Can not use my external driver to setup Time Machine

I just bought a new mobile external driver and I planned to use this for Time Machine back of my Macbook Pro. However I got the following error message when I set up the Time Machine:
There was an error erasing the Time Machine backup disk
Is there anybody can help me about this problem?
Thanks

Thanks very much for everybody's help in this matter. I have done all the process again exactly the same as the steps above. However after the wait for some time, I got the following errors:
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Preparing to partition disk: “Initio MK4006GAL Media”
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Partition Scheme: GUID Partition Table
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: 1 partition will be created
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800:
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Partition 1
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Name : “Untitled 1”
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Size : 40.01 GB
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Filesystem : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800:
2010-07-04 21:32:43 +0800: Unmounting disk
2010-07-04 21:32:43 +0800: Creating partition map
2010-07-04 21:32:43 +0800: Waiting for disks to reappear
2010-07-04 21:32:43 +0800: Formatting disk1s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Untitled 1
2010-07-04 21:36:30 +0800: Partition failed for disk (null) File system formatter failed
2010-07-04 21:36:30 +0800: Partition complete.

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I am using an external drive for a time machine backup. It has disappeared from the desktop. How do I get it back again?

My time machine backup disc, which has been working ok for a couple of years has suddenly disappeared from the desktop. The time machine program tels me it is unavailable. I have checked that the drive is working by booting up in Windows. and Windows can see it and read it ok. What has gone wrong, and how can I fix it?
I have tried unplugging it and reconnecting, but it is still apparently not seen by the system.
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Has anyone any ideas?

I think it's formatted on FAT 32 system, but I'm not sure. It's been working for a couple of years so far without any problems, so I think it must be compatible with Mac. The problem is that all of a sudden, the Mac doesn't acknowledge that it is present.

Can I use One Hard Drive for 2x Time Machine Back Ups and another partition for all my data?

Hi Forum,
I am planning to but a RAID disc set up, but if i get a 2 disc set up, on one disc, can i have:
Time Machine back up for one Mac
Time Machine back up for 2nd Mac
Anothe partition for all my data.
then have that RAID'd to second disc?

no one?
and if this set up was on one disc, and one partition for one TM was for the Mini that has this drive attached, would TM back up this whole drive 2x TM Partitions and 1x partitions with data on, ok? it wouldn't get confused by trying to back itself up

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

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I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

Can I use an external drive for a 2nd time capsule backup? Other questions too

My setup:
1 Macbook Air
1 Mac mini as HTPC
1 Mac mini as a media server (5tb and growing) with external drives.
I want to get a 2tb time capsule to back up my laptop and mac mini that i use as a HTPC. Simple enough....
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Option 2:
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Also, how much space does the airport extreme support? Like i said up time I am at 5tb but its growing fast

So can I plug in the CineRAID into the usb port for a 2nd time machine backup with massive storage?
There is conflicting advice about whether a RAID setup will work with Time Machine, so you can find information that will say that it will work and other info that will say that it will not. In general, Apple says that Time Machine must "see" the RAID drive as a single partition, but they also say that you need to check with the support folks at the drive manufacturer for more details.
The only way that you will know whether it will work or not on your network, is try it out on your network.
Please let us know about your results.
Just get an airport extreme and use the CineRAID for a backup via USB...
Same as above.
how much space does the airport extreme support?
The firmware on an AirPort Extreme will support up to a 4 TB drive, but I have not tried it on a larger drive, so we'll need another user to answer on that one. Here again, it would be wise to try a few "tests" before you try to backup or transfer a large amount of data.

Updated to Mavericks OS X but can't use my external drive by WD My Passport. The Mac reads it but I can't add/remove files to the external drive. Help?!

Updated to Mavericks OS X but can't use my external drive by WD My Passport. The Mac reads it but I can't add/remove files to the external drive. Help?!
The WD My Passport, I purchased back in early December 2013 & I just used it the other day after I updated my Macbook... & of course it says in the online manual it works for Mac Lion, Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard but not this new Maverick update. Is there anything I can do?

I like the free demo of SuperDuper to make clones. It's free, Tiger and Leopard ready and is easy to use. If you buy the full version you can do incremental backups.
You should use Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, booted up on your install disk, before you make a clone of it.
I then partition my external disk, in Disk Utility, with a partition that is the same size , actually a tad bigger, as my system disk. I then use SuperDuper to clone my system disk over to that partition.
With a clone on an external FireWire drive (USB drives are not bootable on some Macs) you can bootup on it to do your repairs or just run your Mac anytime you have trouble with your main drive. Be careful, there are a few external FireWire drives out there that are not bootable on Macs. Check the drive's manual to be sure.
 DALE

HT201250 Hi, I hope this question won't seem too basic but if I want to use a new larger external drive for my time machine backups, will it do a new full backup the first time I plug it in and if so, do I really need all the old backups on my smaller ext

Hi, I hope this question won't seem too basic but if I want to use a new larger external drive for my time machine backups, will it do a new full backup the first time I plug it in and if so, do I really need all the old backups on my smaller external drive?

