Error Occurred While Creating the Backup Folder

hotwheels 22 wrote:

. . .

i am getting a failure "Unable to Complete Backup/ Time Machine Could not Complete the Backup" with the above explanation and i am not seeing an FAQ of this on J Pondini's excellent set of documents (what a job!).

Thanks! But it must not be all that good if you didn't see the reference and link to Time Machine - Troubleshooting. 😉

See #C10 there.

hotwheels 22 wrote:

. . .

i am selecting the partition under this (i only have one since this is my Time Machine backup) but when i try and run this I get an error indicating that it cannot unmount the volume.

That means some other process is trying to use it.

Verify Disk OTOH on this volume says it is OK..

Then you don't need to repair it. 🙂 (If it had found errors, sometimes if you Restart your Mac, the process that was trying to use it will let go so you can run the repair; if not, yes, you'd need to follow the procedure for your startup drive.)

Try the other things in #C10.

How old is this drive?

There might have been a temporary connection problem -- make sure all connections are snug and secure; try different ports, cables, and combinations (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another).

hotwheels 22 wrote:

. . .

in any event i really do hope they have given you an honorary doctorate along with a some travel stipend or something.

😁 😁 😁

You're quite welcome. 🙂 Keep us posted.

See #C6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting -- mostly same fixes as #C10.

The drive may only be 2 months old, but it sure seems to be failing. 😟 That does happen sometimes.

Double-check all the connections, try different ports & cables, but it sounds like time to contact the maker.

hotwheels 22 wrote:

. . .

i just had /two/ 2 TB internal Western Digital Black Caviar drives fail in the last four or five months with the second one just getting replaced about two weeks ago. i still have the old one here waiting to get mailed back

this 3 TB G-Tech drive went back due to some dumb issue with data on it corrupting my boot procedure and i just did my first backup on this drive on April 28th!

i am using firewire 800 on each end with the connection to the back of the computer.

What are these drives plugged-in to? If directly to a wall socket, try a good (ie, not cheap) surge protector, or, better, a U.P.S. system. If the drives are getting power spikes, dips, or blips, it certainly won't do them any good, and may cause damage.

And if you haven't tried new cables, do so. They can have invisible damage. Not likely, but possible.

what do i tell the manufacturer if Disk Utility says it is verified?

All that does is verify the directory structure; it tests nothing about the disk hardware or electronics at all.

should i run a Tech Tools to see if there are bad sectors

Run any diagnostics you can. They may or may not find what's wrong, but if you got 'em, use 'em.

or do i just tell them that it is acting up with Time Machine?

You might try copying folders with lots (ie, thousands) of sub-folders to it, such as the top-level System, Library, or Applications folders. Try it several times. What Time Machine does is a bit more involved than that, but if you eventually see similar problems, it will be a bit more clear.

hotwheels 22 wrote:

. . .

is it possible it is getting overloaded in some way?

I don't think so. I've had very good luck with APC.

i mean, it sounds like i basically need to use new cables and run diagnostics and see if i can get the backup working regularly.

I'd be inclined to run them and see if anything shows errors. If so, you know to contact the maker.

I posted in a hurry before (on my way to the Doc). You might want to check your logs for things like I/O errors. Use the Console app, and filter for I/O error in the String Matching box. They'll look something like:

I/O error disk1s2

Disk assignments (the 1 in the message) change as you disconnect and reconnect drives. The second number is the number of the partition (there's usually a hidden EFI partition, so the first one you see in Disk Utility is usually 2).

To translate that into a disk name, click the Apple icon in your menubar, then About this Mac, then, More Info, then System Report. In the sidebar of the window that produces, click either Firewire or USB, then look for a BSD name that matches the notation in the message.

is there such a thing as SATA to FW 800? i mean, i have a open FW 800 port and i have a SATA connection and a SATA to USB cable that i could use for this device but i have no real USB slots that i can use for this. or - i guess i can use a FW 800 and find a cable that goes to one of the rounded off connections in this computer?

I don't know offhand.

i also seem to have USB 2.0 connection to this device but i am guessing (?) that this cable would be a USB 2.0 to USB 1.0 if i use this connection...

Even if it's slow, if you don't have problems with the USB conection, then you know it isn't the physical drive, but somewhere in the FireWire channel, port, cable, or F/W chipset in the drive.

hotwheels 22 wrote:

. . .

for a 100 dollars should i plunk down on Disk Warrior if i also have a laptop and don't mind upgrading my toolset here? if so, are there tests that would be good to run using this software in a case such as this?

D/W is probably a good investment for directory problems, but as far as I know the hardware diagnostics only run on the boot drive, for some reason. I've never used them, though.