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User profile for user: elliswicks
elliswicks Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Time Machine difficulties!

Hi guys,


I've been using my Seagate Portable Media 500GB external hard drive for Time Machine on Mountain Lion.


Time Machine's backup failed, with the message "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."


Using Disk Utility, I verified the disk, which asked me to repair it. On trying to repair it, I received the message "Couldn't unmount disk". I received this message also when trying to Erase or Partition the drive.


I then booted into the Recovery HD and successfully repaired the disk started Time Machine all over again.


After a couple of days, the same thing happened again, it seems this is a temporary solution.


I have tried Total Resets of TM, which had no effect.


I have no other hard drives plugged into TM and the hard drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).


I've also tried using a new power cable for the drive and I'm having the same results.


Any advice on what I can do next would be great!


Thanks.

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Dec 13, 2012 6:17 AM

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9 replies
User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

Dec 13, 2012 8:54 AM in response to elliswicks

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.

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.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.

Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message from a failed backup. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Post the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear.

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

When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.

Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into a message.


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

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User profile for user: elliswicks
elliswicks Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Dec 16, 2012 7:27 AM in response to Linc Davis

I hope this is what you meant. Sorry if I have included too much. I look forward to your reply!


16/12/2012 15:11:33.000 com.apple.backupd[365]: Starting automatic backup

16/12/2012 15:11:33.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:11:46.868 com.apple.backupd[365]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Seagate/Backups.backupdb

16/12/2012 15:11:55.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:12:09.938 mdworker[367]: Unable to talk to lsboxd

16/12/2012 15:12:10.000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(371) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd

16/12/2012 15:12:16.727 sandboxd[371]: ([367]) mdworker(367) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd

16/12/2012 15:12:26.605 iTunes[179]: Allocator race detected: transaction is not verified for -107/19 - iTunesPrefs

16/12/2012 15:12:26.658 iTunes[179]: Allocator race detected: transaction is not verified for -107/19 - iTunesPrefs.plist

16/12/2012 15:12:26.853 fseventsd[46]: Events arrived for /Volumes/ELLIS after an unmount request! Re-initializing.

16/12/2012 15:12:26.853 fseventsd[46]: creating a dls for /Volumes/ELLIS but it already has one...

16/12/2012 15:12:34.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:12:34.229 com.apple.backupd[365]: Error -36 applying backup protections to /Volumes/Seagate/Backups.backupdb/Ellis’s iMac

16/12/2012 15:12:34.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:12:34.235 com.apple.backupd[365]: Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.HostUUID path:/Volumes/Seagate/Backups.backupdb/Ellis’s iMac size:37

16/12/2012 15:12:34.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:12:34.266 com.apple.backupd[365]: Error -36 applying backup protections to /Volumes/Seagate/Backups.backupdb/Ellis’s iMac

16/12/2012 15:12:34.266 com.apple.backupd[365]: Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.HostUUID path:/Volumes/Seagate/Backups.backupdb/Ellis’s iMac size:37

16/12/2012 15:12:44.354 com.apple.backupd[365]: Backup failed with error: 2

16/12/2012 15:12:44.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:14:13.182 mdworker[391]: Unable to talk to lsboxd

16/12/2012 15:14:13.229 sandboxd[393]: ([391]) mdworker(391) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd

16/12/2012 15:14:13.000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(393) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd

16/12/2012 15:14:28.178 com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: _handle_timer heartbeat detected detach for device 0x1-192.168.0.14:0!

16/12/2012 15:14:28.179 iTunes[179]: _receive_message (thread 0x11561a000): Could not securely receive message size: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL (Early EOF reached)

16/12/2012 15:14:28.183 iTunes[179]: AMDeviceCopyValue failed for ProductVersion

16/12/2012 15:14:28.193 com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxConnect Client 0x102205f70-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes requesting attach to 0x1:62078 failed, no such device

16/12/2012 15:14:28.193 iTunes[179]: AMDeviceConnect (thread 0x115597000): Could not connect to lockdown port (62078) on device 1 - 25f9e387a62faf46ff90e0dcf36b914cfaba544d: 0xe8000084.

