Time Machine Backup Consistently Hangs, Requires MyBook Live Reboot to continue

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
1

I bought a MtBook Live 5 days ago in order to backup my iMac. I have 1.4Tb of data on my iMac, which is not backed-up.

I configured the MBL and updated its software to the latest version (MyBookLive 01.03.03 : MioNet 4.3.1.12)

My Mac is running Mac OS X 10.6.6 and has all software updates applied.

Time Machine Backup is able to connect to the drive and works well for a random amount of time, transferring files at approx 1Gb per minute, but then hangs. 

If I then try to stop the Time Machine backup on the Mac, and reboot the MBL, I can continue backup up, but eventually it will hang again and I have to repeat the process. 

So far I have backup up in sessions of approx:

50Gb

200Gb

50Gb

500Gb

50Gb

10Gb

15Gb

200Gb

and numerous session of  <5Gb

I contacted  WD tech support and they advised me to run disk First Aid on the iMac. I have verified the Macintosh HD and its permissions are correct. But the problem persists.

I still have 200Gb left to backup. 

This is REALLY frustrating, and I’m not impressed with the MyBook Live as a NAS solution. It’s unfit for the purpose of backing up a Mac, and has been a waste of money. I should have waited and got a pricier, but more reliable, NAS solution like Synology.

I enabled SSH and shell in to the MBL to check the status: This session has hung at 1.29Gb

MyBookLive:~# free -m
             total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 248 244 3 0 76 75
-/+ buffers/cache: 92 155
Swap: 488 103 385
MyBookLive:~# ps aux
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
root 1 0.0 0.6 4352 1600 ? Ss 08:38 0:00 init [2]  
root 2 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [kthreadd]
root 3 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root 4 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [watchdog/0]
root 5 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [events/0]
root 6 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [khelper]
root 9 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [async/mgr]
root 159 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [sync_supers]
root 161 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [bdi-default]
root 162 0.1 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:03 [kblockd/0]
root 167 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [ata/0]
root 168 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [ata_aux]
root 169 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [ksuspend_usbd]
root 174 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [khubd]
root 177 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [kseriod]
root 197 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [rpciod/0]
root 224 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [khungtaskd]
root 225 0.7 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:18 [kswapd0]
root 226 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [aio/0]
root 227 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [nfsiod]
root 228 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 08:38 0:00 [kslowd000]
root 229 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 08:38 0:00 [kslowd001]
root 230 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [xfs_mru_cache]
root 231 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [xfslogd/0]
root 232 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [xfsdatad/0]
root 233 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [xfsconvertd/0]
root 234 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [crypto/0]
root 333 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [scsi_tgtd/0]
root 345 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [scsi_eh_0]
root 375 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? D 08:38 0:00 [btn_t]
root 383 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? D 08:38 0:00 [a3gblink_t]
root 444 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [md1_raid1]
root 446 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [kjournald]
root 510 0.0 0.4 4608 1152 ? S<s 08:38 0:00 udevd --daemon
root 717 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:38 0:00 [flush-9:1]
root 910 0.0 0.3 3584 832 ? Ss 08:38 0:00 logsave -s /var/log/fsck/checkfs fsck -C -R -A -a
root 1020 0.0 0.4 4160 1024 ? Ss 08:38 0:00 dhclient3 -pf /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid -lf /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.eth0.leases eth0
daemon 1090 0.0 0.4 3968 1024 ? Ss 08:39 0:00 /sbin/portmap
root 1235 0.0 1.0 30592 2688 ? Sl 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -c3
root 1262 0.0 1.3 34048 3328 ? S<s 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
root 1273 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [jbd2/sda4-8]
root 1274 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root 1279 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [flush-8:0]
www-data 1290 0.1 2.2 39040 5632 ? S< 08:39 0:03 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 1291 0.0 1.2 35328 3136 ? S< 08:39 0:01 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 1292 0.0 1.2 34432 3072 ? S< 08:39 0:01 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 1293 0.1 4.0 37824 10368 ? S< 08:39 0:02 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 1294 0.0 4.2 34688 10688 ? S< 08:39 0:01 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
root 1312 0.0 0.5 9920 1280 ? Ss 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
root 1326 0.0 0.9 5696 2496 ? SN 08:39 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/local/sbin/monitorio.sh
root 1341 0.0 0.5 3712 1408 ? Ss 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i eth0 -q -f -u0 -d5 -w -I
root 1360 0.0 0.5 4032 1280 ? Ss 08:39 0:00 /sbin/rpc.statd
root 1369 0.0 0.3 7808 960 ? Ss 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/rpc.idmapd
root 1388 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [lockd]
root 1389 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [nfsd]
root 1390 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [nfsd]
root 1391 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [nfsd]
root 1392 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [nfsd]
root 1393 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [nfsd]
root 1394 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [nfsd]
root 1395 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [nfsd]
root 1396 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 08:39 0:00 [nfsd]
root 1400 0.0 0.2 4480 512 ? Ss 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/rpc.mountd --manage-gids
root 1411 0.0 1.2 12032 3200 ? Ss 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/nmbd -D
root 1413 0.0 0.5 20096 1472 ? S<s 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
root 1429 0.0 0.2 20096 640 ? S< 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
root 1434 0.0 0.3 7232 896 ? S 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/vsftpd
root 1453 0.0 0.6 8256 1600 ? S< 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/afpd -U uams_dhx2.so,uams_clrtxt.so -g nobody -c 50 -n localhost
root 1480 0.0 0.6 3776 1728 ? Ss 08:39 0:00 /usr/local/bin/mDNSResponderPosix -b -f //etc/mDNSResponder.conf -P /var/run/mDNSResponder.pid
103 1494 0.0 0.5 5312 1280 ? Ss 08:39 0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
www-data 1513 0.1 1.2 37824 3200 ? S< 08:39 0:02 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 1520 0.1 2.2 43648 5760 ? S< 08:39 0:04 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 1521 0.1 1.2 41856 3136 ? S< 08:39 0:03 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
root 1528 0.0 0.5 42752 1472 ? Ssl 08:39 0:01 /usr/local/bin/forked-daapd
root 1684 0.0 0.4 3840 1152 ? S 08:39 0:00 /usr/local/twonkymedia-5/twonkymedia -D -appdata /CacheVolume/twonkymedia
root 1687 0.5 1.9 21056 4992 ? Sl 08:39 0:12 /usr/local/twonkymedia-5/twonkymediaserver -D -appdata /CacheVolume/twonkymedia
root 1713 0.4 3.1 139904 8128 ? Sl 08:39 0:11 /usr/mionet/bin/cvm -Djava.class.path=/usr/mionet/lib/resilientefforts-core-0.1.jar:/usr/mionet/crimson.jar:/usr/mionet/Senvid.jar:/usr/mionet/cryptix.jar:/usr/mionet/lib/apache-common-logging-wrapper.jar:/usr/mionet/
root 1758 0.0 0.7 35712 1984 ? Sl 08:39 0:01 /usr/mionet/changeNotifySocket
root 1777 0.0 0.6 48576 1728 ? SNl 08:39 0:00 ./miocrawler
root 1786 0.0 0.3 3584 896 ? S 08:39 0:00 /usr/local/bin/resetbtnd /dev/input/event0 4 /usr/local/sbin/resetButtonAction.sh
root 1806 0.0 0.6 5120 1536 ? SNs 08:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
root 1841 0.0 1.0 69824 2752 ? Sl 08:39 0:00 /usr/local/bin/upnp_nas_device -webdir /etc -desc nasdevice.xml
root 1875 0.0 0.5 3840 1408 ? S 08:39 0:00 /usr/local/bin/lld2d eth0
root 1976 0.0 0.5 3776 1280 ttyS0 Ss+ 08:39 0:00 /sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100
nobody 2191 5.5 1.6 10816 4224 ? D< 08:41 2:06 /usr/sbin/afpd -U uams_dhx2.so,uams_clrtxt.so -g nobody -c 50 -n localhost
www-data 3732 0.1 2.6 37824 6784 ? S< 08:55 0:02 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 4484 0.3 4.0 43136 10304 ? S< 09:01 0:04 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
root 5672 0.0 1.1 13696 2944 ? Ss 09:10 0:00 sshd: root@pts/0 
root 5674 0.0 1.3 5696 3328 pts/0 Ss 09:10 0:00 -bash
root 6410 0.0 0.7 3904 1856 ? SN 09:19 0:00 sleep 60
root 6412 0.0 1.2 4928 3072 pts/0 R+ 09:19 0:00 ps aux
2

