Backup disk image cannot be mounted.

I have tried and tried to get Time Machine up and running with no success. It has given me several error messages...the latest of which is "The backup disk image could not be mounted."
I can see the disk in my "shared" finder window, make changes but every time it tries to backup, I get an error. It DID backup once when i first got it but have not been able to do so since. I have restored to factory settings and tried all kinds of suggestions from posts...can anyone help?

Welcome to the discussion area, Stacie!
There a number of possible reasons why you are having difficulties, so it may take a number of steps to try to get this solved.
First, let's make sure there are no permission errors on your Hard Drive. To do this:
Note the name of the hard drive on your computer. If you have not changed the location or the name, it will be at the upper right of your screen and the name will be Macintosh HD
Open Hard Drive > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
On the left side of the Disk Utility window, click to highlight the drive that has exactly the same name as your hard drive on your main computer screen.
Now, look for a button that says "Repair Disk Permissions". Click that button. It will probably take 30-45 minutes for the check to complete.
When the process is complete, restart your computer.
Click the System Preferences (looks like a gear) icon on the dock and then click Time Machine
Click the name of your Time Capsule to highlight it
Click Use for Backups
Wait a few minutes, then click the clock shaped Time Capsule icon at the top of your screen and click Back Up Now.
You will probably see "Preparing...." for a long time. Let it run, even if it goes for 45-60 minutes. If it still says "Preparing" after 2 hours" click Stop Backup Now and post back for more steps.

Similar Messages

What can I do when I see "The backup disk image cannot be mounted"

I ran the time machine. Then, "preparing backup" showed up for a long time. After that, a window pop out: "Time machine error, The disk image cannot be mounted" What is disk image? What can I do (I can't back up anything)
P.S. I use time capsule for backup. there were no problem on connection

I suggest reposting in the TimeCapsule forum here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1253
This may not be a TimeMachine problem at all but something else.

"Back Up Disk Image cannot be mounted" AEBS and Time Machine

Hi all,
I am hoping someone can help me. I recently purchased an Airport Extreme and was able to connect a G Tech Hard Drive to it and use it as the Backup Disc in Time Machine (thanks to help from other users in the forum). Until yesterday, the backups started failing and stating that the backup disc image cannot be mounted. Prior to the backups failing i tried to manually delete some of the backups to create space on the Drive for other shared items. I was unsuccessful at deleting any of the backups, but somehow managed to corrupt the disk image. The error i am currently receiving is "time machine backup failed, Backup Disc Image cannot be mounted" I have checked in Airport Utility, the drive is still online and accessible through finder. It is visible through Time Machine, but somehow the image has been corrupted? Help me please, I am sure my lack of attention to detail in deleting files manually had something to do with this. Help!Help!Help....need to have regular backups.... Thanks so much

Hi all,
I am hoping someone can help me. I recently purchased an Airport Extreme and was able to connect a G Tech Hard Drive to it and use it as the Backup Disc in Time Machine (thanks to help from other users in the forum). Until yesterday, the backups started failing and stating that the backup disc image cannot be mounted. Prior to the backups failing i tried to manually delete some of the backups to create space on the Drive for other shared items. I was unsuccessful at deleting any of the backups, but somehow managed to corrupt the disk image. The error i am currently receiving is "time machine backup failed, Backup Disc Image cannot be mounted" I have checked in Airport Utility, the drive is still online and accessible through finder. It is visible through Time Machine, but somehow the image has been corrupted? Help me please, I am sure my lack of attention to detail in deleting files manually had something to do with this. Help!Help!Help....need to have regular backups.... Thanks so much

"Time machine error, The disk image cannot be mounted" What can I do??

I ran the time machine. Then, "preparing backup" showed up for a long time. After that, a window pop out: "Time machine error, The disk image cannot be mounted" What is disk image? What can I do (I can't back up anything)
P.S. I use time capsule for backup. there were no problem on connection

