Fix a non-functional (Error 11) Time Machine

Oct 26, '09 07:30:02AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

A while back, Time Machine on my DP G4 running 10.5.8 started failing, after having run for several months without any problems. This is the error from the logs:

Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Athena/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Entwife
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Fangorn
Backup content size: 60.9 GB excluded items size: 56.9 MB for volume Entwife
Backup content size: 60.5 GB excluded items size: 56.9 MB for volume Fangorn
No pre-backup thinning needed: 145.59 GB requested (including padding), 931.15 GB available
Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/Adium.app/Contents/Frameworks/AIUtilities.framework/Versions/A/AIUtilities to /Volumes/Athena/Backups.backupdb/Treebeard/2009-10-03-235253.inProgress/9C37B727-1C30-42C6-B3AA-D0AB9FF4DBF6/Entwife/Applications/Adium.app/Contents/Frameworks/AIUtilities.framework/Versions/A
Stopping backup.
Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/Adium.app/Contents/Frameworks/AIUtilities.framework/Versions/A/AIUtilities to /Volumes/Athena/Backups.backupdb/Treebeard/2009-10-03-235253.inProgress/9C37B727-1C30-42C6-B3AA-D0AB9FF4DBF6/Entwife/Applications/Adium.app/Contents/Frameworks/AIUtilities.framework/Versions/A
Copied 0 files (3.4 MB) from volume Entwife.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11

So I tried all the usual fixes:

  1. I reformatted and rebuilt all my drives.
  2. I ran Disk Utility to repair the drives and permissions. More than once.
  3. I reapplied the 10.5.8 Combo Update.
  4. I was backing up to a WD 1TB My Book Studio. I tried backing up the internal drive instead, but that failed too.
  5. If I excluded an application from backup, it failed on the next app in the line.
  6. I found nothing online (Google, Apple, et.al.) that said do X, Y, and Z, and all will be well, even though this error is all over the web. Not even this KB article helped.
  7. I arrested all the usual suspects.
In short, nothing worked. But, "He that perseveres to the end, the same shall be saved." I still don't know the cause (old age prehaps) but I found a solution. I booted from my 10.5 DVD, archived and installed OS X, and then updated my software from there to 10.5.8. Problem solved.

[robg adds: This seems like a very particular issue, but just in case it's happening to anyone else, here's one solution at least.]

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20091009063652856