Hi dude, what if you try a hard reset just to make sure the NAS will be working on optimal conditions, and then go from there to narrow down the possibilities?

At least, that’s what I would try first…

3

Hi, 

Thanks for the response. I really appreciate all the help I can get at this point.

Do you mean restore the MBL to factory setting and start over? Won’t that erase what I’ve managed to backup so far? I really don’t want to have to start over as its taken me 5 days to get 80% of my data backed up.

This is my first experience of WD products and was expecting it to “just work” – perhaps I’ve been using an Apple for too long and forgotten what it’s like out in the “real world!” :wink:

4

Some research of users having issue with Apple’s products has pulled up some interesting comments. Not sure if these would help you, but worth investigating. These are just suggestions that other users of Apple products have posted.

  1. Stop Time Machine and delete the “in progress” folder using the Finder.

  2. A look at Activity Monitor showed almost all the CPU usage due to Finder, and a look at the ‘Open Files and Ports’ by Finder showed it accessing the Applications folder in the backup, crawling through all the application packages over and over again. Fed up, I quit Finder and suddenly backup speed went back

  3. Airport Express Interfaces – note: the Ethernet port is 10/100

    * 802.11n wireless

    * One 10/100BASE-T Ethernet port for connecting a DSL modem, cable modem, or Ethernet network This alone can result in the speed slowdown.

  1. time machine slow initial backup - fix

My initial experiences with time machine were not great, glacially slow initial backup rate, left external HDD in unstable state that could not be repaired, stuck on “preparing” etc. The initial backup rate was minutes per Mb–unacceptable.

here are some steps I took, based on watching this and apple support discussion groups–this may not work for all problems being experienced.

turn off time machine

Although TM doesnt require exclusive use of an external drive and will use HDs that have other data, you are placing those data at risk:

before you turn on TM backup anything you have on your intended time machine external disk, partition ( as GUID) first, then erase (format as HFS extended, journaled) and check/repair permissions. (dont let time machine format the disk)

exclude the external disk from spotlight indexing (or turn off spotlight altogether); certainly do not commence initial backup while spotlight is performing initial index after leopard install

turn off any virus checking!!

remove TM plist file from any previous attempts and erase and trash any previous backup files

exclude any large frequently updated database files (Entourage, Parallels) from time machine.

If you have multiple drives that you don’t intend including in your routine backup, make sure you exclude them in TM

5

Thanks Tony,

I’m using a gigabit router, and at first the time machine backup is pretty fast – approx 1Gb per minute, give or take.  But after a random period, it just stalls. 

Tech Support have asked me to run a full a full diagnostic on the MyBook Live, which is currently in process. I will respond later with the results.

6

Take a look at the suggestions on the list… to rule out Time Machine or your Mac.