Multi-disk setup of Time machine is broken.

The ability to add a second disk to Time Machine for backup does not seem to be working per any instructions I can find in the forums. I want to add a dropbox folder to the backup that is already using a Time Capsule drive. Tried dragging the folder from FINDER to time MAchine preferences and tried several of the selection options but none work. The thread on most forums seems to be closed. Does this mean it is trivial or a disaster that does not work?

FWIW, I have gotten the sense from years of reading discussion posts and articles, that the more people "get creative" with Time Machine, the more problems are encountered.
I have a strategy that has served me well since TM was first released:
1. I maintain a separate Archive drive to which I move everything that is no longer needed (such as finished work projects) or is for reference only and will no longer need editing (such as movies, application and OS installers, etc.). This drive is automatically cloned regularly so it has its own backup.
2. I use Time Machine in its basic configuration (in my case to a Time Capsule). The 500GB TC is exclusively for TM backup and has enough spcae for more than a year's worth of the approx. 250GB worth of total data on my startup drive.
This strategy provides confidence that I can recover from anything that goes wrong with my startup drive, while at the same time providing access to all "archival" type documents without that archived data taking up space in the TM backup.

Similar Messages

Brand new Mac, had to erase drive through disk utility as time machine back up failed. Now disk utility only has the option to install Mountain Lion which my Mac won't allow. Anyone any ideas as my Mac won't load anything up but disc utility!

Brand new Mac, had to erase drive through disk utility as time machine back up failed on initial setup, USB cable popped out Now can only access disk utility as won't load to log in screen. The only has the option in disc utility is to re-install Mountain Lion which my Mac won't allow or loading another time machine back up but after an hour of it processing, that didn't resolve the issue either! The time machine back up is the latest back up of my Mac Book Pro which was using OS X Maverix. I'm guessing I'm going to have to take my Mac to the store but that would be a hassle so does anyone have any ideas?

Follow this guide using another Mac.
Insert your newly created Mavericks USB into you Mac, press the power button and then hold down 'option,' until it gives you an option to boot from the USB. You will then be able to erase the internal disk with Disk Utility and reinstall Mavericks straight after.
After that you should be able to use Migration Assistant to restore your applications and user data.

Verify Disk failed for Time Machine backup disk

Thread <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7930301&#7930301> discussed a similar issue, but it was closed without an answer so I'm opening a new one.
After a power failure I ran Disk Utility to Repair Permissions on my boot disk and Verify Disk on another that I use to store media files; neither had significant problems. Then I ran Verify Disk (verify, not repair; and disk, not permissions) on my Time Machine backup disk. It started spitting out the errors shown below. The time remaining counted up to 16 minutes, but wasn't coming down very fast so I left it running overnight. My machine is set to not sleep or spin down the disks. The next evening it was down to 12 minutes left, and was still spitting out the same errors. The second evening it was done, having failed out as shown in this log file excerpt:
2009-06-20 22:25:48 -0400: Verifying volume “Backup”
Starting verification tool: 2009-06-20 22:25:48 -0400
2009-06-20 22:25:50 -0400: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
2009-06-20 22:25:50 -0400: Checking Extents Overflow file.
2009-06-20 22:25:50 -0400: Checking Catalog file.
2009-06-20 22:35:21 -0400: Checking multi-linked files.
2009-06-20 23:08:17 -0400: Checking Catalog hierarchy.
2009-06-20 23:16:59 -0400: Checking Extended Attributes file.
2009-06-20 23:18:34 -0400: Checking multi-linked directories.
2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: 2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 3763501)
2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: 2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: 2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: (It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
2009-06-22 15:14:54 -0400: 2009-06-22 15:14:57 -0400: Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 7746623)
2009-06-22 15:14:59 -0400: 2009-06-22 15:15:00 -0400: 2009-06-22 15:15:02 -0400: (It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
2009-06-22 15:20:35 -0400: Checking volume bitmap.
2009-06-22 15:20:37 -0400: Checking volume information.
2009-06-22 15:20:39 -0400: 2009-06-22 15:20:41 -0400: The volume Backup needs to be repaired.
2009-06-22 15:20:43 -0400: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400:
2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400: Disk Utility stopped verifying “Backup” because the following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
At that point the whole system was extremely sluggish, and the access light on the backup disk was flashing steadily. The pmTool process seemed to be running away, but the system wasn't responsive enough for me to do much about it, so I held down the power button to shutdown. Upon the 2nd restart the system booted and seems to be OK, but I'm leery of running another Verify Disk.
What's going on? Are those errors anything to worry about? Is it possible to run Verify Disk on a Time Machine backup disk? What about Repair Disk?

