Time Machine will not recognize hard drive

Time Machine tells me "You cannot open “Time Machine” preferences pane because it is not available to you at this time." My Lacie HD is on and mounted. I have erased it and repartitioned it and still get nothing. I get the would you like to set up TM prompt but then get the message above.

If you ever hear back from Lacie please post the result. I've given up on Time Machine for the time being. I've mostly given up on Leopard for the time being. I've partitioned my internal hard drive so I can boot in either Tiger or Leopard, and I figure I'll continue to work mostly in Tiger for the time being and apply updates to Leopard and maybe eventually it will work out. The other big problem I'm having with Leopard is the ability to repair permissions. Other than that, most programs seem to work well, although no big improvement over Tiger.
I am hugely disappointed and disillusioned. In June I became a convert from 20 years of Microsoft, and have been a huge Mac fanatic. My iMac was a gateway device to iPods and all things Mac. This experience brought me back to reality. I'll likely never go back MS, but the computer is just an appliance, and all things Apple are difinitely not "plug it in and it works". This is my worst experience with an upgrade ever.

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Time Machine will not see USB drive attaced to AEBS

I am having some difficulty getting Time Machine to see a USB attached Lacie drive. I can get it to mount through the finder, but Time Machine will not see it. It also works fine through a direct firewire connection. I have all of the current updates. Any help is appreciated.

have you tried formatting the drive, by selecting the disk or volume and using extended (journal). If the drive use to be a PC drive, you need to also give it a new index table. To give it a new table, you got to go to the partition section and use the option button. There will be 3 types, the GUID table is for intel macs, the 2nd selection is for PPC macs, and the third is for Window/Dos. You want to use to GUID table. After the table is set, format the disk using extended (journal).

HT201250 Time Machine does not recognize external drive at start up

I have an external WD 2TB drive which I use as my Time Machine back up drive. When I restart the iMac desktop the Time Machine drive does not start automatically and I must open Time Machine each time and remember to identify the external drive that contains my Time Machine back up data. Is there some way to make this drive the default Time Machine back up device when the system starts? It is annoying to have to remember to do this each time my machine restarts. I have a drive icon that displays as "My Book" on restart where the Time Machine icon is located but this icon is yellow and my Time Machine drive icon is blueish green. Once I set the correct drive it will go into the mode to refresh the backup (usually in 118 seconds) and then once the backup is updated then the icon become blueish green and all works normally. Please help! Thx Tom

I called Apple tech support and went through the recommended actions with doing the disk check with the Utilities and all checked out okay. They had to ask the senior support advisor and was told that it does not automatically start the Time Machine drive until the next scheduled back up. There was a misconception that this drive SHOULD be identified as the Time Machine drive on boot up but that is not the case. I waited for the next schedule back up after reboot and it DID recognize the drive and it appears to be working fine.
The Time Machine does start on boot up but does not indicate that the Time Machine is recognized until the back up is done then it is back on cycle and will operate normally until the next reboot where it will then refresh during that cycle and become recognized in green. Until that time the drive will appear as a yellow icon for the disk.
Oh, by the way, the drive has external power on my WD 2 TB drive.

Time machine does not recognize any drive for initialization

Dear all any body knows how to make time machines recognize my drives during initial setup of the time machine. It used to see my drives; however, I do not know when this conflict happened...i have installed mac parallel and windows vista, and the system seems to work perfect except time machine.?
regards..
knaji

Welcome to Discussions.
Select your Time Machine drive in the finder and do a Get Info (command-i). The format should be Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If it isn't you will need to reformat the drive. This will erase it so copy any files you need from the drive first. Directions for formatting your Time Machine drive are in this article. People with PPC Macs should substitute Apple Partition Map for GUID when following the directions.
If Time Machine doesn't automatically ask you to use the drive you can choose it for Time Machine backups by going to System Preferences > Time Machine > Change Disk.

Time Machine will not recognize current backup

Time Machine running on my MacBook Pro, and connected to a Drobo on a wireless network will no longer recognize the backup file. The file is a sparsebundle, and I can not reconnect it to Time Machine. I don't want to lose this backup and do not want to go thru the process of erasing the file and then starting a new Time Machine backup from scratch.
I would appeciate any help.
Thanks -
Dudley Warner

This was helpful, but was ridiculously complicated. Since this seems to happen to people periodically, it would be good to have a less complicated way to re-connect to the sparsebundle on a network volume.
Thanks -
Dudley Wanrer

Time Machine doesn't recognize hard drive

I have installed Leopard on my 2.66 GHz PowerMac. I have a 200 GB Maxtor hard drive hooked to it my PowerMacthrough a hub. I have used the hard drive to manually back up files and that works fine. The hard drive shows up in the finder, but it doesn't show up in Time Machine. I have tried restarting several times to no avail.

