Time Machine and USB Drive

I use Time Machine to backup my datas. The problem is that my HDD (on my MAC) was full, and added an Firewire DD on my MAC. Is it possible to include my firewire in the backup on Time Machine ( no problem with the capacity of this drive)?

JGaron wrote:
Is it possible to include my firewire in the backup on Time Machine
provided there's enough room on the destination drive, yes.
in fact, time machine should automatically include any properly formatted drive, connected directly to your computer, for backup.
have a look @ #1 and #2 here: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html.
JGG

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My MacBook w/ OSX 10.6.8 cannot access my external Time Machine Backup USB Drive. It says it is a Read Only drive. When I went to change permissions I found all pernissions were listed as "Custom" and I could not reset them to "Read Write". Any help!

My MacBook w/ OSX 10.6.8 cannot access my external Time Machine Backup USB Drive. It says it is a Read Only drive. When I went to change permissions I found all pernissions were listed as "Custom" and I could not reset them to "Read Write". Any help would be appreciated.

This can be done easily with ethernet.
Please follow the instructions strictly.
To make it easier I want you to do this overnight so you can turn off all your current connection to the internet.
Just go to the airport fan in to the top right and turn airport off.
Get ethernet cable and connect the laptop to the TC lan port.. ie <-> ones.
Press and hold the reset on the TC for about 10sec. until the front led flashes rapidly.
Open the airport utility.. go to manual setup and change the wireless to off. (so other people around you cannot join your network of one).
Ignore all the errors.. they won't stop the backup working.
Go to the TM and reselect the backup target disk as the TC.
It should start after 2min and run through to completion.
That is it.. for a backup of many GB it might take a few hours.. so make sure the laptop has power plugged in and the sleep is off.. (on early ones I think this is needed but I am a late arrival to the scene).. sleep doesn't affect later OS.

How do i use airport as both time machine and hard drive? currently on Yosemite 10.10.1

how do i use my 3TB airport time capsule as both time machine and hard drive? currently on Yosemite 10.10.1.....Many Thanks.

Choose Computer from the Finder's Go menu and double-click it. If needed, use the Connect to Server command to log into it.
(119763)

Can Time Machine backup USB Drive connected to Airport Extreme Base Station

I need a new N based wireless router. I would prefer to get just the $179 Base Station and not the $299 Time Capsule. I already have a nice external USB 500GB drive that I would connect to the AEBS. So, once I have this new wireless router/base station installed at home and I have the external USB drive connected to it, can my new Macbook Air with a USB connected 400GB drive be used to backup what is on the Macbook Air and also backup the 500GB USB drive info that is connected to the extreme base station?
Thanks
tj

I found this when searching Apple's web site but it is old, October 2007, and said it could not be done. Has this changed since then?
Here is what I found.
Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine doesn't back up to AirPort Disks
* Last Modified on: October 26, 2007
* Article: 306833
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.

Time machine - ext USB drive - failure

After reformatting & partitioning an external USB drive, I can't get Time Machine to do a back up on it (I've been using TM on several macs, including this one, and this drive, for years). The backup begins and after copying a few GBs of data, I get the message "the backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk"
I have repaired the disk with Disk Utility, without success. I've erased the disk with Disk Utility & then repaired it. I've restarted many times. I can't see what the problem is.
The mini's internal HD is 320 GB; the external drive is 1TB, in 2-500 GB partitions. One partition is used for TM, the other for a daily SuperDuper backup. The SuperDuper backups are working fine.

As Mr. Ross pointed out above, start Console and check the logs. Find the error message "The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk," then look for preceding related errors. In my case I saw a bunch of Disk I/O errors that turned out to be a defective hard disk. Every time the backup got to a specific size (and presumably a specific location on the drive), Time Machine would fail and the disk would occasionally unmount by itself.

Time machine with USB drive on Airport Extreme

For 2+ years I used a USB hard drive shared off my Airport Extreme to host time machine backups. I just switched internet providers solely so that i could go back to using my airport extreme and sharing a backup disk. But time machine no longer shows it as an available drive...and I found this
AirPort base stations: Time Machine hard drive compatibility - Apple Support
which states: Time Machine is not supported with USB hard drives that are connected to an AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme device.
This is a pretty big step backwards as far as I'm concerned.....are there are any ways around it?

There is a way around it: buy the latest type of the Airport Extreme (the tall one). But even that solution isn't considered reliable: http://pondini.org/TM/AEQ2.html

Any issue using Time Machine on USB drive with AirPort?