John Seal wrote:
2009-06-22 15:20:43 -0400: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400:
2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400: Disk Utility stopped verifying “Backup” because the following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
At that point the whole system was extremely sluggish, and the access light on the backup disk was flashing steadily. The pmTool process seemed to be running away, but the system wasn't responsive enough for me to do much about it, so I held down the power button to shutdown.
Any time Disk Utility says you need to repair a disk, you need to repair it. Period.
So run it. If it fails to repair everything, run it again (and again) until it either repairs everything or can't repair any more. If it can't repair it, post back and we'll discuss options.
There's no point in running +Verify Disk+ on an external drive; just run +Repair Disk.+ The only time +Verify Disk+ is needed is for your internal HD (because you can't repair the disk you're running from).
And you need to do that again because of the forced power-down. Any time there's an abnormal shutdown, it's possible the file system on your internal HD can be damaged. Usually it isn't, but it's possible. If that says you need to repair it, you'll have to boot from your Leopard Install disc and use it's copy of DU. Post back if you need to do this but don't know how.

External hard drive setup for time machine reading as a virtual cd

Why is my MacBook Pro reading my external hard drive setup for time machine reading as a virtual cd?
Thanks

Hi Christian,
Is this something that has happened from the start? If so, I would reformat the disk and setup TM from scratch again.
Prepare the external HD by connecting to the Mac, open Disk Utility, select the manufacturer’s name of the external HD, select Partition and choose GUID Partition Table, format to Apple OS Extended (Journaled); quit Disk Utility.
Open System Preferences.
Click on Time Machine.
Click on “Select Disk.”
Click just to the left of "On" to turn TM on if it's not already on.
Click on the disk or partition you want to use.
Click on “Use for backup.”
Leave external HD connected, and TM will automatically do its thing.

So, is Time Machine just broken in 10.5.2?

I know I'm in the minority here (although Macfixit has a bunch of people complaining as well), but ever since the 10.5.2 update, Time Machine has gone from rock solid to the flakiest feature of OSX since the days of 10.1.5. I've encountered pretty much every error you can think of over the past few days including:
1. My startup disk was showing up as the Time Machine drive (both the icon and in the pref pane)
2. I'm sometimes getting very slow backups (measured in KB!)
3. Time Machine is quitting out on me after it chokes on certain files (and when I omit those files, it chokes on another one)
I've done everything I can think of: reinstalled the full 10.5.2 update and the graphics update (for good measure), repaired permissions, deleted caches, ran DiskWarrior on everything, took my USB drives off the hub they were on, reformatted my Time Machine drives (loosing all my old backups in the process), and removed my SuperDuper clone from the Time machine drive, putting it back on its own partition.
I'm really at a loss, and I've submitted feedback to Apple, but everything was working fine under 10.5.1 and now with .2 it's all busted. What do you think, it Time Machine simply broken? Should I just turn off Time Machine until it gets fixed? My concern is that there is nothing to fix. That it's working fine for most people, and I've just been cursed.
Thanks for listening.

