External hard drive disables Time Machine
_The Setup_
I have a 1TB dual-band Time Capsule. We recently became a three Mac home, so I decided to buy a LaCie 2TB external USB hard drive, plug it into the Time Capsule, and instruct two of the Macs to backup to said drive via Time Machine.
_The Problem_
Each Mac has been able to backup to their proper drives, however at least once a day, the disks will both become undiscoverable. Time Machine on each Mac starts giving the error that the backup disk cannot be found. Neither will the disks appear via Finder.
_The Current Solution_
If I flip the power switch on the LaCie USB hard drive off and then back on again, both the Time Machine's internal drive and the LaCie become findable again, and everything is back to normal. That is, until a few hours later when it all goes down again.
Any idea what could be causing this? The external has its own power source, so I can't imagine it is a power bus issue, but who knows.
It may be possible that your LaCie HDD has implemented a power-down feature in its firmware as a power/cost savings measure. When Time Machine runs it finds the HDD "unavailable" and assumes that it can't make the backup.
If this is the case, one option would be to run a script that "wakes up" the HDD just prior to the hourly TM backups. Also, you might want to check with the manufacturer to see if this feature is controllable so that you can disable it or change its frequency.
Similar Messages
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Backing up photos on iMac using external hard drive and time machine
How do i back up photos from my imac using an external hard drive and time machine
Thanks in advanceApple explains how to use Time Machine in http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427.
Setting up and using TM is very simple to do, connect any external HD (format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility ) and your computer shoudl ask if you want to use that EHD for a Time Machine backup. If you have any questions visit your local Apple Store or reseller and they can answer how to setup and use TM and also should be able to offer suggestions on EHDs. My personal preference is OWC (www.macsales.com) Mercury Elite Pro due to the build quality and OWC's level of support. -
Every time I try to back up my Macbook Pro with an external hard drive using Time Machine, I receive the error of "the disk does not have enough space". I have a 500GB external hard drive and only 120GB Macbook. It worked fine before the latest Maverick's update. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My guess would be it has created an entirely new backup of your drive when you upgraded to Mavericks.
See Here: http://pondini.org/TM/1.html
And here: http://pondini.org/TM/9.html
Peruse the whole site. There is a lot of information there. -
I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret. -
Can not fine external hard drive for time machine sence lion was installed
I can not fine external hard drive for time machine sence lion was installed, it don't reconise it at all.
I have a Mac Mini (late 2009) and I have an iomega 1TB external hard drive connected to my mini via firewire and usb (usb allows me to use the usb ports on the external 1TB drive to daisy chain other devices). Since I installed Lion, my Time Machine and this 1TB drive (and its partitions) is finicky. Sometimes it is mounted and sometimes it is not. This issue has only surfaced post Snow Leopard and in the Lion era. I am not the first to say this but the whole reason I went Mac was b/c of Vista. I am beginning to think that Lion is the new Vista. Sorry for the latter, just venting... b/c this ain't the first issue with Lion.
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hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?
When you boot the new machine for the first time, you'll be prompted to import your data from a Time Machine backup.
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External Hard Drive and Time Machine questions
Hello, I am new here to the forums and I have looked all over for the answers to two questions that I have regarding external hard drives and the time machine feature.
For some background, I recently had a scare (water spill but luckily I had a keyboard cover on and the entire spill landed on the cover) with my Mid-2012 13" Macbook Pro (2.5Ghz) and due to almost losing all my data I've decided to invest in an external hard drive. However, rather than just purchasing a 500GB HDD to use as an external hard drive, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and upgrade my Macbook Pro as well by investing in the 480GB OCW Mercury Extreme Pro SSD. I'll be using the SSD as my internal drive so the original hard drive that came with my Macbook will serve as my backup external drive. Lastly, I plan to use the external drive solely for the purpose of backing up my MacBook in case something ever happens to my Macbook.
I am using this guide to help me with this whole process: http://circuitremix.com/?q=content/macbook-pro-solid-state-drive-upgrade-guide-a nd-performance-testing.
My two questions are:
1) When following the guide, it never mentions anything about the Partition Map Scheme. After being alerted to this and doing some additional research, is it better to go with the GUID Partition Table rather than the Master Boot Record?
2) After I have cloned everything onto my new SSD and replaced the HDD in my MacBook with it, should I erase everything on my HDD before setting it up with time machine? I was thinking about keeping the original data on the original hard drive (which would now be my external drive) just in case something goes wrong with time machine but I have read that people recommend solely dedicating the entire external hard drive for time machine backups.
Thanks in advance!Format the new SSD in Disk Utility to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and that will solve question No. 1.
After formatting, clone the new SSD using Disk Utility>Restore or Carbon Copy Cloner (down load from the Internet). Test the new SSD and if it performs as expected, do the physical swap.
