LONG saving times...

[Gravity Jim]

Not every file on a fragmented drive is fragmented, or equally fragmented. That might explain the variance in saving times.

[FMiguelez]

Not every file on a fragmented drive is fragmented, or equally fragmented. That might explain the variance in saving times.

Agreed.

Prime, please clarify if you are having this issue with more than one DP file.

[Prime Mover]

Yes, it seems to be happening to more than one project (though I've only tested two). Unfortunately, the inconsistency is within any particular project, not between different projects. It's fairly random.

I'm wondering whether it possibly is a network issue. It seems to happen more often while it's doing a TM backup. The project isn't drawing on anything that isn't local, at least, it shouldn't be. But I'll try doing some editing away from the WiFi network and see whether I continue to have problems.

I don't have CCC, btw.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

FWIW, what I'd do is start a new project, save. See if it saves fast (it should). Then LOAD you sequences (copying all data) and try to save again. If it saves fast it's a file problem and you'll have solved it. If not - well, then take a hammer to the monitor. It won't fix the problem but it will make you feel a whole lot better.

[FMiguelez]

I'm wondering whether it possibly is a network issue. It seems to happen more often while it's doing a TM backup.

That would seem normal to me then. TM uses quite a bit of CPU resources, not to mention read/write disk operations.
I actually had to turn off the automatic TM saving feature to avoid this issue (my projects basically came to a halt every time TM did its thing). I do it manually now by simply selecting "Backup now" from the TM icon in the menu bar at the top every 1 or 1.5 hours, when I take a short break.

Have you tried temporarily disabling TM to see if it improves things?

I don't have CCC, btw.

You can try it for free. If you like it, you may donate a few bucks to the developer, since it's ShareWare.
http://bombich.com/

These bootable clones have saved my butt (my bacon, as the developer likes to say) at least 2 times from complete disaster when having tight deadlines... You basically do the clone, restart and boot from the clone (which could be inside or in an external case via eSATA or FW), and keep working as if it were the original disk (minus reauthorizing anything that is not on an ilok-like device, but that would also be true for TM anyway).

Highly recommended.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

It's so strange. When Time Machine is backing up I don't see any sluggishness in other processes. Not when it was external and not now that it is on two internal drives. It also feels very comforting that there are dual TM backups on two drives.

[FMiguelez]

It's so strange. When Time Machine is backing up I don't see any sluggishness in other processes. Not when it was external and not now that it is on two internal drives. It also feels very comforting that there are dual TM backups on two drives.

Dual TM backups? How do you set that up? Is that a ML new thing? (still in Leopard here )

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'm not sure but I am in ML and settingtin g up two b/u disks was easy. I think all you have to do is ADD a b/u disk. Don't think it's new with ML but certainly with me... Hermano.

[FMiguelez]

Hermano.

I'm not sure but I am in ML and settingtin g up two b/u disks was easy. I think all you have to do is ADD a b/u disk. Don't think it's new with ML but certainly with me...

I definitely need to see if I can do that with Leopard.

Every time I do my offsite location TM backup I always need to:
- Go in TM's Preferences and choose the new HD
- Set the HDs/Partitions I want backed up (they are set for the studio backup so I must change them)
- Turn of Spotlight so it doesn't attempt to index this disk
- Do the backup
- Return everything to the way it was before all this

Needless to say, it's annoying, easy to make user mistakes, and it takes unnecessarily long to do it, especially since I do this with 4 computers at the studio...

[labman]

- Turn off Spotlight so it doesn't attempt to index this disk

You been turning off spotlight completely FM, or just giving privacy settings to specific drives?

[FMiguelez]

- Turn off Spotlight so it doesn't attempt to index this disk

You been turning off spotlight completely FM, or just giving privacy settings to specific drives?

Hey, Labman.

I've tried both ways (I think).
By "turning off spotlight completely", do you mean unchecking all the options by file type in SP's Preferences, or is there a better way I don't know about?

The thing is that, since TM is set to do the regular backups from the onsite location backups in the studio, when I bring my offsite backup HDs, TM and spotlight insist on treating them the same as the onsite backups, so I need to establish spotlight parameters and TM settings every time I switch disks.

What I would need is a way to save TM and Spotlight settings, so I have 2 profiles, one for onsite and another for offsite HDs.
If you know of a way to do this, please tell me about it

I've also tried the privacy section with spotlight, but it forgets them when I change HDs. Since I have a lot of partitions in different disks, it becomes quite annoying to keep setting the options every time.

[labman]

Hey, Labman.

I've tried both ways (I think).
By "turning off spotlight completely", do you mean unchecking all the options by file type in SP's Preferences, or is there a better way I don't know about?

I certainly know the annoyance of the forgotten privacy settings. We had been using a superb app called Spotless. But it doesnt work in Mountain Lion, only in 10.7x and before. It would let you clearly and easily manage all your drives spotlight settings, including deleting an index and preventing one from being built. I sure wish they would do a 10.8 version but I guess they figure they wouldnt be able to sell it with 10.8's "built in " stuff.

Onyx (which we dearly love here) lets you kill spotlight completely, (on the system disk at least) which we have just recently done. We are now using EasyFind and Find any File, both of which seem superb. (and way more useful to us than spotlight.

[FMiguelez]

I certainly know the annoyance of the forgotten privacy settings. We had been using a superb app called Spotless. But it doesnt work in Mountain Lion, only in 10.7x and before. It would let you clearly and easily manage all your drives spotlight settings, including deleting an index and preventing one from being built. I sure wish they would do a 10.8 version but I guess they figure they wouldnt be able to sell it with 10.8's "built in " stuff.
.

That means it would work for me, since I still use Leopard and Snow Leopard in the studio

I'll check Spotless out. Thanks!

[Prime Mover]

FMiguelez, some unfortunate news, CCC is no longer shareware, they just switched a few months back it seems. You can still get the older version of CCC as shareware, but it's not compatible with Mountain Lion. Don't want sound like I'm skimping, but if there's some cheaper ways of doing this, even if they take more time, I'd probably elect to do them first. My budget is just so incredibly tight right now. I've got my important files backed up in a few different places, so the biggest concern is just how seemless a reformat/reinstall process can be. I was under the impression that TM backups are handled essentially like clones. Is that not the case?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

It's not that expensive and it works great. FWIW....