Stuck on loading screen - need to make a backup

[Weaselboy]

I would give it a 99% change of being a cable failure.

I would even say 99.5%.

I mentioned before that i made a backup image of my drive, however now that i can access my SSD fully with the external enclosure, can i make a time machine back up of it to my external while i have both devices plugged in?

Also, any idea where i can get a good OEM hard drive cable for my mac and how much it would cost? Thanks.

The process of elimination you have gone through here pretty much makes it the cable. You can order one from iFixit for about $30.

Yes, it will be slow, but it would be a good idea to backup that data while in the enclosure so you have some sort of backup at least.

 

[had0ukenn]

I would even say 99.5%.



The process of elimination you have gone through here pretty much makes it the cable. You can order one from iFixit for about $30.

Yes, it will be slow, but it would be a good idea to backup that data while in the enclosure so you have some sort of backup at least.

Thanks once again. I really appreciate the help and support. I've never done this before, so lesson learned.

I was wondering if it's normal for time machine to do this: I'm currently backing up my ssd data (512 gb - used ~430 gb) to the 1 Tb external hard drive, however time machine is showing that it's backing up xx.xx GB of 795.54 GB. Any reason why the back up size is about two times the size of my SSD?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks once again. I really appreciate the help and support. I've never done this before, so lesson learned.

I was wondering if it's normal for time machine to do this: I'm currently backing up my ssd data (512 gb - used ~430 gb) to the 1 Tb external hard drive, however time machine is showing that it's backing up xx.xx GB of 795.54 GB. Any reason why the back up size is about two times the size of my SSD?

Yeah... dunno. I have seen that to and I don't know why it does that. At the end it seems to just be the right backed up and readout is just wrong.

 

[Bruno09]

I was wondering if it's normal for time machine to do this: I'm currently backing up my ssd data (512 gb - used ~430 gb) to the 1 Tb external hard drive, however time machine is showing that it's backing up xx.xx GB of 795.54 GB. Any reason why the back up size is about two times the size of my SSD?

Did you exclude the internal HD from the Time Machine backup... ?

From post #21 we know that you put the HD back into the Mac.

 

[had0ukenn]

Did you exclude the internal HD from the Time Machine backup... ?

From post #21 we know that you put the HD back into the Mac.

I have the stock HDD installed internally, booted up my Mac with my SSD in external enclosure, from there I reformated my external hard drive of 1 TB, then proceeded to use time machine. I'm not sure how I was supposed to exclude it. So it's backing up both disks? Any way I can change or stop this?

 

[Bruno09]

By default Time Machine will backup the internal HD, so yes you are currently backing up both drives, hence the 795 GB...

You can exclude the internal from System Preferences / Time Machine / Options

However, I would not take the risk to stop the running backup.
Let TM do his job.

 

[had0ukenn]

By default Time Machine will backup the internal HD, so yes you are currently backing up both drives, hence the 795 GB...

You can exclude the internal from System Preferences / Time Machine / Options

However, I would not take the risk to stop the running backup.
Let TM do his job.

Thanks for your reply. Is there anyway I can take out the data backed up from my interal HDD in the future? I May end up restoring my Mac with the time machine back up, not sure how it's going to restore with all that data onto a 512 GB ssd.

 

[Bruno09]

I am certainly missing something, but I thought your SSD is a clone of your internal HD, so why would you want to take out the data backed up from your internal, since you have the very same data on your SSD ?

(sorry if I misunderstood the problem).

 

[had0ukenn]

I am certainly missing something, but I thought your SSD is a clone of your internal HD, so why would you want to take out the data backed up from your internal, since you have the very same data on your SSD ?

(sorry if I misunderstood the problem).

I made a clone of my HDD to my SSD a long time ago, ever since I have been using my SSD as my main internal storage device, with my HDD stored away. It wasn't until this problem of being stuck at the start up screen happened, this is when I took weasels advice and tried to figure out the problem with my Mac by eliminating possibilities of what my issue could be, whether it's the hard drive cable or the SSD itself.

At first, I was clueless on how to back up my data since I did not have a time machine back up. I went and got an external 1 TB WD hard drive and made a .DMG image of my SSD onto the external hard drive.

I then took out the SSD from my MacBook, put it inside of a SSD external enclosure. I wanted to make sure the hard drive cable wasn't the issue, so I used my old stock HDD that I had laying around and put it inside my Mac to boot it up. It was workin fine, so I figured my SSD might be the problem. However , I booted up my SSD that is currently in the external enclosure from start up using the option/alt key, and it worked fine. So I was confused as to what was causing my main problem/issue.

Couple of posters proceeded to tell me that the hard drive cable is the issue. I figured since I have access to my SSD via external enclosure, I may might as well make a time machine back up of it, note that my HDD is still inside my MacBook pro. This resulted in time machine making a back up of both my SSD and HDD.

 

[Bruno09]

I May end up restoring my Mac with the time machine back up, not sure how it's going to restore with all that data onto a 512 GB ssd.

Ok, so if you restore your Mac from this TM backup, you will have to exclude the HD backup, so that only the SSD's content will be restored.

Hope Weaselboy will have a look here and confirm (or not), because I personally don't use TM for such purposes : I always prefer clones.

 

[Weaselboy]

Ok, so if you restore your Mac from this TM backup, you will have to exclude the HD backup, so that only the SSD's content will be restored.

Hope Weaselboy will have a look here and confirm (or not), because I personally don't use TM for such purposes : I always prefer clones.

Late to the party...

had0ukenn sorry I overlooked this issue earlier. But I suspect Bruno iOS correct it is backing up both drives. If you go to do a full restore from that TM backup there is no way to stop the other data from coming over. Although, if you just want to have a backup of the data this will accomplish what you want, only a full restore would be complicated.

I would just let it finish and you will have the second copy of your data you need. It does not sound like you want to use this to restore anyway since you can do that from the SSD.

 

[had0ukenn]

Late to the party...

had0ukenn sorry I overlooked this issue earlier. But I suspect Bruno iOS correct it is backing up both drives. If you go to do a full restore from that TM backup there is no way to stop the other data from coming over. Although, if you just want to have a backup of the data this will accomplish what you want, only a full restore would be complicated.

I would just let it finish and you will have the second copy of your data you need. It does not sound like you want to use this to restore anyway since you can do that from the SSD.

I actually ended up stopping the back up and reformatted the external hard drive (1 partition - GUID). I then erased the partition it created to Mac OS Journaled, encrypted. I noticed after i cancelled my back up it was taking forever during the encryption process.

 

[iMacC2D]

Removed.

 

[had0ukenn]

A heads up - I've had problems with using the restore function in Disk Utility ever since Apple moved to Core Storage with OS X Lion. The exact same error. It doesn't matter if I'm restoring to or from a physical drive, using disk images... you name it.

Apple's drive management tools have been lacking in quality for some time. I've given up on using Disk Utility for any kind of data restores or recoveries. If I do have to use Disk Utility for any reason, I install the drive into a Snow Leopard machine and perform the operations there - works every time.

I wouldn't be surprised if this issue and the OP's drive issues are completely unrelated as a result.

I was able to take out my main drive (SSD) and boot it from an external enclosure, but it was stuck on the loading screen when it was inside my macbook. However, I was able to boot my old stock HDD inside by macbook pro. Would you happen to know why its booting my HDD and not SSD? The posters mentioned that it is the hard drive cable, aside from that i don't really have anything else to go on. I still don't understand how it could boot my HDD and not SSD, though?