Can't back up to ext hard drive

Every time I try to back up to external hard drive to always say's "The backup disk is not in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, which is required."please can someone tell me how to fix this problem...

Format the External Hard Drive.
Go to Utilities > Disk Utility
Select the Erase tab, then select the format and erase the drive.
*If you have anything on the drive, make sure it is backed up to another drive. It will erase all data on the drive and reformat it.

Similar Messages

Can't back-up to ext hard drive (Error code CE-37850-3)

Since the 2.55 update I haven't been able to back-up my saves to my external hard drive. I used to do this regularly as my online storage is full. Now when I try it I just get the error code CE-37850-3. Have tried unplugging and reconnecting the hard drive. Can anyone help?

hgwells wrote:
Leave the drive connected for a while (say 30 minutes), then try again. Am already doing this as I just leave the ext HD connected to the PS4 all the time, then at the end of a gaming session I back-up all the games I've played that day. My PS4 isn't even recognising the ext HD as when I click on USB storage to see what's on there I get the same error message. Never had these problems before this weeks update (2.55) Thanks for your reply anyway.

How to Copy a Specific Time Machine Back-Up to Ext Hard Drive

I'm transitioning from a MBP early 09 to a MBA mid 11. I pruned the MBP pretty well to migrate items from it to the Air, but I want to preserve the last "full" Time Machine back-up of the MBP to an external hard-drive. Not the "latest" - as the lastest back-up includes the pruning need to migrate necessary items from the Pro to the Air - but one dated a few days before I began the pruning. How do I get that specific back-up (currently on External Hard Drive A - 250 GB) onto a new external hard drive (Ext Hard Drive B - 1TB)? I want to preserve that specific back up then ERASE Ext Hard Drive A to use as a portable for the the MBA. Thank you.

don't delete anything on the TM drive using finder. you can do it from TM interface. however, in your case it will not help because TM will always make a full backup after a system restore like you did and there is absolutely no way to avoid it. as suggested you might want to reformat the TM drive and start backups from scratch.
BTW, to delete a single backup you start TM, scroll back to that backup, click on the "gears" action button in Finder's toolbar and select "delete backup".

ITunes can't "see" music on ext. hard drive....have to manually find

I have had my music/movie library (approx. 50gb) stored on an external hard drive and have been managing the music with iTunes for my iPod.
Now, for some reason, approx. 75% of my library has an exclamation point next to the song name on iTunes indicating that the song cannot be located.
Is there an easier way that manually searching file by file to show iTunes where these songs are located on the ext. hard drive?????
This would take hours and hours.
I am somewhat desperate and am hopeful that anyone with advice can't respond.
Thank you.

I don't know if you've already found a solution to this problem but this tends to happen to me when I forget to plug in the external hard drive before I open iTunes. What happens is that iTunes automatically creates a new iTunes Music folder in the iTunes folder of your Music folder (if you follow my drift). iTunes then looks for your music there;but it's not there because it's on your external drive. It then puts an exclamation mark against any music file that it can't find there. If you go to iTunes-preferences-advanced,click change,and change the iTunes Music folder location back to the folder on your external hard drive,or,if no folder,the hard drive itself,where the physical files are kept then iTunes should update its library and find them. If,of course,you've imported files while the iTunes Music folder is back in it's default position,they will have to be reimported.Make sure 'Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library' is ticked,drag them out of the default folder to the desktop,double click,iTunes will reimport them to the external hard drive.Trash the files from the desktop when they've been copied over. Of course,there may be a simpler way of doing this but it works for me. Hope this helps.

Can I back up my external hard drives to time machine?

Hi,
I've backed up my laptop and two external hard drives to my time machine - but because the data on the hard drives were backed up through my computer over a month ago I can't now seem to access the back ups of the hard drives.
Is there a way of accessing the back up of the hard drives from the specific day I did this, or is there a more efficient way of backing them up so I can permanently access the back up files for these drives?
On other answers to similar questions:
'Any drives not specifically on the Exclude list will be backed up' - my external drives are not permanently plugged into my computer so the back up seems to be overridden on the next back up.
'Just be sure your backup drive is large enough - at least twice the capacity of the total capacity of the drives being backed up.' - time capsule is 2TB, I have external drives with 1.5TB of info at the moment, will this be sufficient?
Thanks,
P

I plugged the hard drives into my laptop and the time machine backed them up as if they were part of my computer on the routine hourly back up.
But because I only had the back up drive plugged in for the duration of the actual back up, the external drives only show up in the time machine on that particular day, and subsequent hourly / daily backups on time machine didn't show the external hard drives again.
I only seem to be able to access a month's worth of backing up so because the back up of the external drives was done over a month ago I can't seem to retrieve the back up of the external drive I did on that particular day.
Does that make sense? Is there a better way of doing this?

