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Time Machine Corrupted Photoshop Files on My Source Drive. Ouch!
I'm experiencing a problem with Time Machine, on a MB Pro running 10.5.7 and connected to an 120GB iOmega Portable external via Firewire 400. At the moment, it's a love/hate relationship because TM has saved my butt a couple times this week when I needed to go back a couple iterations on a project; however it has also corrupted some Photoshop files.
I've been working on 3-4 different layered Photoshop files (CS3) for a Web development project, and while I have been working, I have had my external drive connected and Time Machine running. At three different times, I have observed Time Machine getting hung up during a routine hourly backup cycle. The first time it happened, it had been hung up for about 4 hours, during which, it did not back anything up, and I got an error message when I went to reopen the original file from my hard drive.
To get Time Machine unstuck requires that I shut down all of my open files, quit all of my apps, and restart. Each time however, the System Preferences will not allow me to stop the backup, nor can I get it to stop from the menu bar drop down. I have tried force quitting the System Preferences unsuccessfully. My only option is a hard shutdown (mashing the start button).
What's worse is, I have experienced corrupt files as a result of this issue. One of the Photoshop files on my main hard drive would not open; the Photoshop error message said "Could not complete your request because an unexpected end-of-file was encountered". I lost about 4 hours of work (at $75/hr). Since then, I have started making copies of my mission critical files, manually. Just wish I could trust TM and didn't have to do that.
I suspect that the issue of the files being corrupted has something to do with Time Machine backing up the file while I am actively working on it, but I'm not sure. I'm looking for answers. Most of the time, it's fine. It's just once or twice a day, I experience the evil side of Time Machine.
Hope this helps others avoid this problem. Please share your experiences and if you have had similar problems with this configuration, let me know how you're coping.
I've been working on 3-4 different layered Photoshop files (CS3) for a Web development project, and while I have been working, I have had my external drive connected and Time Machine running. At three different times, I have observed Time Machine getting hung up during a routine hourly backup cycle. The first time it happened, it had been hung up for about 4 hours, during which, it did not back anything up, and I got an error message when I went to reopen the original file from my hard drive.
To get Time Machine unstuck requires that I shut down all of my open files, quit all of my apps, and restart. Each time however, the System Preferences will not allow me to stop the backup, nor can I get it to stop from the menu bar drop down. I have tried force quitting the System Preferences unsuccessfully. My only option is a hard shutdown (mashing the start button).
What's worse is, I have experienced corrupt files as a result of this issue. One of the Photoshop files on my main hard drive would not open; the Photoshop error message said "Could not complete your request because an unexpected end-of-file was encountered". I lost about 4 hours of work (at $75/hr). Since then, I have started making copies of my mission critical files, manually. Just wish I could trust TM and didn't have to do that.
I suspect that the issue of the files being corrupted has something to do with Time Machine backing up the file while I am actively working on it, but I'm not sure. I'm looking for answers. Most of the time, it's fine. It's just once or twice a day, I experience the evil side of Time Machine.
Hope this helps others avoid this problem. Please share your experiences and if you have had similar problems with this configuration, let me know how you're coping.
I’m sad, confused, frustrated
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Inappropriate?Well, I feel your pain. I have a strong belief that files (especially Adobe files) are "sensitive" to Time Machine. I only experience this problem when TM is on.
Although I think my circumstance is slightly different. I believe time machine corrupts files that are in the process of being saved WHILE it is doing it's backup. Which is to say that if you decide to save a 120MB inDesign file, and while it is writing the file to disk, time machine decides to read the file for backup purposes... well that's two sources dipping at the same time.
I say this because I'll be "working" on files during a backup almost the entire time I'm on my Mac... and those files are all fine. I think it's the rare coincidence of writing a file to disk while TM is reading the exact same file. Both my Local file and the TM file will be corrupted.
As a result I've stopped using time machine because when you lose a catalog file you don't lose an image (like photoshop) you lose pages and pages of layout work.
Does anybody else have these suspicions? or experience.
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?I have been having the same problem as well.
It started last week, and now has occurred three times.
Each time Time Machine started a backup (at around 12:30pm)... then after a length of time the computer hanged then crashed. I had to hold down power button to get re-start.
On the re-start ALL the image files (tiff, psds and jpegs) that had been worked on DURING THE BACKUP TIME.. ie. from 12:30 onwards have become corrupt. Totally unreadable. ALL off them.
This was files that were not even OPEN at the time of the crash, but were modified or created after 12:30pm. Older files before the backup started are ok and not corrupt.
I thought it was dodgy Hard drive at first and replaced that.
Now it happened again a few days ago. I have turned off time machine now for the foreseeable future...
I’m corrupt
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Inappropriate?We're having a similar problem. Running 10.5.7 on Mac Pro connected to a couple of external Firewire and USB harddrives, all Lacie. Large Photoshop files (some that haven't even been open in a day or two) become corrupt, at what seems to be intermittent intervals, but could very well be Time Machine's doing. I suspected faulty RAM or a harddrive at first, but all tests turn out fine.
It reminds me of the huge 10.5.3 update issue we had a couple of months back when saving photoshop file to a network server resulted in corrupt files. Think about it, if saving a file during a TM backup corrupts the file, why didn't we have this problem before?
TM does not stall or crash the system on our part though, and we don't need to hard restart the computer (which is the main reason that files get corrupted in the first place btw).
Has turning off Time Machine worked for you so far Graeme?
Anyone?
I’m corrupt and confused
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Inappropriate?After reading through the other experiences and looking into the possible causes, I'm convinced that with Photoshop in particular (as may not be the case with any other Adobe app), it is best to NOT have TM actively running backups while working on your files.
This seems counter-productive to the way I would like to be able to work; backing up my files as I proceed throughout the day, capturing the current state of a file every hour, but in practice, it's a disaster.
So the solution to this problem is to save progressive states "manually", as files get worked on. To capture various states in TM, close all of the files being worked on, then run a TM backup.
I've done this since first experiencing the corrupt files problem, and have not had a problem at all.
I’m resolved
