5 Days for Initial Time Machine Backup to Time Capsule??

[Synergie]

So my running backup from the last year and a half got corrupted somehow when I upgraded to Lion. After several attempts in vain to get it to back up, I ended up deleting the whole blasted thing and starting a brand new initial backup from scratch! (Losing my ability to downgrade to SL in the process, but I am 'mostly' happy with Lion anyway.... just a few annoyances so far that I have found workarounds for.) What was happening before was it was hanging on 'Preparing Backup' and wouldn't do anything else. My new backup went from 'Preparing Backup' to 'Calculating Size' fairly quickly so I know it's working.... but..... 5 DAYS TO COMPLETE AN INITIAL BACKUP??? That's what it's telling me!!! I don't remember my first initial backup taking THAT long!! I am only using roughly 70 GB of my 320 GB HD!!! That's insane!

My question is, is it ok to use the MBP during the 5 days? And, if for some reason it gets interrupted (like someone shutting the laptop lid or a power outage or something)... will it append where it left off or will start all over again??

Btw - before anyone yells at me, I did post a similar question in the Lion forum, but it was more related to my initial problem where Time Machine was hanging... before I decided to delete and start a new backup from scratch.

And yes, the backup was corrupted... because the new backup is actually showing progress!! The old one just hung and there was no activity beyond the 'Deep Traverse' message, and I had left it go for hours... The new backup got past 'Preparing' after only about 25 mins.

 

[SteinMaster]

Are you using wireless or Ethernet cable? I just did a new initial backup using an ethernet cable and it only took about 3 hours. My backup was 105 GB. I'm still using Snow Leopard 10.6.

 

[Synergie]

Are you using wireless or Ethernet cable? I just did a new initial backup using an ethernet cable and it only took about 3 hours. My backup was 105 GB. I'm still using Snow Leopard 10.6.

Unfortunately I don't have a spare ethernet cable... or firewire, which would probably be the quickest, so yeah, I'm doing it via WiFi But... over the last hour, the amount of data that has been backed up has doubled and the estimate has gone from 5 days to 4 days... so maybe it won't actually take that long after all.

And when I was on Snow Leopard, my initial backup took less time too... and it was also via WiFi. So I think Lion just takes longer for some reason... maybe because of the extra security features they built into Lion? I dunno....

 

[ftaok]

Unfortunately I don't have a spare ethernet cable...

Why don't you disconnect the ethernet cable between your modem and the Time Capsule and run your back up over ethernet? Does Time Machine require an active connection to the internet to function?

I would never wait 4-5 days to back up. That's insane.

 

[Synergie]

Why don't you disconnect the ethernet cable between your modem and the Time Capsule and run your back up over ethernet? Does Time Machine require an active connection to the internet to function?

I would never wait 4-5 days to back up. That's insane.

I don't think it does, but I don't want to interrupt the backup that's currently in progress... mostly because it's actually working!!! LOL I don't wanna start over and jinx anything after the issues I had with the previous one becoming corrupted!

The progress bar seems to be moving quicker than it estimated anyway... Like I said it jumped from 5 days to 4 days in a coupe of hours. So I figure it will keep readjusting the estimate. I doubt it will take as long as it first estimated. I figure if I let it run all night it should be done tomorrow morning. Then everything will be back to normal where it just takes minutes to update the backup each time.... I hope! LOL

 

[Synergie]

Update: I got fed up when the estimate went to 6 days... after 9 hours!!! I stopped the backup, rebooted the Time Capsule AFTER turning off the guest network, when I noticed 14 of my closest neighbours leeching off my WiFi! LOL (I turned on the guest network on purpose, so ppl in my apt bldg near me can have free net... but I never had THAT many ppl on at once before! - I had a PS3 on there, a couple iPhones, a blackberry and a bunch of PCs!!!) So then I rebooted BOTH my MBP and the Time Capsule... Deleted the backup again and started over..... TADA! 3 hour estimate!!!! WIthin the first 10 mins it was past where it was after 9 hours the first time!!!

Moral of the story... if you are going to back up via WiFi, then make sure you don't have 14 people hogging all the bandwidth!