I have a different issue but this topic seemed the closest in the discussions. Since buying our new 24" iMac with 750GB internal HDD this Winter (and Leopard) I have had Ext TimeMachine HDD issues (loss).
First, I bought a 1Tb WD MyBook - within a week of use as the TimeMachine drive (and a week of good backups as far as I can tell as we browsed the saved contents periodically) the Ext HDD started failing. It was hard to tell what the problem was, but after twice "locking up" and restarting both the drive and the Mac, I am no longer able to "see" the drive in Finder, nor does the drive act like it would (the lights/sounds of the drive at time of mount) like it is being recognized at startup. One last odd thing about this drive, when TM had trouble and "sort of" locked up or slowed down the iMac as it lost the drive, Finder could still see it (I didn't try to move files to/from it though).
Just last week I bought a Maxtor 750GB drive (to replace until I get the WD drive back from warranty) and it lasted only 3 days. Now it, like the WD drive, is not visible. The only difference is that this drive doesn't sound right e.g. if you listen closely I think you can heard the internal mechanism clicking - bearings, drive head etc.? I'm not a HDD expert but I suspect something physical.
I am suspicous that both drives would fail in such a similar way with similar results. The only things common that I can identify now are the following;
-Both drives are firewire (WD FW800 / Maxtor FW400)
-Both drives used as TimeMachine drives only
-Both drives were new
-the location of the drives and iMac are not new - our older iMac and drives used to be mounted in the same location. The old Ext HDD's and iMac have been moved to a new location and they still work fine.
- We have installed the latest Apple software updates as they became available and no other problems noted. However, it was during the last security update the the system locked up (from TimeMachine it appeared) and upon re-boot of the system we were no longer able to "see" that the drive was available.
-Both drives have only been connected to this new iMac
-No other Ext, HDD's have been used with this iMac
Until I get warrant details back from the manufacturer I am concerned what the source of the problems are. Is it two unique HDD's failures and nothing more? Is it TimeMachine? Is it my iMac?
I have invested a lot of time and money into large drives only to have them nothing more than paper weights in less then a week each.
I would love to hear of any suggestions or if others are having similar issues.

Machine will not boot; hard drive makes clicking noise

My G4 will not boot up.
Here are the symptoms:
It passed the hardware test;
Will not perform a safe start - so cannot run disk utility;
Hard drive makes a clicking noise.
I'd appreciate any advice about how to proceed.
pdh

Yes, as mentioned backup now. best not to use your Mac till you do. The drive may fail for good. Here's some tips on replacing your drive (they are pretty inexpensive now);
This is by SDMacuser,
Even if you have never installed nor pulled a HD from a Powermac...... trust me....it is not all that difficult.
I can actually switch internal HD's among 3 separate G4 Towers I own in a matter of minutes (often less than 10 minutes).
Simply power the system down and ground yourself (a grounding strap is recommended or at the very least touching the metal frame to discharge any potential static electricity prior to actually touching the HD or any internal components on your system).
Disconnect the power cable to the back of the HD, then the long ide connector on the back of the HD / cable (pull straight back while grasping the black connector with 2 fingers ... do not yank the actual ribbon cable).
All of my HD's are mounted or bolted to their own metal sleds (either single sled or a dual sled) with 4 screws.
Unscrew the small screw (philips) holding the sled in place on position one below the ide connector or cable. And gently remove the sled & HD from the Powermac without bumping / damaging other internal components.
Remove the 4 screws from the sled itself holding the HD in place. Be careful not to allow the drive to fall once all screws have been removed.
Install the new HD (and make sure to address proper jumpers on the back of the HD itself.)
Now reverse this process with new HD for proper installation into the G4 Powermac.
Any questions just post back.
btw ... there are a few QT demos on apples web sites showing how to do this.
 Cheers! DALE

Time Machine will not see ANY drives.

Hi All.
Just installed the Leopard release this morning.
I added my external NAS devices as required with the time-machine file on each;
"-rwxrwxr-x 1 gmk gmk 0 2 Jan 2007 .com.apple.timemachine.supported"
as requested, I cannot get it to set the sticky bit (1775) to set, even though the external drives are accessible, and shows as PUBLIC in the finder. Local functionality is OK (ie. You can copy paste folders etc to the PUBLIC NAS disks).
What is abundantly clear is that Leopard doesn't like non-apple equipment connect ed even though it is UNIX like right!
Surely there is a solution guys?
Any solution would be appreciated.
[otherwise Leopard goes in the bin, and Linux goes back onto my MACmini]
Thanks.

Hi! You can designate any internal or external drive for Time Machine to use for backup. You can also use the external as a bootable clone if it is a firewire device and is bootable itself. You do this by cloning the drive which can be done using the disk utility, SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner. Tom

I upgraded to Maverick and now Time Machine will not connect to the external hard drive to back up files. The external hard drive is a Western Digital "My Book Live" 2 TB. How do I solve problem?

