I cannot get the external hard drive on Airport to be used for Time Machine

I have an Airport Extreme (latest edition I believe) with all updates. I hooked up a powered hard drive to it via usb. When I go into the Airport Utility, I can see the disk (kind of grayed out) under disks. It even says the right size of space remaining. But I can't see how to choose it or do anything with it. I want to be able to do Time Machine backups with it. Any help would be appreciated.

Unfortunately, what you are trying to do is not supported by Apple, so you'll have to keep an open mind about all of this if you want to try it anyway.
It does seem to work for some users, it works for some other users some of the time, and some users have no success at all with this. I've tried this maybe 10-12 times over the past few years, and I remain in the "no success" category.
First, you need to make sure that the drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Second, you probably will need to use a powered USB hub even though your drive is powered
Then you have to set up Time Machine as follows:
Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)
Turn "ON" Time Machine
Click Select Disk
If your disk appears (it may not....remember this is not supported) click on it to highlight it
Click Use for Backup
if the backup is successful, please keep in mind that most problems tend to surface a few weeks to even a few months after you start the backups. They become corrupted and you usually have to erase the drive and start over again.
So, you would probably want to set up a secondary back up plan as well to keep your important data safe.

Similar Messages

HT4848 Is it possible to partition an external hard drive that is already being used for Time Machine backups without it being erased?

I'm want to use my current external hard drive, which I use for Time Machine Backup, as a recovery disk for Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2. From what I have read, the recovery disk assistant will erase all data on the external drive unless it is partitioned. Can I partition my current backup drive without erasing it, even though it is already being used for Time Machine?

It's very simple to test. Turn off your computer. Have your time machine backup plugged in. Hold option and turn it on, keeping option held. Do you see your time machine drive? If so, select it and press enter. You'll end up in recovery. If it works, there you go. Then just click the apple and restart to get back to your regular desktop. Then you'll know for when you're ready to do the deed.
Edit...
I'm not sure if time machine will think it's an entirely different computer, though, when a hard drive changed, making an actual restore not doable. Either way, you could still reinstall mt lion fresh and then just migrate after, skipping the need for SL.

I formatted an external hard drive to my macbook to use for time machine. I now want to "unformat" it so I can use it as a transfer device (large flash drive). How do I do it??

Explains it all ^

1. Connect the External HD and open Disk Utility in your Utilities Folder.
2. Highlight the external HD in the list of drives and select the Partition tab.
3. Under Partition Layout select 1 Partition and click on the Options... button.
4. Select Master Boot Record in the drop down window and click OK.
5. Set the Format: to MS-DOS (FAT), name it and click the Apply button.
6. Click the Partition button.

Can I partition my external hard drive so that one partition is for Time Machine and the other is to install Windows with Boot Camp?

I have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive that I currently use just for Time Machine backups. Is it possible for me to go into Disk Utility and create a new partition on the drive so that I may install Windows 7 via Boot Camp? Or since I am already using it for Time Machine do I have to keep it only for Time Machine?

You must install Boot Camp in your internal drive because Windows can't be installed in an external disk and Boot Camp can't do that

I was thinking about formatting my external hard drive into two partitions. HFS for time machine backup

I really want to format my MacBook after I back up and have it clean like a new machine. And I was wondering if I need to back up after a couple of months will Time Machine back it up as a new computer or will it overwrite?
Also if I do 250GB HFS+ partition for time machine & 250GB NTFS/FAT32 to use with windows. Can the HFS+ partition be used to save files from MacBook using drag & drop? I.E. without using time machine?

A data recovery specialist or some data recovery programs should be able to help. Most format simply rewrite the directory tree saying no files are on this disk. The bits that represent the files are still flipped appropreiately so they still exists, you just don't have the location info to get at them. Secure formats and erases rewrite each bit to a zero or 1 or random so the data is then truely gone. This type of format takes a long time to complete.
I'm not making a recomendation of a particular program but here is one company that does what you ask:
http://www.remosoftware.com/mac-recovery The cost is pretty high but I'm sure they don't sell many copies and need to cover their development costs.
Good luck and don't write anything on the freshly formatted disk until you decide what to do.

