Can't back up files

Hi again,
Finally the CDs are going in the drive, for no apparent reason, but now I can't back up my files. What opens when I open the CD is the "repair disk or volume" box. How do you back up files if the right dialog box won't come up?

HI kathgirl,
You don't need special software to burn data to a CD. Just a Finder window. Check out this link.
Burning a CD or DVD Mac OS X 10.4
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Similar Messages

Some my files are missing.How can i back my files?

some my files are missing.How can i back my files?

Searching with spotlight doesn't tell you where they are?
If you back up your files with TimeMachine, you can restore them very easily, though.

How can you back up files that are on an external drive?

How can you back up files that are on an external drive?

hw999 wrote:
How can you back up files that are on an external drive?
Easy way, CLONE IT to another HD
HD cloning software options:
1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031
hw999 wrote:But all I want to do is include the data that I store on an (second) external drive (internal drive getting too full) part of the auto back up process using timemachine.
BAD IDEA
You want one backup (ie Time machine) and one (or more) data archive of just all your raw files (drag and drop, or cloned etc.)

I have lots of spare memory on my iPhone - can I back up files from my laptop onto it?

I have lots of spare memory on my iPhone - can I back up files from my laptop onto it?

No, there is no way to use your iphone as a backup or mass storage device.
Get an external hard drive for backup - they are not expensive.

Macbook Pro Freezing, Can't back up files either to external hard drive either..

Hi,
I'm not entirely sure what happened but my Macbook Pro, (Lion/Mac OS X 10.7.5) just started to freeze a lot. I can hardly browse the web or sometimes browse folders. In some ocassions its even difficult to check the Activity monitor or go to Disk Utitlity. I always see the rainbow beach ball of death and in the force quit window I see the red "Not responding."
Because of this issue, I plan on taking my Macbook Pro to Apple but the problem is I can't even back up my files. I just started a time machine and it goes well until in the middle of the transfer it says:
"The backup was not performed because an error occured while copying files to the back up disk.
The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk."
so I tried a different ext. hard drive and still, it says the same message. Upon being fed up of the situation, I attempted to do the old school copy paste from drive to drive but again, in the middle of the transfer it stops and gives me a a differnet message:
"The finder can't complete the operation because some data in ____ can't be read or written."
I checked the file and its a .MOV a video file from my DSLR. I skipped this file and then again, it said the exact same message on a different video file. I can't just avoid these video files. I'm actually a film maker and all this clips are in desparately in need to be backed up.
Does anyone know how to fix this issue? Atleast backing up the files..
Thanks for the help.
p.s.
Not sure if this is related -- since my Macbook Pro has been running slow I deleted a couple of apps such as Things, DaVinci Resolve and FrameForge Previz.. Which to led to having my spolight indexing. I thought it was only the index thats making it run slow but the index done now and I can't back up my files!

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CSeq "I/O error" | tail | open -f -a TextEdit
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.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the window will be empty. If you get output like this:
kernel[0] <Debug>: disk0s2: I/O error
the boot drive is failing, or there's some other hardware fault in the storage subsystem.

Can't back up files because of one video, no DVD recorder

How do I back up my music and not include the one long video that I have? It's a 900 mb file. My laptop does not include a DVD burner so I can't use DVD R discs. I unchecked the video, but iTunes still wants to back it up and insists on a blank DVD. I can't back up anything as a result. Before I purchased the video from iTunes, I could back up music with no problem.
Thanks for assistance.

Copy the file in Windows Explorer to another location, then delete it from your iTunes library and then try Backup. Once finished, you can re-add it to your iTunes library.
Then, to back up this video file, you can always use WinRar or Powerarchiver, which will allow you to compress the file into a series of smaller RAR files. After that is done, you can use your normal burning software to burn the files onto 2 CDs (include a copy of the WinRAR installer too ... just incase). I'd recommend using the "storage" or no compression modes though, unless you want to put other files on the two CDs, the file inside is more safely backed up WITHOUT any compression. This is just a convenient way of splitting it up into a more manageable backup.

How can I back up files onto an external if my hard disk can't be verified?

