The MyBook that I have been using for TimeMachine backups has been going offline quite regularly lately, taking it offline when TM wants to make a backup.

Seeing the obvious, I purchased a new drive from our sponsor and am trying to move files from the WD to the new drive. I have been able to move the files other than TM, moving small groups of files at a time so that when the WD drops off I can pick up from where it failed. THAT is now done.

Updated the firmware on the WD but am still getting drops. Disk Utility is now trying to move the TM machine files to the new drive but it says the move will take 6 days and 10 hours. Just now the WD has stayed up longer than any time today so the move is underway, but the odds of staying up for 6 days is pretty remote. I might just have to start over with a new TM and rely on my crashplan backups if I need an old file.

copying a TM drive always takes a long time, even when it's working correctly.

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Does the WD have a detachable USB cable?

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decay
copying a TM drive always takes a long time, even when it's working correctly.

Millions of little files. 6 days might be off, but depending on the size, a couple of days wouldnt be unheard of.

Thinking along the same lines -- have you tried a different cable? Can you pop the case and pull the drive? Try a differnt case or a dock?

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

It took around 7 hours to move something like 500GB from TM to new TM drive recently over USB3. Are you talking about USB2 by any chance? that should take a LONG time.

I suspect the WD power supply - got another one around with the same specs? Perhaps the new drive? Give it a try.

I have only two usb3 cables, a long one which came with the MyBook and a short one that came with the new OWC drive. I will swap those so that the new short cable goes to the MyBook and see if that helps.

... working several minutes into a new attempt. Curious that a cable would go bad when rarely touched or moved.

Does your computer have native USB3?

I think it is the flimsy usb3 port to the drive itself. I can blow on mine and the drive will disconnect.

It's USB 2 on this Early 2008 iMac so things will be slow to be sure!

Tried the swapping of cables and the Disk Utility moving of TM files to the new drive got under way and ran nicely for several hours. I figured that if the problem was only the cables, then there would be no need to move files to the new drive over the next couple of days, I'll just swap cables and keep using the WD.

(Understand that I am using the same two cables, just swapped which cable went to which HD.)

Well, I should have left well enough alone! I had moved everything for the transfer and I took that setup down; when I set up again the problem returned. I've thought that the problem could be the power supply being turned off by the UPS but moving the brick to a steady strip did not fix the problem. Maybe the USB port on the back of the iMac; nope not that.

Guess I'll go back to trying the transfer again.

The last attempt to keep the drive going failed so I took the drive out the WD case and hooked it up to the Universal Drive Adapter which I got from OWC some time ago. Connecting the USB to the computer gives a "cannot read - initialize, ignore, eject" message.

I am just going to start over with a new backup. I was able to move other files that I wanted so those are safe. Any history will have to come from CrashPlan backups.