Can't backup - first time

Hello,
I have just set up my time machine (light is green), but can;t backup. When i click on the time machine icon, a pop up window states " A storage location for TM isn;t set up. To choose a location, set up Time Machine." I am confused because Time Machine is already set up. So i choose "Set up time machine" and it brings me to the window where I can slide the box from on to off.
I slide to on, and then a window comes up and asks to setup time machine or to cancel. There is also some space above but nothing is indicated.
In the same window to choose on or off, there is an icon "choose backup disc". I select this and it goes to the same window which asks to setup time machine or to cancel and also has some space above but nothing is indicated.
I have tried to follow the directions, but it always asks me to set up TM, which I have done, or go to the system perferences time machine page, which then eventually asks me to set up TM.
Thanks

do you have an external drive attached to store time machine backups? it's not clear from your post if you do. you need to set up time machine by selecting the backup drive in TM system preferences. THEN you can move the slider to on.

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Purchased a new Macbook Pro 13". I used migration assistant to transfer. I can't backup to time capsule. I am getting on error "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Herb's Time Capsul/Herb MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” could not be created (error 17). Help!

Launch the Keychain Access 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.
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HT3275 can't backup with time machine

I can't backup with time machine and I do not receive any errors, time machine just stays in the 'looking for backup disk' mode and will not go any further. I went as far as buying a new usb backup disk to replace the old one and still the same issue occurs. I've tried using different usb ports on my mb pro and that doesn't work. No amount of restarting, ejecting discs or checking preferences helps. Disk utility states the drive is fine (even the new one), the permissions or sharing haven't changed.
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Time Machine - Troubleshooting
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Most forums say you must disconnect the users in AirPort Utility, but v6.1 no longer has this feature
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These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console 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 and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

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Also the lock on the Time Machine preferences has disappeared. Why?

Sorry for late reply, It is definitely a bug because if you cant restore from mobile backups when external drive is not available it totally defeats the point of having local snapshot. At first I thought my time machine was bugged but I was wrong, I tried restoring my Macbook pro retina, Macbook air all of them have the same problem, I filed a bug report 4 months ago, apple still didnt fix it.
It is surprising to see that such a key component of time machine is broken and they cant even be bothered to fix it.
Are you seeing this message when you try to enter time machine ? : Your Time Machine backup disk can’t be found.

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I am currently using Time Machine to archive my iMac to a 1TB USB drive. The Backups.backupdb folder is just part of the disk contents but currently comes in at over 500GB and contains archived data back to May 2009.
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My vision is to do nightly backups of my 1TB drive to the network drive, thus providing additional data protection. Should my 1TB USB fail, I would then copy all contents (including the Backups.backupdb folder) from the network drive to a new USB or Firewire drive and have Time Machine continue on as if nothing happened and if necessary, restore files from its archive.
Doing things this way would provide the additional data security I desire, while giving me access to the Time Machine archives when I needed them.
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I'm sure it's possible to make this work, but you shouldn't make this work. Backing up a backup is not a good idea, since any problems with the original backup will be propagated into the "backup backup". Instead, make a fully independent backup with different software. That way, if you one day find that you need your backups, but the TM backup is corrupt for some reason (not implying that's normal), you'll still have a second independent backup. If it's just a copy of a corrupt TM backup, it won't help you much.

Bootable Backup First Timer

I want to make a bootable backup of my computer on a external drive. How do I do it with the disk utilities that come with my imac? I've read about Super Duper but I thought I read somewhere that I can do this with my disk utilities. I already have data on the external drive and I didn't partition it when I got it, so is there a way to do a backup without erasing what's on the external drive already?
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*Hi tedzig, Welcome* to Apple's Users Help Users Forums.
If there is room on the internal HD, you could copy to it from the external and then be free to reformat. You have excellent helpers already.
To help you along the way, here are the SD and CCC sources.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
Purchase at $27.95 will allow smart backups that look at the bu files and only move over new ones. It's quick at ~7 mins to change ~1 gig out of 20.
Be sure to test that the clone boots and apps behave properly.
Here are other popular cloners.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
http://www.prosoftengineering.com/products/drivegeniusinfo.php?PHPSESSID=909c070fb2e13b35097fa9cc1340bfc0
Good Luck, JP

Can't backup - first time

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