HT3275 When I press "select backup location" in the Time Machine section of System Preferences, my external hard drive doesn't appear as an option. How do I change this?

When I press "select backup location" in the Time Machine section of System Preferences, my external hard drive doesn't appear as an option. How do I change this? My external hard drive is a FreeAgent GoFlex Drive.

Hi, what Format is the external Drive?
They usually come PC Formatted for Fat32/MSdos, or NTFS... is there anything on it now?
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

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I am trying to use Time Machine to back-up to an external hard drive and I get the following message.Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder. Does anyone know what I should do?

I am trying to use Time Machine to back-up to an external hard drive and I get the following message.Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder. Does anyone know what I should do?

Hello Drake, I suspect one or more of the Drives needs repairing, but...
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imaging something not being covered there.

If I deleted a file on my Mac would Time Machine delete its copy on my external hard drive when backing up?

I just finished backing everything up onto my new 2T WD My Book Essential because my Macbook Pro is absolutely full of Photoshop files. I want to delete them from my Mac (since they're backed up) but I'm too scared Time Machine will delete them from my external hard drive.
Thanks in advance.

Move the images over to an external drive that is connected to your Mac by USB or FireWire.
Then....Time Machine will backup both your Mac..and..the hard drive automatically.
Can you elaborate on this?
I have a 128GB McAir (mid 2011 model) with a 2GB TC for backup. I need another external hard drive to save pictures and home HD videos. I wanted to partition the TC but learned that is not recommended. So now I’m looking to get two external hard drives to store priceless files and back it up.
Your comment makes me think I only need one external hard drive and use the 2GB TC as backup. A good option since 2GB is an overkill for a 128GB notebook.
Can you please share the steps? Plug in a HDD to McAir and run Time Machine? Is that it?
Thanks.

Time machine won't let me include external hard drive in backup

My memory was full on our computer so I got an external hard drive to move over our iphoto library to (I have a large iphoto library ~22,000 pictures that continues to grow). For discussion purposes I'll call this - IPhoto HD.
I also have another external hard drive that we've had for quite some time that I use as our time machine backups. (Time Machine HD).
I copied over my iphoto library to the new external HD (IPhoto HD).
I then went into my time machine under settings and wanted to make sure that the IPhoto HD was being backed up on the Time Machine HD. (after I got verification of this I was going to delete the iphoto library from our computer to free up some space).
When I go into time machine under options - the Iphoto HD is greyed out - and it won't allow me to delete it from the "do not back up" list. (however the Time Machine HD is not greyed out - I could delete it if I wanted to).
I tried searching for the answer in the forums and couldn't figure it out. I did verify that the format of the IPhoto HD is Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I should note that both external Hard drives are WD My Book for Mac 2TB. Not sure if that makes a difference.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Sorry, but Time Machine does not back up reliably, if at all, to most network drives, except Time Capsules or a shared drive on another Mac running Leopard or Snow Leopard on the same local network.
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.
The messages indicate that Time Machine found the volume, but couldn't write to it. That may be some sort of sharing or permissions error, or it may be that the device doesn't support all the things Time Machine requires, per the link above.
Are you sure that it's compatible with Snow Leopard? Some NAS devices that worked with Leopard didn't seem to work with Snow Leopard, at least when it first came out.
You may need to check with LaCie or the place you got it.

HT1338 I was backing up my MacBook with Time Machine on my new (correctly formatted) external hard drive. It was going fine when my 2 yo knocked the hard drive. Now TM said "failed" and the Mac refuses to recognize the external hard drive. Help please?

I was backing up my MacBook with Time Machine and using my new (correctly formatted) external hard drive. All was going well when my 2 yo knocked the disk leading to a "failure" by time machine (Latest Backup: Failed). Now the MacBook will not even recognize the hard drive. I have rebooted, tried all I can think of, but no acknowledgement of the drive. The drive itself makes noise and vibrates as if working, but nothing from the Mac. Please help or $100 down the drain... Thank you.

You may have already done these resets in the "tried all I can think of " portion of your post.....if not then here they are.....
PRAM
support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
SMC
support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
.....hopefully that is all that is required.....

HT3275 I inadvertantly clicked on the time machine in my system preferences and it disappeared. It says there is no disc... Help!

