Time Machine won't allow second backup drive?

I want to create a second backup of Time Machine on another external hard drive. However it won't give me an option to backup to both drives. When I insert drive II, it only allows me to use it if I delete backup drive one. I attached photos of the prompt.
Any help appreciated greatly. Thank you :-)

Howdy Kgkgkg12,
It sounds like this drive you are wanting to use with Time Machine is not in the same format that Time Machine needs to operate. According to this article:
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
Your Time Machine drive needs to be formatted as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). If you select an NTFS or FAT-formatted drive, Time Machine prompts you to reformat the drive. Important: Reformatting erases any files on the destination drive. If you're not sure if you want to erase the drive you connected, choose a different drive.
You can check the format of the drive with these steps:
OS X Yosemite: View file, folder, and disk information
Get individual item info: Select the item(s), then choose File > Get Info, or press Command (⌘)-I.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine won't back up external drive to Time Capsule

    I recently got a Time Capsule, and successfully set it up to back up my iMac's primary drive, but for some reason Time Machine won't back up my external drive to the Time Capsule.
    I removed the external drive from the exclusion list in System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and from what I've read this should be sufficient to make Time Machine back up the drive.
    The external drive is connected to my iMac via Thunderbolt > Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adaptor > Firewire 800 input, and the Time Capsule is connected via Ethernet to my LAN.
    Since I'm using Ethernet, I've disabled Wi-Fi on the Time Capusule by going to AirPort Utility > My Time Capsule > Edit > Wireless > Network Mode > Off.
    The reason I believe the external drive is not being backed up is because when I click the Time Machine icon in the upper-right status bar and choose "Enter Time Machine", none of the folders on external drive show any older versions.
    Furthermore, when I click Finder > Time Machine Backups > Backups.backupdb, I can see only one sub-folder which has the name of my iMac's primary drive. I can't see any equivalent folder for my external drive.
    Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

    I don't see anything you have done wrong.. perhaps it does backup in a different way.
    Load the widget.. A1 here... http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    That will allow you to track the log of TM to see what it is doing.
    I would also try rebooting the computer.. exclude the drive again.. reboot.. and remove the exclusion.
    You should be able to check the actual settings of TM in plist file.
    And you can do a full reset of TM as well.. See A4. Check what is in the file. Pondini lists the location for you.
    Nothing surprises me with Mountain Lion ...!!

  • Time Machine won't "un-exclude" external drive

    Any help appreciated. I have a Western Digital Passport 120G external hard drive that Time Machine won't backup. It's mounted fine; operates fine; when I go to Preferences>Time Machine>Options it's listed under "Do not back up" but it's grayed out. It won't allow me to "un-exclude" it.
    Any suggestions?
    Cliff

    Well, I checked and it was factory formatted FAT32. I'll move my data to a DVD and reformat. I tried to read up on Apple.com but couldn't find any TM/HFS+ docs; I never would have found this info. Thanks, Barry.

  • Pondini, I beseech thee....Time Machine won't back up external drive partitions

    Pondini (or anyone else that would like to help),
    I am running Mac OS X 10.7.5. At my edit bay, we utilize a Facilis Terrablock 24D for storage, which connects to our system via fibre cables. Before upgrading to 10.7.5, Time Machine would back up all of our drive partitions on the Terrablock. Since the upgrade, Time Machine still recognizes the drives, we can add or subtract files from the drives, and it appears to make and save the changes, but when Time Machine backs up, it will only back up the local hard drive. No error messages come up. It just does its thing but only for the local HD. 
    All of the drive partitions are Mac OS Extended Journaled. All of the permissions seem to be in order.
    I have contacted Facilis and their technical support claims that they never tested their products with Time Machine (as they sell their own backup equipment) but in theory that it should work.
    I'm not sure what other information you might need but please let me know and I'll do my best. I was wondering if anyone else has come across an issue like this? Thank you for your time.

