Time machine issues

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Time machine issues

Had this problem with 10.7.2 and 10.7.3. Hook up extermal USB drive dock (WD 2TB) and at first can eject and tell it to backup now, will then also backup on schedual fine. THEN within a few hours I get the message that time machine backup up failed, not able to make backup up folder, then I am unable to eject drive. I get a message saying that it can't eject volume because another program may be using it. Quit all applications, relaunch finder. No Dice. Restart, all is well, for an hour or two.

I have installed time machine widget buddy, get this

Starting standard backup

Backing up to: /Volumes/BIG TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb

Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.HostUUID path:/Volumes/BIG TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb/Brett Parman‚Äôs Mac Pro size:37

Backup failed with error: 2

I have reset Time machine by deleting /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist which worked! for an hour or two, same as restart. This drive has been working fine when hooked up in same drive dock hooked up via eSATA on Lion since Lion release. Problem comes when hooked up USB. I changed because the eSATA was actually SATA via lower optical bay and thus not hot-swappable and the down time for backups via dock had to be restart and keeping me from backing up due to the hassle.

ANNOYING PLEASE HELP, much appreciated!

Mac Pro (Early 2009), Mac OS X (10.7.3), Mac Pro 4,1, 8-core 2.26, 12G RAM

Posted on Feb 4, 2012 6:02 PM

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Answer 1

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Pondini

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Feb 4, 2012 8:16 PM in response to brett Parman

brett Parman wrote:

. . .

This drive has been working fine when hooked up in same drive dock hooked up via eSATA on Lion since Lion release. Problem comes when hooked up USB.

Then it's not OSX, Time Machine, or the drive itself.

It's somewhere in the USB chain: port, dock, cable, or drive controller. Try different USB ports (no hubs or daisy-chaining); cables; and combinations of the two (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another).

If none of those, it sounds like it's eiether the dock or the USB part of the controller in the drive.

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Answer 2

brett Parman Author

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Feb 5, 2012 9:21 AM in response to Pondini

Ahhh, thank you very much Pondini for the quick response, and your troubleshooting. I had read some other threads where you helped resolve similar isues and got the idea about deleting that file from the library from you ultimately! I have changed the USB cable after a restart though so time will tell the results but I am hopeful and will fill you in. It was and is plugged in directly into middle port of 3 USB ports on back of MP.

One detail I left out before that I had tried was disc utility verify disc. I ran it previous to posting my question and under verify it would say that disc appeared to be ok, but when I would click repair disc I would get a message saying that it was unable to unmount disc. Which I was also unable to do manually though, don't think I ever tried that command when I was able to manually eject so it is probably irrelevant. Ran both verify and repair after changing cable upon reboot and both verify and repair reported appears to be ok so that makes me feel good at least that something is different. Thanks Again!!

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Answer 3

Pondini

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38,863 points

Feb 5, 2012 9:29 AM in response to brett Parman

brett Parman wrote:

. . .

when I would click repair disc I would get a message saying that it was unable to unmount disc.

That usuallly means some other process (such as a backup) is using the disk. It can also mean the file system on the disk is damaged, and OSX is trying to figure out what it is, and won't quit doing that. Sometimes Restarting will work, but sometimes you have to start from another source (like the Recovery HD) to do the repair.

Ran both verify and repair after changing cable upon reboot and both verify and repair reported appears to be ok so that makes me feel good at least that something is different. Thanks Again!!

Sounds good! Keep us posted.

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Answer 4

brett Parman Author

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Feb 5, 2012 3:14 PM in response to Pondini

No dice, not the cable, trying different port, thinking prob dock

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Answer 5

Pondini

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38,863 points

Feb 5, 2012 3:16 PM in response to brett Parman

Rats. 😟

I have no idea how to troubleshoot the dock, or drive controller. You may have to contact the maker.

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Answer 6

brett Parman Author

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Feb 5, 2012 6:13 PM in response to Pondini

Its the toaster 😟 Guess I'll run it eSATA and either get another toaster for rotating backups or a Pci sata card.

Thank you so much for your time diagnosing a $30 peripheral! Saved my sanity at least!!

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Answer 7

Pondini

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Feb 5, 2012 6:36 PM in response to brett Parman

You're quite welcome, just sorry there wasn't an easy solution.

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Answer 8

foobar1

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Feb 12, 2012 12:05 AM in response to brett Parman

I have the same issue and already went through 2 usb docks. A few backups work and then they stop. What works for me is to eject the disk and then powercycle the dock so the disk remounts. I figured I will automate this and fix this every 6 hours from root crontab. This is my root crontab to eject and mount the USB disk:

bash-3.2# crontab -l

#* * * * * date > /tmp/,.x 2>&1

0 0,6,12,18 * * * /usr/sbin/diskutil eject /dev/disk1; /usr/sbin/diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1 >> /tmp/,.eject 2>&1

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Answer 9

foobar1

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Feb 12, 2012 9:06 AM in response to foobar1

after few hours of tests it looks like this crontab needs a fix. The eject will fail during that time bank fails. It needs forceful unmount like this:

bash-3.2# crontab -l

0 0,6,12,18 * * * /usr/sbin/umount -f /dev/disk1s2; /usr/sbin/diskutil eject /dev/disk1; /usr/sbin/diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1 >> /tmp/,.eject 2>&1

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Answer 10

foobar1

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Feb 15, 2012 2:18 PM in response to foobar1

yet one more improvement - now it actually schedules the backup after the remount:

bash-3.2# crontab -l

0 21 * * * ( set -x; sync; sync; sync; date; /sbin/umount -f /dev/disk1s2; /usr/sbin/diskutil eject /dev/disk1; /usr/sbin/diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1; /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/backupd-helper -auto ) >> /var/log/,.backup 2>&1

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