Remove disk from backup disks in Time Machine, old backups no longer accessible

I accidentally removed a disk from my backup disks in Time Machine. It said it wouldn't delete any backups, but after reconnecting it, I cannot access any previous backups through the Time Machine interface and it says "Latest Backup: None". The data is still visible on the drive.
What can I do? I really need these backups.
PS This poster appears to have had a similar problem but was never resolved: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4175446

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

Similar Messages

Removed disk in Time Machine, now can't reselect to get my old backups back

I accidently clicked Remove Disk in Time Capsule on my MBA. Now when I try to reselect it in Time Machine (using the Time Capsule disk listed) it doesn't find my old backups.
I don't want to start again as there is all my old backups sitting on the Time Capsule taking up space. Any advice to get my backups back?
One thing I have noticed is the icon for the Time Capsule used to be the Wi-Fi 'fan', but now it's got the people holding hands icon instead. Sorry if they have correct names for the icons but that's the best description I can use. I also have no idea if this is important or not.
Thanks.

Sfem wrote:
I accidently clicked Remove Disk in Time Capsule on my MBA. Now when I try to reselect it in Time Machine (using the Time Capsule disk listed) it doesn't find my old backups.
If you mean the TM Preferences window shows "None," it just hasn't updated the window yet. See #B3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting
One thing I have noticed is the icon for the Time Capsule used to be the Wi-Fi 'fan', but now it's got the people holding hands icon instead. Sorry if they have correct names for the icons but that's the best description I can use.
I'm not sure what you mean. Can you post a screenshot?

Undo Remove Disk in Time Machine

Hi,
I used the Remove Drive button in Time Machine. When I go back into Time Machine and hit the Select Backup Disk button the drive I want to use in not listed. I can connect to the drive in Finder so connectivity is not the issue. I cannot find a solution to this problem. Any suggestion welcome.
Thanks

So you removed a drive from TM, which you were previously using as a TM backup, and then you tried to select it again?
And you did nothing to the drive in between?
TM will only recognise disks formatted as HFS Extended. You didn't reformat the disk?

Exactly what does "Remove Disk" in Time Machine do?

I am concerned that my current TM disk is having issues. I would like to use another drive to make a TM backup but I am not ready to toss the relationshop the current disc has with my system.
Will "Remove Disk" temporarily dis-able the current TM drive as a TM drive?
Or are the implications of "Remove Disk" far more far-reaching than that?
thank you,
rcat

Will "Remove Disk" temporarily dis-able the current TM drive as a TM drive?
Yes.

I am changing to a larger hard drive on my Mac. Can I copy the Aperture library from my backup disk running Time Machine without loosing anything?

I am installing a larger harddrive on my Mac. Can I copy the Aperture library from my backup disk running Time Machine without loosing anything? I am getting help migrating everything else on to the new harddrive, but since copying the 350Gb Aperture library takes a lot of time, I am planning to do that part myself.

I found the following information on Time Machine help about restoring Aperture library from TM
Restoring Your Aperture System
If you buy a new computer or use another system at a different location and want access to the Aperture library, you can install Aperture and then transfer the library from your vault (on your backup disk) to the other computer. If you experience equipment failure or other unexpected events, such as fire or weather-related damage to your equipment, you can easily restore the entire library to your new computer from a backup disk.
HideTo restore the entire library from an external backup disk
Restoring Your Aperture System
If you buy a new computer or use another system at a different location and want access to the Aperture library, you can install Aperture and then transfer the library from your vault (on your backup disk) to the other computer. If you experience equipment failure or other unexpected events, such as fire or weather-related damage to your equipment, you can easily restore the entire library to your new computer from a backup disk.
HideTo restore the entire library from an external backup disk
If you buy a new computer or use another system at a different location and want access to the Aperture library, you can install Aperture and then transfer the library from your vault (on your backup disk) to the other computer. If you experience equipment failure or other unexpected events, such as fire or weather-related damage to your equipment, you can easily restore the entire library to your new computer from a backup disk.
HideTo restore the entire library from an external backup disk
Connect the hard disk drive that contains the most up-to-date vault to your computer and open Aperture.
Choose File > Vault > Restore Library.The Restore Library dialog appears.
Choose the vault you want to use to restore your library from the Source Vault pop-up menu.If the vault doesn’t appear in the Source Vault pop-up menu, choose Select Source Vault from the Source Vault pop-up menu, navigate to the vaults location in the Select Source Vault dialog, then click Select.
Click Restore, then click Restore again.