Hi all,
My Macbook Pro (2010) hangs up at the grey startup screen. The icon keeps spinning. I believe this may be because the laptop ran out of power during critical software updates. I have been able to reach disk utility by starting up with the original installation cd and holding 'c'. When I verify the disk, I get an error:
"The volume could not be verified completely.
Error: The disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk."
When I click repair disk, I get the following message:
"Verify and Repair volume "disk0s2"
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
Invalid node structure
The volume could not be verified completely.
Volume repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk.. disk, and restore your backed-up files."
My hard drive isn't fully backed up and I would like to retrieve as many files as possible before reformatting the hard drive.
I have heard of being able to access the hard drive through other means (connecting the drive to another computer and/or another external) and being able to salvage files. What is the best recommendation for this?
Should I get Diskwarrior?
similar issue: http://www.megaleecher.net/Fix_Invalid_Node_Structure#axzz3L3IfWSbf

OK. You need to repartition your drive, I'm afraid, assuming the drive is OK. You have an installer DVD in the optical drive bay so do this:
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple
logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. Upon completion quit Disk Utility and return to the installer. Proceed to install Snow Leopard.
After installing and booting from Snow Leopard you should update it by downloading and instalingl the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1. If you wish to you can now upgrade to Lion or later from the App Store.

Can I back-up files to a portable hard drive and not use Time Machine?

I have a portable hard drive that I use for all of my Time Machine back-ups. I back-up the entire system every two or three weeks. I use the Time Machine software and it works quite well. I'm interested in backing up specific files (photos, documents, etc.) to a second portable drive every six months but I don't want to use the Time Machine software. Is there a simple way to hook up the portable drive (brand new Lacie 500 gb drive), open up the file on my desktop and drag the files to the new drive? Are there special steps I need to perform to avoid formatting the drive for Time Machine? Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

MacConvert54 wrote:
Is there a simple way to hook up the portable drive (brand new Lacie 500 gb drive), open up the file on my desktop and drag the files to the new drive?
You can do that, but you'll have to erase the drive, or delete the previous versions, each time. You might want to look at CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. They're most often used to make full bootable "clones" of your internal HD, but can be set to back up specific files and folders as well. CCC is donationware, so you can try it for a while before sending them some $$ so they can keep it up to date. SD has a free version, but I think you'll need the paid one (about $30, I think) to do this.
Are there special steps I need to perform to avoid formatting the drive for Time Machine?
It would be best to format it for Macs, which is the same as Time Machine. What is the problem with that?

HT201250 can I back up files from one hard drive to the other hd using time machine?

I would like to back up my files automatically from one hard drive to another skipping the computer backup. If anyone knows anything on how to set it up, I would like your help
Thanks!
Ruta

If you want to copy one external disk to another external disk, and you want an exact copy, then you might consider Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. Either of which will make an exact duplicate of the disk.
If you wish to have Time Machine include an external disk as part of your normal Time Machine backups, that means just including the external disk as part of your Time Machine backups.
If you mean run a One-Off backup of the external drive to another external drive using Time Machine, I would go with CCC or SuperDuper.
If you could give some more details about what you are trying to do, how often you want to do this, what kind of information is on the drive being backed up, how often the data is being changed and thus how often you want to do this disk to disk backup, whether you want to have the incremental backups offered by Time Machine, or if you just want a copy, and anything else you can think to tell us about your situation and the problem you are trying to solve.

DiskWarrior Preview Not Reading External Hard Drive -- Can't back up files

So I recently fell upon the grey screen with the folder problem. After some research I got disk warrior and ran it on my computer (which I got in September 2006). After it was finished, DiskWarrior told me that the disk was malfunctioning and therefore could not replace the old directory with the new directory. What I take this to mean is that I need to get a new hard drive or a new computer altogether.
Per the recommendation that I back up my files, I tried inserting my USB eternal hard drive, however it is not showing up on the DiskWarrior Preview screen (the one where you would be able to transfer files). I restarted the computer and redid the whole process, and the external drive did show up on the list of disks that I had the option of repairing. I chose to rebuild my internal drive, of course, but came back to the Preview window where I could not get the external drive to appear. How do I back up my files???
I will be able to stop by an Apple store this weekend, so I'd like to know if there is anything else I could do to save my computer, more specifically how I can back up my files in the case that something terrible happens to my data.
Thanks
- Liam

Hi,
I was wondering if you ever resolved this issue as i am having exactly the same problem with my powerbook G4 17" With Leopard (i cant remember the exact version and now i have no way to check).
It recently would not boot up past the gray screen and after a while of the apple logo with the spinning bar it shut it self down again.
After going through all try to book from system disk) and getting pretty dismal results i have come to use disk warrior 4.1.
Now i managed to boot the machine from the disk and have run the rebuild option and after a couple of hours i was faced with the message that
"disk warrior has successfully rebuilt a new directory from the disk named macintosh HD" but then "THE NEW DIRECTORY CANNOT REPLACE THE ORIGINAL DIRECTORY BECAUSE OF A DISK MALFUNCTION"
This report then goes on to tell me that it is highly recommended that i back up all the data from the preview disk.
So this is where the problem lies, i can not get any external drive to in the preview window so that i can copy the information. The drives work just fine, have ample space but i just can not access them through preview window.
I did what was said above as well in restart the disk warrior process agian with the external drive already plugged in (with even an option to rebuild that) yet after rebuilding the internal harddrive again i can not see the external. The weird thing is i know that the machine recognises that it is there as i can save a pdf report to it yet when it comes to access through the preview window there is no such option.
Does anyone know what to do? Do i look for another programme or i could hook it up to another mac and perhaps it would recognise that as a disk to send to . I just need a viable option of getting my data from the internal drive to an external source so that i can re format the thing.
I can see it, i know its there yet i just cant figure out how to do it. Very frustrating.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can I back up files when my desktop will not load? Are they gone forever?

