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Time Machine backing up entire drive each time.

I use a 500 GB FireWire drive to share files between my two computers (iMac and MacBook Pro) in order to get better performance out of programs like Logic, and not have to worry about syncing my files. Obviously, due to the portable nature of all my data, it is IMPERATIVE that I have a backup.


I have a 2TB Lacie drive plugged into my imac which backs up the iMac and the External dive when it's available, the MacBook Pro is setup such that it backs up to the same drive over the network when it is available. The MBP does NOT backup the external drive when it's connected, it only backs up from the imac. I have several other drives daisy chained on the imac of crap files that don't matter, and they don't back up at all (the external is added to the end of this chain, and the Time machine disk is first, though I can't imagine how this could have any effect.)


Anyways, every time I work on the MBP and then re-plug the drive into the iMac to continue work and do a backup, the time machine starts from scratch and backs up the entire drive.


I thought that my backup may have been corrupt, so I wiped the time machine disk and started fresh, but it's still doing it. This was not happening a few months ago, so I'm not sure what's changed.


Any thoughts?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2), 27", 2.66 i5, 16 GB RAM, 1TB HDD

Posted on May 4, 2012 1:12 PM

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18 replies

May 4, 2012 2:43 PM in response to ChickenMuffin

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:


Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)


In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.


If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.


Select "system.log" from the file list. Enter "backupd" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. Post the messages from the last backup, beginning with "Starting standard backup."


Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Do not post many repetitions of the same message.


Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

May 4, 2012 3:10 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hopefully this helps, though it doesn't offer me any clues... It's still currently doing a full backup so I don't have any log info on what happens when it reaches the end yet, though I could get one from the history I suppose.


May 4 14:01:17 Seans-iMac com.apple.backupd[16903]: Starting standard backup

May 4 14:01:17 Seans-iMac com.apple.backupd[16903]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb

May 4 14:01:18 Seans-iMac com.apple.backupd[16903]: Deep event scan at path:/Volumes/External HD reason:must scan subdirs|

May 4 14:01:18 Seans-iMac com.apple.backupd[16903]: Finished scan

May 4 14:01:55 Seans-iMac com.apple.backupd[16903]: 284.85 GB required (including padding), 650.33 GB available

May 4 15:01:18 Seans-iMac com.apple.backupd[16903]: Copied 101.2 GB of 236.0 GB, 14318 of 176372 items

May 4 16:01:19 Seans-iMac com.apple.backupd[16903]: Copied 201.7 GB of 236.0 GB, 108983 of 176372 items

May 4, 2012 4:43 PM in response to ChickenMuffin

I'm going by the information you provided, which shows that most, but not all, the data on the drive was backed up. If the information you give me is wrong or incomplete, then what I give you will be wrong too.


After a backup finishes, immediately start a new backup manually without having touched anything on the drive. Does TM still back up the same amount of data?

May 4, 2012 7:28 PM in response to ChickenMuffin

So the backup finished. I ejected it and re-mounted it with disk utility. The backup ran in about 2 seconds with no significant updates.


I ejected, unplugged the drive and re-inserted it into the imac and same thing. No sugnificant updates.


It must have to do with sharing the drive, which is extremely annoying... is there any workaround?

Time Machine backing up entire drive each time.

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