10-02-2012, 08:08 AM

I got some error message indicating that my Time Machine backup file verification had been completed and that a new backup had to be made. An Apple tech rep explained that sometimes a backup file can become corrupted, or was initially corrupt due to some interruption when the file was initially created, so I deleted the old sparsebundle file completely, and started over (luckily, I also have a Carbonite backup, just in case), with a new indexing of the hard drive. The new backup is running, with my MacBook Pro set to never go to sleep, with the top up, and connected to the Time Capsule by a cable (with WiFi turned off). Both machines are plugged into power, and there's been no power interruption, as far as I can tell. A total of 209.76 GB had to be backed up, and after about 36 hours of running, it's only backed up 25.2 GB! It's making progress, as it started with 260,672 items to back up, and is now down to 247,605 items left, but it's estimating 10 days left of running time! We do use that same Time Capsule as a wireless router for other Apple devices (2 iPhones, an iPad, and my husband's MacBook Pro, and a TiVo unit, but I turned off my husband's TM backups before getting started, and most of the time the backup has been running is overnight or while we're at work and other devices are not running or not even present within WiFi range. Is this normal for that amount of data to take this long to back up under these circumstances?

10-02-2012, 01:02 PM

IMHO I never like Time Machine due to the long backup times and having a corrupted hard drive that I couldn't use.

Have you tried using CarbonCopyCloner app? I find this excellent for backing up/cloning hard drives. You can even boot from it if saved to a thumb drive.

10-02-2012, 01:22 PM

carbon copy is the program i use and i love it! images are fast and painless and the copy on the external is bootable and usable, great program and highly recommended