> On 29 Nov 2017, at 9:43 pm, Peter Crisp <petercr...@westnet.com.au> wrote: > > Hi, my sons treats his Macbook in such a way that he usually walks off from > it mid Time Machine backup and then closes the lid which interrupts the back > up. His bedroom is also in a poor wifi spot (which I am separately resolving) > which makes any backup exceedingly slow. I checked his MBP the other day and > it said last backup was a month ago - obviously a time where he had it open > for a period of time which allowed the backup to complete. > > The other night he was copying some content (all five days recorded of the > first test match!!!) from another connected USB drive (via his MBP to his > external drive). At the time of this transfer, the Time Machine woke and > started it’s backup - and the size of the backup was enormous (~100GB). We > selected “Skip this Backup” and then turned off TM. After the Test Match > transfer was completed, we turned ON the Time Machine again and thought > nothing more of it, leaving it to its own devices to pick up the next backup. > > It wouldn’t backup at all and a couple of days went by still saying the last > back up was some time prior to the test match file transfer. Tonight I > shutdown his MBP, reset the full network and then restarted the MBP. It took > an age saying “Waiting for first backup” and then Preparing Backup as > expected, then after I had to go out and came back, it said backing up > 540GB!!! The same as the full sized backup of what it was prior. The Test > Match files are in an Excluded folder on the external drive so do not form a > part of this 540GB backup. I can see the backup file is ‘in use’ by looking > from another network connected MBP at the file. I have let it go for now but > half of me says intervene, blow away the old backup band start again so he > doesn’t end up with a backup files twice the size it needs to be. > > It will take a full 24 hours to get through this 540GB Backup but I am not > sure if the resultant backup file will in fact be 1080GB in size, fortunately > the backup disc is a 2TB size so has the space. > > Should I intervene, blow away and start again or let it finish? > > Regards > >
Do you have a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner or similar? You can always download a 30-day trial copy of CCC (https://bombich.com) for a one-off job. My first step would be to make a clone of the hard drive onto a clean backup disk, just as insurance. My second step would be to cut my losses and simply re-format the Timeout Disk and start again. After all, it IS only backup data you’re losing. The reason for the insurance in the first step is to allow for the possible intervention of Murphy’s Law, which says your Macbook’s own hard drive will die halfway though, and you’ll be left with nothing. With a clean Timeout Disk, start the ball rolling again. It may some time for all this - first for the clone and again for the first Timeout backup, but it should set everything back to normal. As far as preventing your son from closing the lid at the wrong time - I dunno. Self-disciplne or superglue... Kind regards, Peter Hinchliffe Apwin Computer Services FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer Perth, Western Australia Phone (618) 9332 6482 Mob 0403 046 948 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to. -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
