Format an external hard drive to make Time Machine happy?

I have 2 Macs, and have partitioned an Iomega external hard drive (IOMEGA 500GB DSKTP USB 2.0 HRD DRV-USA), purchased from the Apple website, to have a sector for each, so they can work with Time Machine. The new iMac works flawlessly.
However, my G4 Powerbook, upgraded to Leopard, has the problem where Time Machine recognizes the drive, starts to back up the computer onto the formatted (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) sector of the HD, but does not complete the backup. I have attempted to erase and reformat the HD, but to no avail.
I have tried to find out how to format a Mac disk, since this is the advised fix, but I can't find out how to do so, aside from re-partitioning in Disk Utility, which didn't work.
Does anyone have a fix for this problem?

i have had mixed results with time machine on external drives as well
at work - a g4 dual 1ghz, i can use time machine flawlessly on a LaCie FW drive, I have used it several times to recover files, it works as advertised.
for home - a 1.8ghz g5, I purchased a Fantom G-Force MegaDisk 1TB eSATA / USB 2.0 External Hard Drive and had serious troubles. 1st, I could not format the drive from that mac on several different usb ports (unfortunately i do not have an eSATA card), I kept getting an error message (sorry I can't recall it right now). I had to use my wife's powerbook (10.4) and it formatted no problem. Now, however, my 1st time machine backup is not yet complete after 24 hours (it was 500gb, but seriously, 24 hours?).
I may consider bagging time machine at home in favor of a RAID set-up
what a shame.

Similar Messages

  • Formatting an external hard drive for Mac/Time Machine.

    Hello-
    Just purchased a Time Capsule to use both as a wireless Network and backup hard drive. Both are working great. However, I have an external hd (500 gig "My Book") I used with a previous computer (PC). I would like Time Capsule/Time Machine to backup everything on the My Book external hd but I realize I need to reformat in order to have the Time Machine backup this drive. It appears that the only way to reformat the external hd is to erase it's contents. This isn't an option for me as this drive is almost full and has a ton of data I do not want to lose. Can anyone elaborate on how I can reformat this disk so it will be compatible with my new setup without losing any of it's contents? Thank you for your time and help.
    Matt

    Some 3rd-party apps, such as iPartition, claim to be able to do that. But they +*very prominently+* warn you to back up first, in case something goes wrong. And there have been a few posts here where something did go wrong and the user hadn't backed-up, so lost everything.
    iPartition (and I think all the others) cost money, of course. Instead of spending it there, your best bet is to get another external HD, a larger one. Copy the data to it, reformat the WD, and copy it back. Make sure Time Machine is backing-it up to your Time Capsule (ie., not listed in the exclusions box of +Time Machine Preferences > Options).+
    Then erase and partition the new one. One partition should be at least as large as your Mac's internal HD, the other 500 GB or more. Use this drive for "secondary" backups of both, via CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. [CarbonCopyCloner|http://www.bombich.com> is donationware; [SuperDuper|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html] has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling.
    You might even want to get a portable HD for this, so you can take it off-site and also be protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc.

  • How can I reformat my external hard drive from the time machine format to regular format?

    Ok so when first starting out I got an external hard drive for my time machine, little did I know I would run out of space really fast and would need to buy a bigger and better hard drive. Now that I did that, I have my old hard drive that I would like to use for copying material form my laptop to my desktop. However, it is still set as my time machine and tries to back up my lap top every time I plug it in. Also, it says that about half of it is still filled with stuff. I erased everything on it. I just want to reformat it so that it is like I just bought it.

    Tirrel wrote:
    I had the same idea as you however when I tried going to Disk Utility and I tried to erase it an error message came up telling me that it is unable to erase.
    Unable to erase, or unable to unmount?
    If Time Machine is trying to back up to it, or some other process is using it, Disk Utility won't be able to unmount it.   Turn Time Machine OFF; if you have the drive open via the Finder or any other app, close it or quit the app(s).
    At worst, start up from your Install disc or other alternate source and erase it from there.  If you're not sure how to do that, see the yellow box in #1 of Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks.