50maz wrote:
Hi, I hope this question won't seem too basic but if I want to use a new larger external drive for my time machine backups, will it do a new full backup the first time I plug it in
Yes, it will do a full backup.
and if so, do I really need all the old backups on my smaller external drive?
Only if you want to be able to go back in time to those previous Time Machine backups. When you plug in the new larger external drive, you will only be able to go back as far as the first day you plugged it in and ran the first Time Machine backup on it.

Hi, I have a macbook pro with a new hard drive installed. My WD external drive backup on time machine now wont let me access the files. I get a prompt saying 'you do not have permission to access the files'

hi, I have a macbook pro with a new hard drive installed and restored. My WD external drive backup on time machine now wont let me access the files. I get a prompt saying 'you do not have permission to access the files' After my new drive was installed I plugged in time machine and it started backing up. I paused it when I realised that it was running for more than a few minutes. I now realise that it probably started backing up the new hard drive all over again. Which makes me think that the original back up must be on the WD back I cant seem to access it. Any ideas would be helpful.

See E-10 in the first link.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

External Drive Stolen with Time Machine Back Ups

Hello,
Sorry if this has been posted before. I scanned through a few pages of posts and didn't see anything.
My home was burglarized and they took my G5, Cinema Display and my 500GB external drive with my Time Machine backup data. My question is: How secure is the data on the external drive? Can the theif just plug in the drive and see all of the files or does TM password protected? My G5 was password protected to log in to it. Does that log in transfer to the TM files?
Thanks!
DH

As Donald says, the data can be accessed.
Your backups are as secure (or insecure) as your Mac -- if someone steals either, they can get at your data fairly easily, if they know what they're doing, unless it's encrypted.
It is harder to get at Time Machine backups on an external drive, because Windoze can't read it; you'd have to use a Mac (running Leopard or Snow Leopard) to access it.
But most theft is not for your data; it's to resell the hardware.

HT201250 It say can not open because it is in a time machine backup?

How to open time machine it tells me I can not open because it is in a time machine back up ?

You can't open files in a TM backup. What are you trying to do, restore a file?

Can I use a single external drive to maintain time machine backups for two Mac computers?

Hello
We have an older mac mini and macbook air. I have one Western Digital external USB drive. Can I use the same drive to hold and maintain time machine backups for both machines?
I already have the macbook air time-machined on the WD drive. I now want to backup the mac mini onto the same drive. Is it going to over write the time machine backup or is the software smart enough to maintain two separate files, partitions, whatever it does..?

It will maintain separate backups. Note that it's generally advisable to use separate drives for best practice backup, but yes, it will work for both computers, provided you have enough space (need generally 2-3 times the total used file space for both Macs).
Matt

Can I use an external drive as my main drive?

My hard drive just died and I can't purchase a new one for about a month (I'm living in a mac-unfriendly place at the moment). Here are my questions:
1. Can I install an OS on my external Maxtor drive and use it as my main hard drive? Even with a dead internal drive?
2. If so, how do I properly install the OS onto the Maxtor?
3. (extra credit) I've been using my powerbook (AC 100-240V 50/60Hz) for the last 8 months in a country that uses 50hz 200V power. Though the apple adaptor specs clearly state that it is okay to use here, I'm wondering if it could be the reason for my drive's failure (This is the second powerbook that I've had here that has died -- seems suspicious).
Powerbook G4 15" 1.5Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.2)

You can use an external drive as your main drive,
although it's really not so hard to replace a drive
and you could get a new one for a hundred or so
dollars + mail order depending on what you go with.
Bear in mind the actual drive will not be unique to
Apple so that will be your best bet. Most drives are
Hitachi or Seagate I think - you might even be able
to upgrade to a faster 7200 drive - they start at
$150 I think.
As for the external drive, you can install the OS on
to it - I've seen that work - Apple store will
typically boot from an external firwire drive. I
think you might be able to plug in the drive, start
the machine with the install CD and then select the
external drive as the target to load the operating
system on - it should load on to it, assuming the
drive is in mac os format first. Others will pipe in
if I'm wrong. When you start the machine it should
search for your operating system.
You'll have no problems installing onto whatever drive you like, provided that it is powered-on during the boot process so Installer recognizes it. Once OS X is installed, holding down Option during power-on will allow you to manually select your external drive, since I think it will default to the internal until you tell it otherwise. Go into System Preferences --> Startup Disk and select your external as the new default.

Can not Access Backup external drive

Have a Lacie Mini HUB HD which I have been using for 3 years with little problem, suddenly the drive is not accesible, does not appear anywhere to be found and Time Machine can not be reset.
Symptoms: Blue power ON light is flashing, Power supply is hot. Is my External drive fried?
Help!

imacmanzano wrote:
Have a Lacie Mini HUB HD which I have been using for 3 years with little problem, suddenly the drive is not accesible, does not appear anywhere to be found and Time Machine can not be reset.
Symptoms: Blue power ON light is flashing, Power supply is hot. Is my External drive fried?
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Sounds like it may be.
Disconnect and power it off and for several minutes, then Restart your Mac, reconnect and power it up.
See if you can repair it per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If it doesn't show up in the Disk Utility sidebar, it's likely failed. LaCie might be able to tell you whether it's the drive itself or the power supply, but after 3 years, you're likely to need a new one.