Macbook Pro can open files from Touro ext. hard drive but can't save to it. Solutions without data loss?

Hello,
I've looked around for a solution to my problem but I haven't found any specific solutions and I'm not comfortable in trying general ones for fear of loosing my data. Before moving I backed up all my document and music files from my PC to my Touro external hard drive. My main goal for buying this hard drive was to use it to store my itunes music library to save space on my computer and transfer my music from said PC tp my new MacBook Pro after the move. Today I set about doing so and was able to set my itunes up to pulll from the hard drive as well as load all the music I had saved on the hard drive into my MacBook itunes. The trouble came when I tried to download new purchases. It turned out I couldn't because itunes was unable to save them in the new file location on the Touro. I checked into it and I have the same problem with the documents as well; I can open anything already saved on the drive but I can't save any new files. It keeps on telling me I don't have permission to make edits. I'm afraid this mean I have to reformat the Touro for Mac but doesn't that mean I'll lose all that data? Does anyone know of any somlutions that would give me access to the drive without compromising what's already on it? I would just plug it back into the PC and see if I could adjust sharing settings, but it's all the way across the country now. Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
-G-

It sounds like your HDD was formatted under windows NTFS, which although your mac can read, it cannot write to that file format.
You will either need to transfer the data to another location while you reformat it as FAT on your mac using Disk Utility. Or you could purchase something like iPartition and change the file format to FAT which might take up to 24hours or so depending on the size of the drive. I have never had a problem doing this before but it's not guaranteed that your data will not be lost doing this.

Can I back up an external hard drive as well as my internal hard drive?

Hi,
I have an Intel Core Duo iMac with a 320GB internal hard drive. I have a 500GB Digital Western external hard drive attached via firewire where I store my iTunes library and iPhoto library. I also use this drive for Time Machine to back everything up, this drive is unpartitioned.
Being stupid, I have only just realised that my Time Machine is not backing up the iTunes and iPhoto libraries as they are on the same drive as my Time Machine back ups. I do however keep a copy of the iTunes and iPhoto Libraries on another external hard drive (WD My Passport 320GB) just in case.
To back everything up, (Both internal and external hard drives) I intend to buy another external hard drive as my sole hard drive for Time Machine backups.
My question is, am I going about this in the right way? What size drive should I get? I was thinking 1TB but at the moment money is tight so 500GB might be all I can afford, will this be enough to back everything up? considering not all the drives are full.
Thanks.

Given you have 640gb total space, and the default TM backup mode is "Full" probably would not take too long to completely fill a 500.
I just bought an (internal) 1tb on Amazon gold box for under 80$.
Not sure what deals OWC is currently offering.
Given many of the 500gb externals on amazon are running around 100$, for as little as 17$ more, you can go to 1tb.
add another 20 to that, and get 1-1/2tb external.
1tb external for 117:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Essential-External-WDH1U10000N/dp/B000VZCE UI/ref=pdbbs6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1239974063&sr=8-6
1tb external for 125.
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-External-ST310005FDA2E1-RK-Silver/dp/B00 1FWEETK/ref=pdbbs_sr2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1239974063&sr=8-2
or a 1-1/2 tb for 140:
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-External-Drive-Silver-ST315005FDA2E1-RK/ dp/B001FWCB7C/ref=pdbbs10?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1239974063&sr=8-10

Can I back-up an external hard drive to Time Capsule

Hi,
I'm looking at getting a new Macbook pro - mainly for photo editing. Am concerned that I may run out of storage and don't really want to pay over the odds to increase storage so was thinking of purcahsing the LaCie 1TB Rugged Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 Hard Drive to store my photos on. I was then looking at the time capsule for back-up. Can I back-up photos from theLaCie 1TB Rugged Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 Hard Drive to the Time capsule?
Many thanks

Of course, always that the external drive is formatted in “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”. Apart from that, you shouldn't have any issue,
Then, open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and remove the external drive from excluded items. The next backup will include your external drive.
Note that you may not be able to back up the external drive if it's connected to your Time Capsule. If it doesn't work, connect the external drive to your computer

Can you use a USB ext hard drive to boot from clone image?

