I just set up Time Machine and have a WD external disc attached.

A WD SmartWare folder now resides on my desktop. It contains a question that asks if I want to back up files or set up the drive.
What am I supposed to do? Thanks for your assistance.

burgessiii22 wrote:
Thanks for the answer Linc, but how do I check to make sure the back-up process is working if I don't think I need to restore?
Create a test file with Text Edit (or any other program) and save it to your desktop.
Run Time Machine from the menu bar.
When the Time Machine icon in the menu bar stops spinning, drag your test file to the trash.
Open Time Machine and go back 1 page. You should see your test file on the desktop.

Similar Messages

Where did this backup window come from on my desktop. I have always used time machine to backup to an external disc and within the last 2 weeks, this backup window keeps appearing. Where did it come from? Thanks for any help

where did this backup window come from on my desktop. It specifies personal data & settings and tells me when the next backup is scheduled [which I never set up]. I have always used time machine to backup to an external disc and within the last 2 weeks, this backup window keeps appearing. Where did it come from? Thanks for any help

To check your S.M.A.R.T status open disk utility and click on your drive and then click on the info icon.

HT4356 I have an older HP connected to the usb port of my Time Machine, and have it shared. I want to print from my iPhone on the network, but it can not be found in airport? How do I make this work?

I have an older HP connected to the usb port of my Time Machine, and have it shared. I want to print from my iPhone on the network, but it can not be found in airport? How do I make this work?

AirPrint printers connected to the USB port of the Apple AirPort Base Station or Time Capsules are not supported with AirPrint.
Read through this for information about Airprint printers and how to use them:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4356

HT203177 I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process ove

I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process over again.

Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then repair the backup/TM drive.

How do I change the name I have called my MacBook Air so I can add 11" and 13" into the title of whose computer this is for more clarity when I set up Time Machine and save to it with both computers? Both are named with "my name and MacBook Air"

I'm still learning the whole Mac thing but these are great machines! I purchased a MacBook Air 13" and then thought I should also get a MacBook Air 11" for travel. When I set it up at the Apple store I told the assistant the exact same name for each machine, i.e., "my name and MacBook Air." What I want to do is go back in and rename both of them adding the 11" and 13" designation to the name so that when I set up Time Machine or whatever else I know exactly which machine is what. I'm sure it is very simple but I cannot seem to figure it out. Help please. Thanks.

Go to System Preferences - Sharing and change the computer name there. You can also, optionally, change the name of your hard drive to further clarify the origin of your backups. Click once on the "Macintosh HD" on your desktop, then click its name to allow you to edit it.
Matt

I deleted a contact from my phone and it synced with all my other devices including my Mac. However, I have setup time machine and have many previous backups. Can I open or use a file in back ups to get my contact back? Where and which one? Thanks!

Its all in the question.
I have backups from months ago.
And ICLOUD deleted my contact from others devices.

Bring the Contacts window forward, then enter Time Machine and scroll back to a snapshot that includes the contacts you want to restore. Select the contacts and click the Restore button in the lower right corner of the screen.
If you don't have a Time Machine backup, but your contacts are all on iCloud and haven't been overwritten, then you can recover them by following the instructions on this page. Double-click the downloaded file to import it into Contacts. This procedure will not work if you've synced an empty Contacts database to iCloud.

How do I set up Time Machine to backup to an external hard drive on my wireless router?

I have just set up an external hard drive to my wireless router and am now wanting to set up Time Machine to back up to the hard drive. I can see the hard drive in Finder and can even send files to it manually. I just don't see in setting up Time Machine any option to backup to that hard drive. Is it even possible?

Well, I figured out a way around it that works for me but may not be suitable for everyone. Instead of connecting the external hard drive to the router I tried connecting it directly to my computer. I then right-clicked the hard drive's folder on my desktop, clicked "Get Info" and checked the box that says "Shared Folder". I then went to the bottom of that window and under "Sharing & Permissions" and next to "Everyone" checked that they could all "Read and Write".
The hard drive is now shared over my network, so when I got on one of my other Mac's that I was wanting to set up Time Machine with, the Time Machine Application had no problem finding the hard drive and backing up to it.
I have all computer's setup for file sharing too, so that may need to be checked as well.
This was a simple enough fix but the reason I said that it may not be suitable for everyone is that the other computer's backing up to this hard drive via Time Machine is now reliant on my computer being turned on. I'm okay with that though.

Just set up Time Capsule and imac is backed up. Can I back up ipad and iphone too? If so, how do I do it?