I have backed up my disk using Time Machine. Now I want to delete the backed-up files from my hard drive. But when I do and reconnect the external hard drive, the files are also deleted on that. What do I do?

I have backed up my disk using Time Machine. I then deleted the back-up files from my MacBook hard drive.
I then reconnected my external hard drive and find the files I deleted from my hard drive are also deleted from
my external hard drive. Can someone tell my what what happened? I'm confused.

Hello,
Time Machine is not a good way to do that, when it eventually needs more room it deletes old Backups to make room.
If you really want to keep Files but remove them from the Internal Drive, then I'd get another external drive to copy or clone them to that is not used for TM.

Can two macs use same disk for Time Machine backup with Airport Extreme?

Hi
I use a Western Digital disk as a wireless Time Machine backup connected to the USB port on my Airport Extreme and it works great. My question is: can my girlfriend use that same disk for Time Machine backup from HER computer too? (I don't mind formatting the disk if needed.)
If she can't, is it then possible to connect a USB hub and have two disks hooked up to the Airport Extreme?
Thanks for helping. I am constantly in awe of all the help people like you give people like me. Thanks!!!
Jakob

I've gone through the manual setup and the assisted setup and can't seem to get my MacBook to use the Time Machine. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.
Well, as the Jolly Giant points out....+this type of configuration is not supported by Apple+, so it's difficult, if not impossible, to provide a fix for something that Apple says that you cannot do. Reference these Apple Support documents regarding this topic:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
Your situation is not unlike other users who try this and find that one computer may backup...(usually for a limited time before corruption issues start to creep in)...but another computer cannot backup. Count me as one of those users who thought that because things seemed to work that I had somehow "beat the system".
I started getting the corruption error messages after 4-5 weeks of successful backups, so I figured that it did not make sense to continue to try to get a second computer to backup (yes, I too could not setup a second Mac to backup).
Sorry, I could not get a second machine to backup, so can't tell you how to accomplish that goal. If you want to continue to try backing up this way, you might want to also think about a second backup strategy...just in case backups become corrupted on the WD drive.
Maybe if Apple says you cannot do this, they just may be right?
Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

HT201250 Is it possible to use Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive as the backup disk for time machine?

I have a MacBook Pro for which I have not set up Time Machine. I have a Dropbox account and a Microsoft OneDrive account, each with plenty of space to serve as backups. Is it possible to use either of these as THE backup disk for Time Machine? It doesn't appear intuitive from Time Machine on my MBP.
Thank you.

No. Time Machine does not work with "cloud" drives.

I need to configure a new hard disk as backup disk for time machine. The set up program is running and it says it will take 9 days to backup about 56 GB. Is it normal ?

I need to configure a new hard disk as backup disk for time machine.
The set up program is running since two hours and it says it will take 9 days to backup about 56 GB.
Is it normal ?

Roberto 17 wrote:
I started this morning at 12 and after 5 hours now the backup is about 6 GB up on 56 GB.
The new HD is a WD My Passport Edge 500 GB capacity
5 hours to do 6 GB of transfer is NOT normal, even for USB 2.0 so there's something wrong here. I'd say cancel it, wipe the drive and then test the integrity of the drive. Do some file transfers over to and see if it's behaving normally. It could be a bad USB cable, it could be a bad drive or bad enclosure. As it's new, I suspect you haven't really put it through its paces yet and it's important to do that first before commissioning it to serve as your "reliable backup."

If I choose a hard drive ask my backup disk for time machine, will it clear out the data that was previously stored in my hard drive?

If I choose a hard drive ask my backup disk for time machine, will it clear out the data that was previously stored in my hard drive?

Hello edjhsu,
Unless the drive is in a format that isn't compatible with Time Machine, the files will not be overrwitten. However it is typically a better idea to keep your files and your backup separate, especially since files on the Time Machine drive will not be backed up by Time Machine.
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Cheers,
Allen

HT1578 I have found that I can't access the contents of the encrypted disk in time machine backups. The Finder window displays a grayed-out icon representing the disk. Can this be remedied?

I have found that I can't access the contents of the encrypted disk in time machine backups. The Finder window displays a grayed-out icon representing the disk. Can this be remedied?