I am not concerned about speed as much as having some kind of external drive to copy clone image to from my MacBook Pro. I know with older Macs you used to have to use Firewire connections for the Macs to boot from the external drives. I thought I saw something that said you now could also use USB. I'm pretty sure my MacBook Pro 17 (June 2009) has USB 2.0 version ports, so should I be able to do this? I know firewire would be faster but this is only for emergencies and until I could get my internal drive replaced. Also, any suggestions on brands (WD, Seagate, OWC) would be useful.

Yes, hold option booting from USB cloned boot drives work.
Although FireWire 800 is faster as you already know.
As always check to make sure you can.
Another secret, Mac's can be option/c booted off burned ISO of PartedMagic cd's too.
What's nice about this little gem, the whole Linux operating system loads into RAM and you can copy files from the non-boooting Mac's internal hard drive to a external drive, of nearly ANY format.
You can also burn disks, as the PartedMagic cd spits out after loading.
And you can get on the internet, and do malware scans and a lot of other niffty things.

Can't Back up to External Hard drive

i'm trying to use a lacie 500GB to back up my imac 10.4 prior to upgrading. Shop said i should use the Firewire 800, but my computer doesn't have a port which fits. I am using the firewire 400 but every time i try and use the lacie set up assistant the error message i get says the application installer quit unexpectedly.
I have a imac 0s x version 10.4.11 with intel core 2 duo.

Hello, I'd forget any LaCie software installs, not needed.
In Disk Utility, what Format is the Disk?
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

Multiple iPhoto libraries on my ext hard drive back up

Hi I have a problem with multiple iPhoto libraries on my ext hard drive back up They are different sizes and large 120gb Is there any way I can rationalise the libraries without the risk of losing data? My iPhoto library on the Mac appears to be complete but with >200gb of photos I cannot be sure.

I upgraded to Lion OS and suffered multiple crashes necessitating a complete rebuild of the system - reformat the main hard drive and install Lion OS from a disk In an effort to be absolutely sure I didn't lose data I have been overenthusiastic in transferring photos to the backup disk dragging and dropping files that contained images as well as a full transfer of "mymac" before reformating. Time machine backup was not realistic as this was the one operation which caused most of the "hangs" System now appears to be working well with Lion OS but I have masses of duplicate jpeg files in multiple folders and libraries - I am considering purchasing Duplicate Annihilator to deal with the duplicates then perhaps I should try to merge the libraries with iPhoto manager?

My photos are stored on ext. hard drive, and now I can't see them

I recently moved all of my photos over to an external hard drive, and have been quite happy with the freed up space on my ibook. I have been able to view them flawlessly until a few nights ago. Our power went out, and then came back on (yes, I know I should have a battery back up), so of course the ext. harddrive turned off with unmounting, and since then, I cannot view my photos in iphoto. There is still the correct picture count registering, however in place of all of my photo thumbnails in IPhoto, now I am only seeing grey boxes in the same shapes as the thumbnails. I have tried everything, including unmounting the ext. hard drive. I am at my wits end and have been working too much to go into the genius bar.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jerrod