I'm having the same issue. I do not have TC as my base station. It says right in the book that if you choose, you do not have to have it run as your router, just as a part of your existing wireless network. All software is up to date and I have already shortened the name of both my TC and TC disc to 6 characters and no spaces! I've already spoken with someone today about this. He really didn't know. Have tried backing up both wirelessly and directly connecting with an Ethernet cord. I had to finally call because when I attempted to register the product to get online support, apple.com didn't recognize the serial number!!! The gentleman on the phone got it registered for me. I bought the TC from an official apple store and for whatever reason when he put in the serial number his computer said that this TC was so "old" I guess that there was technically "no support." That basically means that even though my parents just purchased this for me a week before Christmas, that it was made a year ago and the warranty is not good?? I need to do more research on that. Right now I am very unhappy about this. I am a firm apple user and have been for years, but this is frustrating.
I had read somewhere else (not sure I've been searching apple for what seems like forever now) to make sure that the TC was showing up in "devices" of the Finder. Mine doesn't show up there, but rather in the "Network" window. Is this an issue? If it is, can anyone tell me how to fix that. I have Time Machine backing up to my TC, so I do not see why it would be.
UPDATE: I just opened up my TC on the "Shared" section of the Finder window and deleted the old "sparsebundle" (I had no clue that anything had backed up way back at 3:30pm on Dec 29) and now I get a slightly new message: Time Machine Error: The backup disc image could not be created." So now the word "mounted" is replaced with "created." This error showed up a lot sooner than the original one. Ok, no clue. I am going to try to Change the Disc again, and try again. I will post another update.
Message was edited by: kryzma

I am getting a Time Machine error "The backup disk image could not mount"

Time Machine message "The backup disk image could not be mounted"

Go to Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for assistance.

Time Machine / Time Capsule Error: Backup disk image could not be mounted

So I'm trying to back up to time machine, which used to be working fine, but I have this problem happening on two computers now (which probably means the error is in my Time Capsule.)
The Time Capsule shows up on my "shared" list in my finder windows.
I can connect to it, and open the folder inside, and SEE my two disk image files in there.
But Time Machine gives me a "The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" error. No other information.
If I double-click on the disk image file directly, I get an error "The Following disk images failed to mount" and then it lists the file and says "Resource temporarily unavailable."
Help, please.

I'm caught in the same loop, with no end in sight. I've only been using Time Machine and Time Capsule for 2 months. This week it stopped working. First error message:
"Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume."
Checking the Time Machine preferences, "Last backup" would read "backup failed"
When I got this error, all the wireless functions went offline, even thought the TC light was still green.
I would shut down, shut down the Time Capsule, shut off my modem reboot everything in order.
Next error message:
"Disk repair. The disk 'Backup of [my computer]' was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must backup your data and reformat the drive."
Then: "Time Machine Error: The backup volume is read only. To select a different volume ... Time Machine preferences ... "
I spoke to someone at Apple, who sent me the Time Machine Troubleshooting page:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275?viewlocale=en_US
I went through:
1. updated my system software
2. updated the TC firmware to 7.4.1
3. dragged the sparsebundle to DiskUtility. It took a while (more than an hour?) but said the disk could not be repaired. When I tried again, the repair function wouldn't run.
4. tried to delete the sparsebundle, but it would choke at almost the end, sometimes it would just crash the finder, sometimes say "Sorry, an unexpected error occurred," sometimes "Operation cannot be completed because the item 'bands' is in use." I even tried to Stuff the bundle with 'delete original' checked, but the stuffing, after about 15 hours, jammed near the end (stuffed 20 gigs of 35 gigs).
5. tried to reselect the TC, and run backup anyways ... now it can't find the volume, back to the error messages and crashing Finder
6. checked password in Keychain, all ok.
Now what??
Do I use Airport Utility to erase it? At least TC is still showing up there. Or press the rest button on the back of the Time Capsule to reset to factory defaults?
I've resigned myself to losing my backups. Now I would just like to get it up and running again.
In hopes,
Linda

Time machine error: The backup disk image could not be mounted

Time Machine worked OK for several months. Now I get this error every 10 minutes or so.
I unplugged Time Machine capsule and "Change Disk" in Time Machine options.
Nothing helps, I continue to get this error.
I cannot Enter Time Machine either. "Connecting to Server, Connecting to backup" does not work.
Help please because I will probably have to archive and reinstall Leopard. I need the backups,
Christine

