TimeMachine corrupted volume

For some reason, there seems to be problems using Firewire, not only with Drobo drives, but with other drives as well. Until this is resolved, most people have reverted to using USB.

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

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The only way a volume becomes corrupted is that the storage device hosting it, or the computer to which it's attached, malfunctions. If you have a volume that's repeatedly corrupted, that's what's happening.

Eric Root wrote:

For some reason, there seems to be problems using Firewire, not only with Drobo drives, but with other drives as well.

Really? What's that based on?

I use a Firewire drive for Time Machine, CarbonCopyCloner, and other things, without issue. And I've not seen any reports of a general problem with Firewire.

I've read several discussions where people were having problems with Firewire, but the drive worked successfully with USB. If you read the OP, Tor typed the same thing. I'm not claiming Firewire is bad, but there are people who are having problems with it. Cable?

Eric Root wrote:

. . .

I'm not claiming Firewire is bad,

Your post sure reads that way to me.

but there are people who are having problems with it. Cable?

There will always be a few folks having trouble with something; I just haven't seen any general problem with Firewire.

But yes, any time there's drive trouble, it's possible there's a bad cable or connector, or the Firewire chipset in the drive enclosure, or the drive itself. If a particular multi-interface drive consistently works fine on one interface but not another, then the drive itself is probably ok.

Hi

Closing down your mac while Time Machine is Backing up will corrupt the drive everytime. If this is still happening If it is corrupted when you next start up it could be that time machine was running when you closed down. This is what was happening to me. The problem is it is diffucult to remember to check that its running when you close down I always forget to check. Also usb does not work with time machine that well if at all.

Samuel Dyer wrote:

Hi

Closing down your mac while Time Machine is Backing up will corrupt the drive everytime.

Not necessarily. If you mean putting it to sleep or doing a controlled Shut Down, no, that will "close out" the session on the disk properly. That will just cancel the backup, and TM will fix it automatically the next time.

If you mean a forced power off, power failure, or disconnecting a drive without ejecting, then yes, it's quite possible to corrupt the data.

I don't do a forced shutdown, just a normal. I don't let it run for 60 seconds, but shutdown fron the menu topleft. If timemachine is not running everything is fine. If I shutdown in that same way while time machine is running my drive is corrupted. I am not sure about this but I have a vague memory of time machine finishing it's back-up before allowing the machine to shut down. That's my external drive used for TM back-up

It won't finish a backup, but it will cancel it gracefully, if it has time. Then there won't be a problem when it restarts, other than taking longer to figure out what needs to be backed-up.

For some reason, it could be Seagate drives, this doesn't happen with me. It was only when I stopped shutting down with TM running did my problems stop. I think there has been problems with seagate drives on this issue especially with USB, the sent me a Firewire 800 to try to cure the problem, but it still persisted, but I have also come accross WD drives also suffering in the same way but not so widespread as the seagate.

I have also recently added Seagates download to stop the Seagate going to sleep whether that worked or not I don't know.

But now the only thing that works is the closing down method.

I would be interested to know if it has worked for anyone elso out there. Also removing the 'com.apple.TimeMachine.plist' before I started from scratch helped.