747_Mac-OS-X-KUGS-C01.shutdow nStall

8/2/11 11:43:40.905 PM SubmitDiagInfo: Submitted shutdown stall report: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2011-08-02-085515_Mac-OS-X-KUGS-C01.shutdow nStall

8/2/11 11:43:50.197 PM SubmitDiagInfo: Submitted shutdown stall report: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2011-08-02-133915_Mac-OS-X-KUGS-C01.shutdow nStall

8/2/11 11:57:51.699 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 12:02:42.530 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 12:57:51.404 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 1:03:08.651 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 1:57:51.529 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 2:02:45.594 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 2:57:51.263 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 3:02:53.913 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 3:57:51.540 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 4:02:42.830 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 4:57:51.077 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 5:02:45.562 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 5:57:53.528 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 6:02:42.176 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 6:57:50.838 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 7:02:47.056 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 7:57:50.716 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 8:03:01.319 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 8:57:50.586 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 9:03:00.313 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 9:57:50.546 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 10:02:38.070 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 10:57:50.337 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 11:02:42.624 AM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 11:57:50.256 AM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 12:02:51.949 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 12:57:50.095 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 1:02:59.046 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 1:57:50.340 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 2:02:53.238 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 2:57:50.195 PM mds: ERROR: _MDSChannelInitForAFP: AFPSendSpotLightRPC failed -1

8/3/11 3:02:47.044 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

8/3/11 3:20:53.811 PM mds: (Error) Backup: doBackupIndexFile could not stat backup location /.MobileBackups/Computer/2011-08-03-145751/Volume/Library/Frameworks/Adobe AIR.framework/Versions/Current /.MobileBackups/Computer/2011-08-03-145751/Volume/Library/Frameworks/Adobe AIR.framework/Versions/Current. Error 2 with uid 0

John Hammer1 wrote:

 

....I'll probably run out of patience in another 18 hours or so - I don't want to leave the computer running unattended while I'm out of the house for 2-3 days.

You can eject the TM volume and shut down.  The Spotlight indexing will start from where it left-off the next time that the TM Volume is mounted.

I did not know that, either! Thanks, Tony. You've been very helpful. Not my topic or I'd douse you with some points.

@Tony

thanks, what you say makes sense and is the same that I figured out the last couple of days. Do you have any explanation as to why after the first couple of hours of indexing and a day or so of working like it should, it started to reindex again?

Could that have been caused by disabling local snapshots through the Terminal?

thanks

Reye

ReyeBan wrote:

 

@Tony

thanks, what you say makes sense and is the same that I figured out the last couple of days. Do you have any explanation as to why after the first couple of hours of indexing and a day or so of working like it should, it started to reindex again?

Could that have been caused by disabling local snapshots through the Terminal?

thanks

Reye

Not sure why it's re-indexing again (Disabling local snapshots should not have any effect).

Have you tried repairing the TM Volume?  (Turn-off TM in Preferences, then Mount the TM Volume, and click it to open the volume, then click the spase bundle to mount the backups, then in Disk Utility, select the sparse bundle and click repair (this will take awhile to complete):

Tony

I know I should have done that first, not my smartest move :-/.  So no, I haven't completed that repair. What I did was deleting the spotlight index file on the TM sparsebundle and do a backup to restart indexing. I figured that the original index file might be corrupt or something. Now (after the reindexing) everything seems to work fine again and what gives me hope is that now, in the TM star wars view, I have the pink timeline on the right showing all my backup points. When I did that after it had indexed for the first time, there were some gaps over the last two months ('greyed' out timeline points). Strangely enough, I could still navigate to those points and restore documents from them. Taht's what made me think that the indexing had gone wrong or the file was corrupted or something.

I'm gone wait another hour to see if automatic backup is working fine again and after that I will start the repair process you explained and run it overnight. Or would you not do that unless it started indexing again?

Reye

ReyeBan wrote:

 

Tony

....I'm gone wait another hour to see if automatic backup is working fine again and after that I will start the repair process you explained and run it overnight. Or would you not do that unless it started indexing again?

Reye

Well, you could try verify first to see if you have any errors.

Do you have a Time Capsule, or a TM Volume on a NAS?

I have mine on a Mac mini that back-up my MBA to.  When I repair the TM Volume, I do it from the Mac mini, which is much faster than if I did it on my MBA via WiFi

Tony T1 wrote:

 

Well, you could try verify first to see if you have any errors.

Do you have a Time Capsule, or a TM Volume on a NAS?

I have mine on a Mac mini that back-up my MBA to.  When I repair the TM Volume, I do it from the Mac mini, which is much faster than if I did it on my MBA via WiFi

Maybe I'll do that, verify instead of repair. But on the other hand, maybe better to repair since if there are errors, I will want to run repair anyway and I suppose that these take about the same amount of time?

I have a 2TB Time Capsule, but I've been connecting through ethernet and will also do that for verify/repair. Unfortunately, i can't run it from the TC itself :-). Do you use the mini as a server? Are you running Lion or SL Server?

ReyeBan wrote:

 

I have a 2TB Time Capsule, but I've been connecting through ethernet and will also do that for verify/repair. Unfortunately, i can't run it from the TC itself :-). Do you use the mini as a server? Are you running Lion or SL Server?

I use the mini as a server for a squeezebox music server, storage of my Media files that I access via WiFi from my MBA, and for my TM Volume (I have an external USB drive attached to the mini),   I just have Lion running on the mini.

If you can, connect to the TC via an ethernet cable to do the verify/repair as it will be faster.

Take a look at: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/A5.html

ReyeBan wrote:

. . .

Maybe I'll do that, verify instead of repair. But on the other hand, maybe better to repair since if there are errors, I will want to run repair anyway and I suppose that these take about the same amount of time?

Exactly. There's no point to run Verify on anything but your OSX drive (because you can't repair it while running from it).