GoaliGrlTilDeath
Level 1 (1 points)

Q: Time Machine slow, bogging down computer.

I am having problems with Time Machine backups taking forever and, at the same time, bogging down my computer to the point I cannot use it.

 

For example, a 70MB backup yesterday took almost 5 hours. a 500MB one today is on hour 5 and still going. I have it set to back up while I'm at work (it's my home computer) but when I get home and it's still going I cannot use my computer at all without cancelling the backup due to lag, spinning beachballs, and apps crashing.

 

The hard drive it's backing up to is a 1TB Iomega drive connected via USB with 500 gigs of free space currently. I've got a 2011 MacBook Pro running 10.8.5, 500gig hard drive with 70 gigs free. I have run backups with my normal apps running and with virtually all apps quit, including Finder and Dropbox, which doesn't seem to effect the time spent backing up. I do not have any virus scanners running. I've tried different USB cables in case it's a faulty cable. I have gone through Pondini's guide dozens of times, nothing's helped.

 

Do you guys have any more suggestions? I dream of the days long past where Time Machine would work in the background and I'd never notice it. Backing up is now an all-day ordeal with nothing else able to happen in the meantime. I'd like it to do it's hourly back-ups and get away from using TImeMachineEditor to only do daily back-ups, but I can't have my computer unusable every time it tries to back up.

 

 

Also, somewhat related; I tried to update my back-up drive to a 2TB Western Digital and to a 1.5TB partition on a 3TB Western Digital drive but was unable to get Time Machine to complete a back-up to either drive; it kept crashing and burning at various stages. I had followed Pondini's guide to the letter with formatting them yet never got anywhere. That's why I'm using my older, smaller drive; it's the only one I can successfully get to back up. Any thoughts on that?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Sep 19, 2013 1:44 PM

by etresoft,Solvedanswer
etresoft etresoft
Level 7 (29,101 points)
A:

GoaliGrlTilDeath wrote:

 

Alright. Cleared out everything I could. Time Machine isn't going any faster, however, my computer isn't bogging down while it works, so vast improvement.

 

What would be my next step? Take a look at the hard drive for potential instability? What can i do beyond a verify disk?

Improvements are good. You can try some of these things...

 

Boot into your recovery drive and repair your startup disk. Repair disk permissions too.

Try to backup again to one of those newer drives and see what happens.

Create a new directory on your Time Machine drive and try to copy about 100 MB into it. How long does it take? Delete that test directory when you are done.

Print out your latest EtreCheck results.

 

It is beginning to look like a failing startup drive. On a MacBook Pro, those are quick and easy to swap out (not counting restoring from backup, of course).

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 8:39 PM

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GoaliGrlTilDeath

Q: Time Machine slow, bogging down computer.

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  • by William Boyd, Jr.,

    William Boyd, Jr. William Boyd, Jr. Oct 16, 2013 1:02 PM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath
    Level 6 (10,520 points)
    Oct 16, 2013 1:02 PM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath

    This may not help, but what does Disk Utility say if you run a "repair disk" operation on that drive?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Oct 16, 2013 2:01 PM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath
    Level 9 (70,250 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 16, 2013 2:01 PM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath

    Try a reset of Time Machine - A4.

     

    Time Machine Troubleshooting

  • by GoaliGrlTilDeath,

    GoaliGrlTilDeath GoaliGrlTilDeath Oct 17, 2013 7:45 AM in response to William Boyd, Jr.
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 17, 2013 7:45 AM in response to William Boyd, Jr.

    William Boyd, Jr: Other than taking over an hour to do a repair disk, it came up saying the volume was okay.

     

    Eric Root- I've done that before but I will do it again this weekend when I have some time, just to make sure.

  • by Sherri39401,

    Sherri39401 Sherri39401 Oct 21, 2013 3:36 AM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 21, 2013 3:36 AM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath

    I had the same problem with slow backups. Called Apple 5 times and went through all the hoops checking plists, airport, and then erasing using my airport utility and the first backup of about 25-30 gigs went fine, but the second backup would take between 1-2 hours. By the time it was finished it was ready to do another backup.

