We got a My Book for backup, and it worked up until about two weeks ago. Now, it shows “preparing” in the status and runs and runs and runs, and never backs up. Also, while this is happening, the IMac becomes almost completely non-responsive, and requires me to shut it down and restart it. Any suggestions?
Well, that could be a problem with the drive or it could be a problem with the backup on the drive. Let’s narrow it down.
Make sure the My Book is plugged directly into the wall, and not into a power strip or extension cord. This is mainly for troubleshooting purposes, but you’d be surprised how often this solves the problem by itself. If you are still getting slowdowns, make sure the drive is vertical and not horizontal (but don’t move it while it’s plugged in to the computer and powered on). Check to make sure it’s not overheating, near a window or in direct sunlight or under a heating vent, etc.
If Time Machine is still not working, then use Disk Utility to write zeros to the entire drive, then format it and set up Time Machine again. If you get any errors while writing zeros to the drive, replace the drive.
Good luck! Let me know what happens.
