Time machine taking over 48 hours to back up?!!

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Level 1

31 points

Time machine taking over 48 hours to back up?!!

I finally got this 'Time Machine' to work, & am now regretting it; it's been on ALL NIGHT; ALL DAY; and is telling me it still needs to take another 12 hours?! This is insane. This is the first back-up, but I omitted all my photos from the back-up, so it is ONLY backing up around 59GB; this cannot take 48 hours, surely?! I've been previously backing up photos manually by dragging & dropping & have already copied across around 58GB to the hard drive in just a few hours. Is there something wrong with it? Will it ever finish?

What will happen if I just stop it; will all of the stuff it's copied so far vanish? Or can I re-start it & it will simply finish off where it left off?

Apart from anything else I really do not like to leave my computer on for this length of time!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Oct 3, 2012 12:52 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 3, 2012 12:58 PM in response to AliWonder

Are you doing your backup wirelessly? It will go much faster connected by Ethernet cable.

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Answer 2

AliWonder Author

Level 1

31 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:09 PM in response to AliWonder

The time is getting longer! It's now telling me it has another 13 hours to go; a few minutes ago it said 12! I'm starting to get very, very worried that this thing will never stop.....

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Answer 3

AliWonder Author

Level 1

31 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:10 PM in response to laundry bleach

Sorry I didn't see this reply - I have the Hard Drive plugged into the computer via USB; that is all. It's a Seagate drive; it didn't come with an ethernet cable.

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Answer 4

RRFS

Level 5

4,522 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:21 PM in response to AliWonder

Is the USB ExHD formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?

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Answer 5

Kort

Level 3

828 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:32 PM in response to AliWonder

The first back-up is always the longest, though yours seems excessive. USB can be slow though. RRFS makes a good point that your back-up should be in the correct format. I would say let it finish is possible, and if subsequent back-ups take a long time then reformat the back-up drive and start over. Something seems amiss.

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Answer 6

AliWonder Author

Level 1

31 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:36 PM in response to RRFS

I'm sorry I have no idea what you're asking; I don't know what you mean by 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? I bought the hard drive specifically for use with this Mac; I plugged it in & copied across around 58MB of files from the Mac hard drive with no problem; I did it in small parts but the total thing only took a few hours. I was then advised to do this 'total back-up', which is now taking several days to only back up 59MB. Why is life so complicatd with Macs?! I'm used to just plugging things in & they work, no fuss or bother.

I really would like to stop it now; but need some advice as to whether what has already been copied across over the past 28 hours will actually be on the HD, or will I have to start all over again? Second question; clearly it is easier to just drag & drop files across to the HD - this Time Machine thing is useless - but I am not totally sure which files it is copying. Would I just copy everything from 'My computer' / applications, etc?

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Answer 7

AliWonder Author

Level 1

31 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:40 PM in response to Kort

Apologies Kort - I was responding to the earlier post by RRFS when you added this. This is really turning into a nightmare - reformat the drive?! I've already spent hours carefully copying across all of my photos, which took long enough; I cannot face re-formatting & having to do it all again!

And I still don't understand the point about 'back-up should be in the correct format'? I;ve been backing up for years with Windows & have never had to put anything into any 'format' - the files are just copied across to the HD - simple! WHY is life so complicated with Macs?!

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Answer 8

RRFS

Level 5

4,522 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:46 PM in response to AliWonder

Most hard drives are shipped in a Windows file format. Mac OS uses a very different file format and can write to a FAT32 (Windows) format but it takes time and it won't read it well. New drives for Macs should be erased and reformatted for Mac OS and you should never install the junk software that manages the drives as it will typically cause problems down the road. Open Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility and highlight your drive and then find which format you have on the drive.

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Answer 9

Oct 3, 2012 1:47 PM in response to AliWonder

He is not talking about the format of the files, but the format of the hard drive volume. Many drives come pre-formatted for Windows (guess why) and while Macs will read and (usually) write to those formats it will work better if the drive is formatted to be used by a Mac.

To do this, open Disk Utility on the Mac (found in /Applications/Utilities) and select the external hard drive. Go to the Erase tab. What format is selected below? If it is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) you don't need to do anything, but if something else, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then click the Erase... button.

It only takes a few seconds to erase.

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Answer 10

AliWonder Author

Level 1

31 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:48 PM in response to AliWonder

I also do not understand this business about it keeping several different back-ups 'until the hard drive is full'; why would it keep copying the same things? I only want one back-up copy of all my files.

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Answer 11

Kort

Level 3

828 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:50 PM in response to AliWonder

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is a HD format specific to OSX. Others can be used, but I believe Time Machine requires that one. I recently started using Time Machine as well and assure you that it is not useless. Before that I back-up using a drive mirroring program named SuperDuper! that is great for backing up your entire drive as a bootable disk. I still use it since I've found redundancy to be important. Anyway, I bout a WD hard drive and reformated it using Disk Utility before starting to use it with Time Machine. The first backup ran overnight, but the subsequent ones are fairly speedy.

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Answer 12

RRFS

Level 5

4,522 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:50 PM in response to AliWonder

Here is the very best tutorial for Time Machine:

Pondini's Time Machine FAQ

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Answer 13

AliWonder Author

Level 1

31 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:51 PM in response to laundry bleach

Thanks - Sorry! We keep typing replies all at the same time! Okay I understand - yes I did format it specifically for use only with a MAC! It asked me this at the start when I plugged it in, & I haven't used it with any other software. Will have a look in disk utility.

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Answer 14

Kort

Level 3

828 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:54 PM in response to AliWonder

"I also do not understand this business about it keeping several different back-ups 'until the hard drive is full'; why would it keep copying the same things? I only want one back-up copy of all my files."

I don't believe it copies the same files over again. Rather I think it copies different versions of the same files. This is in case you need to return to a version of a file that worked properly or had not been edited after a certain point. Believe me, this is a handy feature, esp. for people that write and have different versions of a specific file.

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Answer 15

Kort

Level 3

828 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:55 PM in response to AliWonder

AliWonder wrote:

I also do not understand this business about it keeping several different back-ups 'until the hard drive is full'; why would it keep copying the same things? I only want one back-up copy of all my files.

If that is so, then SuperDuper! might be a better fit for you. But Time Machine will give you a backup of your HD, and you can choose from which date it was backed up that you want to restore from.

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