Cannot activate Time Machine on Iomega drive

I recently purchased an Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive and I'm using it as a Time Machine backup. Backups happen smoothly, yet I'm not able to activate Time Machine.
Whenever I click "Activate Time Machine", it'll show a message it's connecting. Usually takes a few minutes before it shows a dialog window asking me if I still want to active. As soon as I click "yes", the Finder will freeze.
Anyone able to help?

Hi
As an ex-Iomega HMND user, my sincerest advice would be to get a refund and spend the small extra on a Time Capsule. I bought a 2Gb HMND in January and I've had nothing but grief with it. Constant resets, password requests, suddenly becoming unavailable for no reason etc. I even had to write an Apple script to mount the thing at each boot because the bundled software didn't work properly!! Also, the 'built in' print server never worked for me and the Iomega forums are full of people with similar problems - Apple support is pretty poor there, BTW. Somewhat fortunately, it suddenly stopped working for good this week (after just 18 weeks of flakey service), so I took it back to PC World and paid £70 extra for a TC. Although it is "only" 1 Terrabyte instead of 2, it works flawlessly, is silent (the HMND clicked constantly), looks great and just does what it's supposed to, automatically, in the background. BTHomehub now set as modem-only and I'm using my TC for wifi / routing as well - I wish I'd bought a TC to start off with.
You could try the official Iomega forums (http://www.iomegasupportforums.com/phpbb2/index.php) but they just seem to be full of people all complaining about the same issues.
Jon

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Time Machine loses iOmega drive

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When you say
If I turn off the iOmega, the Mac then can see it and Time Machine begins working.
do you really mean "turn off" or did you mean to say "turn off and then back on" ?
It sounds like when the system shutsdown the iOmega HDs also shutdown and do not startup or power-on when the Mac is powered up.
You need to obtain the iOmega HD specifications from manufacturer's help desk or web pages or contact AppleCare to see if the iOmega HD can be configured to not act this way. Maybe you will need to return these iOmega HDs to Apple store if they cannot be made to behave differently.
None of my USB nor FW externals act this way.
What you've done for your config and system shutdown/startup sequence is exactly what I would have done also.
Can you maybe sleep the Mac rather than shutting them down. The energy while sleeping while not at zero is pretty darn close to zero.
Can you say if the iOmega HDs are powered-off just before you startup the Mac.
Maybe before you startup the Macs you need to power cycle the iOmega HDs. A few extra switches to press but not so much more effort.
Post back.

Cannot access Time Machine / external hard drive

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This can be done easily with ethernet.
Please follow the instructions strictly.
To make it easier I want you to do this overnight so you can turn off all your current connection to the internet.
Just go to the airport fan in to the top right and turn airport off.
Get ethernet cable and connect the laptop to the TC lan port.. ie <-> ones.
Press and hold the reset on the TC for about 10sec. until the front led flashes rapidly.
Open the airport utility.. go to manual setup and change the wireless to off. (so other people around you cannot join your network of one).
Ignore all the errors.. they won't stop the backup working.
Go to the TM and reselect the backup target disk as the TC.
It should start after 2min and run through to completion.
That is it.. for a backup of many GB it might take a few hours.. so make sure the laptop has power plugged in and the sleep is off.. (on early ones I think this is needed but I am a late arrival to the scene).. sleep doesn't affect later OS.

