External Hard Drive isn't being found in Time Machine. Cant back up my mac.

Just bought a samsung 500gb external hard drive because I need to backup my mac to do a full system reboot because it is completely messed up after downloading the new yosemite update.
But when I go to time machine it isn't offered as an option for a backup disk. I go to disk utility and I can't reformat the hard drive from MS-DOS (FAT) to Mac OS extended (Journaled). I try to change it and it reverts back straight away and I can't change the name of my hard drive. I don't understand what I have to do, i'm currently in safe boot because my laptop runs too slow in normal mode.
Any help would be great.

Select the icon of the drive you want to partition—not any of the volume icons below it—in the Disk Utility window. Select the Partition tab.
From the Partition Layout menu in the window, select One Partition.
From the Format menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Click the Options button and select GUID Partition Table.
Click the Apply button and confirm when prompted.

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  • I bought an external hard drive for backups to use with Time Machine, but however when I try to connect it with the other windows laptop it doesn't work ? intact it doesn't work on any other device except my MAC ?

    I bought an external hard drive for backups to use with Time Machine, but however when I try to connect it with the other windows laptop it doesn't work ? intact it doesn't work on any other device except my MAC ?

    Do not worry about it.
    Time Machine needs that your external drive is formatted in HFS+, or better known as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". This filesystem is used by Apple on Macs and Windows cannot read or write drives formatted with this filesystem, being this the reason why all your devices do not read the external drive except your Mac.
    You can only use your external drive to make Time Machine drives. If you store anything different, you may damage the Time Machine structure, so it is better not to use it as a drive to store other data. Instead, get another external drive to do it or create a second partition on the external drive formatted in FAT32 by using Disk Utility > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html FAT32 can be read by Windows PCs

  • When using Time Machine, if I delete items from my computer, will they still be backed up to access later on my external hard drive? In other words, when time machine backs up again, will it delete the files from the back up?

    When using Time Machine, if I delete items from my computer, will they still be backed up to access later on my external hard drive? 
    In other words, when time machine backs up again, will it delete the files from the back up that I have deleted from my computer?

    No, I do not believe so. Time Machine would keep all those now-deleted files in previous backups, and as time goes by those backups might be deleted if you needed room, but it would still keep one backup from each day in last month, as well as one from each week forever, as long as you don't start running out of room, then just the oldest would be deleted to make room if needed.
    I use a backup drive about double the size of my drive to be backed up, so I would guess it will never get to the point where deleted files being replaced by new ones being backed fill up that drive to the point where backups actually have to get deleted.

  • I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. suggestions to complete backup please?

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    Sounds like you'll need to access that drive while it is not booted. You need to replace it anyway, so do that, then one way or another (ext enclusure, et), access it and copy files.
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  • I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

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  • I bought an external hard drive and now use it as time machine. I copied my photos to it. Can I now delete my iphotos?

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    I think you mean Your Hard Disc is Full as opposed to iPhoto.
    agrech21 wrote:
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  • HT201250 Is there a possibility to recover erased files from an external hard drive that was reformatted by the Time Machine?

    Is there a possibility to recover erased files from an external hard drive that was reformatted by the Time Machine?

    Basics of File Recovery
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  • How can you back up your ipod onto your external hard drive that you're using in time machine?

    I just bought an external hard drive and want to put my ipod music on it but can't figure out how.  My ipod has music that my itunes library on my computer doesn't have.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  • I need step by step instructions for backing up tiger to external hard drive. I don't have time machine..HELP!

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    It would help to know where you are in the processs.  Do you already have a drive?
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  • How big should my external hard drive be for me to use Time Machine?

    i am a student and dont have a significant amount of files and that on my computer so how big shuld my external hard drive be?
    I will be using a normal external hard drive so will i be getting the full and the important features out of time machine if i do this?