    LALB wrote:
    Upon including this partition and all of its contents, it disappears from the exclusion list as it should AND its size is reflected in the Estimated size of full backup. But this is the kicker! Upon clicking "Save" and starting Time Machine's backup, I receive the error "Time Machine could not complete the backup. There are no disks available to be backed up." Upon going back into TM Preferences > Options, I find that the external drive / partition has been put back on the Exclusion list. It's like it is automatically rejecting the partition after I have saved my exclusion list.
    That's quite strange. 
    TM does that if you try to back up a USB Thumb drive (I've filed a bug report), but this is the first I've heard of it under any other circumstances.  Then again, I don't recall a post by anyone trying to back up from a drive connected this way.
    If a drive isn't formatted for a Mac (ie, FAT32, ExFat, NTFS, etc), Time Machine cannot back it up, and will list it in gray on the exclusion list (same as the backup drive), and won't let you remove it from the list, so it's clear. 
    This sounds like a "cousin" of the way it treats a thumb drive, so sure seems like a bug.  TM will back up USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt drives without a problem, if they're formatted right.
    If you have any Macs under 90 days old, or covered by AppleCare, a call to them is free, and the best way to get a quick answer (you may have to escalate to a "specialist" however, and it still may take a few days for something unusual).  Otherwise it's $50 U.S.
    An alternative is to file a Bug Report, per the green box in Reporting a Problem to Apple.   That most likely won't get a response for quite a while, though.
    Sorry, wish I had a fix!
    Let us know what, if anything, you find out.

  • Time Machine Won't Continue Old Backup

    My computer was being repaired at Apple for a few weeks and I just got it back. No hard drive data was modified during the repair; the optical drive needed work. Anyway, I plugged in my external hard drive a few moments ago and it's backing up the whole system and won't let me return to the previous backups that I already have. I'm trying to recall a few files and Time Machine won't let me find them even though they're on the external drive. I did, however, accidentally rename the external hard drive when I was using it without Time Machine a few days ago.
    Is there a way for me to continue where I left off with my old Time Machine backups? I'd hate to lose them all and I don't want to re-install the entire system from a previous one from a month or so ago; I just need to look at a few old files. Thanks for any help!
    Greg

    So, here's what happened.
    Time Machine uses the xattr system to assign specific folders hidden attributes. Time Machine sets each folder up in its hierarchy with a xattr tag for the Ethernet MAC address of the machine it is backing up. This is all done invisibly. So, when I got a logic board, and a new MAC address, it wouldn't treat the old archive as concomitant with the new machine. So, here's how you fix this:
    - remove the ACLs from the Time Machine DB
    - use the xattr command at Terminal to put your new MAC address on the folder.
    Full details are available here:
    http://www.tombridge.com/rta/2008/01/after-the-apple.html

  • Will time machine back up a second "internal" drive?

    I have a Macbook Pro "late 2008" unibody.
    I'd like to eventually buy an SSD drive to use as my "boot up / programs" drive and then use my much larger conventional drive as a "data" drive which will reside where my superdrive was.  Will time machine back up this second drive or is it limited to the drive it's installed on?
    If it's not possible, I'd appreciate any recommendations / tips on how I would back up the second drive or an alternate back up solution to back up both drives more efficiently.

    It'll backup all except items you add in the exclude options as below:

  • Time Machine won't use existing backup folder

    Time machine gave me the can't find back up drive error. I did what the support site says, went into the preferences, and reselected the appropriate drive, but now it won't use the existing backup folder. It keeps making a new one called 'user's MacBook Pro 2'. How do I force it to use the old folder, so that I can access my old back-ups?