Question No. 2. Erase the Time Machine HDD using Disk Utility and then install Time Machine. See this excellent website regarding Time Machine.
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
If you want an external boot HHD, get another one and use Carbon Copy Cloner. This will give you redundancy in backups as well which is a good strategy. CCC also can update the contents in an incremental manner similar to Time Machine.
Ciao. -
I did a software update to 10.6.8. and I've been unable to back up my files to my external hard-drive on Time Machine. The error message it gives says "he backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk."
It recommends using Disk Utility to repair the backup disk and i've tried that but it finds nothing wrong with the disk!
I even tried copying files off it so i could re-format the drive but it apparently can't do that and the error message is that there's a wrong case sensitive file. Please help, I really need a solution.
Thanks,
Regards,
Chi.If you mean you're getting the same message:
see #C3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup (especially the destination for the backups), what you've done, and the results.
If that's not the message you're getting, please clarify. -
If time machine puts all of my photos onto my external hard drive using time machine, can I then delete the photos from my computer but view them again from the external hard drive? Basically, can I free up space on my mac but not lose years of photos?
To add to Niel's comment bear in mind that if you have a backup copy on an external HD and later delete the orignals on your Mac HD you will then only have one copy - so no backup.
If the pictures are precious you should have at least two copies, and ideally another copy kept off site, -
I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine. It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride? It's been going for about 7 hours now
It does not immediately delete the files that are missing.. it merely tries to backup the new files it has discovered on the external drive. Since you moved the files there, the backup at least for a while will contain both copies.. and that is why it doesn't have enough space to backup.
Fixing the problem.. hmm pondini is the expert.. you should be able to delete the backup of the photos in existing backup.. there are instructions to do it.. but it is a very poor way to do things.
Much better. .archive off the existing backup.. this is long and slow but worth it. you need a usb drive of the same size as the TC drive. Then erase the TC and start a fresh set of backups.
The alternative is to use the USB drive as a new target.. but it is much slower than the TC internal drive.
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html -
Is there a way to backup my external hard drive with Time Machine?
Most of the memory used on my MBP is mainly used for applications and miscellaneous things for Logic and Final Cut. I have two external HD's. To save space on the internal HD, all of my music, pictures, and videos are one my external hard drive, while Time Machine set as the other. Is there a way I can back up my external HD using Time Machine? What would even be better is if I could only select specific files (My Music, Videos, Pictures) and not everything on my one external HD to be backed up in Time Machine.
TM can back up external HDs. If you have both of your external drives attached, go to the options in TM preferences. Be sure the data drive is not listed (this lists drives/folders to exclude from a backup). Then initiate a TM backup or wait for the hourly backup. That should back up the data drive.
You can only tell TM what to exclude from a backup, not what to include. -
Restoring an external hard drive with time machine
I'm having a problem restoring an external hard drive using time machine. I'm on a macbook Air Running 10.7.5.
The external hard drive where I store all my photos crashed a few days ago. Not a total disaster, because it's backed up, but I can't figure out how to restore the drive onto a new hard drive. When I go into time machine without the corrupted drive attached, it does not show up in the time machine browser as an option for restore. (The files are definitely there, though, because I can see them when I look at the time machine files in Finder. I'm afraid if I just transfer the files by dragging, though, I'll mess something up.) I tried using the migration assistant, but I'm having the same problem there.
Anyone know how to do this? I'm a little frantic to get my photos back.
Thanks!I am having a similar problem. I use a Lacie external hard drive connected to an Airport Time Capsule via USB to store my itunes library. Yesterday I disconnected the external drive from the ATC and connected it to my macbook pro via fire wire to transfer 40 gigabytes of media files from my laptop to the external drive directly rather than over wifi. When I reattached the external drive to the ATC the Lacie drive didn't show up even after rebooting everything. I then disconnected from the ATC and reconnected to the laptop and now I get an error message saying the Lacie disk is unrecognizable and needs to be reformated. The Lacie drive was being included in the time machine backups so the files should be available through time machine but I don't see anyway to access them because the Lacie disk icon doesn't appear in the time machine backups. Is there another way to browse the files?
I have had issues with Lacie disks not showing up on the desktop before, particularly when transferring files from one computer to another. The transfer usually goes fine but then when I reattach the drive to the first computer it isn't recognized anymore until I reboot and it sometimes requires a couple of reboots. I initially tried to connect the external drive to both the ATC and the laptop but that didn't work, although now I'm wondering if that was because the connection to the laptop was firewire rather than USB like the ATC. In any case I currently have over a terabyte of data on my lacie that I can't access which includes my entire itunes library and backup files from multiple computers which were "cleaned" but not restored.