     

    After looking at community fixes I found that my Comcast Norton Anti Virus was the problem. Upon speaking for the 6th time to Apple I was told that should have been the first thing they asked, since antivirus programs check each file going to the time capsule. Even unchecking the scan external drives did not help.

     

    I removed the Norton AV from my system and replaced it with the IAV from apple store (free) and my backups are back to normal. I timed a 100 meg using Ethernet/LAN and it took 9 minutes 32 seconds from clicking backup now, searching for backups, preparing backup, backingup, and cleanup. My Wifi connection on 10 megs took only 1 minute 29 seconds.

     

    Now my backups run so fast I don't even see them working. Also the constant updates to Norton were casuing my backups to be 100 megs or more each time due to daily Norton updates. Now I get backups in the order of 10-20 megs - depending up what I have put on the machine. If I put music on it increases the size of the files installed.

     

    I recommend anyone having this slow time capsule problem to turn off your full antivirus program no matter what you are using and watch the difference in speed. I am so happy! No more 2 hour backups and 45 minutes to 1 hour preparing backup! good luck

  • by etresoft,Helpful

    etresoft etresoft Oct 21, 2013 6:01 AM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath
    Level 7 (29,101 points)
    Oct 21, 2013 6:01 AM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath

    If you aren't running any antivirus software, try running repair disk on your internal hard drive. Perhaps that is failing.

     

    You can also try a little diagnostic program's wrote  to help show what might be causing these problems. Download EtreCheck from http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck, run it, and paste the results here.

     

    Disclaimer: Although EtreCheck is free, there are other links on my site that could give me some form of compensation, financial or otherwise.

  • by GoaliGrlTilDeath,

    GoaliGrlTilDeath GoaliGrlTilDeath Oct 22, 2013 7:47 AM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 22, 2013 7:47 AM in response to etresoft

    Sherri39401- I am not running any sort of anti-virus.

     

    Eric Root- I tried the reset of Time Machine. If anything it's worse; took 10 hours to do a 11 gig backup, then right after it was on hour 4 of a 28MB transfer and was only halfway through.

     

    Etresoft- That is a nifty little program! Here's the report I ran this morning:

     

    Hardware Information:

              MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)

              MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,2

              1 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

              8 GB RAM

     

    Video Information:

              Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB

              AMD Radeon HD 6750M - VRAM: 1024 MB

     

    System Software:

              OS X 10.8.5 (12F45) - Uptime: 2 days 21:8:55

     

    Disk Information:

              Hitachi HTS725050A9A362 disk0 : (500.11 GB)

                        disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                        Dominick (disk0s2) /: 499.25 GB (109.47 GB free)

                        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

     

              MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8

     

    USB Information:

              Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

     

              Iomega Iomega 1 TB

                        disk3s1 (disk3s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                        Shinako (disk3s2) /Volumes/Shinako: 999.86 GB (302.04 GB free)

     

              Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

     

              Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

                        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

     

              Western Digital My Book 1140 3 TB

                        disk2s1 (disk2s1) <not mounted>: 314.6 MB

                        SORUKA (disk2s2) /Volumes/SORUKA: 2 TB (422.46 GB free)

                        SORIKO (disk2s3) /Volumes/SORIKO: 999.98 GB (999.31 GB free)

     

              Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

     

    FireWire Information:

     

    Thunderbolt Information:

              Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

     

    Kernel Extensions:

              com.logmein.driver.LogMeInSoundDriver          (1.0.2)

              com.LivestreamProcaster.driver.ProcasterAudioRedirector          (2.0.0)

              com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower          (1.5.1)

     

    Problem System Launch Daemons:

              [failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist

     

    Problem System Launch Agents:

              [failed] com.apple.accountsd.plist

              [failed] com.apple.AirPlayUIAgent.plist

              [failed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist

              [failed] com.apple.pbs.plist

              [failed] com.apple.printtool.agent.plist

              [failed] com.apple.rcd.plist

              [failed] com.apple.tccd.plist

     

    Launch Daemons:

              [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

              [loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

              [loaded] com.adobe.versioncueCS4.plist

              [loaded] com.daz3d.content_management_service.plist

              [loaded] com.ea.origin.ESHelper.plist

              [loaded] com.freemacsoft.appcleanerdaemon.plist

              [not loaded] com.logmein.logmeinblanker.plist

              [not loaded] com.logmein.logmeinserver.plist

              [loaded] com.timesoftware.timemachineeditor.backup-auto.plist

              [loaded] com.timesoftware.timemachineeditor.helper.plist

     

    Launch Agents:

              [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

              [loaded] com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager.plist

              [failed] com.logmein.LMILaunchAgentFixer.plist

              [not loaded] com.logmein.logmeingui.plist

              [not loaded] com.logmein.logmeinguiagent.plist

              [not loaded] com.logmein.logmeinguiagentatlogin.plist

              [loaded] com.wacom.wacomtablet.plist

              [failed] net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist

     

    User Launch Agents:

              [loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

              [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.202f4087f2bbde52e3ac2df389f53a4f123223c9cc56a8fd83a6f7ae.plist

              [loaded] com.facebook.videochat.Jessie.plist

              [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

              [loaded] com.iLike.Agent.plist

              [loaded] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist

     

    User Login Items:

              Quicksilver

              Last.fm

              WeatherBug Alert

              UnhideLibrary

              Dropbox

              Mail

     

    3rd Party Preference Panes:

              Adobe Version Cue CS4

              Flash Player

              Flip4Mac WMV

              Growl

              Java

              Perian

              WacomTablet

     

    Internet Plug-ins:

              AdobePDFViewer.plugin

              AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin

              AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin1017287.plugin

              DirectorShockwave.plugin

              DivXBrowserPlugin.plugin

              Flash Player.plugin

              FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

              Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin

              iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

              JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

              LogMeIn.plugin

              LogMeInSafari32.plugin

              LogMeInSafari64.plugin

              QuickTime Plugin.plugin

              Silverlight.plugin

              Unity Web Player.plugin

              WacomNetscape.plugin

              WacomTabletPlugin.plugin

     

    User Internet Plug-ins:

              Move-Media-Player.plugin

              npadaptiveplugin.plugin

              Picasa.plugin

     

    Bad Fonts:

              None

     

    Top Processes by CPU:

                  18%          firefox

                   5%          plugin-container

                   4%          WindowServer

                   3%          hidd

                   2%          Transmission

                   1%          Last.fm

                   1%          EtreCheck

                   1%          mds

                   0%          Mail

                   0%          SystemUIServer

     

    Top Processes by Memory:

              464 MB   firefox

              295 MB   mds

              74 MB    Quicksilver

              57 MB    Mail

              57 MB    plugin-container

              57 MB    Transmission

              41 MB    Skype

              41 MB    Finder

              41 MB    WindowServer

              33 MB    Dropbox

     

    Virtual Memory Statistics

              4.60 GB  Free RAM

              859 MB   Active RAM

              1.20 GB  Inactive RAM

              1.35 GB  Wired RAM

              22.20 GB           Page-ins

              17.74 GB           Page-outs

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Oct 22, 2013 10:22 AM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath
    Level 7 (29,101 points)
    Oct 22, 2013 10:22 AM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath

    You have an awful lot of failures in Apple system software. Plus you have a number of 3rd party kernel extensions and at least one "clean up" tool. Those always cause problems. I suggest removing any software listed under Kernel Extensions, Launch Daemons, and Launch Agents. Use the official uninstaller or uninstall instructions from the vendor. You can keep Adobe and the Wacom driv, but everything el needs to go.

  • by GoaliGrlTilDeath,

    GoaliGrlTilDeath GoaliGrlTilDeath Oct 22, 2013 1:12 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 22, 2013 1:12 PM in response to etresoft

    I agree. I can clean out some of them, but what should I do about things I use regularly? Is there a way to get many of these to not run automatically?

     

    Also, how do I get rid of things like ea.origin or valvesoftware without uninstalling the games that required them for instalation?

     

    Log Me In seems to be dominating the errors, however it has been the only way I've successfully been able to access my home Mac (this one) while at work; something I need to do regularly. I know it's off topic, but has anyone had success with something with greater stability?

