Can't switch the time machine off!

Hi everyone,
At the advice of a friend I've turned my external hard drive into the time machine, but I don't want to do this, I just want it as an external plae where I can store music. I tried to switch it off by going to timemachine and then moved the switch to off, but for some reason everytime I plug my external hard drive in, it keeps showing up as the time machine. Does anyone know why?

Use Disk utility to erase the drive. When it remounts you will get a dialogue box asking if you want to use the drive as a TM backup. Simply decline.

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How can I use the Time Machine Backups from my Old Computer?

I have two months of Time Machine backups made using my old Macintosh computer which died and I no longer have. I have now purchased a new computer and am trying to use the Time Machine back ups from the original computer, but it will not recognise them. How can I get my new MacBook Pro to use the Time Machine Backups from my old Computer? I phoned the Apple help line and they said I cannot use them and would have to delete them. This sounds crazy if you can only use the Time Machine back up file with one computer and have to delete it when you buy a new Mac. Surely there must be some way to transfer ownership (not files) from an old to the new Mac?
Thanks
Richard

Thanks Kevin for the suggestion posted on MacOSXHints how to "Repair Time Machine after logic board changes".
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
It seems as though I am not alone with my frustration with the way Time Machine uses the MAC address of a computer to tell one system from another. This means that if you have your Mac repaired with a new logic board, or replace your system with a new one, you can't resume backups where you left off. Reading through the readers who used the fix using Terminal, it appears that the fix does not always work. I contacted Apple again, but they were no help. Surely Apple should come out with a solution as more and more people use Time Machine/Time Capsule.
It is CRAZY that after a change computers or a switch in the computer logic board that you cannot resume your Time Machine back ups.

I have just installed a 2TB time capsule on my iMac i7, it see my second 1TB hard drive but the 256 SSD doesn't come up in the list of hard drives I can back up. How can I enable the time machine to see my first SSD 256gb hard drive?

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iLife is preinstalled on all the Macs. If you purchased iLife in the App Store or your computer came without DVDs, open App Store > Purchases and download the applications. If your Mac came with discs, insert the Applications DVD and install iLife applications

HT201250 My MacBook Pro (using OSX 10.7.5) suddenly can't find the Time Machine backup disk, which is on the harddrive of my desktop iMac. What to do?

My MacBook Pro (using OSX 10.7.5) suddenly can't find the Time Machine backup disk, which is on the harddrive of my desktop iMac. What to do?

Inherit a Backup
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HT201250 i can't find the time machine icon on my dock?

I need to restore a file - can't find the time machine icon on my dock?

Is it in the Applications folder?
If so you can open it from there.
If it is you can get back on the Dock by dragging it there from the Applications folder again.
Allan

Since I updated to iPhoto 9.5.1, my library is not listed or available. How can I find it? Can I use the time machine to restore it?

Since I updated to iPhoto 9.5.1, when I open the program, I am now asked what library i wish to use and none are listed. I can not find my photos. How can I find and restore my photos. Can I use the Time Machine to do this?

You may be launching an older version of iPhoto from your Dock. Try to launch iPhoto directly from the Applications folder. Does that find a library to open?
If not, search with Find Any File for traces of your iPhoto library, as described by Old Toad in this post:
Re: My iPhoto Library disappeared...how do I get it back?
Download and run Find Any File to search for a file with "ThumbJPGSegment" in the file name. These are files common to all versions of iPhoto libraries.
FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages. If there's a library hiding somewhere on your hard drive FAF will find it.
If that does not work, try to restore from your backup:
The photos were stored on the iMac hard drive. I do have the Time machine with backup on my Airport WIFI.
To restore from Time Machine, you need to open the folder, where your iPhoto library should be, before you enter Time Machine. Then go back in time along the timeline to the right of the TimeTunnel window.

Tried to restore my mac pro, now it`s not working, can i use the time machine backups?

Tried to restore my mac pro, now it`s not working, can i use the time machine backups?

Yes.

HT201250 where can i find the time machine password

Where can i find the time machine password?

There is no such thing.
If you're backing-up to a network drive (Time Capsule, NAS, etc.), that drive may have a password.
If you're backing-up to an encrypted external HD, you'll need the encryption password.
Please clarify what version of OSX you're running (your profile says Leopard, but you've posted in the Lion forum), what you're backing-up to, and exactly what message you're getting and when (a screenshot would be fine).

Can I move the time machine drive from being a usb drive

Hello
I am not sure whether this fits best in the time capsule or in the time machine forum. I try here as this a issue thar arises only to time capsule users.
I have a new USB drive that I want to use for time machine backups. Eventually I want it to be attached to the time capsule and make the time machine back up via wifi. However the first backup is 261 Gb and this is too long for the wi-fi. I am doing it right now via the USB and take 12 hours (estimated).
After the USB backup will be finished, can I move the drive to the time capsule and let time machine make the backups via wifi? I mean, is time machine going to find the backup done via USB or once started with USB I am stuck with that?
Thanks for answering and for reading
Roberto
PS
maybe was better on the time machine forum, still don't know.

