Any issues using FreeAgent Desk with Time Machine?

I have a Free Agent Desk product #9ZC2AG-501, 1 TB.
I reformatted it for HFS+ and use it on USB (this model only has a USB interface) with a hub and my Mac Book Pro running Lion (10.7.2).
Although I have observed this "problem" with previous O/S versions I think it is happening more often now.
Time Machine will make the initlial backup fine (takes 6-8 hours), then it will make incremental backups fine for several weeks, maybe 2 months.
Then I will get a TM error. And next reboot, I will usually get a "OSX Can't fix this drive.." error message - I can see a disk repair task runs first, I assume the O/S does a check before it mounts the drive. Sometimes if I run Disk Utility and ask it to verify or repair the drive or volume it completes and the drive works again.
More often latelty, it will tell me it can't fix the drive and I should save what I can and start over.
Since its a backup anyway, I just erase or re-partition it and TM starts up again.
And the scenario repeats.
The drive errors varry. Usually very drastic-looking things like "scrambled index" or "corrupted index" or "invalid structure".
I don't see how or why an external drive would care what O/S is being used with it. But I would like to know if there is some deep technical reason this model cannot be used with Time Machine? So I can either fix it or know to give up.
The USB info for the hub and drive is:
Hub:
Product ID:          0xf103
Vendor ID:          0x2001 (D-Link Corporation)
Version:          1.00
Speed:          Up to 480 Mb/sec
Location ID:          0xfa400000 / 2
Current Available (mA):          500
Current Required (mA):          0
FreeAgent       :
Capacity:          1 TB (1,000,204,884,992 bytes)
Removable Media:          Yes
Detachable Drive:          Yes
BSD Name:          disk1
Product ID:          0x3008
Vendor ID:          0x0bc2 (Seagate LLC)
Version:          1.38
Serial Number:          2HC015KJ
Speed:          Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Seagate
Location ID:          0xfa430000 / 5
Current Available (mA):          500
Current Required (mA):          2
Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Not Supported
Volumes:
disk1s1:
Capacity:          209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name:          disk1s1
Content:          EFI
RcookeBU:
Capacity:          999.86 GB (999,860,912,128 bytes)
Available:          644.05 GB (644,050,997,248 bytes)
Writable:          Yes
File System:          Journaled HFS+
BSD Name:          disk1s2
Mount Point:          /Volumes/RcookeBU
Content:          Apple_HFS

I have this same drive. It's a USB drive intended for PCs not Macs. At the time, Seagate offered Free Agent drives specifically for Macs. They weren't just pre-formatted to HFS+. They also came with different energy-saving settings in the firmware. The Free Agent Desk for PC that you and I have has additional energy-saving features designed for Windows-only. When used with a Mac, the drive will "sleep" or spin-down at the wrong time, even during Time Machine backups, resulting in file system corruption on the Seagate drive.
Seagate support recommended disabling the drive's sleep features using a Windows utility, but that didn't actually solve the problem. In fact, there is no way to completely eliminate the problem, but you can reduce it greatly by disabling sleep and hard disk sleep on your Mac (via System Preferences).
For me, disabling sleep completely allows me to use Time Machine on the disk, but clones will still fail periodically.
You can try to live with it or put it on Craigslist and sell it to someone with a PC.

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Using network drive with time machine. IS IT POSSIBLE?

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Time Machine does not back up to network drives, except Time Capsules or USB drives connected to an Airport Extreme, or a drive on a Mac running Leopard.
Here's the official word: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1733
You may find some "hacks" that might make it work, in some cases, to a degree. But use them at your own risk.
First, since this is *unsupported by Apple,* there's nowhere to go when there's trouble.
Second, you're risking a future update preventing it from working, and perhaps rendering your backups useless.
If you still think this is a good idea, do yourself a favor before you bet your backups on it: be sure it really works, at least for now:
1. Get a copy of CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper! or the like, and make a full bootable clone of your internal HD, on an external disk. Test it by booting from it. Then reboot from your internal HD.
2. Let TM do it's first, full, initial backup.
3. Attempt a full system restore (like you'll need when, not if, your internal HD fails), via the instructions in item 14 of the of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.
Again, even if it works today, tomorrow is another day . . .

Any clue whats going on with time machine?