  • by etresoft,Helpful

    etresoft etresoft Oct 22, 2013 6:02 PM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath
    Level 7 (29,101 points)
    Oct 22, 2013 6:02 PM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath

    GoaliGrlTilDeath wrote:

     

    I agree. I can clean out some of them, but what should I do about things I use regularly? Is there a way to get many of these to not run automatically?

     

    Also, how do I get rid of things like ea.origin or valvesoftware without uninstalling the games that required them for instalation?

     

     

    The idea is not necessarily to get rid of them forever. Just remove them to see if they are causing the problem. If you remove all of those things and Time Machine starts working great, then you know one of them caused the problem. If you remove them an it doesn't help, then you could have a hardware problem with either your internal drive or your Time Machine disk.

     

    Log Me In seems to be dominating the errors, however it has been the only way I've successfully been able to access my home Mac (this one) while at work; something I need to do regularly. I know it's off topic, but has anyone had success with something with greater stability?

     

    Have you tried Back to my Mac?

  • by GoaliGrlTilDeath,

    GoaliGrlTilDeath GoaliGrlTilDeath Oct 22, 2013 7:13 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 22, 2013 7:13 PM in response to etresoft

    Alright. Cleared out everything I could. Time Machine isn't going any faster, however, my computer isn't bogging down while it works, so vast improvement.

     

    What would be my next step? Take a look at the hard drive for potential instability? What can i do beyond a verify disk?

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Oct 22, 2013 8:33 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 7 (29,101 points)
    Oct 22, 2013 8:33 PM in response to etresoft

    Let's see that that last reply, shall we?

  • by etresoft,Solvedanswer

    etresoft etresoft Oct 22, 2013 8:39 PM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath
    Level 7 (29,101 points)
    Oct 22, 2013 8:39 PM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath

    GoaliGrlTilDeath wrote:

     

    Alright. Cleared out everything I could. Time Machine isn't going any faster, however, my computer isn't bogging down while it works, so vast improvement.

     

    What would be my next step? Take a look at the hard drive for potential instability? What can i do beyond a verify disk?

    Improvements are good. You can try some of these things...

     

    Boot into your recovery drive and repair your startup disk. Repair disk permissions too.

    Try to backup again to one of those newer drives and see what happens.

    Create a new directory on your Time Machine drive and try to copy about 100 MB into it. How long does it take? Delete that test directory when you are done.

    Print out your latest EtreCheck results.

     

    It is beginning to look like a failing startup drive. On a MacBook Pro, those are quick and easy to swap out (not counting restoring from backup, of course).

  • by douglaswilliam,

    douglaswilliam douglaswilliam Oct 23, 2013 11:35 AM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 11:35 AM in response to GoaliGrlTilDeath

    Getting rid of Norton Anti-virus completely solved my problem with slow Time Machine backups and had the additional benefit of making my whole system respond much faster.

     

    And don't just "disable" it. That didn't work for me. Use the uninstall process supplied by Symantec (in the Symantec applications directory). You will need to reboot your Mac afterwards to completely remove it.

     

    My Time Machine incremental backups now run literally in seconds to a couple of minutes. Fabulous!

     

    By the way, I believe a recent update supplied by Symantec was the Time Machine killer. Prior to just a few days ago, my backups were not awful. But I know now that without Norton running at all, things are much, much faster.

  • by GoaliGrlTilDeath,

    GoaliGrlTilDeath GoaliGrlTilDeath Oct 23, 2013 7:04 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 7:04 PM in response to etresoft

    Copying 250MB to the drive I'm using for Time Machine took a measely 4 seconds.

     

     

    You said "Try to backup again to one of those newer drives and see what happens". What did you mean by that? I do have a newer external I had intended to use for back-ups, however I was never able to get Time Machine to successfully back up to them. I think, now, that that was a symptom of whatever problems I'm having now.

     

    I will do some disk repair and get a new EtreSoft read-out. After the hockey game's over. Can't restart my system while I'm streaming a game. That'd be terrible!

     

    Luckily (if it can be called luckily) I'd been doing research about upgrading my internal hard drive for a little while. Was hoping to have more time to save up for a proper, large SSD, though

     

    Douglaswilliam- I did say in my original post and at least one of my responses that I am not running any sort of virus scanner. Sorry.

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