Time Capsule - Finishing Backup for 15 hours

[EmilyAdmin]

I have been attempting to backup for about 2 weeks now with the 1T TC. There were many frustrations with it getting stuck on "preparing to backup", but I found a solution here (un-check the "sleep hard drive" option in the energy saver preferences). It has finished backing up, but it's been "finishing backup" for 15 hours now.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Emily

 

[James Cole]

probably having dropouts...

 

[johnnj]

I have been attempting to backup for about 2 weeks now with the 1T TC. There were many frustrations with it getting stuck on "preparing to backup", but I found a solution here (un-check the "sleep hard drive" option in the energy saver preferences). It has finished backing up, but it's been "finishing backup" for 15 hours now.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Emily

Wireless or wired? If wlan, try wired, if wired, try a different cable.

Also, how much data are you backing up? I've found that the TC is EXTREMELY slow and inefficient, to the extent that I only use it to back up my wife's web browsing MB. I've switched mine to a locally attached FW800 drive.

Fifteen hours does seem a little excessive, though

John

 

[minik]

My first backup to the Time Capsule via CAT6 cable took me ~10 hrs for 257GB of data. After that, it backups fine with 802.11n.

 

[EmilyAdmin]

Sparse Bundle

This is the first time I'm using the TC 1T for backups. I backup my mac with a Lacie hard drive right on my desk.

The TC lists the backups as "sparse bundles". Is a sparse bundle a complete backup? I tried backing up 2 laptops in our office over the weekend using an ethernet cable. The employees got to work before I did and the backups weren't complete, but I can see their sparse bundles on the TC.

I have a total of 8 macbooks to backup. I currently have 2 backed up. We had an "apple consultant" come in to set it all up, but I don't think it was worth it as I'm still struggling. Argh.

 

[johnnj]

"Sparse bundle" is the file container that Time Machine uses to store the actual backups. It's named by machine name/MAC address, so you'll see one for every one of your 8 machines.

So, you're saying each machine is taking 15+ hours or the aggregate of all 8 is taking that long? How much data will be changing on a daily basis on these machines?

Sounds to me like your "apple consultant" took the easy way out for him/her and left you with an underpowered and inefficient backup system.

I couldn't even put up with TC for backup on 2 machines, let alone 8. If these machines are all production computers, perhaps a more robust backup solution is what you need, such as Retrospect or other "real" backup software. Else you might just want to give each machine it's own local hard drive for backup.

Sorry for your troubles...

John

 

[EmilyAdmin]

Back It Up

"Sparse bundle" is the file container that Time Machine uses to store the actual backups. It's named by machine name/MAC address, so you'll see one for every one of your 8 machines.

So, you're saying each machine is taking 15+ hours or the aggregate of all 8 is taking that long? How much data will be changing on a daily basis on these machines?

Sounds to me like your "apple consultant" took the easy way out for him/her and left you with an underpowered and inefficient backup system.

I couldn't even put up with TC for backup on 2 machines, let alone 8. If these machines are all production computers, perhaps a more robust backup solution is what you need, such as Retrospect or other "real" backup software. Else you might just want to give each machine it's own local hard drive for backup.

Sorry for your troubles...

John

I've been trying to backup just one at a time. Each machine has about 40GB to back up. I've been begging my boss to just get everyone a drive for their desk, but he wants to take advantage of Apple's claims of wireless network backups with the TC. Our office has been using macs since '05, I'm starting to wonder if it's been the worst mistake we've made. It is also hard to find knowledgeable, competent, help. At least I can keep trying!

 

[PrincessPeach]

I have had this too but it was a one off. I couldn't actually stop it easily.

Usually my incremental backups only take a moment, it's just very occasionally it seems to get "stuck" like you describe. Absolute lifesaver though when my filesystem destroyed itself one day.

The full system restore can take a very, very long time too. Grabbing the odd file though from "the past" works fine on my TC.

 

[johnnj]

I've been trying to backup just one at a time. Each machine has about 40GB to back up. I've been begging my boss to just get everyone a drive for their desk, but he wants to take advantage of Apple's claims of wireless network backups with the TC. Our office has been using macs since '05, I'm starting to wonder if it's been the worst mistake we've made. It is also hard to find knowledgeable, competent, help. At least I can keep trying!

Wireless?? Ok... then at minimum you might want to at least connect the TC directly to each machine for the first backup. Wired runs much faster than wireless, but it's still pretty slow.

I'm actually fairly close to putting my 1tb TC up on the bay, since it's not really doing me too much good right now.

Good luck on finally getting your backups squared away.

John