16/12/2012 15:16:14.749 mdworker[400]: Unable to talk to lsboxd

16/12/2012 15:16:14.799 sandboxd[402]: ([400]) mdworker(400) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd

16/12/2012 15:16:15.000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(402) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd

16/12/2012 15:18:48.436 usbmuxd[26]: lockssl_handshake (thread 0x100781000): SSL handshake fatal lower level error -1: SSL_ERROR_WANT_READ

16/12/2012 15:19:13.437 usbmuxd[26]: lockssl_handshake (thread 0x100781000): SSL handshake fatal lower level error -1: SSL_ERROR_WANT_READ

16/12/2012 15:19:23.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:19:23.816 fseventsd[46]: read_disk_log: problems with history file: /Volumes/Seagate/.fseventsd/00000000000004b4 (fd -1, errno 5 ; is_reg 0; uid 0/0 gid 0/0)

16/12/2012 15:19:23.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:19:23.821 fseventsd[46]: read_disk_log: problems with history file: /Volumes/Seagate/.fseventsd/00000000000004b4 (fd -1, errno 5 ; is_reg 0; uid 0/0 gid 0/0)

16/12/2012 15:19:23.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:19:23.827 fseventsd[46]: read_disk_log: problems with history file: /Volumes/Seagate/.fseventsd/00000000000004b4 (fd -1, errno 5 ; is_reg 0; uid 0/0 gid 0/0)

16/12/2012 15:19:23.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:19:23.833 fseventsd[46]: read_disk_log: problems with history file: /Volumes/Seagate/.fseventsd/00000000000004b4 (fd -1, errno 5 ; is_reg 0; uid 0/0 gid 0/0)

16/12/2012 15:19:23.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:19:23.839 fseventsd[46]: read_disk_log: problems with history file: /Volumes/Seagate/.fseventsd/00000000000004b4 (fd -1, errno 5 ; is_reg 0; uid 0/0 gid 0/0)

16/12/2012 15:19:23.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:19:23.844 fseventsd[46]: read_disk_log: problems with history file: /Volumes/Seagate/.fseventsd/00000000000004b4 (fd -1, errno 5 ; is_reg 0; uid 0/0 gid 0/0)

16/12/2012 15:19:35.612 com.apple.kextcache[344]: Kernel file /mach_kernel does not contain requested arch: i386

16/12/2012 15:19:38.438 usbmuxd[26]: lockssl_handshake (thread 0x100781000): SSL handshake fatal lower level error -1: SSL_ERROR_WANT_READ

16/12/2012 15:19:51.335 com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: SCEDeviceSocketCallback USBMuxRecvWithTimeout failed for 0x100500870-usbmuxd/NULL:0->0x2-192.168.0.5:0:0: 60 - Operation timed out

16/12/2012 15:19:51.335 usbmuxd[26]: lockssl_handshake (thread 0x100781000): SSL handshake controlled failure 0: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL (Early EOF reached)

16/12/2012 15:19:51.336 usbmuxd[26]: AMDeviceStartSession (thread 0x100781000): Could not start session: kAMDDeviceDisconnectedError

16/12/2012 15:19:51.336 usbmuxd[26]: _AMDevicePreflightWorker (thread 0x100781000): Pair worker could not pair with device 2: 0xe8000084

16/12/2012 15:19:51.336 com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleDeviceAttachHelperCallback preflighting failed for WiFi device 0x2-192.168.0.5:0: 0xe8000084. Ignoring device.

16/12/2012 15:19:52.281 com.apple.kextcache[344]: Created prelinked kernel /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/kernelcache.

16/12/2012 15:19:57.879 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[165]: (com.apple.KerberosHelper.LKDCHelper[317]) Exited with code: 1

16/12/2012 15:21:30.000 kernel[0]: disk1s2: I/O error.

16/12/2012 15:21:30.957 fseventsd[46]: read_disk_log: problems with history file: /Volumes/Seagate/.fseventsd/00000000000004b4 (fd -1, errno 5 ; is_reg 0; uid 0/0 gid 0/0)

16/12/2012 15:23:31.934 mdworker[459]: Unable to talk to lsboxd

16/12/2012 15:23:31.982 sandboxd[460]: ([459]) mdworker(459) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd

16/12/2012 15:23:32.000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(460) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

Dec 16, 2012 3:08 PM in response to elliswicks

There are essentially four possible points of failure:


  1. The data port on your Mac, or some other internal component.
  2. The data cable to the external hard drive.
  3. The drive enclosure.
  4. The drive mechanism.


You can try to localize the failure to one of those components by switching them around. For example, you can plug the cable into a different port on the Mac; you can use another cable; you can test with another drive; and so on. You can also buy an inexpensive drive dock or enclosure for about $50 or less and put the drive mechanism into it. That may not solve your problem, however.


If you're asking for some kind of magic button you can push to solve this problem at no cost and with no effort, there isn't one.

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

Dec 19, 2012 2:39 PM in response to elliswicks

You might be able to salvage the mechanism of your existing by drive by removing it from the enclosure and putting in a USB/FireWire dock, such as you can find on Amazon, for example. There's one called "Voyager" that's relatively cheap. If the drive doesn't work, buy another bare hard drive. I don't have a specific recommendation, but avoid drives marketed as "eco" or "green," as they tend not to work reliably with Time Machine. Before you do any of that, make sure the problem isn't just a bad cable.

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Time Machine difficulties!

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