Backup hangs on Restoring Spotlight state
 

I have multiple macs running SD!. All of them are creating read/write sparse images on the same NAS device.

Recently, one of my mac's has been having a problem where it hangs on the Restoring Spotlight state step. Yesterday, it ran 20 hours before I canceled the backup.

I use Time capsule to backup hourly, and SD! to create a disk image nightly. So, it's not a huge issue, but I would like to get this going again. I can't seem to find anything in particular that would be causing this problem. I don't seem to have it on any others.

Before I deleted and re-created the backup disk image, I wanted to see if there is something I could / should do to either fix the problem, or, more importantly, make sure it doesn't happen if I simply start over with a new image.

I have macbook pros, macbook air, and macbook mini that run SD!. It is the macbook mini that seems to have the problem.

I'm running SD! 2.6.2 v87 on the mini, and OS X 10.6.6


Thanks.
jc

Well, when we're restoring the spotlight state, we're literally just doing a simple operation. If it's hanging like that, that drive, connection, image, etc is likely failing or generating an error in OSX that's causing the 'hang'.

Have you tried deleting the image and allowing it to be recreated?

That's kind of what I thought, but I wanted to check first before I created the new image.

I'll do that tonight.

jc

that didn't work
 

Okay, so I deleted the sparse image file for the backup last night, and let SD! create a new image. It's been running 11 hours now.

Funny thing is, backups for my other mac ran just fine last night, and is creating the image file on the same NAS, just s different directory.

I do run the Repair Permissions on the HD prior to backup, and everything else seems to be okay.

Any suggestions?

jc

It's at the "restoring spotlight state" step?

Yes, that's the step it sits at.

Stop it, run an immediate smart update, and when it gets stuck, generate a system profiler report. Compress/ZIP it and send it to me at the support email address.

Go figure
 

Well, it ran as part of it's normal schedule last night, and I found it hung this morning.

I stopped it and re-ran the copy, and it ran fine.

I then used the schedule and re-ran it again, and it ran fine.

Guess I'll continue to monitor it. Beats me.

jc

Very strange behavior, John...

So, again last night it hung. I've sent the log file and the system profile report via email this morning.

Yes, very strange indeed. Sometimes it work, sometimes it does not. It wasn't that long ago that I rebuilt this machine from scratch, and I really haven't installed that many apps on it.

Maybe Parallels is giving it a problem? Wouldn't be the first time I had troubles, but it doesn't make sense that sometimes it works, sometimes it hangs. Maybe I'm leaving an app open and don't realize it.

If you see anything in the logs, I'd appreciate the assist.
jc

On to the next problem
 

Hey Dave,

Shutting down the Parallels virtual machine seems to have resolved the problem I was experiencing, but now I've run into another.

Over the past couple of days, when the backup starts to run, I get the message "Failed to get ownership of the Drive" (don't have the exact text in front of me).

It appears that the disk is not being ejected at the end of the previous copy. If I eject the drive (actually, I have to force eject it), I can re-run the copy with no trouble.

I remember seeing a post similar to this recently, but can't find it now. If you would prefer I open a new post on this let me know. If you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

jc

Next time this happens, send me the log with the Send to shirt pocket button.