I upgraded to Maverick and now Time Machine will not connect to the external hard drive to back up files. The external hard drive is a Western Digital "My Book Live" 2 TB. How do I solve problem?

I also had problem accessing my WD MyBookLive after upgrading to Maverick.
To resolve the problem, I used Connect To Server (Cmd K) to specify the IP address.
Then I enter a user id and password I created in the MyBookLive.
You can also verify that you have admin access to the MyBookLive using Safari or Chrome.
Just enter the MyBookLive IP address as the URL.

Time Machine will not let me restore from backups after June, 2013. I can see the files on the external hard drive but Time Machine skips all of them and goes back to June, 2013. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?

Time Machine will not let me restore from backups after June, 2013. I can see the files on the external hard drive but Time Machine skips all of them and goes back to June, 2013. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?

rtilghman wrote:
telling me to buy a new router is NOT a solution.
And why not? Apple is selling these things like BigMacs. They can't make enough of them. You've been suffering since May because you refuse to get a decent router.
Can you imagine if a company that makes a refrigerator told me that I needed to upgrade my electrical system to rectify a problem with their device? What kind of response IS that?!?!
What if the problem with their device is that it requires a new-fangled "grounded" outlet and your circa 1890 house doesn't have grounded outlets. Would you refuse to purchase a $ 25 adapter on principle?

Time machine will not recognise WD hard drive connected to AE

I have a WD hard drive connected to my AE by ethernet cable. While I can access this drive wirelessly via Finder, both Airport utility and Time machine do not recognise this drive for back up purposes. Is there any way I can change the setup to enable time machine to work?
Thanks - Eric

You might want to take a look at the macosxhints.com article "10.5: Set up Time Machine on a NAS in three easy steps ".
BTW, MobileMe won't be able to backup your entire hard drive.

HT201250 i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. do i keep my files in the portable hard disk when I connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will era

i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. Am i keeping my files in the portable hard disk when I will connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will erase all?
I would like to know if after I erase all my data, empy hard drive inside the macbook, the time machine will erase all my files that I have saved in my "WD "My passport" external hard drive

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Time Machine has to erase the external disk in order to make backups. Before setting Time Machine up, copy the files of your external disk to the hard disk of the Mac in order not to lose them, and then, set up Time Machine. The first backup will start automatically.
If you want more information about Time Machine, read the Pondini's site > http://pondini.org

HT4413 When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, only some files and applications and setting are transferred, not all of them. In my latest back up I have them all. How can I fix that?

When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.

sohs wrote:
When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.
If you want to use Time Machine to recover the contents of one of its a backups to a new drive, follow the instructions in Mac OS X 10.6: Recovering your entire system. Note that you must select the "Restore System From Backup" option from the Utilities menu of the Installer disc to do this.
Also note that if you are transferring files to a hard drive to be used with a different computer, you should use Migration Assistant instead. This intentionally will not copy everything because some settings, applications, etc. are not compatible computer-to-computer. Migration Assistant will copy everything that is.

HT3275 Time Machine says my external hard drive does not have enough

Time Machine says my external hard drive does not have enough space for the current backup. It needs 34 G out of a 250G hard drive. All that is on the drive is earlier backups. I recently added memory, which may confuse Time Machine into thinking it is a new computer. How can I erase old backups and complete this one?

Walter Goodman wrote:
Time Machine says my external hard drive does not have enough space for the current backup. It needs 34 G out of a 250G hard drive. All that is on the drive is earlier backups.
See #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If that doesn't clear it up, how much data is on your Mac? If TM is only trying to back-up 34 GB, it should be able to delete old backups to do that (assuming you're running Lion).
It sounds like your backups may be corrupted. Try to repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
I recently added memory, which may confuse Time Machine into thinking it is a new computer.
If that's all you did, no.
How can I erase old backups and complete this one?
Just erase the drive per #1 or #2 of Using Disk Utility.

Time Machine will not backup Time Capsule drive

I was filling up my time capsule so I bought a new 2GB drive for my backups. It is attached as an air disk on the Time Capsule as I also use it to backup other computers in the house.
My problem is that I am now using the HDD in the time capsule for my iTunes and iPhoto library, so that they can also be shared, but they are not being backed up by TM.
I have checked my excluded drives list and the Time Capsule drive isn't in there.
Any ideas/help/advice on how to get the time capsule backed up too?

Sorry, but Time Machine will not backup a network drive (i.e. TC's HDD or any USB HDD attached to the TC). It can backup TO a NAS such as TC or a USB HDD attached to the TC. You can transfer your music to another external HDD that is connected directly to a Leopard-loaded Mac and TM can backup that up to TC/HDD attached to a TC.

Time Machine will not recognize hard drive

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