My desktop will not load. I have used the Tiger restore disk that came with my Macbook Pro and used Disk Utility to verify disk permission, repair disk permissions, and verify disk and repair disk. I rebooted and it will still not load my desktop. I tried this twice.
Is there anything else that I can do to copy some files off the mac, or should I just go ahead and reformat?
Thanks.
Message was edited by: rick.pearl
Message was edited by: rick.pearl

rick.pearl wrote:
I rebooted and it will still not load my desktop. I tried this twice.
It's not very clear what you mean by this: can you log in? Do you get the spinning rainbow wheel, or nothing? or does it go back to the login window?
Is there anything else that I can do to copy some files off the mac, or should I just go ahead and reformat?
If you have another Mac, as your profile seems to indicate, you could look at his: How to use FireWire target disk mode. That will allow you to rescue your files.

HT1382 where can see back up files in i tune?

hai i have back up data from my i phne4s to computer but i dont know where i can see my files eg photos& vid?

HI kathgirl,
You don't need special software to burn data to a CD. Just a Finder window. Check out this link.
Burning a CD or DVD Mac OS X 10.4
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Super slow hard drive, can't back up files

Ok this is a continuation of my previous post, but since I'm not getting any more replies and and the issue has shifted I'm creating a new post. PLEASE HELP.
My internal 500GB work hard drive (not startup HD) started acting up after I interrupted copying a file by relaunching the finder. After many tries I was able to run disk utilities from the installer CD and supposedly fixed all problems. It had several issues that were fixed. However now the drive takes about 10 minutes to mount and to copy all the files onto a new drive takes 3000 hours (I had it run all night only to be able to copy over 400MB (not GB). I desperately need this data. Running cron scripts or disc utilites (no new problems found) on the drive takes 1-2 hours each. Any other hard drive fixer softwares I should try using? Might the drive just broken?

Hi domihode;
Since you have overfilled that disk because it is always poor policy to fill a disk beyond 85% full, I would strongly recommend that once you get the free space over at least 10% that you repair the disk using Disk Utility. Filling a disk as full as you have vastly increases the chances for file corruption. If you don't repair this file corruption, it can lead to all sorts of strange problems in the future.
If Disk Utility reports there are errors but it is unable to correct them, you have two alternatives to repair the problem. One is to use DiskWarrior and the other is to reformat the disk. The choice is yours.
Allan

How can I back up files to external HD in preperation for re-install.

HI. I'm replacing a defective HD and upgrading from Tiger to Leopard in order to interface with new iPhone software. What is the best way to copy the contents of my old system to my exteral HD so that it can be easily tranferred back to the restored machine? Would there be any issues anticipated caused by the new operating system? Thanks. Mike

Michael McGuire wrote:
I'm replacing a defective HD and upgrading from Tiger to Leopard in order to interface with new iPhone software. What is the best way to copy the contents of my old system to my exteral HD so that it can be easily tranferred back to the restored machine?
Try SuperDuper! (http://www.shirt-pocket.com/), which is compatible with Tiger. If that external drive has a FireWire port, then you could boot from the external drive, then format the new internal drive and use SuperDuper to restore everything to the new drive. At that point you could do a Leopard installation onto the fully-restored internal drive.
If the drive only has a USB port, then I'd use SuperDuper! to back up to the external drive, then install Leopard from the DVD to the new drive and use whatever assistant runs at the end of the installation process to restore things from the external drive.
Would there be any issues anticipated caused by the new operating system?
Any major OS upgrade can cause problems. There should be a lot of advice on that on the Web.

HT201250 can i back up my iTunes on one external hard drive to another external hard drive through time machine?

I have my itunes on an external hard drive which I use on my macbook. Can I back these files up through time machine onto a second external hard drive?

For TM yes, for another backup program running on the mac yes. You can avoid the NTFS issue by installing a NTFS driver in your mac: there are two proven ones: Paragon and NTFS-3G. These drivers make it possible for a mac to read and write NTFS formatted drives.
But it will not help TM (I am not 100% sure about that), but other backup apps it will help.

Can't back up files

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for