Just bought AirPort Time Capsule (2TB) and my imac 10.7.5 is backed up.
Can I back up the information on my iphone and ipad - both are iOS 7.1.2?
On AirPort Utility I am not able to open other Wi-Fi Devices. TC indicates ipad and iphone are wireless clients.
Not sure what I do. Thanks.

iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad back up to iTunes on your computer....or....to iCloud, if you have enabled that option.
If you have a Mac and have Time Machine backups enabled, then the iPhone and iPad backups stored in iTunes on the Mac are backed up to the Time Capsule.
In other words, the iPhone and iPad back up indirectly to the Time Capsule, if you have Time Machine enabled. They do not back up directly to the Time Capsule.
For more information on iOS backups, please see this Apple Support document:
iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes
Or, you might want to post in the iPhone and iPad support communities.....where the iPhone and iPad experts hang out.
Using iPhone Using iPad

Somehow, my iTunes music disappeared. I restored it with Time Machine and have all of my music. However, my playlists and song ratings did not restore. Does anyone know if there is anything I can do to restore my playlists and ratings? Thanks.

Somehow, my iTunes music vanished from iTunes. I was able to restore my music from Time Machine, but I lost my playlists and song ratings. Does anyone know how I can restore the playlists and ratings? Thanks in advance for any help.

iTunes as you see it is more than just a file or two. It is all the contents of the iTunes folder including the critical library.itl file. That holds pretty much all the information about what you see when you start iTunes. You need to restore the whole iTunes folder, not just media files.

I just started using Time Machine, and it's driving me crazy.

It's just constantly backing up. It never stops, even when nothing has changed on my computer, it finds another 3gbs. Really? Why? I expected Time Machine to work like Dropbox: if I add a file or change a file, it updates. But it really doesn't, and I don't understand why not. It's enough to make me just turn it off and back up manually. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong?

Did you read the manual on how to properly use Time Machine?

Need advice on new hard drive for Time Machine, and have Firewire questions

I have an Intel iMac 2.66GHz with 500GB internal drive. I am going to buy an OWC 1TB drive to use for Time Machine.
I also have an older 160GB external drive with Firewire 400. I'd like to continue using it for extra storage, and would like both the iMac's internal drive and the 160GB external drive to be backed up to the new drive.
OWC's 1TB drive is available with Firewire 400 & USB 2. For an additional $30, it will also have Firewire 800. If I get the Firewire 800 drive and daisy-chain the iMac > new 1TB drive > old 160GB drive, will the iMac to 1TB drive run at 800, or will the 160GB drive's limitation of Firewire 400 pull the speed of the whole connection down to 400? (If the latter is true, then it would be a waste of money to get Firewire 800.)
Also, will it make much difference whether I use Firewire 800 or 400 for a drive dedicated to Time Machine?
Finally, the 1TB drive with a 32MB cache costs $20 more than one with a 16MB cache. Is a 32MB cache worth the extra expense for using with Time Machine?
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Patrick Houlihan

Patrick Houlihan wrote:
If I get the Firewire 800 drive and daisy-chain the iMac > new 1TB drive > old 160GB drive, will the iMac to 1TB drive run at 800, or will the 160GB drive's limitation of Firewire 400 pull the speed of the whole connection down to 400? (If the latter is true, then it would be a waste of money to get Firewire 800.)
I believe it will operate the entire bus at the slowest speed, but can't say for sure.
Finally, the 1TB drive with a 32MB cache costs $20 more than one with a 16MB cache. Is a 32MB cache worth the extra expense for using with Time Machine?
I went with the cheaper, smaller cache OWC drives for my backups on the theory that if caches speed repeated access of the same data, and a backup is always a single-pass stream of non-repeating data, then with a backup the data that goes in the cache doesn't need to be fetched again and therefore the cache isn't much help for backups. I'd love to hear if that's true.
I didn't answer the one about FireWire 800 for Time Machine because my Time Machine backups are over the network to Time Capsule. However, having a faster Time Machine drive interface should be faster. FireWire 800 certainly speeds things up for non-Time Machine backup software like SuperDuper which I also use.

Can't set up Time Machine to backup to WD external drive

Hi, I have a WD external drive that I want to use to back up my Mac book Pro 10.8 files.
I connected the WD to the computer's USB and it appears in the "Devices" list in the Finder Window.
I opened "System Preferences / Time Machine" switched it to "On", clicked the option "Other Time Capsule" and the "Set up..." button
A new screen opened and I couldn't find the option to choose the WD drive as the Time Machine backup location.
This screen only says:
"no new Airport base stations discovered"
"no remote Airport base stations discovered"
"no configured Airport base stations have been found. AirPort utility will continue searching"
Am I doing something wrong? Why can't I find the option to save the backup to the WD drive?
Thanks

Not only should it be OSX Extended (journaled), it should also
be repartitioned to a GUID partition format. Click Partition tab
is Disk Utility (make sure you have the WD drive selected),
reset to create one or however many partitions you want,
click the Options button. Select GUID partition map, then
repartition.

