When attempting to upgrade my iMac from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, I receive the message "This disk is used for Time Machine Backups" when I try to select the lone available hard drive.
When attempting to upgrade my iMac from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, I receive the message "This disk is used for Time Machine Backups" when I try to select the lone available hard drive. I have ensured that Time Machine is turned off. Upon some Google research, some who reported this problem were told to delete the folder backup.backupdb, but I do not have this folder on my Mac. Any suggestions?
The folder would be at the root of your hard drive. Double-click Macintosh HD and look there.
If it isn’t there, I’m not sure what it is seeing.
Similar Messages
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Ok i currently have Lion on my early 2011 15" MBP. When i try to install Mountain Lion to my mac HD it keeps telling me I cannot because its used for time machine backups. I have done a search and I know I have to delete the backups.backupdb folder but I cannot find it for the life of me. If anyone can help I would really appreciate, thanks!
NikIf you double-click on your hard drive icon the Backups.backupd folder should be on the root level of your drive. Sometimes OS X gets confused and incorrectly puts a Backups.backupd folder on your hard drive. That folder should only appear on a drive used for Time Machine
If you can't find the Backups.backupd folder try using the free EasyFind with both Package Contents and Invisible Files & Folders checked. Search for "Backups.backupd" without the quotes on your hard drive (default selection), not your Time Machine drive. Right-click on the search result and choose to Reveal in Finder. Click on the link that kisuke3 provided and follow those directions
If you can't find a Backups.backupd folder anywhere try booting into Safe Mode by holding down the Shift key right after you hear the startup chime. Keep holding the Shift key down until you see the Apple Logo. The progress bar that appears indicates the progress of the file check that Safe Mode automatically does. Give it time to finish.
Reboot normally and see if the ML installer will work. If it does wait until Spotlight is finishing indexing before turning Time Machine back on. -
I am trying to upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard. When I insert the disk and install starts, it states "This disk is used for Time Machine backups" and Mac OSX can't be installed. Does anyone know how to correct this (since Tiger doesn't have Time Machine)?
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2986
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I am keep getting this error "The disk is used for Time Machine Backup" when installing the new OSX Mountain Lion" when doing the upgrade to newly OS.
The folder would be at the root of your hard drive. Double-click Macintosh HD and look there.
If it isn’t there, I’m not sure what it is seeing. -
I can't install OS X mountain Lion to my macbook pro. It says when I'm trying to choose the disk, (This disk is used for time machine backups'. What can I do about it? thanks!
From the Finder's Go menu, choose Computer:
Double-click your hard disk icon. It is usually named "Macintosh HD":
Look for this folder:
Drag it to the Trash. -
When I try to install Maverick on the HD I get this message: This disc is used for Time Machine backups and then nothing happens!
Try looking in Finder at your Macintosh HD. Look to see if there is a backups.backupsdb folder at the root of the hard drive. That's a folder that Time Machine makes on external hard drives to store the backups. If you have one there, some one put it there; rename the folder or delete it. Then try installing again.
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When trying to chose a disk on which to install mavericks I get a message that says "this disk is used for Time Machine backups" and cannot be used. Help!
I don't know what will help at this point. You should never update a system that has problems, unless you're absolutely sure that the problems are caused by a bug that is fixed in the update. With your backups in an uncertain state, you should not update or do anything else except start a new backup.
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Lion Installer thinks that my internal boot hard drive "is used for time machine backups"
I recently installed a new hard drive on my MBP. It's been running fine, but now I'm running into trouble when I tried to install Lion!
The download worked just fine. But when I try to choose a disk to install Lion onto, my one and only hard drive (internal, boot disk) "is used for Time Machine backups" and is grayed out! I can't click it, I can't customize the installation or do anything except go backwards through the license agreement and such.
No, I do not use my internal drive as a Time Machine. But somehow, even after I've disabled Time Machine, it keeps thinking I do! Time Machine is my menu bar is grayed out, but I can click "Browse other Time Machine disks" and for some reason my boot disk comes up! ("(My name)'s MacBook Pro on 'Untitled 1') I've never used this disk as a Time Machine!
I have a feeling that this is somehow related to my using Super Duper to clone my old hard drive during the upgrade process.
Is there a way to remove the Time Machine files from my boot disk or otherwise convince Lion to install? I've already repaired my disk permissions in Disk Utility. What else can I do?
Thank you in advance. This is very frustrating!Alexander Chan1 wrote:
No, I do not use my internal drive as a Time Machine. But somehow, even after I've disabled Time Machine, it keeps thinking I do!
