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Can't get Time Machine to complete backup

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notapusy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2014
5
0
Hi, I was backing up my computer earlier when my shoddy charger stopped working and I didn't realise my computer had turned off. I turned it back on again and clicked back up now and it started initialising and reading all of the files when I was moving it downstairs and I accidentally ejected the external hard drive. Now that I have plugged it back in and keep pressing back up, it only backs up 11.3 MB. I am not sure if it completed the original backup, my HD is 499 GB, I have 263 available and the HDD says the estimated size of full backup is 235.97 GB. I have a MacBook Pro OS X version 10.6.8 and the HDD is Lacie. Do you think the backup was completed and if so, how do I make the folders with stop signs on them available to look at to make sure it was successful? Thank you!
 
Last edited:
smirk

smirk

macrumors 6502a
Jul 18, 2002
691
54
Orange County, CA
So you probably didn't properly eject the external drive before unplugging it, is that correct?

I would connect it to your Mac and then do a Disk Repair on it in the Disk Utility app to make sure that there's no filesystem damage from unplugging the drive while Time Machine was writing to it.

In theory, Time Machine should know what it's written, so it would know that the last backup was only partially done, but if you don't trust it and if you don't need to keep previous versions of your files then you could always wipe the drive and start over with a new backup.

Also, what folders have stop signs?
 
N

notapusy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2014
5
0
Thank you for replying! Just to make sure, I wiped the whole thing and started over again and it was able to complete. I can see my applications but all of the folders on my desktop have red circles on them and don't allow me access.
 
smirk

smirk

macrumors 6502a
Jul 18, 2002
691
54
Orange County, CA
It sounds like you're saying that Time Machine did complete its backup this time, but now when you enter the Time Machine display (by clicking the Time Machine icon in the dock), folders on your desktop have a red circle icon and you can't view their contents.

That's strange, that sounds like an authority issue. I would expect that if you were trying to view another user's desktop, but not your own. Or if you had reinstalled OS X and then tried accessing your old backup.

I don't have an answer, but I wonder if Linc's advice here would help? If you try that, I would try it only with one folder first. Worst case, if things get messed up you can format and start over.
 
N

notapusy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2014
5
0
Thank you so much for the reply and sorry for the late response!!! I did what that forum said and I may have been trying to access the wrong account (my guest account). Either way I unlocked it and I can see all of my folders, pictures etc so hopefully that did the job. Thank you! :)
 
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