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Level 1

9 points

Time Machine backing up external drives?

Hi,

I have an iMac (2012) running 10.8.5 i have two WD My Books hooked up via FireWire chain. One WD (1TB) is for data storage, the other (2TB) is for Time Machine backup. I've always been able to have the WD data storage included in the TM backup, for some reason around June/July (update to 10.8.4?) it seems this has stopped being backed up - the internal drive of the iMac is being backup up just fine... just not the extrenal drive (both drive are Westren Digital My Book, 1TB and a 2TB)... This set up worked fine for many months prior to Jume/July, in fact i can still browse the older backups via Finder...

Any ideas?

Thanks,

John

Posted on Sep 17, 2013 10:58 PM

43 replies

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 21, 2013 7:28 PM in response to John0

What were the results of the second Spotlight search?

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 22, 2013 4:28 AM in response to Linc Davis

Very much the same as the previous.

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 22, 2013 8:25 AM in response to John0

Please post the output:

{ tmutil isexcluded /V*/*; echo; xattr -l /V*/* ; } | open -ef

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 22, 2013 2:12 PM in response to Linc Davis

[Included] /VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu 12.04
[Included] /VirtualBox VMs/Win7
[Included] /VirtualBox VMs/WinXP
[Excluded] /Volumes/BACKUP_2TB
[Excluded] /Volumes/EXT_1TB
[Included] /Volumes/MEDIA_1TB
[Included] /

/Volumes/EXT_1TB: com.apple.FinderInfo:
00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000020
/Volumes/EXT_1TB: com.apple.metadata:com_apple_backup_excludeItem:
00000000 62 70 6C 69 73 74 30 30 5F 10 11 63 6F 6D 2E 61 |bplist00_..com.a|
00000010 70 70 6C 65 2E 62 61 63 6B 75 70 64 08 00 00 00 |pple.backupd....|
00000020 00 00 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 |................|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1C |.............|
0000003d
/Volumes/MEDIA_1TB: com.apple.FinderInfo:
00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000020
/Volumes/MEDIA_1TB: com.apple.metadata:com_apple_backup_excludeItem:
00000000 62 70 6C 69 73 74 30 30 5F 10 11 63 6F 6D 2E 61 |bplist00_..com.a|
00000010 70 70 6C 65 2E 62 61 63 6B 75 70 64 08 00 00 00 |pple.backupd....|
00000020 00 00 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 |................|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1C |.............|
0000003d

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 22, 2013 3:01 PM in response to John0

I thought we had covered this, but let's try again:

sudo xattr -d -r com_apple_backup_excludeItem /Volumes/MEDIA_1TB

You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. Confirm. You don't need to post the warning.

If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Log in as one and start over.

The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 22, 2013 3:12 PM in response to Linc Davis

I'm not posting the entire log... most of what's there are those locked files from a DreamWeaver web site, see examples... which has always been the case, even when the TM backup on MEDIA_1TB was working fine. The only other error is the missing JPG at the beginning.

Last login: Mon Sep 23 07:10:43 on ttys000

macmini-i5:~ MacMini$

macmini-i5:~ MacMini$ sudo xattr -d -r com_apple_backup_excludeItem /Volumes/MEDIA_1TB

Password:

xattr: No such file: /Volumes/MEDIA_1TB/iPhoto Library/Masters/2004/Thailand-Myanmar 2004/LouBru.jpg

xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Volumes/MEDIA_1TB/John0/Milner-Fenwick/MF online/code/header.inc'

[cut]

xattr: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Volumes/MEDIA_1TB/John0/Milner-Fenwick/MF PE Update/MF_instprev/op11_instantpreview.asp'

macmini-i5:~ MacMini$

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 22, 2013 3:21 PM in response to John0

I can't reproduce the error message you get from the JPEG file, so I suspect that the volume has directory damage, and that might even be why it's not backed up. I suggest you repair it in Disk Utility.

As for the locked files, you'll have to unlock them before they can be changed.

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 22, 2013 3:35 PM in response to Linc Davis

I'm fairly sure i did a disk repair at the very beginning of this issue, but just ran again to be sure... 'appears to be OK'.