Backup strategy
Backing up a client computer to Time Capsule hardware with Time Machine software via the network provides ample time for contemplation, and rumination as to why the backup is taking so long. An initial 200Gb backup has an estimated time of "3 days" even on a wired network. Incremental backups following the initial backup are also beset with delays, with various message which can be viewed with the programmer's delight, the "Console" app. Otherwise the System Preference Time Machine interface is mute. The glacial pace of the Time Capsule backup process is exhaustively documented on the internet, but with no solutions - at least that I have found any after too many hours searching.
The System Preferences->Time Machine interface is always used to start a backup, monitor, or stop a backup, whether the backup drive is present on the network via Time Capsule, or if the backup drive is directly connected to the client computer.
On the positive side, Time Machine performs quickly and provides hourly backup to external drives directly attached to the client computer. The delay appears in network backups via Time Capsule.
Another positive is that network backups to Time Capsule are reliable when the client computer is stable, always on, and never detached from the network. In this case, the mute interface offered by system preferences->Time Machine is welcome. For example, my Apple Mac Mini web server (always on) is reliably backed up to a Time Capsule.
The negative experience is encountered when backing up a laptop when, as laptops do, the laptop wanders from the network. As stopping a backup can take 15 minutes, backups are necessarily interrupted when dashing off to work with your laptop. In the network where I have experience, there are 5 laptops and 1 stationary (Mac Mini) clients living on an all-Apple network. Failing to complete a backup via network for days on end gives no feeling of security.
Reading from Podini's excellent website
http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html
and extracting a summary, files copied from a client computer using Time Machine are stored on the backup drive in one of two formats: sparse bundle (special file type) when backing up to Time Capsule (or to a drive attached to a Time Capsule), or a folder with the client computer name when the backup drive is Firewire attached to the client. A closer examination of the sparse bundle file on the network with the Finder shows that the same folder appears with the computer name.
So, Time Machine backups always go to a folder with the client computer name, and this folder is either inside a sparse bundle or not depending upon if the backup drive is mounted on the network via TC or directly attached to the client.
An external drive mounted on the network via Time Capsule will create a sparse bundle file for the client or add to it if it already exists. Even if backups are present of the same machine, but not in a sparse bundle, Time Capsule will create a sparse bundle if it does not exist for the current backup client computer, and start a new backup.
An external drive directly connected to the client has a different experience. No Time Capsule is involved. Upon turning on backups via Time Machine, the backups will go to a sparse bundle file with the client computer name, if it exists. If the sparse bundle file does not exist, a folder is created with the computer name.
A strategy of backing up to an external drive moved between various computers and the Time Capsule might resolve some of the many delays. The strategy is simple, if delays are encountered, directly attach the backup drive to the client computer. If a backup is to be manually deleted in order to begin anew, directly attach the backup drive to the client computer before deleting the sparse bundle file.
To begin a new backup with this strategy of "drive+TC", initiate (via TM) the backup on the network (via TC), then stop after 10 minutes (with TM), noting that a sparse bundle of zero size is created. Continue the first backup by directly connecting the external backup drive to the client then pointing Time Machine to the newly connected drive. The backups by way of direct connect will go to the existing sparse bundle. Wait three hours rather than three days for a 200Gb backup to complete. Subsequent backups will go to the sparse bundle file on the backup drive, whether the backup drive is on the network (via TC) or directly connected.
But what of the internal drive on the TC? In this strategy, it is not used for backups unless the client computer is always attached to the network.
With so little documentation from Apple, we are left to speculate as to the cause of TC largo. Normally, slight documentation means little to know for the user, and the user is spared the complex machinations under the hood, but when the operation is flawed the user is left without resources.
A secure backup strategy stores a backup offsite, just in case the house burns down, or buglers make a clean sweep of computers and backup drives. Unfortunately, this means doubling the equipment, including two Time Capsules and two external drives attached to the TCs. The offsite copy is rarely mentioned in the same paragraph as the Time Capsule, likely because of the cost. It's an uncomfortable fact that a sole TC is vulnerable to local hazards, along with the local client computers.
This is the strategy I'm testing now. I'll send an update in a few days.