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I keep my iPhoto library -- aning may other files -- on an external drive (iomega 1 TB). I use Time Machine (Time Capsule) for my back-ups of iphoto - and all my files on this drive. The external drive is failing. I have bought an new external drive and wish to restore my iPhoto library to this new drive. The steps for restoring from Time Machine require me to click on the iPhoto library and then enter time machine. I cannot do this as the folder is now unreadable on the drive and I do not wish to restore it to this old drive in any event.
I have accessed the time machine drive and can see the iphoto back up is there.
What is my next step?
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You are correct Linc. I am probably not being clear enough. The dead drive is disconnected and I am only using the new external drive, the iMac and the Time Machine backup drive which is connected to the iMac via ethernet.
I am trying to what you have suggested and appears all over the internet as the correct method. Unfortuntely, it is just not working. I will take snapshots of the screens to illustrate. (not sure how to take sceenshots in Time Machine.)
While in finder I have the sidebar. I choose my iMac and choose enter Time Machine (Home Drive is the new external drive):
Just before I enter -- a window opens that says "connecting to back-up volume":
Then another window opens -- on it's own -- that is the Time Machine Back-up and it does not have the sidebar:
As I slide into Time Machine another window opens -- on its own -- that contains the elements of my sidebar:
As show below in another screen grab:
And now I am in Time Machine with that window -- i have even tried to click on the sidebar window which lies in the background just prior to sliding into Time Machine but I still get this window):
No side bar. But, I can choose any back-up window behind it it -- going back in time -- and get windows that looks like this:
Via the bottom status bar I can manuever to the correct back-up date and time i want and get this window:
The Iomega HDD contains the back-up of iPhoto Library (and other files) thart I wish to restore. I should be able to open this folder. Choose the files to restore and voila. But when I choose the foloder. Nothing. It freezes -- except i can still manuever the mouse. No spinning wheel. Nothing. I cannot exit Time Machine etc. I end up shutting down using the power button.
BTW. Here is the wiondow I get when I click on the Time Machine drive in the sidebar:
I can choose the iPhoto Library and I dragged and dropped to the new drive. There was an error the first try (after 4 hours...) but the second try worked. I have duplicated/backed-up the library getting ready to experiment with an new iPhoto upgrade.
Is this the same library?
But any thoughts on what happened during the Time Machine process is appreciated.
Robert

Time Machine and IOMega StoreCenter

have a 500G boot drive. I'm trying to use Time Machine to backup to an external drive. The drive is an IOMega 1T StoreCenter connected to the Mac via Firewire.
The OS is OSX Server 10.5.6.
I erase the drive and start activate Time Machine. It backups exactly once. Then the next time it ought to be backing up. A window with the preparing message comes up. With the barber pole like think turning.
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Made sure that the hardware does not go into powersaver mode.
Took the disk out of spotlight.
Made sure that it's using GUID Partition Table.
It's also using the extended journaling filesystem.
This used to all work untill I took out the original 250G drive and replaced it with a 500G one.
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Henry Cline1 wrote:
I purchased and installed a Iomega 2TB Home Network Drive today primarily for usage with OS X and Time Machine.
Time Machine does not back up to most network drives. Here's the criteria they must meet: Disks that can be used with Time Machine. And be careful here: just because some 3rd-party hardware claims to support Time Machine doesn't necessarily mean that Apple supports it, or that it will work in all circumstances.
You may find some hardware or "hacks" that might make other things work, in some cases, to a degree. But use them at your own risk.
First, since this is *unsupported by Apple,* there's nowhere to go when there's trouble.
Second, you're risking a future update preventing it from working, and perhaps rendering your backups useless.
I tried to create a Time Machine backups from two different computers and both returned the error
The backup disk image "/volumes/backups-2/"mymacname.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 45)
Try the renaming suggestions in #C9 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

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Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??

just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??

Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd.
Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set.
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I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there.
Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB?
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https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009
where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.

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Time Machine with 2T drive connected to Airport Extreme base via USB

I got this to work - Time machine recognizing the drive in its "choose backup disk" menu.
I used it to store Apple Lossless audio on a big iTunes library, as well as for my Time Machine backups.
Whole system ran fine for 4 months until last week: while I was using iTunes with that remote library, adding audio to it... "Airport has detected a disk error"... My 2TB of disk turned into a very expensive brick.
The disk had to be recovered with Disk Warrior, detecting "19,753 directory entries with incorrect text encoding value" as part of a nice one-page-long list of other errors.
SINCE THEN: no matter what I do, the disk does not show up in Time Machine, even though I can access it via the network exactly as before.
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Apple does not support Time Machine backups to an AirPort disk (a USB drive attached to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS)). (ref: Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine doesn't back up to AirPort Extreme AirPort Disks) Although folks, like yourself, have gotten this to work initially, the long-term stability of the TM backups is highly suspect and why Apple doesn't support it. Sorry!