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Here is how to use Airport AirDisk with Time Machine

I haven't tried this myself yet (I will give it a go this weekend), but since a lot of people are complaining about this, here is a link with instructions on how to do it.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071026075201634
for your convenience, here is an abstract of the instructions:
First connect your AirPort disk directly to your Mac, and set up Time Machine to use it. If you want to let it back up now, that's fine. Alternatively, you can stop it and let it back up when it's plugged back into the Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS).
Time Machine creates a file in the root directory of the disk called .1234abc5678 -- the exact name will differ on your Mac. It appears this file has to be in the root of the network shared directory. In my case, I use user accounts to manage my AirPort disk, so the directory that it actually shares out is called /Shared on my disk. So I simply move the hidden .1234abc5678 file, or whatever it may be called, to the /Shared directory. If you let Time Machine back up while plugged in locally, you will also have to move the .sparsebundle file to the /Shared directory.
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I assume that this is a new AirPort Express and you have not tried to configure it previously.
Locate the AirPort Express in the general area where you would like to have more wireless signal coverage.
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Power up the AirPort Express and let it run a few minutes. The amber light will be blinking slowly at this point.
Click the AirPort icon at the top of your Mac's screen and wait a few seconds for a listing of New AirPort Base Station to appear. Just below that, click directly on AirPort Express.
AirPort Setup will open up automatically on your Mac, take a minute to analyze the network, then announce that the AirPort Express will be configured to extend the Time Capsule network.
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KevinD wrote:
Can I use Migration Assistant with a Time Machine or Super Duper backup on an external drive instead of the original computer?
yes to both.
I'm thinking of upgrading my Mini to a new one but only have one monitor. Not in the mood to hunt down an old monitor & buy adapters, etc. If I can, are there any tradeoffs using a backup instead of the original Mini?
none.
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The current Mini runs 10.6 SL.

Backups section of storage using 60+ gigs with Time Machine off

While using mountain lion I realized that my hard drive had a rather large amount of backup space. I did some digging and research but almost every issue I found involved time machine. I have time machine off and use an external hard drive to just keep copies of documents and files.
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Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
/.MobileBackups
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Show Info in Finder (or just Show Info)
from the contextual menu.* Does an Info dialog open?
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You can do it either directly from the older MacBook or from Time Machine. Your new MBP is unlikely to boot to the system on the MB as the newer Pro will have a later OS build and different hardware drivers among other things.
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Backing up that way is not supported by Apple. There are tricks you can use to make it work, but you don't know if your backup will be of any use when you need it. Many people have found that using unsupported methods with Time Machine results in failure to restore when they need it.

Any issue using Time Machine on USB drive with AirPort?

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I'm currently using a USB drive I attach/detach from my MacBook Air and it would be much more convenient to backup to the drive connected to the AirPort. The first backup will probably take a day short of forever being over the air and not the wire, but after that I imagine it would nicely run in the background.
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Are there any issues using a USB drive attached to an AirPort Extreme with Time Machine? My guess is no, but figured I would ping the forum and see if there's something I have not thought of.
The correct answer is yes. First off, Apple does NOT support Time Machine backups to external USB HDDs attached to the AirPort Extreme ... although they do for the Time Capsule.
Please check out this excellent Pondini article which provides some details on why this would not be a good idea.

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks? What do I need to do dif

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks?
What do I need to do differently?

The late, great Pondini was investigating that issue before he passed away.
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5125969
I think there might be information there on how to reset Time Machine to do a full backup. I think you basically have to reset it and start over.

I bought an external hard drive for backups to use with Time Machine, but however when I try to connect it with the other windows laptop it doesn't work ? intact it doesn't work on any other device except my MAC ?

I bought an external hard drive for backups to use with Time Machine, but however when I try to connect it with the other windows laptop it doesn't work ? intact it doesn't work on any other device except my MAC ?

Do not worry about it.
Time Machine needs that your external drive is formatted in HFS+, or better known as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". This filesystem is used by Apple on Macs and Windows cannot read or write drives formatted with this filesystem, being this the reason why all your devices do not read the external drive except your Mac.
You can only use your external drive to make Time Machine drives. If you store anything different, you may damage the Time Machine structure, so it is better not to use it as a drive to store other data. Instead, get another external drive to do it or create a second partition on the external drive formatted in FAT32 by using Disk Utility > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html FAT32 can be read by Windows PCs

Can I use any external hard drive with Time Machine?

I have a 1TB external hard drive and also a 16GB flash drive. Is it possible to use either of these with Time Machine?

IMO Time Machine should be on its own Dedicated External Drive... one that is twice the size of the drive that it is backing up... the 16 GB Flash Drive is not appropiate for the task.
See Here
TM 101
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
You may also find this Link of Interest...
Time Machine vs. Clones and Archives

Any issues using FreeAgent Desk with Time Machine?

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