Hi Jerrod,
A couple of things for you to try:
-Launch iPhoto with the Option key depressed and choose to open another library. Navigate to the one on the external and choose it.
-Delete your iPhoto Preference file
Preference file
-rebuild your library
Try this:
Before doing a rebuild make sure iPhoto's trash bin is emptied. You can do this by control clicking on the trash bin, or from the menu bar under iPhoto.
Close iPhoto
Duplicate the iPhoto Library folder
Drag the duplicate to the desktop (hopefully you have enough room on your hard drive for the duplicate.)
Launch iPhoto holding down the Command and Option keys until you see the rebuild options screen.
Choose the first three options. If you were missing photos in your library, also choose the last option. Be advised that you will get a roll of orphaned photos and it might be quite huge. Most of them will already be in your iPhoto library, but use caution when deleting anything from this roll until you are sure the photos are still in your library in another place. It might be a good idea to share/export this roll of photos just in case you need to import them again.
Back to the rebuild, depending on the size of your library it might take some time. When it is done, hopefully your photos will be there.
You might see some unexpected results as I did when I did a rebuild. Photos had been moved to wrong dates, video clips had lost their duration info and some were even orphaned from the jpg pointer file. It took me some time to straighten it out again.
This is the reason to make a duplicate before you rebuild, in case you do not like the result. If you don't like the result, close iPhoto, then delete the rebuilt library and drag the duplicate back into the Pictures folder making sure the name is iPhoto Library. Launch iPhoto and it should open the library in the Pictures folder.
iPhoto 4 or later: Rebuilding the iPhoto Library
-Navigate through the iPhoto Library folder and make sure your images are still there and open when double clicked.
This is a view of how the iPhoto Library looks in the Finder.
It is organized by Year folders. Inside the Year folders are Month folders. Inside the Month folders are the days of the Month. Inside the day folders are the photos you took on that day. If you imported video clips and RAW files on that day they will be in an Originals folder. If you have edited any photo imported on that day, the original will be in that folder also.
Please get back with the steps you tried and the results.
If none of these suggestions work, you can create a new library and import from the old.
Close iPhoto
Rename your messed up iPhoto Library to "iPhoto Library_old"
Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
This is the window you will get
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library
Once this new empty library is open it is time to import the images from your old library
Go to File>add to library
Navigate to the old library on your desktop and choose it.
iPhoto will start importing the images from your old library
This is what to expect:
Your images will be imported in nice dated rolls. (make sure your view is set to sort by rolls to see it) There are a couple of caveats to this. You will get rolls named "Originals" These rolls will contain your video clips and your original images that you had edited. If you had RAW files they would be in those rolls too (I don't do RAW, so I don't know for sure) Delete what you don't want from those rolls. You will also get the jpeg pointer files to your video clips imported. They will just be jpegs and will not point to the video clips anymore as iPhoto made new ones when the clips were imported again. You can delete those. they should be in a roll right next to the newly imported video clips so they are not hard to find. The thumbnail files don't get imported as iPhoto makes new ones when the images are imported.
Once all you images have been imported, check through the library and make sure everything looks ok.
You can now start making your Albums, and do your keywords or any other organizational steps.
You can also delete the old library on the desktop.
It is also a good time to backup this new library to CD/DVD by burning the iPhoto LIbrary folder in the Finder, or copying the iPhoto Library folder to an external drive formatted for Macs, or copying the iPhoto LIbrary folder to an iPod.
Good luck!
Lori

I purchased a IMac in Feb later I added a Seagate ext. hard drive. On April 29 I received an errors that the ext. Drive may be a read only and not backing up files. I'm unable to check disk permission or correct errors. Help would be appreciated.

I purchased a IMac in Feb later I added a Seagate ext. hard drive. On April 29 I received an errors that the ext. Drive may be a read only and not backing up files. I'm unable to check disk permission or correct errors. Help would be appreciated.

Click on the hard drive on the desktop, then File > Get Info. What does it say about permissions? If this is just a data drive you may want to consider "ignore ownership on this volume".
Otherwise I can only say I have not been reading good things about Seagate drives recently. I have some of their rock-solid ones from about 10 years ago (still running well), but now...?

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
A bootable clone is a bit-for-bit copy of all essential files in the startup volume. If using the Lions, clones can be made using CarbonCopyCloner or just plain old Disk Utility. These backups represent the safest protection of your info, but take the longest to do. Recovery is an inverse process: you copy the clone back into the internal drive.
Incremental backups start with a complete backup of the startup volume and only copy whatever changed from the previous run. OS X includes the fully integrated Time Machine backup utility to do this. It is extremely easy to do and takes the least amount of time. Recovery is another matter altogether since you have to start with a freshly installed instance of the OS and have to apply all intervening backups to bring the result to the latest saved version.
As for where the backup takes place, the recommended media is an external dedicated drive or drives connected via the fastest interface available on your Mac: Thunderbolt, USB3, Firewire, or USB2. Network-based backups, wired or wireless, are attractive but may not offer the same performance and hence take longer. Also important to note that the entire drive need not be completely dedicated to a single backup. The Mac's EFI firmware infrastructure allows for an unlimited number of partitions on a hard drive and each can be used for either type of backups.
Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

I need to replace my laptop Hard drive. How do I get my iTunes off the old hard drive to an external so I can put it back on the new hard drive?

I need to replace my laptop Hard drive. How do I get my iTunes off the old hard drive to an external so I can put it back on the new hard drive?

Type move itunes library into the google serach bar.
It has always been very basic to always maintain abackup copy of your computer. Do you not have a backup copy?

Can't back up to ext hard drive

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