Backup Failed [Archive] - Shirt Pocket Discussions

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Nick

07-09-2010, 01:44 PM

dnanian

07-09-2010, 02:01 PM

Restart your Mac, power cycle your drives, and try again.

Nick

07-09-2010, 07:36 PM

Restart your Mac, power cycle your drives, and try again.

As usual, you responded virtually immediately, and your response was the solution.

1. How do you do it? :confused: ;)

2. What was the problem (and what about the log indicated the problem)?

dnanian

07-10-2010, 12:55 PM

1. Experience, mostly.

2. The 5632 error code is something I've seen from the system that basically says "restart, something internal is messed up"...

Nick

07-10-2010, 03:06 PM

1. Experience, mostly.

2. The 5632 error code is something I've seen from the system that basically says "restart, something internal is messed up"...

Strictly out of curiosity: Any guess as to what would be included in the "Internal Things That Are Messed Up" list?

dnanian

07-10-2010, 05:40 PM

Not really: I didn't write OSX itself and can't really debug it as such.

Nick

07-13-2010, 10:04 PM

Nick

07-13-2010, 10:07 PM

dnanian

07-13-2010, 10:34 PM

It's a problem again with a drive that's attached, Nick, either locally or networked. Definitely something is not responding properly...

Nick

07-13-2010, 10:44 PM

It's a problem again with a drive that's attached, Nick, either locally or networked. Definitely something is not responding properly...

It's the same drive as before...

I have 3 FW externals, daisy-chained to the Mac: a 2TB, 1 TB, and 750 GB (in that order), all LaCie Quadras. The 750 is at the end of the chain; it's the oldest (circa Sept. 2008), the other 2 having recently (a few months ago) been acquired. The 2 TB is for TM backups; the 1 TB and 750 GB are for SD! backups.

What would you suggest I do?

dnanian

07-13-2010, 11:13 PM

Try switching one to USB to see if that helps?

Nick

07-13-2010, 11:29 PM

Try switching one to USB to see if that helps?

:confused: I don't understand.

dnanian

07-13-2010, 11:29 PM

Rather than connecting all three drives to FireWire, switch one to USB instead.

Nick

07-13-2010, 11:35 PM

Rather than connecting all three drives to FireWire, switch one to USB instead.

The 750?

But let's say I do...what am I trying to determine?

PS: FWIW, I tried running DU (as well as TTPro and DW), but they each failed to run their tests, as they each couldn't unmount the volume.

dnanian

07-14-2010, 07:46 AM

You're trying to determine whether the problem is with the interface (USB vs FW) or the drive.

Nick

07-14-2010, 08:21 AM

You're trying to determine whether the problem is with the interface (USB vs FW) or the drive.

It's the drive: Sometimes it mounts, other times it doesn't; sometimes I can unmount and/or eject it, other times I can't. And if and when I can get to the actual volume, some of the folders are now empty; and if I attempt to drag & drop folders from my internal HD or my other SD! clone to replace them, I get messages telling me it can't be done, because they're in use! (Same results for either interface.)

It's trashed, I guess.

dnanian

07-14-2010, 08:29 AM

Try moving it to USB and see if it starts behaving better, Nick.

Nick

07-14-2010, 08:30 AM

Try moving it to USB and see if it starts behaving better, Nick.

Same results for either interface.

Nick

07-16-2010, 10:21 AM

...

It's trashed, I guess.

Well, I decided I needed to reformat/reinitialize the drive. So, I opened DU and attempted to do so. However, my repeated attempts failed: After about 10 seconds of churning after I clicked the “partition” button, DU gave up and issued the error message: “Partition failed with the error: Could not unmount disk.”

I then tried to reformat/reinitialize via the USB interface as well, and that too was unsuccessful, but the error message was different: “Partition failed with the error: POSIX reports: The operation couldn’t be completed. Cannot allocate memory.”

dnanian

07-16-2010, 10:22 AM

Have you restarted your Mac?

Nick

07-16-2010, 10:34 AM

Have you restarted your Mac?

Numerous times. This last time, the volume doesn't even appear—only the drive shows up, and it only shows up in DU, not in the Finder. (This has happened periodically before over these past few days, but now it happens all the time: The volume doesn't appear.)

dnanian

07-16-2010, 10:39 AM

You may be having some more serious problems with your OS install. Getting memory allocation problems with stuff like this shouldn't happen. I'd reinstall Snow Leopard (equivalent of the old archive-and-install), and turn off any antivirus and similar apps you might have running.

Nick

07-16-2010, 10:47 AM

dnanian

07-16-2010, 10:57 AM

That's certainly what I'd try. It's pretty painless, and you're getting terribly weird things here.

Nick

07-16-2010, 11:03 AM

That's certainly what I'd try. It's pretty painless, and you're getting terribly weird things here.

Doing a full OS reinstall is painless? The last time I did that (previous machine, OS 10.5) it was anything but. Is SL inherently easier to reinstall?

dnanian

07-16-2010, 11:10 AM

You just reinstall. It puts a fresh os under your existing applications and data. It shouldn't be difficult.

sjk

07-16-2010, 05:43 PM

It shouldn't be difficult.
I agree that's generally true. When difficulties do occur with reinstalls they can be useful symptoms of specific problems that deserve attention to rectify so they're avoided in the future (if possible). Problematic reinstalls/updates can be a sign to consider managing a system differently.