Time Machine back up slow

[ChrisN]

Hi, I am wondering why my Macbook(sig for specs) is taking 11 minutes and counting just to prepare the backup. Is that normal because it seems a bit weird, I am using the airport extreme with a maxtor hard drive.

Thanks,
ChrisN

 

[macdot]

Depends on how long you've gone between backups, I would imagine.

 

[ChrisN]

It says my last backup was April 20, I'm also wondering why doesn't it do it more frequently?

ChrisN

 

[Gentile]

11 minutes to prepare does not seem too unusual. I have had some go longer. I believe you can change the period of time it backups. Go to "Open Time Machine Preferences" and then options.

 

[MattZani]

My first one to a time capsule has taken about 5 hours so far, done 34Gb out of 90 so far.... >.>

 

[cherry su]

It says my last backup was April 20, I'm also wondering why doesn't it do it more frequently?

ChrisN

time machine doesn't see your remote drive when it wants to back up, so it says "the hell with it" and skips the backup

 

[ChrisN]

how can i make my computer see the remote drive so it backs up?

Thanks,
ChrisN

 

[HomeBru Studios]

I would check the log file to see how big the backup is and what it is backing up. A friend of mine had a similar issue - turns out, he was backing up some really huge temp files that weren't required to be backed up - he excluded those files in the exclude list and voila - a much faster backup!

Also, I heard the rumor that if you have Parallels installed and you haven't excluded the Parallels drive from the backup, then merely launching Parallels is enough to tell Time Machine to backup the entire virtual drive - even if you made no purposeful file changes to the virtual drive.