Time Machine and Powerbook away from external hard drive

According to Apple's Web site:
+"When your mobile Mac is connected to your backup drive, Time Machine works as you’d expect. When it isn’t connected, Time Machine also works as you’d expect. It keeps track of which files have changed since the last backup and backs them up accordingly."+
except this doesn't seem to be happening for me.
Everything is exactly as I'd expect when I'm in the office connected to my external hard drive - hourly backups during the day. However, if I'm away from my desk for a few hours and then come back to the hard drive and plug it in I'd expect (from the description above) to see the hourly backups appear in time machine for when I had my Macbook switched on. If I'm away for a couple of days I'd expect to see one backup per day.
So, here is my question, if I'm not actually connected to my firewire attached Lacie hard drive is Time Machine doing anything? It would help me if I create a file away from my desk that I have the hourly time machine backups held locally to retrieve if needed. If this is not the way it works, it's not the end of the world for me, I just need to be aware that the latest backup will be when I had the external drive connected and I'm getting nothing while I'm away - and maybe Apple chould clarify their marketing blurb .
David.

You are welcome.
Also keep in mind that while the drive is connected you can initiate a Back Up Now at any time (right click the Time Machine icon in the dock). So if you are about to try something worrisome or complex with your system or your data files, you can trigger a backup, do your task, and know the backup is there to recover from so long as it's still the same day. I.e., you can make the incremental backups happen more frequently than hourly by explicitly requesting them when you want them.
The thing that confuses most people is probably this idea of hourly backups becoming daily and then weekly. They are not merged when that happens. Of all the backups taken in a given day, only one survives. And of the seven of those in a given week, only one survives, even though there is still plenty of room on the drive. And when the drive runs short of room the oldest backups start getting deleted (although you are asked before that happens, just in case you want to start afresh with a new drive). So the backup that survives as the daily backup is a complete snapshot of your file system at that specific point in time, without regard to changes that might have been captured in other hourly backups during the same day.
So Time Machine works best with files that stick around for a while or when you discover a file has been accidentally damaged or deleted relatively soon after that happens.
--Bob

Time Machine and Iomega 500 GB external disk

I was thinking of upgrading to Leopard and getting the Iomega 500 GB external disk Apple is offering. I read somewhere that you cannot boot from the Iomega external drive if you need to. Is this true? If it is true, is this an issue of the Iomega drive? Are there drives that will let you boot from backup created by Time Machine if your internal hard drive goes bad? The system I have is a MacBook.

Hi,
A Time Machine backup is not of itself bootable. You could create a bootable system on that drive and then use it as a Time Machine target... that would work but it wouldn't necessarily be "optimal."
Anyway, if it's a Firewire drive I'd be pretty certain it would be bootable if you installed the OS on it... it's easy enough to try.

I am setting up time capsule and have issues with DNS

Can't get internet connected and says DNS server not identified

Technicolor TG789vn is a gateway, which is a modem and router in one package. Please verify by checking the Technicolor information on this model below:
http:///en/solutions-services/connected-home/modems-gateways/xdsl-modems-gateway s/tg789vn-bonded
Assuming that things are working correctly, AirPort Utility should be able to set up the Time Capsule correctly with this type of device.
Shut down your Mac and then restart the device.
Power off the Technicolor gateway, wait a minute, then power it back up and let it run a few minutes.
Power up the Time Capsule for a few minutes, then hold in the reset button on the back of the Time Capsule for 8-10 seconds and release. Allow a full minute for the Time Capsule to restart to a slow, blinking amber light status.
Connect an Ethernet cable....that you have tested to make sure that it is working....from one of the LAN <--> ports on the Technicolor gateway to the WAN "O" port on the Time Capsule
On your Mac....open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AIrPort Utility
Click on Other WiFi Devices
Click on Time Capsule
The setup utility will open up with a configuration window mentioning that the Time Capsule will be set up to create a network
For Network Name......Enter a simple, short name that you want to call your wireless network.
For Base Station.......Enter a simple, short name that you want to call the Time Capsule. Mine is TC, for example
For Password.........Enter a password that will be used for the wireless network and base station
For Verify Password.....Enter the same password to confirm
Click Next
The utility will set up everything for you. When you see the message of Setup Complete, click Done and you should have a green light on the Time Capsule.
Select the wireless network that you created and enter the password to connect. You should be all set.

I just set up Time Machine and have a WD external disc attached.

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