Time Machine error: Apple Support Communities
OSStatus 5 when trying to use Lion...: Apple Support Communities

How to limit the amount of disk space Time Machine will use?

On Yosemite, how do you limit the amount of disk space Time Machine will use?
I'm using a Seagate Goflex Home 2tb drive connected to my router as a Time Machine backup drive. I use this for three things 1)Time Machine 2) an occasional backup of windows document subdirectory 3) backup of music and photos for long term storage. Doing something like re-partioning the drive is not an option. I'll just go buy another drive for time machine's sole use. In addition, using software from Seagate is not an option. I don't want to use their software for different reasons (mainly the GoFlex home is really designed as a "media server" which I don't use. I, of course, use iTunes. ) On the Mac, I'm only using about 250GB total but time machine is rapidly using up space.
Apparently using a terminal command like below, used to work, but no longer works under Yosemite.
For a limit of 100gb the number below would be 100 x 1024
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize 102400
To remove the limit, use the following command:
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize
Now, I'm not too familiar with terminal and I'm not about ready to issue a command without knowing exactly what it is going to do.
Is there an easier "switch" someplace or an app that does this?
If I don't limit the size, at some point there will not be any space left for windows backups and additional photo and music files.

Hmm- added "sudo" and there was no error reported:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize xxxxxx
I guess we'll see.

Remote disk and time machine?

i have my external hard drive attached to my airport extreme and all my computers, mac and windows, play nice and can copy files to and from it but i have partitioned the hard drive to allow for space for time machine to work but time machine wont find it or if it does refuses to use it as a disk. does time machine work with remote disks?

heay,
I had the same issue with an exteral 250Gb USD WD disk....
I found the solution to my issue in the following manner.
1) the disk/partition must be formated "OS X extended" format.
2) you should be able to use you the Disk/Partition with TM while connected directly to the MAC. (this is just to make sure TM works fine.
3) connect the disk to the airport extreme via USB.
4) mount the the disk on the desktop
5) go to TM preferences and change the backup disk to the disk/partition you just mounted.
6) Activate the TM "status info" in the menu bar
7) turn TM "ON" (DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN TM, or you'll have to do the entire procedure from scratch)
8) close the TM preferences.
9) unmount the disk from your desktop (use the the eject button on the shared devices tap in the finder)
10) restart the MAC (you don't need to do this... but this is just to make sure that the disk is unmounted completely)
11) once the boot-up is completed, go to the TM status icon and choose "backup now"
You must make sure that the disk and or partitions you want to use with TM are never mounted before or during the TM process.
As long as the disk/partition is mounted TM will not function.
if you need to use the disk for other purposes than TM wait until TM has done its first run... then you can mount and unmount freely... TM is very sensitive to this "mount" issue.
Note that sometimes TM will fail to funtion... this is not a big problem...
you just need to make sure the disk/partition is unmounted and then run the TM back from the menu bar.
Also note that your first backup will most likely take a very very very very very long time to be completed. just leave the MAC on a make sure it does not fall sleep.
try the above and the let me know if it works or not...
www.gekko-systems.com

How large should a disk for time machine be vs the hard disk

Can anyone tell me how large a disk for time machine be vs the size of the hard disk?

I usually say 2x or more but your milage may vary on that based on how much your hard drive is actually used, what sort of data (how large the files are) you typically handle and how far back you want your TM backup to go.

How to turn off the 'Use disk for Time Machine?' warning

I have Time Machine set to OFF.
I use cloning software instead; "SuperDuper" with a "Voyager Q" unit attached via FW 800
I rotate my external backups HDs using 2 x 3.5" HDs.
How do I get rid of the annoying message; ‘Use disk for Time Machine?’ each time I attach an external HD?
I have tried the solution at;
http://www.macworld.com/article/133175/2008/04/105notmdrive.html
but doesn't work for me.
Mind you, the article was written for 10.5 and I was hoping the same solution would apply to 10.6.
Anyone have an answer?
Many thanks in advance,
Michael.

Think I just found the answer to my own question.
External drive has to be mounted on the desktop BEFORE the following command is run.
defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine DoNotOfferNewDisksForBackup -bool YES
this assumes you've setup TM
Now I don't see that annoying message.

Remove disk from backup disks in Time Machine, old backups no longer accessible

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