guruuno1 Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 The original Time Machine 300Gb HD got full in 2 days, I put on a new HD yeaterday, started Time Machine to backup only primary HD over 24 hrs ago, and only 62gb of 158gb is done! I previously had a Firewire HD, ran fine, snappy, quick, I put a Seagate Free Agent 500Gb HD this time, but USB, and it's dragging....does it prefer only Firewire? Am I missing something? As I previously posted, and got no replies, is the hype about Time Machine only that, hype, as it seems like it's always bogging down the system hourly, etc. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/68209-time-machine-taking-forever/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
gray_hat Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Firewire is simply inherently faster. (It also carries more power in its cable allowing you to chain-link devices) Also, how big is your internal drive? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/68209-time-machine-taking-forever/#findComment-484965 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitals Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 USB isn't really THAT much slower. Could be a problem with your USB bus. Time Machine has been backing up on my machine for maybe 20 minutes, and has already copied 30 GB. 60GB in 24 hours is NOT NORMAL. I'm using an ancient 80GB USB drive. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/68209-time-machine-taking-forever/#findComment-484976 Share on other sites More sharing options...
guruuno1 Posted October 28, 2007 Author Share Posted October 28, 2007 250Gb, with 182gb for OS X, balance for Boot Camp partition, and only 158Gb used of the 182gb. Odd.... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/68209-time-machine-taking-forever/#findComment-485001 Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerdrinkingtrash Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 I have a free agent drive 300gb, though. Mine was going slow, but I sort of fixed it. If you look under system profiler then the USB section. If the Free Agent Drive sits under the "USB Bus" section it goes really slow. If it sits under the "USB High-Speed Bus" section it goes fast. It must use USB 1.0 - which is very slow. Anyway, I got it to reappear under High Speed bus by disconnecting one of my other usb devices (headset). So swaping around devices a bit might work... I have a fresh leopard install + a heap of PDF/word documents - still only takes up 100gb of the backup drive. Came looking for info because indexing the backup drive still seems slow. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/68209-time-machine-taking-forever/#findComment-485760 Share on other sites More sharing options...
guruuno1 Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share Posted October 30, 2007 Yup, that was it, duh is me. I had the Free Agent USB HD on a USB hub, put it on the 'other' hub, works as it should. As a side question though, both external hubs are high speed, is it that the USB ports feeding them off of the back of an iMac has one high speed, the other not? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/68209-time-machine-taking-forever/#findComment-487300 Share on other sites More sharing options...
nato64 Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 I've learned to just let Time Machine do it's thing. Mine took 4 or 5 days to back up. Then again, I have 740GB of data (HD video mostly). But it's worth it. Sometimes it looks like Time Machine is just stalling, it's not. Remember, it's not just copying folders and files, it's creating a catalogue of which files it is backing up so that in the future, Time Machine will only back up the files that have changed instead of re-scanning your entire system. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/68209-time-machine-taking-forever/#findComment-487899 Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbcbdn Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 For me it seemed like it would take forever.. the first 20-30gb took 3 hours.. I came back 4 hours later and the last ~100gb was done... just let it do its thing. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/68209-time-machine-taking-forever/#findComment-488016 Share on other sites More sharing options...
guruuno1 Posted October 31, 2007 Author Share Posted October 31, 2007 Well, during the last 7 days, a 300Gb HD + a 500Gb HD after that one, Time Machine constantly 'doing it's thing', I was in the middle of several applications (a.k.a., multitasking), with FireFox, Thunderbird, another 1 or 2 apps running, VM Ware Fusion w/XP Pro open and running (3Gb total memory on iMac, 1.5 allocated for VM).....and my iMac on 2 occasions, came to a screeching halt. Mouse was dead, then rubbery, could not kill any processes, bluetooth keyboard and mouse went screwy, and on both occasions, had to shut down via power button. Once restarted for the 3rd time, and trying to duplicate the issue, I slid the TIme Machine switch to OFF> Bottom line is, the whole machine, iMac, VM w/XP, all the apps on both, were snappy again, operating properly, etc., and so forth. That brings in the question. Rather than have Time Machine do a real time constant monitoring of everything, can I modify the schedule to do backups say 1 or 2 times a day, rather than hourly + all the other scheduling that's built in (be changed??)? It's seemingly a real bear this backup, and although very good, etc., I'm not sure anyone who beta tested had it do this, or is my situation an isolated incident, and do I have something wrong, or is this, just the way it is? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/68209-time-machine-taking-forever/#findComment-488668 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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