Time machine is "Preparing" for about 5 seconds and then stops.

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

I have tried resetting the PRAM but that is not working... I've followed the instructions on Internet:

- turn computer off

- turn it back on and press cmd+option+p+q at the same time (before grey screen) until I hear the starting sound for the second time.

The thing is I don't hear the starting sound twice.. it starts up properly and immediately goes to the home screen as if I were not pressing those 4 keys.

I've tried resetting the SMC as well, no luck.

Well, resetting the PRAM finally worked... (Obviously I meant cmd+opt+p+r, not q.. that was a typo)

Anyway, the PRAM is reset, I guess the SMC is as well, though I still can't do a backup...

What do you mean "failed"? I ran disk utility and it said it was fine. I clicked Repair disk anyway, and it didn't spot any issues...

Alright, I'll try that and keep you updated.

Thanks again

Hi,

But something happened today... I tried to do a backup (again) and since it's been more than 10 days since the last one, it decided to re-backup everything on the iMac... And then it said there was not enough space on the disk to do all that.

I then entered the disk only to discover that my previous backups were invisible there, but they were still on it as they were taking about 500Go of the disk's capacity.

Anyway... I gave up, re-formated the disk and started a new backup... but the problem is still there.. It "prepares" it for 3 seconds and stops...

Again, the disk seems fine. I have another partition on it and no problem there.

An ideas? I am starting to lose hope...

For the record, it's a 1.5T Western Digital disk... And I have had nothing but problems with it. I don't know if the brand ***** - or has started to suck... but never again! I also have a Lacie that I have been using since 2006; it's a 150Go external drive (yes, things were different back then... 150Go was awesome) and I have never ever had a single issue with it.. It still works like a charm.

Thanks, I will have a look!

I will get a new disk and try again on it, but in the meantime, I'm still hoping I can make this one work..

New development today! I decided to exclude all the volumes of the computer for the backup and see what happens.. I then got a message saying that it can't do a backup as none of the volumes are selected. I then selected only a portion of my total data, but then, I got the same message. Then, I added all my volumes again, and the same message came up, saying none of the volumes were selected.

After restarting the session, I tried again and got this :

At least now TM sees there is a problem somewhere.

Could that maybe help you figure out a way to fix it?

Ok so I totally erased the disk, re formatted it. My partitions were called WD and the other one Backups. Before erasing, I transfered all the content of WD on another external HD (let's call it BB) because I can't lose that data.

When the formatting was done, I re-created my 2 partitions (because as for now, I don't have any other alternative), and named them the same, but without putting the content back on WD. So then, as both my partitions are empty, I initiated a backup including only the content of the computer and my Lacie HD, and it worked!! It backed up everything.

At this moment, feeling optimistic, I re-transferred the content I had previously moved from WD to BB (before formatting) back on WD. And deleted it from BB.

When I was totally sure that it was fully transferred, I emptied the trash... but it wouldn't empty. Normally it says "preparing xx files" or something similar, but this time, it didn't say anything. When I re-clicked on it, it said the trash couldn't be opened as it was deleting files... After waiting a long time, seeing that it was still not working, I restarted the computer, and this time I initiated a Secure Empty trash. It said "preparing 4 elements" and got stuck there.

At this moment, I decided to move all that from the trash back BB and delete it from another computer, which worked.

After all those troubles deleting a couple files, I was excited about TM working again and initiated a backup including the WD partition... and it stopped working!

So the problem comes from there, but I don't know what causes it exactly. Nor do I know how to prevent or fix it.

Hi again,

So I bought myself a brand new HD, 3To... The problem persists...

Time machine says the drive is Read only, though, when I check it in DiskUtility, it says read/write (see below)

So now, I have about 4To of free space I don't know what to do with... But it seems safe to say that the problem is coming from the computer itself, not form the HD.

Obviously I am not considering buying a new computer, I need this one be to fixed.

Any idea what's going on there?

Yes