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OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) back up very slow! Should I cancel Time Machine on the first back up?

My Time Machine was "Checking Changes or Updates" (http://pondini.org/TM/D1.html) or something to that affect and hasn't backed up for 63 days ... even though I've pressed the button to do so ... so I looked up some troubleshooting notes (Pondini seems to know it all thank goodness! – http://pondini.org/TM/D2.html) that suggested I check Spotlight to see if it was indexing. It was. After doing a few other things I got to the point where I used Disk Utility to "Repair Disk" for my back up drive which more or less said it could not be fixed and I needed to make a new back up. I bought myself a new external hard drive (WD My Book Live) but unfortunately did what the instructions told me to (attach the hard drive via an Ethernet cable to my router – WiFi) instead of just connecting it straight to my computer via the Ethernet cable. I'm gathering that it would be much quicker/faster speed to attach it straight to my computer .... does anyone know? I'm on a desktop computer with OS X 10.6.8 (1 TB Capacity – 517 GB of that has been used).


I've been backing up for 2 days now and it's done 130.37 GB of 505.51 GB. I'm wondering if I should cancel the back up and start again with the external hard drive connected directly into my computer via the Ethernet cable. That's what I've been doing in the past. I've been looking at Troubleshooting notes and it mostly suggests that it's not good to cancel the initial (first) back up. I've also seen these notes (http://pondini.org/TM/29.html) that suggest that this is the slowest method that I'm using ... I'm almost tempted to go out and buy another hard drive (WD My Book Studio or WD My Book for Mac) with USB connection rather than Ethernet connection and write off the one I'm using as a manual store for my music / photos ...


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My plan was to rid a lot of the stuff I have on my computer (to a hard drive) anyhow once it had backed up.

Posted on Jun 26, 2014 7:28 AM

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Posted on Jun 26, 2014 8:19 AM

Attached to the computer should be faster.


You can continue the backup or get the other drive, attach it to your computer, and start again. There should be no problem starting over since you will be using a new drive.


If you get the new drive, you can erase and reformat the one attached to the router if you hook it directly to the computer, if that is possible.

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Jun 26, 2014 8:19 AM in response to brigittefromwa

Attached to the computer should be faster.


You can continue the backup or get the other drive, attach it to your computer, and start again. There should be no problem starting over since you will be using a new drive.


If you get the new drive, you can erase and reformat the one attached to the router if you hook it directly to the computer, if that is possible.

Jun 26, 2014 3:30 PM in response to brigittefromwa

USB 3.0 drives work on USB 2.0 but you do get 2.0 speed. They are cheaper because they are popular PC drives. If you get a new computer you'll get the bump to 3.0 speed.


I like the Seagate USB 3.0 Backup plus drives. They come formatted for PC but easy to format in Disk Utility. Seagate Backup Plus Right now the 1T is more than the 2 & 3T drives


This Western Digital drive has good reviews: WD My Book Hard Drive for Mac 2 TB $99.


Locally, Best Buy seems to have the best prices.


USB 3.0 is 10x faster than USB 2.0

Thunderbolt is 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0.


Format new drives with Apple's Disk Utility rather than the software that come with the drive.


My plan was to rid a lot of the stuff I have on my computer (to a hard drive) anyhow once it had backed up.


I wound't necessarily backup those files to Time Machine. I would copy to the external drive then delete from computer. Only backup to Time Machine the data you would want to restore to your Mac if there was a problem. The backup will go much faster this way. Time Machine backup is slower than just copying data in my experience.

Jun 27, 2014 7:03 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks Eric Root! Well, my decision was made for me when we had a "brown out" (the whole neighborhood, not just my house) ... similar to a "black out" where the electricity goes off fully but instead it goes down to half so all the lights go dim and some items don't work at all. I haven't had this happen for about 7 years and we hardly EVER have black outs so it was ironic that it happened when it did. I've started the back up again with the hard drive connected directly to the computer via Ethernet cable (I didn't buy a new hard drive – thought I'd try it this way first) and I THINK it's going slightly fast. I'll be able to tell by the morning.


Thanks for the feedback.

Jun 27, 2014 7:27 AM in response to dianeoforegon

Thanks for the feedback on the drives dianeoforegon. I saw the Seagate drives when I went to buy the WD Drives but stuck to what I know. I'll take a closer look next time I go to buy one now that I know I can format it through Disk Utility. I live in Australia so I think the price would be different here to what you're talking. I'll check.


I'll definitely choose USB over Ethernet next time as there's only one socket for the Ethernet on the computer whereas there's several more sockets for USB's so I don't have to keep detaching one to add another one into the socket. Thought I'd start storing movies and photos onto its own drive ... And as you say, if I save them separately (once I've finally done so – I'm a bit behind on my manual saves), I don't need to back them up on the other system although I do like the idea of backing them up in several places as I've been caught out before where one drive (Apple Time Capsule – which I would never choose to use again) collapsed and I had two drives with back ups thank goodness! I manually back up my work documents, photos and music as well as have an auto back up AND also have photo's on a back up DVD too. Goodness knows what I'm going to do when all of these forms of back up don't work on new systems anymore. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it ...


Thanks again for your feedback!

Jun 27, 2014 1:55 PM in response to brigittefromwa

You might want to get a USB hub. You can attach multiple devices to the hub. The hub is attached via Ethernet so you don't have to keep swapping out drives.


Belkin hubs are good. I recently got this hub at Amazon and have been happy with it.


Plugable 7 Port USB 3.0 Hub with 4A Power Adapter $30

I can still use my USB 2.0 devices with the hub.

OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) back up very slow! Should I cancel Time Machine on the first back up?

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