    gilesrulz,
    First, you need to determine WHY it's not choosing to continue using the previous backups.
    Has your computer changed in some way? Logic board replaced by Apple?
    You reinstalled the Mac OS X system software?
    *_Time Machine Always Performs a Full Backup After a Full Restore_*
    Actually, this is normal. Anytime your hardware has changed, or you have reinstalled the operating system again, Time Machine will perform a new full backup. Consider the following according to the KB article below:
    *Full Backup After Restore*
    Bear in mind that in all cases Time Machine will perform a full backup after a full restore. This is normal. Time Machine will resume incremental backups after the full backup has completed. To view previous backups, Control-click or right-click the Time Machine icon in your Dock or Option-click the Time Machine menu extra and Choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks," then select your previous backup volume. You will enter Time Machine and be able to browse your previous back ups and restore files. [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338]
    So even on unchanged hardware, if you reinstall your system software and restore your user data, Time Machine starts anew, and you will not be able to resume backing up with the same history as the previous backups.
    While there may be ways to fool/hack Time Machine into recognizing previous backups without performing another full backup, they are likely rather elaborate.
    Ultimately, though, in a couple of months, all the effort to preserve old backups may seem pointless. After all, Time Machine will eventually purge away that data anyways as it replaces it with new files.
    It may simply be easier to begin a fresh series of backups while saving the previous backups until your satisfied that you have enough history built up. Then delete the old backups.
    Hope this clarifies some things.
    Cheers!

  • Using Time Machine to restore an *older* BackUp drive

    Here's my situation - I have currently been backing up my 2 computers (A Macbook Pro and a Mac Pro tower) to two separate external bootable drives (not Time Machines). I then take the drives off site in case of theft or fire, and know that if I need to I can always restore from these bootable backups.
    However, because of the time and effort of bringing them in from their offsite location, I only back up once every few weeks, sometimes a month or more. So I just purchased an internal drive (separate from my system drive) to use as a Time Machine drive, for both of my computers (only one partition). Since they will be backing up every day, I will retain much more recent material in case of drive failure.
    My question is this - if I have a drive failure on my current internal system drive, and the internal Time Machine is intact, is it possible for me to take my external bootable backup (say 3 weeks older than Time Machine in how recently it was backed up), make a cone of that on a new internal system drive, and then use Time Machine to restore that drive to what is most current on Time Machine?
    Does this question make sense? I'm essentially trying to use a combination of external bootable drives and Time Machine in order to have peace of mind, knowing that I will have a complete, bootable restore, but it will then be able to become as up to date as the last Time Machine backup.

    Daniel Greeney wrote:
    So I just purchased an internal drive (separate from my system drive) to use as a Time Machine drive, for both of my computers (only one partition). Since they will be backing up every day, I will retain much more recent material in case of drive failure.
    Let Time Machine back up every hour, as it's designed. That will protect you best.
    My question is this - if I have a drive failure on my current internal system drive, and the internal Time Machine is intact, is it possible for me to take my external bootable backup (say 3 weeks older than Time Machine in how recently it was backed up), make a cone of that on a new internal system drive, and then use Time Machine to restore that drive to what is most current on Time Machine?
    Does this question make sense?
    The question makes sense until you realize that Time Machine backups contain everything you need (unless you do something silly, like exclude your system files).
    Once the new drive is installed and formatted, you can restore your entire system from the TM backups faster than you can copy the clone to the new internal HD. See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum. Note that you use the Snow Leopard Install disc only for the Installer on it; you don't install OSX from it.

  • I just updated to Mountain Lion and now time machine won't recognize my backups from before the update.

    I updated from Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.8 to Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.2 on my MacBook Pro
    I used disk utility to restore my external hardrive because I read somewhere that that would fix the problem.
    It did fix the problem but only temporarily. I was able to view my backups from Snow Leopard, but as soon as I tried to backup again, time machine was stuck
    "preparing to backup" for 5 hours and when I quit the prepare I could no longer access my previous backups.

    So what happens if you go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General? Are you able to go there at all? If you are able to go there, can you unlock the preferences using the lock in the lower left and your login name and password?
    If you are able to do this, can you change the "Allow applications downloaded from:" to Anywhere?
    Best of luck.

