Time Machine Backup Failed

The discussion forums over at Apple have a number of posts about Time Machine backup failing due to "unable to create directory". One of them is mine. One explanation is that TM tries to compress old backups rather than deleting them when a disk fills up and if the new backup tries to start before the compression is done, it fails. Huh?

In my case, the Time Capsule was less than half full. I rebooted my macbook and all went well for the next scheduled backup but isn't rebooting supposed to be a Windows thing?

Then there are posts about Time Machine volumes becoming unreadable. I hope Apple figures all this out soon. :worried:

 

Bump.

No reply at Apple forums and no reply here? Isn't anybody using a Time Capsule for backup?

 

Not using timecaspule but am using timemachine, so far no problems to report. Was having a bit of trouble on the first backup, but that I think was due to the screensaver kicking in. But I haven't actually had a need to use timemachine yet, so although the backups are backing, up not sure how good they are.
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Mine fails some cause the external drive clicks off and disconnects, but i haven't had this issue...

 

Same here, my TC backs up fine every time.

 

I haven't had any trouble since that first day but I haven't seen any TM updates from Apple nor have I seen a reply to this topic on their support forums. I haven't actually had to rely on a TM backup. When I moved from one machine to the next, I did so with both machines working and present by using firewire. I assumed it would be faster than using the usb drive I had been using for TM backups. I suppose I really should run a test... This is beginning to sound like an excuse to pick up another macbook so I can do a TM/TC restore and see if Absolutely Everything comes back. Better safe than sorry

 

I had the unable to create directory bug yesterday. I just re-ran it and it worked fine then. I'm just guessing it's wireless issues as usual. WiFi just sucks nuts.

 

Mine is being done via wifi. Perhaps I should plug in the gigabit cable lying at the back of my macbook and switch off my wifi to see if the issue happens again. For me, the "failed to create directory" error was very repeatable until I ...ahem... rebooted OS X Leopard. Yes, I know that's so Windows 3.11 for Workgroups but I tried and succeeded to fix a Time Machine problem by rebooting.

 

What about just turning the wireless on the mbp off for a bit then back on, this should reset it, and perhaps if it is a wireless issue this maybe easier/quicker than a reboot.
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I'm really looking forward to an update to TimeMachine that makes more sense. Once an hour is too much when I'm not here but OK if I'm trying to avoid losing work.

I'm thinking of shutting down wifi when I'm at working at my desk and sticking to the gigabit ethernet. It's faster than the 802.11n and my TimeMachine backups should be a lot faster.

 

Actually Rok it's very good idea for TC to backup every hour, I wish it was more often than that. Don't forget that it backs up your emails. The last thing you want to do is delete an email and then change your mind and need it back but TC didn't back it up in a timely fashion.

 

I have not deleted an email since the mid 1980's except for spam and nuisance email. Time machine isn't going to save me from that one. By running once an hour, it's putting usage on a hard disk that would be sleeping for many hours at a time when I'm not sitting at the keyboard. Statistically, for that kind of use you need an upgraded hard drive technology. The consumer grade stuff will fail in 2 - 3 years. I'm not eager to bet my data that the drive in the Time Capsule is data center grade no matter what it says on the outside of the box. Money I can bet. I can always get more. Data cannot easily be recovered.

 

I agree. If you use a hard drive that is ALWAYS on, then backing up whenever isn't a big deal. As it is, with backups at 1 hour over WiFi to a Time Capsule, that's 24 times the drive has to spin up and shut down, as the TC drive sleeps after 10 minutes-or-so inactivity. That's an insane number of power-ups/spin-downs. I've got mine set to 4 hour intervals.

 

I had mine set to 4 hours when I was using a usb disk but I left it at the default 1 hour once I went to a Time Capsule. At the time, I was worried about throughput of 802.11n vs usb and figured it's less like to take as long each time if there's less stuff to transfer. I'm gonna go back and make it 4 hours again.

 

For those that don't want Time Machine updating every hour, check out TimeMachineEditor:

http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/

 

That's what I used to set mine to 4 hours.

 

I do see some benefit to leveraging the time for TC to backup and I think the 4 hour idea is good (although my emails are business related and may be more important for me than you) but I am not too crazy about TC Editor software as it messes up the time/date for the next backup in System Preferences.

Also you have to keep in mind that your computer's HDD is spinning up and down constantly since you are using it a lot more the TC.
It's up to you to believe what you want but I don't think Apple would lie about TC being server grade knowing that it has to backup their customer's data every hour, there would be some heavy lawsuits.

 

My computer hard drive does NOT spin up and down constantly. I've set mine to never spin down. Also, the TC hard drives are NOT server grade. I have the exact same hard drives in enclosures! They're very standard Hitachi Deskstar drives from the labeling on the drives.

Here's a picture for proof:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24254876@N03/2300920529/sizes/l/in/set-72157604011791554/

 

So are saying that Apple is lying about TC being server grade?