AS mentioned, i've been using DreamWeaver with files stored on this drive for some time prior to the issue and has always backed up fine until about mid July this year...

As an experiment i just removed the other Western Digital 'My Book', EXT_1TB and excluded all but a couple of folders/directories contained on the drive and ran a Backup Now... the drive/volume shows in the backup location but NO sub folders/directories... so, i'm thinking it's not the drives themselves...???

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 22, 2013 4:29 PM in response to John0

Have you ever used the volume MEDIA_1TB as a backup destination? Is there a folder at the top level named "Backups.backupdb"?

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 22, 2013 4:46 PM in response to Linc Davis

I don't believe so, but just incasse i checked:

macmini-i5:/ MacMini$ cd /Volumes/MEDIA_1TB/

macmini-i5:MEDIA_1TB MacMini$ ls -l

total 16

drwxrwxrwx 12 MacMini staff 408 19 Sep 07:19 Android-Backup-Updates

drwxrwxrwx@ 4 MacMini staff 136 20 Sep 22:00 Apple TV Photo Cache

-rwxrwxrwx 1 MacMini staff 696 26 Jul 16:04 Apple TV Photo Database

drwxrwxrwx 203 MacMini staff 6902 21 Sep 14:05 Apps-Utils-Updates

drwxrwxrwx 5 MacMini staff 170 19 Nov 2012 Desktop

drwxrwxrwx 32 MacMini staff 1088 22 Sep 21:22 General

drwxrwxrwx 50 MacMini staff 1700 19 Sep 07:19 John0

drwxrwxrwx 85 MacMini staff 2890 19 Sep 07:19 Lou

drwxrwxrwx 10 MacMini staff 340 19 Sep 07:19 Movies

-rwxrwxrwx 1 MacMini staff 696 26 Jul 16:04 Photo Database

drwxrwxrwx 4 MacMini staff 136 19 Sep 07:19 eBooks

drwxrwxrwx 7 MacMini staff 238 19 Sep 07:19 iMovie Events.localized

drwxrwxrwx@ 41 MacMini staff 1394 23 Sep 09:15 iPhoto Library

drwxrwxrwx 1438 MacMini staff 48892 21 Sep 11:00 iTunes

drwxrwxrwx 3 MacMini staff 102 19 May 2012 private

drwxrwxrwx 5 MacMini staff 170 8 Aug 19:48 temp

macmini-i5:MEDIA_1TB MacMini$

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 22, 2013 9:50 PM in response to John0

tmutil removeexclusion /Volumes/MEDIA_1TB

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 22, 2013 10:09 PM in response to Linc Davis

Ran the command, ran a 'backup Now' - sorry to say no difference - still no contents of MEDIA_1TB in backup!?! @:-(

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 23, 2013 6:46 PM in response to John0

You wrote that you backed up to another drive. Was the problem volume included in that backup? Also, what is its partition scheme?

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 23, 2013 6:47 PM in response to John0

Looking at tmutil, i ran the following:

Last login: Mon Sep 23 15:06:25 on ttys000

macmini-i5:~ MacMini$ su

Password:

sh-3.2# tmutil removeexclusion -p /Volumes/MEDIA_1TB

sh-3.2# tmutil isexcluded /Volumes/MEDIA_1TB

[Included] /Volumes/MEDIA_1TB

sh-3.2# tmutil disablelocal

sh-3.2# tmutil enablelocal

sh-3.2# tmutil startbackup

sh-3.2#

Still no contents in MEDIA_1TB, though the Volume does show in the backup destination:

/Volumes/BACKUP_2TB/Backups.backupdb/MacMini i5/2013-09-24-111758/MEDIA_1TB

Looks like i'll be sticking with Carbon Copy Cloner?!?! @:-/

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 23, 2013 6:49 PM in response to Linc Davis

Sorry, our posts just crossed.

Yes, i used Carbon Copy Cloner to backup the MEDIA_1TB drive to another My Book, EXT_1TB. This has backed up fine.

Time Machine backing up external drives?