Christ1ne,
Before you reformat the disk, consider these causes of this error.
*_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”)_*
First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be mounted”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
Consider each topic below separately. When one option does not resolve your issue, then move on the next one.
*Unmount the Backup Disk Image* (TC)
If, for some reason, you have manually mounted the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle), or Time Machine failed to eject it after the previous backup, subsequent backups may fail. (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”… “Backup failed with error: 21”)
Eject the backup disk image (white drive icon) by either clicking the little Eject icon to the right of the disk image in the Finders’ Sidebar, or Ctrl-Click the drive icon on the desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu. Now try backing up again or launching Time Machine to view previous backups.
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Close the Airport Utility.
Now try Backing up again.
One poster reported: “I got it resolved. Apparently it had to do with one of the files being open on the disk from the drive. I had browsed the disk with one of my windows boxes here and it must have left one of the folders "open". Anyway, I rebooted the TC and we are good to go now.”
*Proper Computer Name* #
Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
According to this article, [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
(0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
# Try removing the apostrophe from the disk images name (sparsebundle).
*A Stalled .inProgress Files:* #
It may be that the previous backup attempt was ungracefully interrupted leaving remains that Time Machine can’t deal with.
Stop any current backup attempt. Choose “Stop Backing Up” from the Time Machine menu.
Open the Time Machine Preferences and turn “OFF” Time Machine.
Open your Time Machine drive.
Open the folder labeled “Backups,backupdb”.
Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them by dragging the file to the Trash. Or Ctrl-Click the file and select "Move to Trash" from the contextual menu. (Give this time as deleting a large file on an external disk can take a while.)
Turn Time Machine back “ON”. Now try backing up again.
NOTE: If the above procedure becomes impossible to perform, try accessing the disk image from another Mac. Some have discovered that attempting a repair from another computer succeeds where the original computer failed.
Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped to resolve your issue.
Cheers!

HT1218 How do I troubleshoot this: Time Capsule cannot complete the backup. The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/ MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use.

This is the second time I've encountered this issue with Time Capsule using Time Machine automatic backup. I haven't found the following specific error message in the list of troubleshooting issues: "Time Capsule cannot complete the backup. The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use."
I'm not certain what causes this issue. I think it may have something to do with having to force shutdown with apps still open when the beachball hangs and the MacBook has to be rebooted.
Has anyone else dealt with this issue?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Restart your Mac and the Time Capsule. In most of the cases, this should solve the problem.
If it doesn't work, see > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

Time machine - "the backup disk image could not be mounted"

SInce a few days, I am unable to backup via Time Machine.
I always get the message:
TIME MACHINE ERROR
The backup disk image could not be mounted
I use an Apple Time Capsule and still have more than enough free space on it.
Use OS X 10.5.5
Help.....
Tks

Rosy,
*_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”)_*
First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be mounted”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
Consider each topic below separately. When one option does not resolve your issue, then move on the next one.
*Unmount the Backup Disk Image* (TC)
If, for some reason, you have manually mounted the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle), or Time Machine failed to eject it after the previous backup, subsequent backups may fail. (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”… “Backup failed with error: 21”)
Eject the backup disk image (white drive icon) by either clicking the little Eject icon to the right of the disk image in the Finders’ Sidebar, or Ctrl-Click the drive icon on the desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu. Now try backing up again or launching Time Machine to view previous backups.
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Close the Airport Utility.
Now try Backing up again.
“I got it resolved. Apparently it had to do with one of the files being open on the disk from the drive. I had browsed the disk with one of my windows boxes here and it must have left one of the folders "open". Anyway, I rebooted the TC and we are good to go now.”
*Proper Computer Name* #
Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
According to this article, [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
(0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
Let us know if any of the suggestions above resolves your issue.
Cheers!

The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted

I've successfully installed Time Capsule on my network and it is working correctly. I can access it via wireless and choose it from Time Machine. The initial backups go well, and I can access them if I enter Time Machine. However, at some point, it creates a disk image on my desktop and then returns the error The Backup Disk Could Not Be Mounted. The only way to restore everything to normal is to reboot.
I've already dismounted and remounted the drive, so permissions don't seem to be the problem.
Can anyone tell me what's going on and how to fix this??
Thanks!

I have a similar problem. At first, TM worked with both my machines. Now it works with the mac air but not the ibook. I get the Backup Disk Image Could not be mounted error message.
Here's what conole say:
4/22/08 11:56:33 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[855] Starting standard backup
4/22/08 11:56:34 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[855] Mounting disk image /Volumes/Fran's Time Capsule/Fran's Desktop_000d93460426.sparsebundle
4/22/08 11:56:51 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[855] Failed to attach to disk image, returned: 109
4/22/08 11:56:51 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[855] Failed to mount disk image /Volumes/Fran's Time Capsule/Fran's Desktop_000d93460426.sparsebundle
4/22/08 11:56:51 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[855] Backup failed with error: 21
4/22/08 12:04:54 PM com.apple.launchd[72] ([0x0-0xd00d0].com.apple.systempreferences[815]) Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 824 PPID 1 check_afp
4/22/08 12:05:05 PM Disk Utility[878] ********
4/22/08 12:05:05 PM Disk Utility[878] Disk Utility started.
4/22/08 12:05:24 PM mdworker[805] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
4/22/08 12:06:37 PM mdworker[805] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
4/22/08 12:08:25 PM Disk Utility[896] ********
4/22/08 12:08:25 PM Disk Utility[896] Disk Utility started.
4/22/08 12:08:40 PM mdworker[805] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
4/22/08 12:09:04 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[899] Mounting disk image /Volumes/Fran's Time Capsule/Fran's Desktop_000d93460426.sparsebundle
4/22/08 12:11:31 PM kernel SetCryptoKey R: len 32, idx 1