I inadvertantly clicked on the Time Machine icon in my system folder and it disappeared. it says there is no disc when I try to back up. Help!!

Couple of things I spotted right off ... diagnostics still don't show me as an administrator but I told it run as administrator. When it asked to insert a prerecorded CD and then choose which drive to use, I have no drives in the menu to choose from but yesterday I had 2 and shows no external plug-ins installed. Hmmm. Fresh diagnostics below ...
Microsoft Windows 7 x64 Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
IBM 8114W2C
iTunes 10.5.2.11
QuickTime 7.7.1
FairPlay 1.13.37
Apple Application Support 2.1.6
iPod Updater Library 10.0d2
CD Driver 2.2.2.0
CD Driver DLL 2.1.3.0
Apple Mobile Device 4.0.0.97
Apple Mobile Device Driver 1.57.0.0
Bonjour 3.0.0.10 (333.10)
Gracenote SDK 1.9.5.502
Gracenote MusicID 1.9.5.115
Gracenote Submit 1.9.5.143
Gracenote DSP 1.9.5.45
iTunes Serial Number 00D4AB7C099BA9C8
Current user is not an administrator.
The current local date and time is 2012-01-18 19:18:55.
iTunes is not running in safe mode.
WebKit accelerated compositing is enabled.
HDCP is not supported.
Core Media is not supported. (16005)
Video Display Information
Intel Corporation, Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
Intel Corporation, Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
**** External Plug-ins Information ****
No external plug-ins installed.
Genius ID: b7d08a26c0b28e9f17d324690b8df8ca
iPodService 10.5.2.11 (x64) is currently running.
iTunesHelper 10.5.2.11 is currently running.
Apple Mobile Device service 3.3.0.0 is currently running.

I recently updated my Mid 2007 iMac with the latest OS 10.8.5 now my external hard drives will not show up. They show up when I boot them up on a machine running and earlier OS. Is there a fix for this?

I recently updated my 20-inch, Mid 2007 iMac with the latest OS 10.8.5 now my external hard drives will not show up. They show up when I boot them up on a machine running and earlier OS. Is there a fix for this?

Can you see them in Disk Utility?
If so, can you select and Mount them?
If not, disconnect them, reset the iMac's SMC and then reconnect them.
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer's power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
If you still can not see them, connect them back up to the iMac running the older OS, open Disk Utility and look to see how they are partitioned and formatted.

I can't import any photos. 'Could not copy to requested location' is the given but i have tried importing to both hard drive and external drive.

i can't import any photos. 'Could not copy to requested location' is the given but i have tried importing to both hard drive and external drive. Help please ?

Most likely, the "requested location" where you are trying to copy files to does not have WRITE permission, and so you need to change the permissions.

HT201250 How long should an initial time machine backup of tack for 675 GB?s with a USB external hard drive?

How long should an initial time machine backup of tack for 675 GB?s with a USB external hard drive?

Not much faster than 40 GBs-60GBs per hour. So, minimally, around 12 hours.

Does Time Machine backup items on the time machine disk?

If I designate disk B as my Time Machine disk, are items on disk B, that aren't part of what Time Machine puts there, backed up? In other words, can I use a disk for both storage and Time Machine backups and have those stored items backed up too?

If you intend to use disk B as both a Time Machine Backup Disk and a Data disk to hold your files, the only way to do that would be to partion the Disk B volume.
How do I partition an external hard drive ?
When an external is connected to a mac, the computer sees that Hard Drive as a Volume. Paritioning the volume is the ability to "Split" the volume in more parts that are limited by size. Time Machine will use the entire partition of a volume if the whole volume is used as a single partition. If you use the right tools and "Split" the external hard drive in smaller logical volumes then you can comfortably use the external hard drive for both your Time Machine Backups and your Data that you want to carry on an external drive.
The easiest way to partition a volume in more the one partition or logical volumes is to use the Disk Utility application that comes with every mac. Use the Finder to go to your Utilities folder and open Disk Utility, or search for it in Spotlight. Whit Disk Utility you can select your external Hard Drive and either change the partition to add a second one or erase all data on the existing external hard drive and create 2 Partitions that you can adjust in size. Remember Make sure you understand that if you choose to erase the existing external drive to make room for a new partition , that all data present on the external drive will be deleted.
Now that you have your two new partitions you can assign one to Time Machine and use the second one for Data. And with Time Machine Options you will be able to exclude or include your new external data partition to backup to your new Time Machine Backup Partition !