  • If I have to format an external hard drive to make it Mac compatible, will it delete all the content in the external hard drive?

    If I have to format an external hard drive to make it Mac compatible, will it delete all the content in the external hard drive?

    As others have said, the answer to your question is a big YES.  Formatting a drive will delete everything!
    To keep your data, yet reformat the drive for optimal Mac compatibility, you will need to:
    1) copy your files to a different hard drive (I would recommend two different locations if you value your data)
    2) repartition/format the external drive
    3) then copy the files back to the external.
    You haven't given details but if you need the external to ONLY be compatible with the Mac (and no longer care if if can be read by Windows), then you will want to partition the drive using the GUID partition scheme, and format as the (HFS+) "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" filesystem.  You can do so using the built-in "Disk Utility" application on your Mac (in the Applications/Utilities directory).  Here are instructions:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ph5845
    If you need the drive to be compatible with both Mac and Windows computers then please post that so someone can recommend a solution for your specific needs.

  • I would like to connect an external hard drive to my time machine and use it as a network drive to store itunes and iPhoto  how do i do this

    I have just purchased a new my book hard drive and would like to connect it to my time capsule and store my itunes and iphoto contentent there to free up space on my internal hard drive . Can this be done and what is the process?

    I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive.
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  • I have an IMAC and I'm running OSX 10.9.2.  I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries to an external hard drive.  In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the externa

    I have an IMAC and I'm running OSX 10.9.2.  I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive.  In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives.  Is this possible? Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?

    I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive.
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    In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives.
    Let me be clear.. you want to partition the one disk.. use it for TM and move your files to the external disk.. and then backup to the same disk.. You can do it.. but that is not a backup.. that is an experiment in how long you can get away with running files and backups on the same disk before you lose everything.. like Russian Roulette.. pull the trigger enough times and laws of probability will do you in.
    You must have backups on a different disk .. otherwise it is pointless.
    Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?
    No.. you can buy special USB and Thunderbolt external drives that support RAID..
    BUT that is still not a backup.. let me show why.. you make a silly move and corrupt your file in aperture.. it is not that rare.
    Raid will corrupt all copies of the files.. it is replicated across all disks.
    Delete a photo it is deleted across all disks.. you have no recovery.
    Alway, always consider RAID system one disk.. backup onto another disk.. and if the photos or movies are at all important to you.. ie your family .. make another copy and store in a relatives house.. There is no such thing as too much redundancy.

  • Trying to use a new, larger external hard drive for my Time Machine backup.  However, every time I start the backup, it gets started then fails.  And, I can't delete the few files that did save on the external.  Sort of a catch 22.  Any ideas?

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  • I have a 250GB western digital external hard drive for my time machine backups. if i just want to backup and recover my photos and movies how do i do that with time machine?

    I have a 250GB western digital external hard drive for my time machine backups. I did not download the software that came with the external HD. If I only want to backup my photos and movies from my Macbook how do I do that in Tme Machine with my external HD?

    Format the HDD in Disk Utility>Erase to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the open System Preferences>Time Machine and set up the external disk as the Time Machine HDD.  Then look at the Options, and exclude what you do not want backed up.
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  • How do you remove back up data from the memory storage? my storage data states that i have over 80gb of data used for back ups and i dont know why as i use a external hard drive as a time machine .now my 250gb flash storage is nearly full

    how do you remove back up data from the memory storage? my storage data states that i have over 80gb of data used for back ups and i dont know why as i use a external hard drive as a time machine .now my 250gb flash storage is nearly full.. HELP!

    When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as  Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.
    See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.

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    Hi there, got a problem. I accidentally converted my external hard drive to a time machine backup and it re-formats my hard drive. What should i do to get back my data? It happened during my first time using a Mac book Air...
    Please help. Thank you.

    As Link pointed out in that thread, there's a lot excluded:
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    Thus there should be about 80 GB that's included.
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    Why is my MacBook Pro reading my external hard drive setup for time machine reading as a virtual cd?
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