I have suddenly become unable to access photo library iPhoto (vers 9.5) on my external drive. And time Machine will no longer back up to the same external (LaCie) drive. Appreciate all suggestions. The drive does show up on my desktop....

I have suddenly become unable to access photo library (iPhoto vers 9.5) on my external hard drive. Also time machine isnt backing up to same external hard drive (LaCie). The drive does show up on the desk top, but when i open iPhoto the library isnt listed, so I cant option click.

First, one should not try to run an iPhoto library from the same volume/drive that is being used by Time Machine for backups. TM will continue to fill up the drive thus squeezing out iPhoto from being able to be opened and used. Also that doesn't allow you to let TM backup your library as it does with other files on your boot drive.
If you partition the EHD into two separate partitions you can run the library from it but that won't let TM backup the library which is important.
Are you able to see the library on the EHD via the Finder? If so copy it back to your boot drive and open it there. You may have to do some fixing on it.
Solution is to either run the library from the boot drive or get a second EHD to run the library from and let TM back it up along with your boot drive.
OT

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My Time Machine will no longer back up to my external disk for unknown reasons. It would not accept my password and said the disk is read-only and damaged. How can I copy my files to my Mac so I can repair it?

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Hi there,
I have the same issue. Usually hangs after 10K od sometimes after 18MB of backup file.
Config: iTunes 10.4., Win 7 64bit, iPhone 4 with iOS 4.3.3
I tried all of these without success:
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- deleted backups from sync folder
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- ran all Windows updates, restarted, reinstalled iTunes
- ran iTunes / Diagnostics (says everything okay, only info which is strange: diag says I am not a admin user, which is not correct)
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Slow external hard drive and time machine un able to back up

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If Disk Utility can't repair it, there are some expensive third party products that may be able to do so, strictly for the purpose of extracting whatever files remain intact. I have none in particular to recommend.
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rtilghman wrote:
telling me to buy a new router is NOT a solution.
And why not? Apple is selling these things like BigMacs. They can't make enough of them. You've been suffering since May because you refuse to get a decent router.
Can you imagine if a company that makes a refrigerator told me that I needed to upgrade my electrical system to rectify a problem with their device? What kind of response IS that?!?!
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Thanks in advance

Apple explains how to use Time Machine in http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427.
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
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Here's a very basic question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.
Ihave a Mac Pro with a .75 TB and 1 TB drive. It also has a 1 TB 2ndinternal drive. My current external drive is too small so I'll begetting a 1.5 TB or 2 TB drive.
Obviouslythe new larger 2 TB drive will backup everything on the Mac Prointernal drive with Time Machine. But there will be 1 TB of space leftover going to waste.
ShouldI partition the external drive so that the TM portion will be 1 TB andthe use the remaining extra partition for additional file backups withCarbon Copy?
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I tried searching around on the new Apple discussion forum, but I find it much harder to use than the old forum I used to use.

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It is unlikely that you have regular churn on 2.75 TB of disk. I suggest identifying which drives and folders have the most activity and excluding those drives and directories that don't change much. It would be better to archive the data that doesn't change often and keep it out of Time Machine. Then you may be able to get away with a 2 TB Time Machine drive.

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Question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.

Here's a very basic question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.
I have a Mac Pro with a .75 TB and 1 TB drive. It also has a 1 TB 2nd internal drive. My current external drive is too small so I'll be getting a 1.5 TB or 2 TB drive.
Obviously the new larger 2 TB drive will backup everything on the Mac Pro internal drive with Time Machine. But there will be 1 TB of space left over going to waste.
Should I partition the external drive so that the TM portion will be 1 TB and the use the remaining extra partition for additional file backups with Carbon Copy?
Thanks for any insights.
I tried searching around on the new Apple discussion forum, but I find it much harder to use than the old forum I used to use.

John,
I'm not sure why you posted in the iMac forum so I'm going to attempt to get you to the correct spot. I would recommend reposting in the Time Machine Forum, this is part of the OS X forums (Leopard or Snow Leopard) because you are using Snow Leopard (your profile indicates you are) please click Apple Support Communities and type Snow Leopard. Then you can narrow the search down by clicking Refine this List.
Roger

How best to save photos? I want to protect my photos (15,000 of them) by putting them on a portable drive and storing it in my safety deposit box. Is it better to export them all, drag the Photo file, use Time Machine – or are there better alternatives?

I am a 'newby' to the discussion world. Hope I am doing this right. How best to save photos? I want to protect my photos (15,000 of them) by putting themon a portable drive and storing it in my safety deposit box. Is it better to export them all, dragthe Photo file, use Time Machine – or are there better alternatives?

Welcome to the discussions! You can use Time Machine and I would also recommend for you to manually copy your iPhoto Library (on your Pictures folder) to an external drive/thumb drive so you can restore it from there should you loose your TM backup. Exporting them from iPhoto would not preserve the libraries' integrity neither your originals, should you choose to edit them in iPhoto.
Regards.

Unable to access photos in iPhoto 08

Trying to access photos in iPhoto 08, and on some (almost always scanned not from digital camera) I get the circle and an exclamation point. On other problems photos I get a message; "insesrt disk or connect to server volume and wait for it to appear on deskktop and then try again." When i try to find in Finder it appears they are located in data section of Photo Library and therefore unaccessible. Possible clue is that it seems to happen with tiff files. Completely confused and grateful for any help!