I have iMovie 09. I just erased my external hard drive, but it is still formatted for the mac. However, iMovie will not recognize the hard drive. It shows the only hard drive available is the computers. How do I get the external hard drive to show up?

I have iMovie 09. I just erased my external hard drive, but it is still formatted for the mac. However, iMovie will not recognize the hard drive. It shows the only hard drive available is the computers. How do I get the external hard drive to show up?

In Finder's Menu, select Go menu>Go to Folder, and go to "/volumes". (no quotes)
Volumes is where an alias to your hard drive ("/" at boot) is placed at startup, and where all the "mount points" for auxiliary drives are created for you to access them. This folder is normally hidden from view.
Drives with an extra 1 on the end have a side-effect of mounting a drive with the same name as the system already think exists. Try trashing the duplicates with a 1 or 2 if there are no real files in them, and reboot.
If it does contain data...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

I have an external hard drive that I have been using for years. All of a sudden my mac will not recognize the external as a "save as" device location. But the external does show up on my desktop and I can open it to drag and drop items. Help.

I have an external hard drive that I have been using for years. All of a sudden my mac will not recognize the external as a "save as" device location. But the external does show up on my desktop and I can open it to drag and drop items. What happened and how do I get my mac to rerecognize the device?!?!?

Hi,
Check Finder>Preferences>Sidebar, is it checked there to show external drives?

If you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also remove it from time machine on external hard drive

if you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also delete it from time machine on the external hard drive ?

As the others say, no, the backup copy won't be deleted immediately, but it will eventually.
If you want to delete all backups of a selected item, such as for space or security reasons, see #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Does an external hard drive have to stay plugged in with Time Machine?

I have an external hard drive but I do not always leave it plugged in. I usually back up my computer every week or so and am just now getting around to using Time Machine. If i plug in my external hard drive and press "Back up now" will Time machine back up my entire computer again or just what has been updated? Do I have to leave the slider for Time Machine in the On position or should I turn it off until the next time I plug it in?
Thanks

Only if you want it to continue backing up the computer. If you eject it Time Machine will suspend backups. Time Machine will reinitiate backups when the drive is reconnected.
If nothing has changed, the selecting Back up Now will not create a completely new backup.

My backup hard drive does not have enough space for time machine to perform a back up even after erasing entire contents of bu hard drive

My backup hard drive does not have enough space for time machine to perform a back up even after erasing entire contents of bu hard drive. The hard drive has been in service for almost two years performing this function with no sign of failure. How do I adjust time machine perameters?

The only way to limit the size of the backup is to exclude data from the backup, which you can do in Time Machine preferences.
If you use multiple browsers, have you tried clearing your browser caches? However, that's just a stop gap if it works. You either need to limit what you backup or get another drive.

"Mac OS X cannot be installed on 'Macintosh HD'. This disk is used for Time Machine backups."

I am trying to upgrade our MacBook to Snow Leopard, but when prompted to select which hard drive to install on and "Macintosh HD" is selected, the following message generates: "Mac OS X cannot be instaled on 'Macintosh HD'. This disk is used for Time Machine backups."
I disabled Time Machine switched it "off," put it in the trash can, then "Secure Emptied" the trash can. I also rebooted. Then I connected an external hard drive thinking that might help, but for some reason I still cannot proceed with the Snow Leopard upgrade because "the disk is used for Time Machine backups."
WHAT is the DEAL!?

It doesn't sound like an upgrade would work very well anyway. Make sure you have a good backup and repartition the startup volume. Then install Snow Leopard onto the hard drive and migrate your old users and applications.

