SD hangs on "Restoring Spotlight state on OSXBackup"

[ncmphoto]

Originally Posted by dnanian

If SD! isn't frozen (before you said the clock wasn't advancing), perhaps you're backing up with active applications/files?

It's also possible you have port/FireWire problems on one Mac.

I suppose I could try a backup in Safe Mode. I usually do them by booting normally but holding down the Shift key when launching my account, so my personal login items are disabled (things like DragThing, Default Folder, etc. that usually launch automatically). I don't run any apps besides SD during backups, so unless some system process is active that shouldn't be a problem. Also, this is the way I've always done backups and they never failed before.

The FireWire port suggestion is valid. I'll try hooking that external drive to another FireWire port. Right now it's attached to a pci FireWire card in the G4MDD. But that wouldn't explain the failure to finish of the 2nd internal hd which is on the same bus as my main boot drive.

[ncmphoto]

Also you are right, I didn't explain SD's symptoms properly. It hadn't frozen, the gear was spinning and the clock working. But it never advanced - in one case (the external hd) it was stuck about 3/4 of the way through the backup. On the internal backup drive it had completed the backup, restored boot capability and prebinding but was stuck on the restore of Spotlight (with spinning gear and clock ticking), so it never finished and that section didn't turn green, if you know what I mean.

[dnanian]

I do. Next time this happens, send in your log and we'll work from that.

[ncmphoto]

Fine. I'll do that. For now, after running the Combo update on my boot drive it seems to be working again. I did another complete backup to my external drive (switching the FireWire cable to another port on the pci card) and this time it completed. But the drive doesn't show up when I boot using the Option key. On the other hand, it does show up both in DU and System preferences/Startup Disk. I also redid a complete backup on the internal second hd which also completed this time and does show up as a boot drive when I reboot with the option key held down. So it seems the backups using SD worked this time around.

Thanks for your help. I'll be back (with logs) if I continue to have issues.