Hi towers00
Correct! According to the WD Dashboard I had backed up over 1.1TB but Time Machine ™ had only 421GB to back up: the entire contents of my MacBook Pro (MBP). What therefore was TM backing up. Actually I don’t think it was backing up. I think it had got stuck in some kind of loop. A pity there isn’t a window in the WD Dashboard or TM indicating what files are being backed up. Carbon Copy Cloner, which I frequently use, has a ‘file-being-backed-up’ window as well as a progress bar.
I lost patience when 1.1TB was reached - SOMETHING WAS OBVIOUSLY WRONG - and I terminated the backup because I could see it continuing up to the full 3TB. This could take another 2 - 3 weeks. I contacted WD Support and they recommended a FULL FACTORY RESTORE, which is what I did.
The restoration has now finished AFTER 2 DAYS and I am back with a virgin 6TB NAS (RAID 0). I have reconfigured it and it is currently converting to RAID 1 … a few more hours wait. I seem to be spending a lot of time waiting!
But immediately following the restoration I discovered that the ‘Network link down …’ warning has disappeared. Yippee! I felt sure this warning first appeared AFTER I converted to RAID 1 originally. Will this warning reappear once I convert to RAID 1 for the second time? I will let you know.
There were no additional HDDs connected to my MBP either directly or connected to the LAN when I attempted the TM backup. I now think the NAS got ‘confused’ because I had ruled out every other possibility! How,? I have no idea!
Yes, I have backed up to USB / Firewire HDDs umpteen number of times with TM and never a hint of a problem.
As I type this reply the NAS rebuild has reached 17%. It will be a few more hours yet before it completes. It should be finished by tomorrow morning.
I doubt I would have attempted a TM backup had a rebuild not completed. At this moment in time I have disabled TM. I will reactivate it once the rebuild is complete.
I have a couple MBPs but the one I am using at the moment is an early 2006 model which cannot be upgraded to Lion Grrr! Consequently I am forced to use Snow Leopard. My second MBP is an i7 custom model which is running Lion.
You final comment got me thinking … I have never backed up over a wireless link either. Neither have I backed up over a LAN before, at least not at home. LAN-based backups were normal practice when I was in an office environment 5 years ago but now I am retired and trying to setup my own LAN with a Cloud system, I now realise it can be a little tricky to get it working correctly.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that the current factory restoration will resolve all my issues in one go. Ever the optimist!