Possible solution: Time Machine can not mount disk

Like many of you, my Time Machine started acting up after working fine for months.
I have an external USB (Western Digital 500GB) drive connected to a Airport Extreme (N-speed) as an AirDisk.
I have an iMac (iSight 160GB) connected via ethernet to the AEX and a MacBook (60GB) connected to the AEX. Both have less than half HD usage.
After a few months, the MacBook would fail to backup properly: “Unable to Mount” message after the TM process was going for a few minutes. I could access the WD drive in R/W mode otherwise from the same machine. I read on these boards that I should erase the sparsebundle on the WD drive associated with the MacBook. I did that, and all was then well.
Fast forward a few months, again the same problem on the same machine. I ran DiskWarrior against the WD drive to ensure permissions were fine. Mind you that the iMac TM backup’s have been working fine all along.
Yesterday I solved my problem by reading various tips on these boards:
- Always mount the AirDisk via “==> Go ==> Connect to Server” within the Finder
o As per Apple KnowledgeBase article
- *Proper Computer Name*
o Ensure that your computer has a proper name in the Sharing Preference pane.
o Go into System Preferences --> Sharing.
o Is the box labeled “Computer Name” empty? If it is blank, you need to put in a name for your computer. Otherwise Time Machine won’t be able to perform backups. Additionally, Time Machine needs to differentiate this computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" vs "Office iMac"). As a result, no two Macs should have the same name. If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a unique name for this Mac.
o Also, Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
o (0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
o Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
The combination of these two steps has my MacBook working smoothly once again with Time Machine, Airport Extreme and an AirDisk.
GOOD LUCK

Most likely, the power interruption corrupted the sparse bundle containing your backups.
Try to repair them per #A5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

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Time machine can't mount disk ,hard drive,after its been formatted for windows

i want to use time machine but it can't mount disk as it has been used with windows

You will need to repartition and reformat the drive for use with OS X:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Time machine can not access time capsule after upgrade from snow leopard to mountain lion

Two days ago I upgraded my 2009 17" MBP from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. That evening my time capsule/time machine combination worked fine and did an incremental backup of about 12 gigabyte. Yesterday - only one day later - the time machine backup did not work anymore.
It appears that the system can not find the time capsule - even though it shows the remaining free space on the time capsule (so it did find it after all).
The message is always the same:
Time Machine can not complete the backup "Time Capsule"
The image of the backup volume "/Volumes/Data/Pauls MacBookPro.sparsebundle" is not accessable (Error -1).
I also can not delete the backup image on the time capsule since it is read-only. And I do not want to format the time caspsule yet since my wife's MBAir is also using the same time casule.
I tried out all kinds of suggestions (hard and soft resetting both the MBP and the TC, entering the password again, setting the TC up again) all to no avail. No backup is possible anymore.

Mr. Zooot wrote:
Time Machine can not complete the backup "Time Capsule"
The image of the backup volume "/Volumes/Data/Pauls MacBookPro.sparsebundle" is not accessable (Error -1).
I also can not delete the backup image on the time capsule since it is read-only.
Sounds like you got this message earlier:
If so, see #C13 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Offhand, I don't recall anyone not being able to delete one via the Finder (but most were only backing-up one Mac, so just erased the disk).
You may have to wait for that message to appear again (24 hours later), or you might try holding Alt/Option with the TM icon in the menubar, and select Verify Backups if it will let you.

Time machine can not select my internal hard drive any more.

Hi all
Time machine can not select my internal hard drive any more. I only can back up external disks. Does anyone know how to fix this?
All answers are much appreciated

I don't know the answer but I have the same thing happen. I have two external drives I use for backup. Sometimes it can see one and sometimes another. Then sometimes it can't see either one. I will take one out for a while then plug it back in and then it may see it. Maybe it's a cable issue or something but I will be curious to hear what someone more knowledgeable says.

When i enter time machine with mail open can see past mail . when i open iPhoto and enter time machine can not see past photos have i got a problem ????

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HT201250 I disconnected My Passport by mistake, and now Time Machine can not find it. Although connected, it does not appear in the My Devices section of Finder. What do I do?

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Hello rjhc49,
Thank you for the details of the issue you are experiencing with your external hard drive. I found an article with steps you can take when an external device is not being recognized.
I recommend following the steps in the section titled "Top troubleshooting tips" in the following article:
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
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My Time machine can not backup as the backup disk image " . . . .sparsebundle" is already in use. ??

my time machine is giving me an error message that says "The backup disk image "voumes/data/..........sparse.bundle" is already in use. Time machine has not completed successful backup for over two weeks.

First, restart your Mac and the Time Capsule. In most of the cases, this will solve the problem.
If it doesn't work, see > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html
If necessary, scroll down to section C, comment 12.

Does Time Machine still ignore mounted disk images? Specifically, encrypted sparse bundle disk images?

My Time Machine backs up to Time Capsule which cannot be encrypted. I also have confidential data in an encrypted sparse bundle disk image in my home folder. When TM backs up and the encrypted sparse bundle disk image is mounted and I'm accessing the data, does TM back up the data "in the clear" decrypted form or does it exclude the disk image because it's mounted? I've done a little research, but there's conflicting information. Not sure what happens in Lion now...