Barney,
The issue isn't with Time Machine backing up wireless to a NAS connected to a running workstation or server with open shared directory but with it not working when connected to a wireless router such as the Airport Extreme Base Station. As per Apple's online Time Machine documentation it states "Time Machine in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard can be used to back up to many kinds of Mac OS Extended-formatted drives, but it does not support AirPort Extreme's AirPort Disk feature. Time Machine can back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, or to a Leopard Server volume, or an Xsan storage device." Keep in mind though people were able to get Time Machine to backup to the NAS connected to the AEBS after entering the terminal command for Time Machine to use unsupported hard drives back when we used 10.5.1 but not since updating to 10.5.2. The reason people are upset is because Apple clearly advertised prior to Leopard's release that Time Machine would work over WIFI to a NAS connected to the AEBS but pulled that information just after releasing Leopard (Reference: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/26/appleyanks_wireless_backup_from_leopard_lastminute.html ). This was after several customers including myself had already purchased the AEBS with a NAS drive with the understanding from Apple that Leopard would support this set-up. Apple still has not fixed the issue and their only solution seems to be for customers to buy their Time Capsule which is just the AEBS with an internal NAS drive. I can't speak for everyone but I feel mislead by Apple which is frustrating because I didn't imagine they would pull something like this.

Recently upgraded Mac 24" to Lion (clean install) and now no external hard disks work with Time Machine

Recently upgraded Mac 24" to Lion (clean install) and now no external hard disks work with Time Machine.
installed new internal disk first with fresh 10.7.3 Lion software. Also upgrade ram to 4GB. Work great, super fast.
BUT.... my WD 1TB firewire400 external disks no longer work with the Lion enabled machine now.
FURTHER... I read somewhere that WD is problematic with Lion but Seagate was not... so I went and bought a new 3TB Seagate GoFlex.
When it didnt work properly either, I patiently searched and found a software/firward upgrade and applied.
I re-partitioned disk to extened/journaled standard, etc.
Then assigned the particition to Time Machine. Drive turned the blue/grey color, so I thought it would work.
But, it has now been in "preparing" mode in Time Machine for HOURS....
What is up Apple? So dissappointed. Ive read these type of problems are notorious with Lion and I wish I never upgraded.
Are you trying to make issues with External disks, to drive people to iCloud? That trick ont work in me. I will not reward bad behaviour Apple.
Please provide a fix... I wasted hours/days screwing around with this, instead of using the Mac for what its intended!

Solved by Pondini, on another thread I opened...
Answer:
Sounds like either:
A directory problem on your internal HD. Verify your internal HD, and Repair any other volumes being backed-up per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Something in OSX may be damaged. You've tried the "combo," so a fresh copy of OSX (that won't disturb anything else) would be worth a try (and you don't need a tech for that). See Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX.

I've been getting the error message "The disk you inserted was not readable by the computer". I can't open system preferences, disk utility, or Time Machine. I'm guessing it has something to do with my external hard drive, although it hasn't been touched.

I've been getting the error message "The disk you inserted was not readable by the computer". I can't open system preferences, disk utility, or Time Machine. I'm guessing it has something to do with my external hard drive, although it hasn't been touched lately, but I can't figure out how to solve the problem. Any suggestions? Thank you!

Thanks for your quick response. I had a look at your discussion... I tried it on a Windows machine and I thought that was compatible with ExFAT?
Therefore I need to attempt to use my external hard drive with a machine that boasts OS X 10.6.5 or above and then it should work?
Thanks

My Time machine won't back up. Recently updated to OS x 10.7.5. Error message is as follows: "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Scott's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use." What is wrong and how do I fix it? Thanks.

My Time machine won't back up. Recently updated to OS x 10.7.5. Error message is as follows: "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Scott’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use." What is wrong and how do I fix it? Thanks.

Have you tried restarting the computer? Also, see Time Machine Error from this pages sidebar under More Like This.

Running Disk Warrior on Time Machine Drive

Running Disk Warrior on Time Machine Drive
is this recommended? I like using it on the Mac & other drives but am concerned that its optomizing may interfere w/ the way Time Machine Bkups get organized.
Thanks
DS

I'd be a bit inclined to leave it alone, particularly if you aren't actually having any problems. The TM machine folders are organized in their own special way.

Is there a way to combine two backups on separate disks created by time machine into one on a single disk?

Is there a way to combine two backups on separate disks created by time machine into one on a single disk? One backup is a continuation of the other and was created when I rec'd a message that the 1st disk was full. I'm using a iMac (late 2010) and both external drives are WD. Thanx.