    There are two questions you should ask yourself:
    1.  How long will it take me to fill up my internal HDD?
    2. How far back chronologically do I realistically expect to have go to retrieve data?
    I submit that in the vast majority of cases, a HDD of the same size as you have in your MBP will be ample.  If things change, adjustments can be made well in advance.  Its the very rare user that will generate multi GBs of data and file changes every session.
    As an example, I have a 750GB HDD in my MBP and a 750 HDD dedicated to Time Machine.  The oldest backup goes back 7 months.  At the rate that I update Time Machine, I expect the Disk to be filled and start deleting old data in about 3 months.  For me, that is more than sufficient.
    There is another aspect of backup strategy you should consider.  I would highly reccomend that you have a second external drive to store your most important files that may be duplicates of those in Time Machine.  All HDD will fail.  You just never know when that will happen.  If your Time machine disk expires, this way you are not left in a calamitious situation.
    Though some of my views may be in the minority, the final decision is always yours.
    Ciao.

  • My external hard drive isn't being recognized

    I have an extrenal drive I used to back up my dvds for faster viewing and the drive is going out I think. It will disconnect midway through movies, when uploading or downloading to/from it it will sometimes just disconnect itself. about 75-80% of the time its plugged in it wont show up. I can't attempt to transfer more than about 3 gigs of information or else if ejects itself, and it won't even show up in disk utility.
    How can I get this crazy drive to be recognized so I can keep working on transfering the data back off it before it dies completely

    OK, so are there any volumes listed for that disk in Disk Utility? And how does it not allow you to repair the disk? Is the option grayed out? Try clicking on the disk AND the volume and comparing the options for each.
    For example:
    149.1 GB FUJITSU MHW2160BHPL Media
    |- Macintosh HD
    |- disk0s3
    186.3 GB Prolific PL3507 Combo Device *(On this disk…)*
    |- Time Machine *(…here is my Time Machine volume.)*
    |- Windows Extra
    Message was edited by: Sidney San Martín

  • HT201250 Can I partition my external hard drive and use one partion for time machine and the other one for data that i may want to use in different computers?

    I have this doubt. I've just bought an external drive, especifically a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3 tb.
    I want to know if it is recomendable to make a partion exclusively for time machine and let another one so I can put there music, photos, videos, etc that I should need to use or copy to another computer.
    May half and half, 1.5 tb for time machine and 1.5 tb for data.
    I have an internal hard drive of 500 GB (499.25 GB) in my macbook pro.
    Any recommendation?

    As I said, yes. Be sure your Time Machine partition has at least 1 TB for backups.
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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 two (2). 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 Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

  • TS1550 My new WD 3tb My Cloud external hard drive can't be seen by Time Machine....

    .....though it can be seen  and connected to through Finder, I just get this message when I try to backup -The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 2.). 
    First back up went fine and a couple after but I had to reconnect the WD drive to reposition it and since then Time Machine has not worked.  I'm fast loosing patience.
    Help please.

    There is a long history of WD disk enclosures not being as compatible with Macs as other makes.
    The Carbon Copy Cloner site has some notes about this. As far as I can tell you are on the wrong forum.
    Whilst it may not be your fault I am afraid it appears that your post is on a forum which is not the best for your OS. It will save the time of the unpaid volunteers here, and may resolve your issue faster, if you could examine the list below and see if there is a more appropriate forum to which you could direct your question.
    OS X 10.9 Mavericks
    OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
    OS X 10.7 Lion
    OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
    OS X 10.5 Leopard
    OS X 10.4 Tiger
    OS X 10.3 and earlier
    OS 9, OS 8 & System 7
    OS X Technologies
    OS X Server
    iPad
    iPhone
    iPod
    Other

  • I have a Seagate 3TB external hard drive and was using it with time machine on my old system with Snow Leopard and it was working smoothly. I have now upgraded to Mavericks and when I tried setting up time machine again, it did not work.

    The OS does not detect the drive when I start the system, but Disk Utility shows the disk as an external drive. I seem to be going around in circles. Please take a look at the following screen grabs for the errors I am getting.

    But When I verify The sub-partition in the Disk (disk4s2), it asks me to repair disk. When I try to repair disk, it gives me this error.

  • My internal hard drive isn't being recognized on my macbook pro but when I put the HD in my Mac Pro (desktop), the desktop computer recognizes the HD.  When I insert the installer CD on my laptop, it also doesn't recognize my hard drive. Please help!

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    Well, I tried all of your suggestions and they didn't work -- no surprise because I was trying to backup to my external c.d. disk.  Duh!  The application for the home is in the mail.

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