Can't Complete a Time Machine Backup

[matty1551]

I cannot for the life of me get this stupid time machine to complete a backup. I've never had this problem when using SL so I'm wondering if this is a known Lion issue.

My OS disk is 2TB and about 75% filled. My TM backup disk is 2.25 TB. After about a day TM will get to "5 seconds left". At this point the data counter continues to climb. Ex: 1.55TB of 1.55TB...1.58 of 1.58...1.62 of 1.62...etc. At a certain point it will essentially be the size of backup disk itself and TM gives me an error that it ran out of space.

I've even tried copying the "backups.backupdb" from my old TM to the new one to avoid the initially large backup. Even it, at a certain point gives me a copying error. I believe it's error code "8003"

EDIT: This time I tried excluding some large folders in order to finish an initial backup which worked. Then I added those files back in for backup and its telling me I don't have enough space now.

 

[matty1551]

 

[Cubytus]

Have a look at BackupLoupe. This small app will tell you which parts of your backup are inflating.

 

[matty1551]

Have a look at BackupLoupe. This small app will tell you which parts of your backup are inflating.

I haven't gone in depth with this app yet but it looks like it will only give me information after the backup is actually completed. That's a stage I've not been able to get to.

Or am I missing something?

 

[Cubytus]

That's correct. Do you see anything special in the Console during the backup attempt?

 

[matty1551]

That's correct. Do you see anything special in the Console during the backup attempt?

What specifically should I be looking for in console? I left the backup to run while at work and it again says it requires 7.5TB like pictured in my original thread.

Here's what Backup Loupe says. This is only a small partial completed backup since I can't get the disk in its entirety to backup.

 

[matty1551]

RESOLVED!!!

Apparently the backups.backupdb folder I had stored on my internal drive was causing the issue. I made the connection when I tried again to copy my old backups.backupdb to a freshly formatted external. Even just copying that folder gave me the same error of that TM game me of requiring 7TB of disk space. I crossed my fingers and deleted them and ran a Time Machine backup with no issue over the night.

Thanks Cubytus for attempting to assist me on this.

 

[Cubytus]

RESOLVED!!!

Apparently the backups.backupdb folder I had stored on my internal drive was causing the issue. I made the connection when I tried again to copy my old backups.backupdb to a freshly formatted external. Even just copying that folder gave me the same error of that TM game me of requiring 7TB of disk space. I crossed my fingers and deleted them and ran a Time Machine backup with no issue over the night.

Thanks Cubytus for attempting to assist me on this.

Never underestimate the foolishness of true fools! I did worse than that many times