Disk utility sees the drive but can't verify or repair and tells me to backup as many files as possible and then reformat. Unfortunately I can't see ANY files to backup because the disk won't mount anywhere. If anyone has a recommendation for utilities to recover the files I'd be most grateful to get them. -
How do I restore a failed external hard drive using Time Machine?
I have an external hard drive connected to my iMac that is being backed up with Time Machine. I just realized that should it one day fail and no longer appear as a connected device, I'm not sure how to restore its data to another external drive. When I disconnected the external hard drive (to mimic a drive crash) and entered Time Machine to see if I could verify that the external hard drive was, in fact, being backed up - I didn't know where to find it. Under the Today (Now) information, I didn't expect to see it there as it was no longer connected to the machine. But when I went back a few days, I expected to see its backup appear in the Sidebar. But no!
So - how do I restore a failed external hard drive using Time Machine?
Searches for this information on Google yielded "iffy" results. I'm hoping someone here is able to offer some clear steps to follow. Perhaps I'm missing something silly. Thank you very much!I came across this discussion after encountering the same problem. Since my internal HD was cose to full I added an additional external HD to my setup. I moved my iPhoto files to an external HD and backed both this external HD and my internal HD up with Time Machine to another external HD. So far the theory. When I wanted to test if this setup worked I noticed that I could only see my iPhoto libraries on the external HD in Time Machine when the external HD was connected to my computer, but not if I turned it off. This led me to search for a solution on the Apple Support Communities discussion board.
The suggestions made Kappy seem right, at least in my experience, in that my Time Machine simply did not back up the external HD until I followed the steps he suggested above. These were the following:
"So, if you want it backed up then here's what you need to do:
1. In Time Machine preferences remove the external drive from the Exclude list.
2. Verify that it is now included with your other drive in the backup list.
3. Do a Backup Now to create a new backup of the external drive."
After doing this, my external HD showed up in the Backups.backupd as a seperate folder. I could clearly see the Time Machine back-up for my internal HD and my external HD. In addition, in Time Machine itself I was able to find the external harddrive by clicking on my own computers name under "Devices". I hope my experience helps to resolve your issue as this discussion board has helped me resolve mine (which I believe to be very similar).
Cheers! -
How to backup external hard drive to another external hard drive using time machine ?
Hello,
i have an external hard drive which i store all my drum samples and sound library on and files are contantly changing, adding new sounds, deleting old ones etc ..
So my method of back up as of now is to just copy all the edited files and click and drag to the back up disk.
Now, my question is, how do i back up my external hard drive to another external hard drive using time machine ? I read somewhere that you can do this, i cant find the post however. It would be nice to automate the back up process rather than manually finding the files to copy over.
Thanks in advance !The question you pose is conditional, in that you should have more than an exact
capacity replacement for a clone, if the drive you are going from (or one going to)
has insufficient free space and that has a bootable clone on the drive; any space
tied up in a partition for Time Machine backup, takes away from the running space
if you should need to run the computer from a clone on the external HDD's other
partition.... Better to have a good capacity of additional reserve unused free space.
Be sure any clone copy that you hope to use as a re-close, that each in turn is tested
after a clone operation. Also consider using each running system's Disk utility and
have First Aid 'repair disk permissions'. Preparation of a new drive or even an old
drive that may have questionable artifacts or errors on it, should be reformatted. To
even go as far as Secure Erase (overwrite) at least one-pass before reformatting it
again, could help.
However, I'm not sure if the drives and situation you are looking at would necessarily
be a good match. It could work, but you'd need a reasonable size partition or hard
disk drive for a system. Snow Leopard and all its associated applications, can do
OK in a 100GB HDD. (My computers have more storage capacity than is used; so
for mine to have 60% free space, is good.) Virtual Memory is drive space used by
OS X, that can be a substantial amount for swap and temp files. Some applications
make duplicates of works-in-progress, for each change in an open file; that adds up.
{This question (& my reply) should've been in their own thread & not at the end
of one that is nearly three months old, + marked 'solved' by the original poster.}
So I guess I don't have a direct answer to your question; having just returned from
a few hundred miles and automobile issues, too. I'm not really thinking on-topic...
The clone should be on its own separate drive, and up to 3TB drive dedicated to
Time Machine may be overkill, however that software will consume old backups first
when it uses up all the space. Or usually that is what happens in TM backups. If
that isn't happening, there may an issue in how Time Machine is set up.
Good luck & happy computing! -
I back up with an external hard drive using time machine. I am trying to reload my iphoto library but it won't let me get back to a date that I need to. How do I do this?
Try Pondini's articles;
http://pondini.org/TM/15.html - scroll down to the pink box for iPhoto restoation.
Also http://pondini.org/TM/15A.html to clarify how to use the timeline.
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