I have an Apple Macbook and will be backing up the entire system to an external hard drive utilizing the Time Machine application. when I am doing this, will the data on the external drive that I am using be erased?

I have an Apple Macbook and will be backing up the entire system in order to upgrade to a newer OS. I will be using an external hard drive to do this and there is already data on it. To complete the backup, i will be using the Time Machine application. Does this application wipe out all of the existing data on the external hard drive, or will it create a new "folder" for the backup?
thank you

No, but as steve359 states you should use a dedicated hard drive for backups. It you need a temporary backup then you can use the drive provided it has sufficient space for all your data on the hard drive.
When Time Machine finds that the drive has data on it already it may decide to erase the drive before continuing, which is another reason to use a dedicated drive.

I have an external hard drive set up as a Time Machine backup on my IMac. I want to add a second external hard drive and put my Aperture Photo Library on it. Is there a way to have the photos on this second hard drive automatically back up to the Time Mac

I have an IMac with an external hard drive set up as a Time Machine for automatic backups. I want to add a second external hard drive and load my Aperture Photo Library on to it so that the library can be shared by both me and my wife. Is there a way to automatically backup the photo library that will be on the second hard drive to the Time Machine hard drive?

Open System Preference > Time Machine
Click Options....
Ckick on external disk in list and hit the - button below the list to remove from the Exclusion list
Allan

I am trying copy dvd's (with no luck) to my macbook and then on to an external hard drive. What appears to be "copied" on the hard drive comes up with an error when you try to view the movies.

I am new to the Apple community and am having a lot of trouble. I am using a Macbook Pro and attempting to copy movies to an external hard drive for my husbands upcoming travels. I have used the "disk utility" and was able to watch the movie from my Pro but have not been able to figure out how to copy it to the external hard drive. I have a few movies on the external hard drive already but when he tries to view them from his Macbook Air or even the Pro we are unable to do so. An error message comes up and we are not able to determine what we need to do to fix this. We are not computer savvy and would appreciate if someone could explain to us how to resolve this problem. Thank you for all and any help we can get.

familyfromapo wrote:
The movies are Dexter that we purchased at a store. He uses the Air and since it does not have the disk option this is how we were hoping he could view his shows. We had no idea we would be breaking the law....just wanted to put all of the movies we have purchased on the external solely for the intent of our viewing.
Thank you for your time and help.
Sorry.
It is illegal to break the encryption to copy a dvd.
Judge: DVD-copying software is illegal - CNET News
Judge Rules DVD-Copying Software Is Illegal | Threat Level | Wired ...
MPAA Says Making Even "One Copy" of a DVD is Illegal

How do I keep a time machine sparsebundle image from filling up my hard drive to the point where it chokes and breaks the backups?

I have several machines in the office using Time Machine over a network to back up to a partitioned hard drive on our network. The size of the partition for each machines backup is ~3x the size of the data being backed up. Everthing hums along fine until the backup disk is almost full. Some of the Tme Machine backups sieze up because they almost completely run out of room on the target disk. There is so little room that even if I can mount the backup disk, there doesn't seem to be enough room to delete the older backups. Isn't Time Machine supposed to be smart enough to ditch the old backup first to avoid this problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated regarding 1. How to make the siezed up backups work again; and 2. How to keep this from happening in the future.
Many thanks in advance!

Here's my old bookmark for User Tips.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/user_tips_library_documents?view=overvie w
I haven't played, to any extent, with the new search function; that's about number one hundred on my list of things to learn to use in this new abomination of a forum. Might be easier to just do a Google search using pondini + whatever terms come to mind + site:discussions.apple.com

I get an error message when I try to empty the trash in order to clear up an external hard drive. I had been using it for time machine, have shifted that to a larger external hard drive, and want to free up the space for photographs. Any suggestions?

What should I do when I get an error message (error code - 8003) when I'm trying to empty the trash to clear up additional space on an external hard drive?

Yes. And you should not have moved that folder. Put it back. To move your iTunes library move the folder from User's Music.
tt2

HT3275 When I press "select backup location" in the Time Machine section of System Preferences, my external hard drive doesn't appear as an option. How do I change this?

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