With the timeline selected, go to File/Export/Movie and export each as a DV-AVI video.
You can then combine those AVIs into a new project with virtually no loss of quality.

New larger disk drive for Time Machine ..having trouble using it.

I must be missing something simple here. My Time Machine drive was getting pretty full so I went out and bought a larger drive. I assumed I could copy everything on the old drive to the new one ..then start up Time Machine and point it to the new drive and be in business. Not so. When I tried to copy the contents from one disk to the other the process locked up after about an hour. All activity stopped and I had no files on the new drive. To troubleshoot I simply copied a small folder from the smaller Time Machine drive to the new one..and it copied fine. However I noticed the date on the copied file was current so I assume my process is not a good one anyway as all the dates will be lost. Guess that will screw up Time Machine (after all what is time if its all the same ?). So ..how do I use a new larger drive for Time Machine..without loosing all the old stuff that is already saved. If I just select change disk from the Time Machine panel I assume I will only get backups from now ...and nothing older (from the old disk). I do not want to keep the older disk connected. So what am I missing here ??

Pondini wrote:
And I forgot to add: Disk Utility will do it.
I missed your post this morning.
I looked around and found the keys to get Disk Utility to do it. No $$ needed.
Thanks for the info.
For the rest of the viewers:
*How to change the Time Machine backup disk and migrate the current data to the new disk*:
This procedure performs block transfers, not file-by-file transfers. It avoids all the extended attribute, ACL and hierarchical problems. It just works - it's a Mac!
System Preferences:
..1 - Time Machine:
....1.1 - Turn OFF
..2 - Spotlight:
....2.1 - Privacy:
......2.1.1 add current TimeMachine volume to prevention list
......2.1.2 add new TimeMachine volume to prevention list
Disk Utility:
..1 - Select the target drive in the left pane
..2 - Select Partition tab
....2.1 - Volume Scheme: *1 Partition*
....2.2 - Options: *GUID Partition Table*
....2.3 - Select Apply -> Partition
..3 - Select Restore tab
....3.1 - Drag source Volume into Source window
....3.2 - drag destination Volume into Destination window
....3.3 - Check box: *Erase Destination* ( +this is the critical step+ )
....3.4 - Click Restore button (Wait for transfer to complete, minutes to hours depending on size & disk connections)
The source and destination volumes will now have the same name. Change the volume name(s) as desired.
System Preferences:
..1 - Spotlight:
....1.1 - Privacy: add new TimeMachine volume to prevention list
..1 - Time Machine:
....1.1 - Turn ON
Done!

Disk utility or time machine not discovering back up drives

Hi I'm new to Mac and before getting lost in all the benefits am looking to set up automatic back ups using my LaCie network space drives I previously used from my P/C. I have managed to discover the drive and copy required files in Finder. Next step was to re-format to Mac but Disk Utility does not discover the drive. Am using the same connection route as Finder. Have also tried finding via Time Machine without any luck. Your assistance appreciated

If I am correct on this, and I think I am, Disk Utility and Time Machine are all configured in OSX to find and communicate over only USB and Firewire, NOT ethernet. I talked to Apple Support once about employing a Buffalo Technology NAS over ethernet to backup my iMac using Time Machine and i was politely informed that this was NOT supported by Apple and likely not doable. So, we may not like it, but apparently those are the rules we must play by. As for Finder, it too primarily finds connections to devices using USB or Firewire. The exception to this is that you can connect using Finder over Wi-Fi or Ethernet to another computer, but this ability presumably involves Finder locating a device that has an IP address.
You just may be at the point where you need to consider obtaining a USB and/or Firewire based external drive. Keep us informed.
Hope this helps
Message was edited by: Radiation Mac

Just bought a 3TB Time Capsule for a small office. Will have 4 users with MacBooks. What would ne the best setup for time machine individual backups and internet sharing in a secure way?

Just bought a 3TB Time Capsule for a small office. Will have 4 users with MacBooks. What would ne the best setup for time machine individual backups and internet sharing in a secure way?