At some point, probably accidentally, your internal HD was selected as a destination for Time Machine. Even if that was immediately changed, it had already created a Backups.backupdb folder at the top level of the drive.
As long as that's there, OSX thinks you're trying to install OSX on your backup drive. Just delete that folder. -
Lion won't install can't select hard drive that is used for time machine backups
I installed Lion, agreed to the eula but both drives are greyed out. My Macintosh HD - ( this dirve is used for time machine backups) and my external drive (this drive does not use the GUID Partition Table scheme...). Though I don't use time machine, I tried turning it on and selecting the external drive with no luck. I'm stuck - any ideas?
"Backups.backupdb" if the file in Time Machine. As the discussion says, you have to find that file and trash it. Try spotlight to locate it. If that does not work, down load OmniDiskSweeper from the Internet (free) and go through an organized search to find "Backups.backupdb". If that takes too long or is too tedious, then if you have everything backed up, erase the HDD and start from square one.
Ciao. -
Problem activating Facetime on iMac: I recently upgraded my iMac from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion.
Since the upgrade, when I try to sign on with my valid Apple ID & password I get this message "The server encountered an error processing registration. Please try again later."
I have tried (again later) repeatedly without success. PLEASE HELP! -
Hi i want to upgrade my iMac from Snow Leopard 10.6.8 to OS X Mavericks or OS X Yosemite. My software update menu dosnn´t find any updates available. Help please, what can i do to upgrade to OS X Mavericks or newer version?
Open the Mac App Store and try downloading Yosemite. If you get told it's incompatible, the computer's also incompatible with Mountain Lion and Mavericks; if desired, choose About this Mac from the Apple menu, check if the computer has at least a Xeon or Core 2 Duo(not Core Duo) CPU and 2GB of RAM, and if it does, click here and order a download code for Lion 10.7.
Back up your data and check your applications for compatibility before upgrading. In particular, Mac OS X 10.7 and newer don't support PowerPC programs such as versions of Microsoft Office prior to 2008.
(123636) -
I cannot load Maverick on my iMac HD. It reports that my HD is used for Time Machine backups and will not load to that drive. I do not use this drive for backups. I use an external 1 TB WD My Book for backups as well as Super Duper Backups. Can anyone offer advice. Thanks.
Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You have got the "Backups.backupdb" folder in the root level of your hard drive. This is the folder used by Time Machine to save backups to, and the OS X Mavericks installer thought that your hard drive is being used to store Time Machine backups
To fix this, open a Finder window, select the Go menu (on the menu bar) > Go to Folder, and type:
Then, delete "Backups.backupdb" and empty the Trash. Finally, open the Mavericks installer from the Applications folder and follow the steps -
I am trying to use migration assistant to move everything from snow leopard (10.6.8) to mountain lion (10.8.3) using a direct machine to machine ethernet cable connection but it stalls out at about 17 minutes remaining. Thoughts on how to proceed?
Have you set both to never sleep?
Is the source (old) Mac's software up to date (including the Migration Assistant for Mac OS X Snow Leopard update)?
Is the old Mac healthy? Have you run Verify Disk on it lately?
The estimates are wildly inaccurate under the best of circumstances. How long has it been stuck? -
Cannot install Yosemite as hard drive is used for Time Machine Backup, How Do I Change This?
I have a 2010 MacBook Pro and when I attempted to install Yosemite the MacBook Pro Drive is greyed out and a message appears that read,"drive is used for Time Machine Backup." How do I change this to install Yosemite?
Thanks,
ScottWell, if you don't want to use that drive for Time Machine anymore, then you should format it using Disk Utility. Then you can install Yosemite on it.
You should, of course, have another full backup somewhere. I really can't state this strongly enough: You should have a full and complete and up to date backup of all your data before you upgrade to OS X Yosemite. -
I'm want to use my current external hard drive, which I use for Time Machine Backup, as a recovery disk for Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2. From what I have read, the recovery disk assistant will erase all data on the external drive unless it is partitioned. Can I partition my current backup drive without erasing it, even though it is already being used for Time Machine?
It's very simple to test. Turn off your computer. Have your time machine backup plugged in. Hold option and turn it on, keeping option held. Do you see your time machine drive? If so, select it and press enter. You'll end up in recovery. If it works, there you go. Then just click the apple and restart to get back to your regular desktop. Then you'll know for when you're ready to do the deed.
Edit...
I'm not sure if time machine will think it's an entirely different computer, though, when a hard drive changed, making an actual restore not doable. Either way, you could still reinstall mt lion fresh and then just migrate after, skipping the need for SL.
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