Time Machine is hosing itself

[primalman]

So I have an odd, recurring issue with my TM disk. Early last week TM failed a backup, then again. so I naturally went to Disk Utility to try repairs. No go. What I got was an "invalid sibling link" and the repair failed. Many times. I then went to Terminal to attempt fsck from there. No luck in a repair, even after a dozen or more runs. I was able to finally get the TM disk to mount, but could not copy any data off. So its a reformat and redo the TM initial backup. All 18 months of my backups were lost. No huge deal, but it is sad to lose that much time from my time machine. Now I just got a machine.

Last night the same thing happened. TM failed, and this time hangs the Finder when the backup action will not stop. Dock stops responding. Can't relaunch Finder, end up having to do a hold the power button down thing to reboot. DU returns the "invalid sibling link" thing, will not repair. Running fsck from the terminal now, but my hopes are low. [update: Terminal just returned it could not repair]

Question here: is this a TM problem? Or, is this a disk issue, something with the physical disk? Or even the external enclosure?

I have had disks fail before, sometimes slowly, but they were way more inconsistent and harder to diagnose. They were just "corrupt". I am preparing to purchase a replacement disk to install in the same enclosure, which BTW is a Lacie Quadra. My topology is I have 3 LaCie Quadras, all daisy chained with FW800 from my 2009 MacBook Pro. The TM disk is the first in the chain. The disk itself is about 18 months old, the enclosure 3 years +, and is the oldest one I have, and is out of warranty. The disk itself is in warranty. Never had any issues such as this, or anything really, from any of the Quadras or the disks. The only other thing different about this computer recently is CS5 Design Premium installation about 3 weeks ago. I do not think that CS5 is the root issue here, as none of my searches for info on this problem returned any CS5 note at all.

Any insight here would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[martyosten]

Unfortunate truth

I held out great hope for Apple and Mr. Jobs that they would continue to QA their software, and perhaps move from toys to enterprise products. I'm afraid having had this Time Machine Hang along with a similar behavior under "SuperDuper" that my hopes are dashed.

Linux is of course a joke except for very narrow applications and certainly not for the home user. As my old boss McNealy said, "computers should be like telephones. They just work." Perhaps more idealistic than a rhetorical comment on Solaris, but I have never had my landline require a reboot, cntl-alt-del, blue-green or any other color of death.

So, that is why such a large amount of the worlds data still resides on mainframe. They are fast, reliable, and if I owned a company of any consequence (like Costco), I too would be running the most proven architecture on the planet -- AS400.

So, I think I'll head over to my nearest Apple store and get me another one of those cute and shiney little ipods. I'm sure I need one, I think?

I only wish Jobs would read these.
Marty

 

[Blue Velvet]

My topology is I have 3 LaCie Quadras, all daisy chained with FW800 from my 2009 MacBook Pro. The TM disk is the first in the chain.

You know, I have a hunch that this might have a part to play. My experience with Time Machine was equally problematic with a Lacie Quadra disk, FW800 and also FW400, to the point where I gave up on Time Machine in the end and resorted to daily clones, preferring to give up incremental backups in exchange for a bootable, immediately usable clone. And I have a hunch, admittedly based on little, that Lacie's Firewire implementation might be a little flakey as I've already had one Lacie Quadra enclosure fail on me.

One suggestion that may not be practical for your situation is perhaps erasing the drive, getting a full backup done with Time Machine and then switching the Time Machine's drive over to USB2 since you have a four-way interface on that enclosure. It might be slower, but it might be far more reliable.

 

[primalman]

I held out great hope for Apple and Mr. Jobs that they would continue to QA their software, and perhaps move from toys to enterprise products. I'm afraid having had this Time Machine Hang along with a similar behavior under "SuperDuper" that my hopes are dashed.

Linux is of course a joke except for very narrow applications and certainly not for the home user. As my old boss McNealy said, "computers should be like telephones. They just work." Perhaps more idealistic than a rhetorical comment on Solaris, but I have never had my landline require a reboot, cntl-alt-del, blue-green or any other color of death.

So, that is why such a large amount of the worlds data still resides on mainframe. They are fast, reliable, and if I owned a company of any consequence (like Costco), I too would be running the most proven architecture on the planet -- AS400.

So, I think I'll head over to my nearest Apple store and get me another one of those cute and shiney little ipods. I'm sure I need one, I think?

I only wish Jobs would read these.
Marty

Not helpful.

 

[primalman]

You know, I have a hunch that this might have a part to play. My experience with Time Machine was equally problematic with a Lacie Quadra disk, FW800 and also FW400, to the point where I gave up on Time Machine in the end and resorted to daily clones, preferring to give up incremental backups in exchange for a bootable, immediately usable clone. And I have a hunch, admittedly based on little, that Lacie's Firewire implementation might be a little flakey as I've already had one Lacie Quadra enclosure fail on me.

One suggestion that may not be practical for your situation is perhaps erasing the drive, getting a full backup done with Time Machine and then switching the Time Machine's drive over to USB2 since you have a four-way interface on that enclosure. It might be slower, but it might be far more reliable.

Thanks BV. I had that in mind as well, the only thing saying that it would not be is that I have had 5 of these Quadras over the years, this one for about 3.5, and never had any similar issue. My route is going to be replacing the HD inside first, moving this HD to a quick connecter and testing the crap out of it, while also moving to warranty it. See if this works. I might see about moving to USB after first clone.

My inclination is that the HD is failing. The same problem, now on the third wipe and redo the TM to me points to a hardware issue, as TM has been a pretty reliable setup for me, saved m bacon a few times. I don't have the time or disk space to deal with a CCC or SuperDuper clone that often.

Will try to keep updating. Thanks again BV.