Restore can't find the time machine backup

I am trying to restore my system from a time machine backup and the Restore option doesn't recognize my time machine backup. Any ideas on how to force it to see it?
Some background:
I am running Mountain Lion on a 2008 iMac. About 1 week ago, my internal HD failed. I had the hard drive replaced and then hooked up my external HD time machine back-up to restore my system. I started the computer with the command-R option and selected restore from time machine backup. It recognized the hard drive itself, but when I get to the screen to select the backup, it tells me there are no backups on the selected volume. I have run the repair in Disk Utility and the drive checked out ok. I have since installed Mountain Lion again on the internal drive, but didn't bring any files.
Also, while the main computer was down I connected the external drive to another computer and used the show hidden files steps to find some files on the time machine backup and copied them to the other computer.
I don't know if this relates, but I want to share all of the info: Back when the HD originally failed, the computer froze. When my son restarted the computer, it then asked what language he wanted. Then it began a restore process and asked him to select a volume to restore the system to. This is the bad part- He selected a partitioned drive where I had stored some files that didn't fit on the hard drive. It erased that drive and began restoring the system. Of course he didn't tell me about any of this until about 2 hours later, so we lost the contents on that drive. This partitioned drive is the same drive where my time machine backup resides. One partition is the Time Machine backup and the other was external data.
Any ideas? I know I can manually restore the files, but it would be nice to be able to automatically do it. Also, is there a way to read the excluded list? I found the file that this is on...
Thanks,

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Can I encrypt the time machine back up disk?

I have about 62GB on my time machine back up disk. It just occured to me that anybody who gets a hold of my back up disk, has all my info. Is there anyway to encrypt the back up disk, and password protect it?
If there is will I still be able to use this back up in case of data loss from my computer?
Thanks.

You can't restore a Time Machine backup made with Snow Leopard onto a system with Tiger. You can, but you will damage Mac OS X.
In order to restore your Time Machine backup, you should have your Snow Leopard disc. Then, insert it and hold the C key while your MacBook Pro is starting. Finally, choose your language, go to Utilities menu (on the menu bar), choose the option to restore the backup and follow its steps, so you will recover Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Can i use the time machine as storage?

how can i use my time machine as storage?

I assume you mean Time Capsule.. that is the physical box that is combined router and hard disk.
Yes, you can, but it is not designed for storage.. it is not a NAS.. it has no easy incremental backups of files stored on it.. and only has a slow usb backup of the whole drive which is painful. The TC is a backup device. Use as storage knowing one day it will die and what then happens to your files???

How can I have the Time Machine animated wallpaper as my desktop background?

I really love the animated stars when you go in the time machine app. Is there a way to have this as your desktop background?
I've found and tested a few apps that do this (animated desktop pictures), but I really want the time machine animation.
I've also found an app that lets you use the old time machine animated picture, but I don't even nearly like it as much as the new one.
If anyone knows... please tell me

Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)
Open Users & Groups
Click the Login Items tab (next to the Password tab)
Click the + buttton at the bottom of the list
Use the Finder interface to locatet the Time Capsule drive and open it on the desktop
Click Add
Now the Time Capsule drive....named "Data", unless you have renamed it, will mounta and appear on the desktop when your Mac starts up.

HELP: I can't enter the Time Machine for critical backups I need

I made a boo-boo today and removed a home directory that had everything in it. No problem, I thought... just enter Time Machine.
Well, it isn't working. And I did try removing the /Library/Preferences/*.plist for TimeMachine -- no luck. I've re-selected the disk, no luck.
This is very disappointing, but I'm also a bit panicked. I need that data restored.
How can I get this to work properly?
Thanks.

Forrest wrote:
Even though I turned off Time Machine backups, it just happily runs in the background.
Correct; turning it off means it won't start any new backups; but if one is running, it won't cancel it. You have to do that manually.
Also, restoral of files ended up getting interrupted as it said I didn't have permission to access something (and it didn't tell me what).
You can't restore an entire user home folder that way -- OSX won't let you delete the old one, as it's in use. You should have gotten a message to that effect (although some of them are rather cryptic).
It also sounds like the backups may be corrupted. Try to Repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Your best bet, unless the backups are damaged, is to do a full system restore, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14.

How can i access the Time Machine backup on my QSAN NAS device?

Hi
I have a QSAN TS412 TurboNas. I have set it up to be used for Time Machine backup and it works fine.
I have anothe device with over a year worth of backups on it and i would like to transfer them to the QSAN device, however the TimeMachine location is not accessible in finder, only the TM app can access it.
I am not the farmiliar with MAC's but am sure there must be a way to get the files where i want them.
Any help is much appreciated.
Ben

Byocky wrote:
Hi
I have been trying to talk to QSAN, but it is very tedious. They are not the most helpful of companies.
I have 10.7.4, it is supported by QSAn, but they just say that it cannot be accessed by finder.
I though a "wiz kid" in the forum may know what to do.
Ben
Gotcha, well good luck...maybe someone has experience with them.

Can't switch the time machine off!

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