  • Can Anyone Tell Me Why Time Machine Won't Create A BackUp Folder for a Programed Backup?

    Does anyone know why my Time Machine is NOT creating a backup folder on and regular scheduled backup?  Just recently I downloaded the Time Machine Editor and it said to turn off the regular Time Machine (ON/OFF) switch, and just run off the TM Editor.  However, at 1am in the morning, it comes up with the error saying it can't create a Backup Folder.  I'm sure this is a simple solution but I really don't know how to handle this...  Would appreciate any and all help in this matter... Thanks, Gary

    Were you already backing up with Time Machine - ie, did you have an existing backup folder on the drive before you started using Time Machine Editor? If not, you probably need to do at least one full backup with TM, and then start using TME to schedule backups.
    Matt

  • Time Machine | won't back up same drive under another user

    Basically what has happened is my RAID 0 4TB "Media" started to failed (bad sectors) and my only back up was Time Machine. I have two user accounts; Admin and my user account. I logged in under Admin to run time machine for the last time before the drive initially failed (my user account was on the "Media" drive, RAID 0) The backup went successfully and I replaced the drive. Under admin, I restored all files successfully.
    Here is the problem: Once I log back in as my user account, Time Machine thinks that the "Media" backup and "Media" current drive are different and says theres no more room to back up. Can I transfer the admin account's Time Machine preferences? I really don't want to format Time Machine again and do another backup. That's a lot of files.
    There has to be a way to do this.

    Inherit a Backup
    Inherit a Backup (2)

  • Time Machine won't increment existing backup.

    I've had this problem for the last week and haven't been able to resolve it.
    I have a 1TB drive jacked into my Airport Extreme and have been using it for Time Machine forever. Recently however TM has been telling me that there isn't enough room on the drive to complete my backup. It doesn't seem to be recognising that it should be incrementing the existing 600Mb sparsebundle and is trying to create an entirely new backup.
    Yesterday I went as far as deleting the old backups off my drive. Then I jacked the drive directly into my MBP (Mountain Lion) and ran a brand new backup overnight.
    This morning I ejected the drive, stuck it back into the Airport, and trying to get TM to increment to it but again it's telling me there isn't enough room to create a new backup.
    I obviously has something to do with how my MBP is seeing the permissions on the sparebundle when I'm connecting to it via Airport versus directly, but I don't know why. As I said, I've been backing up to TM via Airport like this for years, no problems.
    Any help appreciated.

    Dominic Pfisterer wrote:
    "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.
    Not exactly one of Apple's clearest messages. 
    See #C13 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

  • Is it possible to have two hard drives connected to my airport extreme and use one to store my itunes library/iphoto and the other to backup via time machine?  Will the second (larger) drive back-up both my mac HD and my other external airport drive?

    For the past year I've been using an external hard drive (HD1) connected to my airport extreme as the back-up location for time machine.  This has worked fine without any issues.  What I would like to do now is to move my itunes and iphoto libraries off of my laptop (space constraints) and store them on a second external hard drive (HD2) connected to the airport extreme.  I have successfully connected the second hard drive using a Belkin powered USB hub.  What I am wondering is if I direct my time machine back-ups to HD1 will it back-up both my mac HD as well as HD2?  I apologize if this has already been answered but i've read conflicting responses on various message boards and a number of responses were dated so I wanted to make sure I received the latest information. 
    thank you

    kosty wrote:
    For the past year I've been using an external hard drive (HD1) connected to my airport extreme as the back-up location for time machine.  This has worked fine without any issues. 
    That may be true, but you need to know that backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple.   See:  Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.  Do not be surprised if those backups suddenly turn up corrupted.
    What I am wondering is if I direct my time machine back-ups to HD1 will it back-up both my mac HD as well as HD2?
    No.  Time Machine cannot back up from any network location.  The 3rd-party utilities CarbonCopyCloner and ChronoSync may be workable alternatives.