Defrag Time Machine Back Up Drive??

getwellroad
Level 1 (0 points)
Jul 6, 2011 9:50 AM
i previously posted this question, but I mistakenly clicked my own comment as the correct answer. i think this makes the thread appear to be finished; so, because i'm still not completely sure what to do, i have attempted to copy and paste the discussion here:Sorry.
Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??
Grant Bennet-AlderWest of Boston, USALevel 7 (27,805 points)
If your backups take a few seconds longer, so what. I say leave it alone.Beige G3, G4/867, G4/dual 1.25 MDD, MacPro'09 w cheap SSD, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, and 9.2, 10.5 and Server - LW IIg, LW 4/600, ATalk ImageWriter L
The hatterLevel 8 (42,475 points)
Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd. Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set. 1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price. I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there. Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB? Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopardhttps://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.
getwellroad
my boot drive is my internal hardrive which is a 250 GB drive. The drive i am using for TM is 500GB, but you are saying that is really too small. TM, as i understand it, creates a copy of everything, and then subsequent backups record any changes that were made since the last backup. and what do you mean "bootable clones" and do you mean for my internal hard drive AND each of the 3 external hard drives that i have? i'm using one of the three for backup using TM, and i am storing movie files on the other 2. i work at a church, and we use many short films that we purchase online. i then import that file into iMovie to give my volunteers a consistent second and a half of black before the clip and 4 seconds of black at the end of the clip. This provides smoother transitions, i've found, than trying to use most of the clips in their original form. i then have been filing these away in folders on the other 2 hard drives. Regarding the TM drive. Drive Genius is telling me that "the used space on the volume 02 [that's the name of the drive] is 25% fragmented (59.14% of total space).
btw, Time Machine keeps:hourly backups for the past 24 hoursdaily backups for the past monthweekly backups for all previous monthsand the oldest backups are deleted when your disk becomes full.
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB external driv

1st) A fragmented drive is not evil. It will not hurt anything. At worse it might slow down reading a file. However, as has been pointed out by others in this thread, who cares as this is a backup device, not a device you are going to be reading a lot.
2nd) The time you spend defragmenting the drive will far exceed the time you will save when writing new data to the drive.
3rd) Defragmentation will just increase your energy consumption, as all the reading/writing needed to move the files around in order to defragment it, will cause the drive to consume more energy than if it was just sitting idle waiting for the next hourly Time Machine backup.
4th) Defragmentation (if done frequently) may shorten the life of your drive. Not mentioned in "3rd" above is that the extra energy used translates into heat, plus you are moving the read/write heads back and forth all of which affect the drives mechanical and electrical components.
NOTE: There are situations where having a defragmented drive is useful, but mostly it has to do with needing to stream media at a high rate of speed, and fragmented files can affect that. However, a backup drive being used for incremental Time Machine backups is not in that category, and most home Mac usage does not need a defragmented file system either.

Has anyone successfully used a "WD My Book for Mac" via NAS (plugged into USB port on router) as a Time Machine back-up drive?

Has anyone successfully used a "WD My Book for Mac" via NAS (plugged into USB port on router) as a Time Machine back-up drive? Apple support tech tried to tell me it wasn't possible and that the only NAS Time Machine could back up to is the Time Capsule, but I'm not buying it. I know it's doable, but I'm having a hard time figuring out which External HDDs will work and which ones won't. If not My Book for Mac, is there an External HDD that will work? (Running OS X 10.9.1 - Mavericks, btw...)

Given the nature of backups, my recommendation has always been to use a strategy that is unequivocally supported by Apple. As you already determined Apple Support unequivocally informed you that your proposal will not work, unless your router is an Apple AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule.
The exhaustive list of devices supported by Time Machine amounts to the following:
AirPort Time Capsule's built-in hard disk (any model)
External USB hard disk drive connected to a Time Capsule (any model)
External USB hard disk drive connected to an AirPort Extreme (current model only)
A hard disk drive directly connected to your Mac
That is all.
Use whatever backup device you want, but you should be aware that this site is full of reports of misery from hapless individuals who had been using NAS devices for Time Machine backups, only to find that they were incomplete, corrupted, or useless when they were required. Apple won't care if you lose your data while using a Time Machine configuration specifically excluded from their technical support documents.

Cannot activate Time Machine on Iomega drive

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