No mystery. Your Library is corrupted.
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download <a href="http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/"><b><u>iPhoto Library Manager</b></u></a> and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new *iPhoto 08* library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.

After partitioning external drive network Time Machine instance can't back up

This is a re-post with additional background information requested by several responders:
I recently added a G-Speed Q RAID array to my MAC PRO to use exclusively for back-up with Time Machine. I purchased this RAID array from the Apple store, so assume that means it's acceptable to use for this purpose. Maybe that's a bad assumption on my part. In any event, it worked great with Time Machine on my MAC PRO. The G-speed array is connected to my Mac Pro via Firewire 800 port for now. I am awaiting delivery of an eSATA expansion card for the Mac Pro which I intend to switch to when it arrives. In any event, it is not configured or capable of acting as an NAS device. It is a shared external drive on the MAC PRO.
My next step was to share the external device over my hardwire gigabit LAN with my wife's iMAC so she could back-up with Time Machine as well. It also worked great. Both Macs are connected via hardwire gigabit, supported by an Actiontec Q1000Z router. The LAN performs flawlessly for all other purposes, including over 30 network devices connected via either hardwire or 802.11n. Both machines are running Lion 10.7.4. (not server)
I then started reading posts that suggested the two Time Machine instances would compete for space on the back-up array and eventually it would fill up and I'd have problems. The solution, everyone says, is to partition the external drive and assign one to each Time Machine back-up. It makes perfect sense to me. I did this following the step-by-step instructions (#22) from Pondini's site. Both partitions are formatted with MAC OS Extended (journaled). Everything seemed to be working great until the remote client tried to run back-up. The remote Time Machine instance fails with the "Disk does not support AFP featues" error message.
Current status is as follows, local time machine back-up works fine on its partition. Remote machine finds and connects to its assigned partition once I provide correct user name and password, but fails while Time Machine is "searching for backup device" with the AFP error message. The remote (sending) machine is connecting as a dedicated user and not as "Guest".
I can write test files directly to the remote back up partition from either mac and I can read, modify and save files directly to this partition from either mac.
Please let me know if any additional information related to configuration is needed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In my "dispute" with Pondini in the other thread, I came across some information that will certainly explain things, but not in a good way.
Apparently you cannot use an external drive as a Time Machine repository. People who use Snow Leopard and Lion Server to provide Time Machine services have already discovered this.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3327294
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2472139
It may work better when your eSATA card comes in. My theory is that a Thunderbolt RAID would show up as an internal drive and would be useable as a Time Machine repository. There is a chance that an eSATA card would do that too. You'll find out. Apparently, one of the things you get with Lion Server is a warning pop-up if you try to use an external drive with Time Machine.
While I'm a big fan of Time Machine, I still consider it Apple Black Magic. You can use it, but don't get too clever. I don't like to take chances with backups. Simple is usually better. Time Machine isn't simple, but it is so convenient that I like to ignore the incredible complexity of it.
If the other machine were a notebook with local snapshots I might say you could manually plug it in to do backups. With two iMacs, I would recommend just getting another external drive.
Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
- Gandalf

Using LaCie 1Tb Network drive and Time MAchine

I have read a number of thread here about issues with LaCie and Time Machine but cannot find the help I am looking for. I have a the Lacie device connected to my network and I have access through the Browser Administration utility to the drive, I believe I have set up the users and the shares correctly, and can connect to the share, but when i try to set up Time Machine it fails to recognize that the NAS drive is available, I am doing something wrong and it's probably very simple.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
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Here's Apple's public statement at http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html for what devices work with TM.
[You can designate just about any HFS+ formatted FireWire or USB drive connected to a Mac as a Time Machine backup drive. Time Machine can also back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, Leopard Server, or Xsan storage devices.]

Can Time Machine Be Used to Back Up Files from An External Hard Drive?

Please let me provide a little more information to clarify the question.
The hard drive on my computer is not large enough for all my photo and video files so I am planning to purchase a new external hard drive and move my "Pictures" and "Movies" folders to the new external hard drive as a way of freeing up space on my computer. A different external hard drive is now used for backup of the computer's hard drive.
My question is about how backups will be handled if I upgrade to Snow Leopard.
I understand that Time Machine will take the place of the software now being used to back up the MacHD, but back up is still needed for the photo and video files which would be moved off of the MacHD. Will Time Machine back up those files too? That is, will Time Machine back up specified folders which are being stored on one external hard drive and place the backups on a different external hard drive? And, will Time Machine do that in addition to backing up the MacHD? If so, are separate partitions needed for the MacHD and the Photo/Video backups, or will Time Machine put everything in the same partition?
Any advice and/or suggestions for handling this in would be most appreciated.
Thanks for your help.

As captfred says, yes (as long as the drive is formatted for a Mac, not Windoze).
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

I have suddenly become unable to access photo library iPhoto (vers 9.5) on my external drive. And time Machine will no longer back up to the same external (LaCie) drive. Appreciate all suggestions. The drive does show up on my desktop....

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