  • Time Machine won't allow inProgress file (or any other backup) to be deleted

    iMac early 2009 OS X 10.9.5
    CCC reported an error with a file (bad sector?) but before I attempted to replace it I found I was unable to re-boot iMac. I have successfully restored from Time Machine but TM will not now undertake further back ups and the external USB drive holding TM can neither be completely verified nor repaired. Interestningly I have been able to restore even though I can't write new back ups to TM.
    I have extracted most of my documents etc and as SMART Utility reports my hard drive as failing (6 re-allocated sectors and 1 event), I thought I'd try an re-format the iMac  drive before I decide whether to replace the iMac hard drive or the iMac itself. I didn't realise that restoring from a TM back up didn't resolve a bad sector issue and that I need to re-format the iMac drive to sort it. But I'd like to have a more reliable back up before attempting this (and before even re-installing the OS) in case there are issues. I tried moving the TM drive so I could re-format that drive first and get it properly functioning, but it moves some files for a day and then various file transfer/access errors prevent completion of the copy. I thought maybe the InProgress file might be the issue but I can't delete it so can't check.
    So:
    1/ Why do various web pages and Pondini suggest I can simply delete the inProgress file whereas my system says I cannot delete it? What am I missing? What steps do I need to take to achieve this outside of Terminal which is not recommended?
    2/ Can I make a new TM back up from scratch on another external drive and , if I have bad sectors yet to be cured, will this be useful?

    !/ Right click doesn't produce a delete option in the menu and when I simply drag it to the trash I get a yellow triangle window which says, 'The Item ".....InProgress" can't be moved to the Trash because it can't be deleted.'
    2/ I have a TM back up. My iPhoto & iTunes are on a separate external and this is backed up with TM. Both are separately backed up with CCC. Oh and I occasionally drag and copy important files to another drive.
    Thus far I have not lost data but what may well be a failing hard drive is making life difficult. Daily kernel panic re-boots, TM can restore but not make new back ups nor be verified or repaired etc etc

  • I'm using a WD NAS as my time machine backup drive and since upgrading to Lion the time machine won't operate with the drive. How am I to retrieve my photos and documents from it?

    I realise it is the responsibility of WD to maintain the network storage interface for time machine. What is a solution for retrieving files from time machine?
    When trying to re-add the drive a message said the version of the system is not supported.

    Please follow these instructions:
    Lion: Connecting to legacy (pre-Lion) AFP services - and Mac OS X (server):
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3258472

Maybe you are looking for

  • Can't start mysql

    when I type "rc.d start mysqld" it displays busy for a while, then fails. At this point it does not generate an error message. I have changed the permissions of /var/lib/mysql recursively to 777. I have also created the mysqld directory in /var/run a

  • Itunes to external hard drive?? PLEASE Help.

    Hi Guys. I like my iTunes library to be clean and neat. I have about 2,800 MP3's and it took me over a week to "edit" all of them and "clean them up" (properly spelled Artist, Genre, Album title, etc). Now that everything is clean and neat, is there

  • Scale path without affecting stroke width

    Hi all, This seems like it should be simple to do but I'm not having any luck here. Basically I have a path parented to a null that controls several things, scaling them down, rotating and moving across the composition. One of those items is a path w

  • Error:: This Library creaktkekdk with unrelesed version of iPhoto. Help.

    The message goes on to say, open in iPhoto 2 or 4 before trying to upgrade to 6. I have numerous Libraries on external RAID. All opened fine under 5. I certainly never had unreleased version of any Apple program, nor do I know where to get copy of iP

  • Purchased "This is it", but download failed twice

    It is taking a long time to download my pre-ordered movie. When I open iTunes it proceeds to download where it left off but continues to say "18 hours remaining". This after three days. And I have great Airport signal! What is wrong here?