Time Machine backups

[philharve]

Hi All

I have had a MBLD 6TB NAS, configured for RAID 1, for just 5 days and I am having a little trouble making my first Time Machine (TM) backup which is approximately 420GB.

I have created a number of Network Shares and copied data to them without problem and relatively quickly too: 350MB in about 5 minutes.

But TM backups are causing me some concern.

Firstly, where are the backups being stored? Apparently not in any of my 'Shares. I can 'see' the backup in the WD User Interface (UI) and within TM but where is my TM backup stored on my NAS?  Is it in a specially created 'Share of its own? Also, I have a second MacBook Pro I would like to backup. Can the NAS store more than one TM backup?

Secondly, it has taken almost 5 days to backup the 420GB, using a wireless link, but to my surprise the backup continued to 485GB before my MBLD sent me an alert saying it had shutdown. I need to look into what this alert actually means.

I imagine a wired link to my Billion Bipac 7800N Router would produce faster backups but the 1 - 4 MBps typical backup speed is rather disappointing considering Iown an N-type wireless router with gigabit ports. However, after reading numerous threads in this Community and elsewhere I now realise this performance is fairly typical for this WD product.

However, I am still scratching my head concerning the 485GB backup when I only have 420GB of data to backup. I have restated TM which I assume will complete a full / initial backup once it has determined which files need backing up. I am a little concerned that I may have to wait hours or even days to find out whether my backup has been successful.

[Wizer]

The backups are stored on a partition called time machine and yes you can backup more than one computer to the drive

the performance will depend on the host the drive is connected to..

Don't know why showing more data to backup but this is not a drive problem..

Might need to check the time machine settings 

[towers00]

I am currently backing up 445 GB (920K items) on Time Machine via ethernet to my Airport Express (Wireless N, Gigabit Ethernet). I am at 9 hours thus far (339 GB of the 445 GB).

Also, will it usually take this amount of time or is this just the time it takes for the first backup?

I will check to see how much GB it shows after it is done backing up to compare.

I'm thankful for this forum.

[philharve]

Hi Wizer

Thanks for the info' concerning multiple TM backups and where they are stored. That is a big help to me.

Your other comments have given me food for thought. Since my NAS is connected to a gigabit port on the router then I am wondering if my router is slowing down my backups!

I have used TM umpteen times to backup my laptop to a USB connected drive without any problem. I have also used Carbon Copy Cloner to make bootable backups using a directly connected drive, again without problem, but installing a NAS is my first venture into backing up over a network. If I have configured TM's Preferences incorrectly then I don't know where I have gone wrong.

I can copy files between my laptop and my Shares and back again: no problem at all. My problem appears to be with TM.

[philharve]

Hi towers00

It seems we are attempting much the same kind of task: 400+GB using TM. At 9 hours and counting, you backing up is faster than mine. Yes, the first TM backup is the longest because every file is backed up. Successive backups are only changed or new files.

I would like to know if your backup completes normally and whether TM then identifies it as the oldest or latest backup. When my backup got to 420GB (over 1.2 million files) it kept going up to 485GB before I stopped it. I didn't believe what I was seeing. I'm not sure if I have a problem with TM or the NAS or my router. I think my laptop is blameless.

[towers00]

Hey Phil,

I am not sure how long it took but it did go for a good 20 hour period I believe. 

I am currently backing up another computer (MacMini) with an external HDD...so it is taking some time. I did open up TM and it was able to show the previous backups as I had left it running while I went to work and it had done a couple of backups while i was gone. My wife still uses the iMac while I am gone and it kept up with the changes she made on it.

I believe the original backup was around the same amount as my internal HDD on my iMac (455 GB).  I will let you know if I encounter any issues as I will be backing up this external HDD with my iPhoto library and Music library on it.

Your laptop may be blameless, but the culprit might be the NAS with RAID 1. 

I still have a PC to backup on MBLD. So in total it will be two Macs (iMac and Mac Mini) and a PC laptop on the MBLD. I am putting this NAS to work. 

[philharve]

Hi towers00

It seems your TM is working OK. I should have thought 20 hours to backup 455GB was quite acceptable. I have used TM with my USB and Firewire ports and I have seen 3GBps second performance but my NAS backups barely rise above 5MBps.

I am pleased to learn that you are seeing Oldest and Latest Backup stats. I have yet to see anything but that is probably because I have still to make that initial backup. I can see the progress bar operating OK.

Yes, it is true, the NAS is the only unproven item in my home network. I have no reason to doubt my router (not yet) which has worked OK for about a year when I purchased it. I have a Billion Bipac 7800N router which has an excellent reputation. 

I am gradually coming around to the view that it is my NAS that is the problem but I cannot put my finger on anything definite.

[philharve]

Oops, I meant 3GB per minute!

[philharve]

Hi All

I have decided to submit a support request which has been duly acknowledged by WD. If they provide a solution I will report back to this community.

[philharve]

UPDATE

WD Support asked me to perform a hard reset by inserting a small pointed object into the reset hole on the rear of my MBLD. I did this but nothing appears to be different.

I have decided to let Time Machine perform a fresh backup but this time I won't abort the backup if it appears to overrun. Instead I will wait to see what happens. I will play the waiting game. Resetting the MBLD 'may' have had some effect but I won't know until I have attempted a full TM backup.

I did try a more powerful+sensitive wireless card and substituted it for my Airport card which I powered off. The backup rate increased between 3 - 4x but it was an unsustainable configuration because the Airport driver and the QuickerTek ExpressCard driver conflicted and my MacBook Pro froze and I had to perform a poweroff reset. The freezing occurred within minutes of activating the QuickerTek card. I conclude from this experiment that wireless performance cannot be ignored if TM backups are over a wifi link. I have placed an order for a long range, USB, wifi adapter from Alfa which should dramatically outperform my Airport card. 

It will probably be another week before I complete my next set of experiments. Fingers crossed!