HT3275 Time machine cannot backup due to "The backup disk image "/Volume/Data/Dave's Macbook Pro."sparse bundle" is already in use." Does anyone know what this means and how to fix it??

My time machine is sending me a message; "The backup disk image "/Volume/Data/Dave's Macbook Pro "sparse bundle" is already in use". As a result, the time machine cannot complete a backup. Any suggestions?

Look at the more like this column on the right.. this is the most common problem reported here.
You need to restart the TC.. that is all..
Pull out the power cord.. count to 10.. plug in power cord.
There are a few occasions where this fails.. see C12 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

TC Error "The backup disk image could not be mounted."

My new time machine was working fine for a couple of weeks now I am getting this error message constantly. Does anyone have any suggestions what to do?
"The backup disk image could not be mounted."

I posted the same thing a couple of threads down, I deleted the back up then went into the time machine options and choose the time capsule option again and did another full backup and now it seems to be working properly.

"Backup disk image could not be mounted"

I have been using time capsule successfully for about 5 months. But now it has suddenly started returning a time machine error "the backup disk image could not be mounted".
Anyone got any suggestions?

towersfamily,
*_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”)_*
First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be mounted”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
Consider each topic below separately. When one option does not resolve your issue, then move on the next one.
*Unmount the Backup Disk Image* (TC)
If, for some reason, you have manually mounted the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle), or Time Machine failed to eject it after the previous backup, subsequent backups may fail. (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”… “Backup failed with error: 21”)
Eject the backup disk image (white drive icon) by either clicking the little Eject icon to the right of the disk image in the Finders’ Sidebar, or Ctrl-Click the drive icon on the desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu. Now try backing up again or launching Time Machine to view previous backups.
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Close the Airport Utility.
Now try Backing up again.
One poster reported: “I got it resolved. Apparently it had to do with one of the files being open on the disk from the drive. I had browsed the disk with one of my windows boxes here and it must have left one of the folders "open". Anyway, I rebooted the TC and we are good to go now.”
*Proper Computer Name* #
Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
According to this article, [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
(0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped to resolve your issue.
Cheers!

My Time Machine / Time capsule gets the error: The backup disk image could not be mounted

My time machine / time capsule gets the error: The backup disk image could not be mounted.

Reboot the TC.
If you normally have multiple computers backing up, under Lion there seems to be some issues.. you need to force other users off the system. You can do that through the Airport utility, manual setup, disks, disconnect all users. Note carefully if you use Lion you probably need to download the real airport utility.. 5.6 to accomplish anything useful.

Time Capsule - Time machine error "backup disk image could not be mounted"

Recently I lost a folder and attempted to resore from my Time Capsule backup (which I started when it first shipped) not only did it fail, but know I get the message "backup disk image could not be mounted" when I try to backup. I have used Airport Utility to try and sort - that shows green light and it is connected by ethernet 9and shows in network (I can see the sparsebundle). I have been trying for a couple of weeks now - any ideas??

John & Joel,
I've done some research and put together some ideas.
"The backup disk image could not be mounted"
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Now try Backing up again.
*Stalled .inProgress Files:*
Select the TC in the SideBar of the Finder window.
Click "Connect as...". Enter your TCs password.
Double click the blue folder that appears in the finder window. The sparsebundle should now be visible.
Double click the sparsebundle and then click “Skip” in the checksum message.
Once “Backup of (Users Computer)” mounts in the Sidebar open the folder containing past backups. Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.
Unmount the backup drive and try backing up again.
*Permissions Issue:*
Select the TC in the SideBar of the Finder window.
Click "Connect as...". Enter your TCs password.
Double click the blue folder that appears in the finder window. The sparsebundle should now be visible.
Highlight the sparsebundle and “Get Info” (Cmd-I). At the bottom of the Get Info window open the “Sharing & Permission” section. Beside “Everyone” it should say “Read & Write”. If it does not, change it.
Now try performing a backup again.

Backup disk image cannot be mounted.

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