Set up each Mac for Time Machine backups in the normal way. Time Machine will keep each backup separate on the Time Capsule, so users will only be able to see the backups of their own Mac.
Yes....there are convoluted workarounds that might allow one user to see the backups of another.....IF...they know the administrator password of the "other" Mac.
As far as Internet sharing, all users will have access to the Internet if they have a wired or wireless connection. If a Mac connects using wireless, it is possible to limit the time that they are allowed to connect to the network.
For example, you might limit the ability to connect to the wireless from say each Weekday from 8 AM to 6 PM.
With a wired Ethernet connection, you cannot limit access times to the Internet.

Disk Repair Error (Time Machine Partition)

For the second time, my Time Machine backup partition reports errors when I try to mount it (exists on my external hard drive via USB).
As soon as I plug in the USB external, I get this error:
*Disk Repair*
The disk "Backup" was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible.
I tried looking at it through Disk Utility, and I found "Repair Disk" grayed out, and when I click on "Verify Disk", the output is:
Verifying volume “Backup”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Incorrect number of file hard links
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Incorrect number of Extended Attributes
(It should be 29855 instead of 29853)
Incorrect number of Access Control Lists
(It should be 29855 instead of 29853)
Checking multi-linked directories.
Incorrect number of directory hard links
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Backup needs to be repaired.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
Its worked fine for about 1.5 months since it did this last. My other partition on the external hard drive has always been fine.
Any ideas on the causes of this, or how to fix this aside from reformatting every 1.5 months?
Thanks in advance for your help!

I've had a very similar problem. When I tried to put Leopard on the first time, it wiped out my hard drive directory... Disk Warrior to the rescue. I then bought a brand new internal SATA drive and an external firewire drive for the back up. I formatted both drives and did a fresh install of Leopard on the internal. So far so good-ish. All other weird Leopard bugs and issues aside for now, I am now getting the error message that my Time Machine backup drive (which has been working fine) is irreparable and needs to be formated as soon as possible.
I have the back up drive partitioned and the non-Time-Machine-backup partition, that is the normal simply-storage partition is working fine. The Verify Disk Permissions, Repair Disk Permissions, and Repair Disk are greyed out in Disk Utility. Here's what I get when I Verify Disk.
Verifying volume “G5 Backup”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid catalog record type
Volume check failed.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
Verifying volume “Scratch”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Scratch appears to be OK.
Is a re-format of the back up drive my only option? How did this happen? and How can I prevent this from happening again?
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Corey McNabb
Message was edited by: Corey McNabb

Disk Utility and Time machine partition

Ran a Disk Utility check on my Time Machine volume (internal drive - and yes I stopped Time Machine first).
It Came back with error messages something like this:
Verifying volume “Leopard_2”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Incorrect number of file hard links
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking multi-linked directories.
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998962)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998964)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998966)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998970)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998972)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998974)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998976)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998978)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998980)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998982)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998986)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998988)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
{ Edited for Brevity }
Stopped by user
Well, the first time I Used repair mode and it wrecked my backup. I had to reformat the partition. Even disk warrior couldn't undo the directory damage Leopard's disk utility reeked on my partition. The irony of it is, I doubt very seriously that anything was wrong with the backup partition before Disk Utility assaulted it.
I ran time machine again and checked (verified this time) the partition after it completed and Leopard's DU reported the same errors as before.
Then I checked the backup partition with Tiger's DU:
Verifying volume “Leopard_2”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Leopard_2 appears to be OK.
Mounting Disk
1 HFS volume checked
Volume passed verification
Tiger found no problems.
I also checked the partition with Disk Warrior and got a good report.
If I'm not the only one that has this problem then it looks like Leopards DU is an accident waiting to happen when someone uses it to "repair" their Time Machine partition.
Has anyone else experienced this?

FYI, I have a TM partition sharing an internal HD with a FAT32 formatted partition. Here's my Verify output. I did not stop TM while running Verify
Verifying volume “MacTimeMachine”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking multi-linked directories.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume MacTimeMachine appears to be OK.

Multi-disk setup of Time machine is broken.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for