Time Machine does not backup mounted disk images! The encrypted sparse bundle disk image was mounted, I updated a doc and did a TM backup - the file was not listed in the TM repository and the doc remained unchanged in the encrypted sparse bundle disk image on TM. Then I ejected the disk image and did a TM backup - the updated doc was backed up in the encrypted sparse bundle disk image! Thank you!

HT201250 Time Machine can not backup....What is sparsebundle?

I keep getting this message:
Time Machine could not complete the backup
The backup disk image “/Volumes/JDeyTime Capsule/JDey MacBook Pro 17".sparsebundle” is already in use.The backup disk image “/Volumes/JDey Time Capsule/JDey MacBook Pro 17".sparsebundle” is already in use.
What does this mean??? How can I fix this??

I keep getting this message:
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I have reinstalled snow leopard 10.6.8 and want to restore my i photos from time machine. can not find iphoto libary in time machine, can"t not find home-pict. iphoto lib. in time machine

i have reinstalled snow leopard 10.6.8, and want to restore my i photos from time machine. Can not find i-photo libary in time machine, can't not find > home-pict. iphoto lib. in time machine. Please help.

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External hard drive time machine backups not mounting

I have used Seagate 500.11 external hard drive as a backup location for the time machine for over two years. I just got a message that it had not updated in over thirty days. It is not listed on FInder, but it is listed on the disc utility. The Time machine backups are grayed out on the disc utility screen and cannot be mounted, even after the repair and verification tests said that their volumes were ok. What should I do?

Time Machine does not create bootable clones. It does not even create a bootable backup. If that's what you prefer then do not use Time Machine.
If you use Time Machine then you must allocate at least twice as much space for the backups than the capacity of the drive you are backing up. A 2 TB backup drive would be suitable for a 1 TB main drive or smaller.
If you plan to create a bootable backup, then partition the backup drive with one partition the size required for the clone. Then use the other partition for you additional storage neeeds.

HT3275 Time machine can not be entered when prompted

For some reason time machine does not react when I want to enter to find a past file version. Any suggestions what to do? Thanks.

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Time Machine can not be mounted - external drive

I have an external Maxtor USB drive that's been my time machine since forever. Yesterday I noticed that it's not mounting. I KNOW it was mounting the day before because I had to use it. But now the drive is not mounting, and I don't know why.
The drive is on, the light is on, but it's not mounting. Out of curiosity, my husband hooked it up to his Vista PC and he was able to browse to it all dandy. But then back on my computer, it's not being recognized.
It's not showing up in disk utility, though my other external drive, my iphoto drive, is having no problems. It's not the USB port, as my ipod works on either port, as does my iphoto drive.
Can anyone help?
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KC
Message was edited by: KCChoirgirl

Update 10.5.6: external HD used for Time Machine does not MOUNT anymore

I've used this LaCie external Little Big Disk since November 2007 with Time Machine, without problems. Recently, after updating to OS 10.5.6, the disk does not mount anymore when connected by FireWire800. Same result when using FW400 and USB.
The disk shows up in the System Profiler under FireWire. When I run analysis with a program 'Data Rescue II', it also sees the disk.
Main issue: disk does not mount anymore. So no more TM backups possible.
Although the disk also shows up in Disk Utilities, I can't partition or reformat it. I ran the LaCie Update Tool 2.0.1 and it says firmware is up-to-date.
I also reinstalled the Combo Update 10.5.6 without result. Also did all the forum recommendations such as resetting PRAM and using Terminal to 'mount /dev/xxx'. Does not help.
I feel this is an Apple issue.

Yes, did it three times. Also already hooked up in daisy chain, and yes, also connected to another Mac (also 10.5.6). Same result. I think it's an OS 10.5.6 issue, because it happened after the update and I had never problems in the last year using this disk with TM (it's not full either). I hope it's not, however, but I am afraid it is. Also I've posted the issue at LaCie support and see what they answer.
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Time machine Backup not mounting

Since upgrading the back up disc which is an external firewire disc no longer shows up on the desktop or to time machine, I can see it in Disk utility, the drive is recognised but the backup isn't mounted and I can't force it to mount either I've run verify and repair discs but both report it as OK, when I try to mount it in disc utility I'm told to run first aid which I have to no avail.
It won't work with USB or different leads, any bright ideas out there?
Apple support are coming back to me monday

My external drive backup for Time Machine dropped out too. It was ok when I first installed Snow Leopard, but when I tried to open Microsoft Office 2004 a few hours later, I had all kinds of freezing problems (with Skype, Word and inDesign, everything) which had never happened before. No amount of pulling out the external drive plugs and restarting made any difference. (You can see what a tech boffin I am.) The drive was dead and would not show up on my desktop. (I was also worried I might have lost all my back up data).
I later found out that Office 2004 is not Intel based software. So I updated with 2008 Office, pulled and replugged the ex drive and restarted and it worked. And all my data is there and everything is operating as normal. So for me, Office 2004 seemed to be the culprit. Hope this helps someone.

Possible solution: Time Machine can not mount disk

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