Local time machine backup of server

[dimme]

I have been fighting this problem for weeks now and need help. I have a 2009 mac mini running 10.9 and the latest version of server. All software is up to date. I have time machine service running to backup up remote macs and that is working fine. I also have a second time machine disk in which I want to backup some documents I have on the server. These are not system files but user files. The setup worked fine for months but lately time machine get stuck on preparing backup. If I open the time machine system pane and respect the disk it will work fine for a while, and then it back to the preparing backup and will just sit there. I have deleted the preferences file, changed for firewire to usb connection. I even tried shorting the name of the disk. I running out of ideas, I am trying to avoid reformatting the time machine disk and starting over since I do not want to lose the backup data. Is it possible time machine does not work with server?

 

[Weaselboy]

Usually that "Preparing..." message is because the Time Machine log that tracks system changes is corrupted. This page has some good troubleshooting steps.

 

[dimme]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately I was at that page tis weekend trying what they recommend.