Time machine won't see my airdisk for i can't mount it

hi,
i can't use my lacie hard dirve that is hooked up to my airport extreme base station with the time machine.
looking around the forums i understood that time machine only works with the drives that are mounted on the desktop. some apparently do that manually by clicking to it in finder, others use an automator app to automatically mount.
but my problem is i can't mount the drive in anyways. clicking on it in finder wouldn't mount it on the desktop in may case: although i can browse it in finder it wouldn't appear on the desktop.
since it never appears on the desktop i can't drag it to an automator app.
does anyone have any solutions?

TM may start a new backup sequence for any of a number of reasons. See #D3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window.
Navigate to the first of the backup attempt that failed, copy and post the messages here. A clue should be lurking in there.
i'd like to keep those backups because there's some important stuff in there.
That's a curious comment. Have you been deleting things from your internal HD, relying on TM to keep it's copies archived?

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hi,
for some reason, TM has continually told me there isn't enough space to make a backup to my external usb hd.
it's been backing up to this hd for about 9 months. disk utility checked it out and it seemed okay.
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cheers,
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Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window.
Navigate to the first of the backup attempt that failed, copy and post the messages here. A clue should be lurking in there.
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I'm surprised that no one replied to this. But I learned a few things that may be helpful to some of you with this same question.
When you restore data from an external disk drive with Time Machine files on it. As you move through the dialog (in either System Startup or in the Migration Assistant) it will ask if you want to restore from an external disk with Time Machine files. If you select this option, it will show you only one Icon. You will expect to see your external disk drive listed as the source of the restore. The icon that is shown will look like your ilnternal drive and will be labeled something like Macintosh HD. That is not your internal drive, but is your backup drive. It is labeled the same as your internal disk drive and it is telling you that you have found the backup for your internal disk drive.
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TM may start a new backup sequence for any of a number of reasons. See #D3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
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That should say "Now none of the laptops (a MacBook and an iBook) will see either external drive..." I hate typos.
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Kubismo wrote:
Hi, can someone help me with this issue. For some reason Time Machine won't recognise my Dlink DNS 323 RAID NAS device. I have mapped the device in Finder, so I know my Macbook can see it and read it, but Time Machine can't. Does TM support NAS devices?
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http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080420211034137&query=time%2Bmach ine%2BNAS
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Message was edited by: V.K.

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up. I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up.
I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?
When I bought the new (used) iMac, I also bought an external hard drive for backups. It worked fine, but my husband stole it.
Then I bought a new external hard drive (Seagate) and it worked fine for three weeks, then died.
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Time machine did the first backup today, and it should have taken 9 hours like it did on the previous first time full back up. Instead, it took 30 minutes. That can't be right. I want to start over and do a full backup to make sure everything gets onto my new external hard drive, but I can't figure out how to do that. Please help.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
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Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
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Added:
Removed:
Changed:
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Well, the set up is this:
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Actual capacity of the external backup drive is 999.68 GB and available is 135 gb .
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The solution is essentially "simple." You need a larger hard drive for these backups or you need to use a different backup solution. By this I mean using backup software that does not preserve an archive of old copies of a file, but simply erases old copies in order to replace them with the new copies. By replacing your backup drive can always accommodate the drive it backs up if it is large enough - say the same size. I can suggest:
Backup Software Recommendations
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
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Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
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Time machine won't see my airdisk for i can't mount it

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