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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

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 23, 2013 7:24 PM in response to John0

Just caught the question about partition scheme... the MEDIA_1TB is now GUID as we did the repartition, the EXT_1TB being used to backup MEDIA_1TB via CCC is Apple Partition.

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 23, 2013 8:02 PM in response to John0

Please post the output:

diskutil list | open -ef

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 23, 2013 8:35 PM in response to Linc Davis

Get error:

The document “open_F4Xi8pqz.txt” could not be opened. You don’t have permission

I am running the command as root.

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 23, 2013 8:37 PM in response to John0

Aha, run from user prompt with sudo:

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS MacMini i5 HD 499.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk1

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS BACKUP_2TB 2.0 TB disk1s2

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *999.5 GB disk3

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS MEDIA_1TB 999.2 GB disk3s2

/dev/disk4

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk4

1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk4s1

2: Apple_HFS EXT_1TB 1.0 TB disk4s3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 23, 2013 10:13 PM in response to John0

Again, I thought we had covered this. The Time Machine backup drive still has the Apple Partition Map scheme. It has to have a GUID partition scheme. APM does not work reliably as a backup destination, despite what the documentation says and what some people on this site may tell you.

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 23, 2013 10:47 PM in response to Linc Davis

Yes, we have convered this.

The MEDIA_1TB external drive that is supposed to be backed up via TM is GUID:

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *999.5 GB disk3

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS MEDIA_1TB 999.2 GB disk3s2

The TM destination drive, BACKUP_2TB, is GUID:

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk1

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS BACKUP_2TB 2.0 TB disk1s2

The OS bootable drive, MacMini i5 HD, is GUID:

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS MacMini i5 HD 499.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

The only drive not GUID is EXT_1TB - the one i'm using for the CCC backup (that is getting backed up via CCC fine) until TM issue is resolved.

/dev/disk4

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk4

1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk4s1

2: Apple_HFS EXT_1TB 1.0 TB disk4s3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 24, 2013 8:49 AM in response to John0

xattr -c /V*/MEDIA_1TB; xattr -l $_ | open -ef

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 24, 2013 1:49 PM in response to Linc Davis

Resulted in empty text file.

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 24, 2013 2:59 PM in response to John0

That means the sticky exclusion attribute is gone. Is the volume backed up now?

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 24, 2013 3:29 PM in response to Linc Davis

I'm running a 'Backkup Now' and... it seems like something is happening.

Reading the progress from the TM icon in the menu bar, it's reading 'Backing up xx.xGB of yy.yGB' - where before it would only say xx.xMB and be finished in a short time. The yy.yGB reading keeps growning, so looks like it's reading ahead of what needs to be backed up.

If it is indeed backing up now there are some hundreds of GBs on the MEDIA_1TB drive so it may take a while.

Will keep you posted.

Again, though said before - appreciate your time!

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 24, 2013 6:14 PM in response to John0

Up to about the 300GB mark so it's looking good!

What, in summary, do you think was the resolution here?

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 24, 2013 6:43 PM in response to John0

The problem was the exclusion attribute, but I'm not sure why the first invocation of xattr didn't clear it. I haven't seen that happen before. It may be a new bug.

John0 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 24, 2013 9:26 PM in response to Linc Davis

Success!

User uploaded file

Many, many thanks!

Time Machine backing up external drives?