Use external drive for both Time Machine and storage for Back to My Mac

Hi all,
I have been "a Mac" now for over a year and just keep finding cool new things that make me happy I switched. The latest thing is Back to My Mac offered with my Mobile Me account. With a rather convoluted mix of PC/Mac/iOS devices to manage - best $99 I ever spent btw...
I also have a 1TB Time Capsule that I have been using with Time Machine to back up all four of my Mac computers at home. Needless to say, the 1TB is really struggling to handle the amount of data being backed up and certainly leaves no room for anything else.
What I wanted to do was to attach a larger external hard drive via a powered hub to the USB port on the Time Capsule and use it for Time Machine backups while using the internal 1TB drive with Back to My Mac so that I can have remote access to all my data from anywhere without having to leave my computer running at home all the time in order for my laptop to "see" it when I'm away. And, yes, the amount of that data far exceeds what any level of Mobile Me subscription can offer! I should also mention that the hard drive is the only USB device connected through the hub to the Time Capsule at the moment. There are no other devices that might be "getting in the way".
I'm thinking maybe all this is asking too much without the addition of a dedicated file server (Mac Mini, perhaps - not a purchase my budget wants to make).
I understand that the Time Capsule doesn't support partitions, so I bought a Western Digital 2TB Elements drive, connected it to my Macbook Pro and used Disk Utility to reformat the drive from the incompatible NTFS it shipped in to a single, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition. I then made two folders on the drive, one for Time Machine backups and one for Back to My Mac remote storage/access. Great.
However, when I connected the 2TB drive to my Time Capsule I could not see it at all. Time Capsule was reporting problems in the way of a disk error. From within my Airport Utility, I could see the trouble was the external drive. The utility suggested connecting the drive to a Mac and using it's Disk Utility to troubleshoot.
I followed through, checking the disk, etc. and ended up reformatted the drive on my Macbook Pro yet again with the same specifications as before but without the folders and reconnected it to the Time Capsule. Same deal. But now, I can't even remotely connect to the Time Capsule at all. I can see the Time Capsule in the shared area of my Macbook's Finder but can not connect. The connection tries and fails even before it gets to asking me for username and password credentials.
Long story short, first of all, I suppose I would like to know if I'm asking for the impossible?
Second, if what I want to do *is* possible, what steps do I need to take to make it so?
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions you might have.

Well, I have now reformatted/partitioned my poor WD Elements 2TB drive about a dozen times as well as restarted my 1TB Time Capsule so many times it's no wonder it's as confused as I am! <G>
Last night, at your suggestion, William, and in respect for your continued support, I tried creating two 1TB Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partitions on the WD external USB drive, both with GUID partition tables. Both volumes mounted to my laptop's desktop flawlessly and without issue.
Once the external drive was connected to the Time Capsule, however, it was a crap shoot as to whether or not the drive was recognized at all, reporting a problem with the disk, or, even at one point, mounting one of the two volumes but not both. <sigh>
I read somewhere on the Internet that you need to restart the Time Capsule for volumes on an external USB drive to be recognized.
So I tried that. I connected the freshly partitioned/formatted disk to the Time Capsule and restarted it. This succeed in removing the issue of reporting a nameless drive with a capacity of 0MB. It then reported the drive with its correct name but would not recognize whatever volumes in whatever partitions that particular crack at it contained with the exception of the once, as I mentioned above, when only one of two volumes mounted correctly and was listed with the right name and capacity on the Time Capusule's Setup's Disk tab.
At this point I have given up on my goal to use the external drive with Time Machine to back up my Macs or to hope I will ever be able to see its contents remotely via Back to My Mac. All I would like to do now is simply find a reason why I can't get it successfully connected and playing nice with my Time Capsule in the first place!
Any further suggestions or advice as to what steps I might take next would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all.

I have suddenly become unable to access photo library iPhoto (vers 9.5) on my external drive. And time Machine will no longer back up to the same external (LaCie) drive. Appreciate all suggestions. The drive does show up on my desktop....

I have suddenly become unable to access photo library (iPhoto vers 9.5) on my external hard drive. Also time machine isnt backing up to same external hard drive (LaCie). The drive does show up on the desk top, but when i open iPhoto the library isnt listed, so I cant option click.

First, one should not try to run an iPhoto library from the same volume/drive that is being used by Time Machine for backups. TM will continue to fill up the drive thus squeezing out iPhoto from being able to be opened and used. Also that doesn't allow you to let TM backup your library as it does with other files on your boot drive.
If you partition the EHD into two separate partitions you can run the library from it but that won't let TM backup the library which is important.
Are you able to see the library on the EHD via the Finder? If so copy it back to your boot drive and open it there. You may have to do some fixing on it.
Solution is to either run the library from the boot drive or get a second EHD to run the library from and let TM back it up along with your boot drive.
OT

Can not use my external driver to setup Time Machine

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