How do I combine an old itune library thats on an external hardrive and a newer library thats on a newer computer into 1 library and keep them on the external hard drive so I won't use up all my memory on my newer laptop

I copied an old iTunes library off my old Toshiba laptop with windows xp and put it on an external hard drive. I have a newer Microsoft surface pro laptop with windows 8.1. I have a small iTunes library on my newer laptop. I want to combine the 2 libraries into 1, add newer podcasts to the combined library daily, but keep it all on my external hard drive, so I don't use all my memory on my surface pro. I have an older ipod classic that I have all my old library on. I love it and don't want to stop using it, but want to be able to add podcasts from my 1 library from time to time. What I usually do is download podcasts for a few weeks then, download them to my ipod. Haven't done any of this in about a year. But want to start getting regular with it again. PS I'm not very computer savy Thanks for any help or advice!

This article explains how to open a different library: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one. The assumption is that the whole library was copied to the external drive from the old Toshiba laptop, not just the media. If that isn't the case make a new library on the external drive in a folder called \iTunes and move the media inside \iTunes\iTunes Media before adding it to the library.
Once iTunes is using the library on the external drive you can add any content stored on the internal drive to the library by drag & drop or by moving/copying the content into \iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes. Make sure the option under Edit > Preferences > Advanced to Copy files to the folder iTunes Media when adding to library is selected. Once complete you can delete the original copies on the internal drive.
Should your library contain duplicates after merging see this recent post on deduping.
If there are ratings, playlists, play counts, or content stored on the iPod classic and not located anywhere else then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
Ideally you should backup your library to a second drive for security. See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a suggested strategy.
tt2

External hard drive stops working with AP Extreme after Time machine touches it

*sigh*
Ok.
I had a 1.5TB external HD connected to my Airport Extreme (henceforth to be known as APE) working fine, albeit with unexpected slow transfer speeds....not the point. Moving along.
Updated to 7.6.1 firmware. Ugh. I wish apple would have their standard idiot mode plus an advanced option.
Getting to the point.
I decide that im going to try Time Machine but there is no way that im going to try doing the inital backup over wireless. I disconnect the external hard drive from the APE and connect to my computer start the backup and decide encryption is a good idea. Turns out, bad idea as it puts some kind of encryption on the whole volume not just an image which i assumed it would do. I decide that this time machine idea is stupid and wonder why the **** its trying to backup 130GB of data after i excluded a lot of data. Anyway. I remove the time machine data, do into disk utility and remove the encryption and plug it back up the the APE.
No dice. The drive will not load at all on the APE and i believe it has something to do with some funky timemachine encryption voodoo. I want to avoid formatting this drive.
So.
Help?

I reformatted and its now working.
*Ugh*

I cannot access the external hard drive connected to my time capsule via wifi

I have two external hard drives (a WD mybook and an older Seagate, both HFS+ formatted) connected via a USB hub to my time capsule (which is also my wifi router).
Here's the funny thing: If I a connect my mac mini to the time capsule via an ethernet cable, both disks show up as normal in Finder - along with 'Data' under Time Capsule under Shared.
But if I disconnect the ethernet cable and connect to the router via wifi, there's no sign at all of the two disks - not in Finder, and not under 'Disks' in the Airport Utility.
Anyone out there with a solution?!

Hi William, and thanks for replying.
I do have a guest network set up (for exactly that reason that guests don't get access to shared disks) but am definitely not connected to it.
So sadly it has to be something else.

I was trying to back up my mac by using my external hard drive. Without realizing it, time machine erased all my backups from my other computers. Is there any way to recover these files? I can't even get the external hard drive to work on my pc.

I was trying to use my external hard drive to back up my mac computer. It had files on it from my pc computer. Time machine erased all my existing files. (I thought it was only going to erase the duplicate files and rewrite them). Is there anyway to recover these files from my external hard drive. My mac has renamed the hard drive time maching and it will no longer show up on my pc. What can I do?

Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

I cannot get the external hard drive on Airport to be used for Time Machine

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for