Are there any issues using a USB drive attached to an AirPort Extreme with Time Machine? My guess is no, but figured I would ping the forum and see if there's something I have not thought of. I know Time Capsule does this, but I don't have that - I have an AirPort Extreme.
The drive is within my network and not exposed to anyone unless they can connect
My password is required to access the Time Machine files
Any security implications not covered by these two points?
I'm currently using a USB drive I attach/detach from my MacBook Air and it would be much more convenient to backup to the drive connected to the AirPort. The first backup will probably take a day short of forever being over the air and not the wire, but after that I imagine it would nicely run in the background.
Thanks for any feedback or suggestions!

Are there any issues using a USB drive attached to an AirPort Extreme with Time Machine? My guess is no, but figured I would ping the forum and see if there's something I have not thought of.
The correct answer is yes. First off, Apple does NOT support Time Machine backups to external USB HDDs attached to the AirPort Extreme ... although they do for the Time Capsule.
Please check out this excellent Pondini article which provides some details on why this would not be a good idea.

Time Capsule and USB Drive

Hi, I have a 2TB Time Capsule which is working fine with time machine. Recently I added an USB drive to increase the storage, the USB Drive is connected and shows in airport utility, however time machine does not appaer to be using it. Are there any addtioanal steps to complete to bring the USB drive into the backups ?

Assuming that the USB drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)......
Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock) on your Mac
Open Time Machine
Insure that the USB drive is configured as a destination for Time Machine backups
If it is not, click Add or Remove Disks
Click the USB drive to highlight it
Click Use Disk
Time Machine will now backup to the USB disk, and alternate disks if you have other disks selected as Time Machine backup destinations.

Time Machine and Hard Drive Weirdness -- start again?

I bought a LaCie 500 Gig slick Porsche metallic drive to go with my slick metallic iMac last year. Set up Time Machine, was in awe, life was good. In recent weeks, I've noticed the drive running hot and a little louder than normal. Since it's not crucial for me to have TM always on, I just turn the drive off.
Recently, I noticed TM machine wouldn't mount. It was doing a lot of work, running real warm, but not mounting. In disc utility, the drive was blinking in and out of being accessible. Finally I was able to access it, and I verify/repaired it twice.
The next time it booted up, the drive icon wasn't in 'go' green but 'wait a bit' yellow. In preferences, I could see it preparing and preparing. It seemed like it would never end, and finally needing to go to sleep, I turned it off on yellow. This morning, it mounts GREEN and is working normal. Not hot, not noisy.
Here's the big question: now what I do?
You see, I've got some warranty left on this drive, and I can't figure out if it's about to break, or Time Machine is breaking the drive.
My gut tells me to trash my backups.backupdb file and start all over again. After all, I'm at a nice place where I don't need anything from a while ago. I figure if I try to do this and it outright fails to backup, this is an indication of a weary drive.
Also, if I were to backup all over again, it would be about 160 gigs of info. My backup drive currently has 130 available. There's maybe another 60 gigs or so of stuff on this drive tops, and so it seems Time Machine has nearly doubled in size of what it's backing up.
So, would y'all recommend purging the backup and starting again?
Sorry for longwindedness, but just trying to provide all info I can,
Me
Also, I see that I've got about 130 Gigs open on the 500 gig drive. I'm using half of my iMac's 300 gig drive, and so by my best guestimation I'd say Time Machine has already double

Jerome,
First, make sure Spotight is not set to Index the LaCie drive. That could have been the cause of the excessive use.
Next, if Time Machine hasn't been backing up for a while ("wouldn't mount"), then the next time it successfully mounts it will do a long "Preparing..." (I believe it's called a "Deep Traversal") session to compare what has changed since the last time it connected. This is normal and will show the drive as busy (Yellow light). Let it do its' thing in that case - perhaps leaving it on over night.
Your Drive is most likely fine.

My Time Machine and backup drive are not recognized and do not work after this update...is there a way to fix this?

After I upgraded to Yosemite, my MAC Time Machine backup drive is no longer recognized and the process freezes when I try to re-install the drive from the drive's software. Is there a way to fix this?

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Time Machine and external drives

Since upgrading to OS X 10.7.4, I keep getting messages complaining that a server could not be found. The server in question being the machine on my home network that has my Time Machine volume on it.
I use a laptop as my primary machine and spend my working life split between my office at home and visiting customer's offices. Before I upgraded to Mountain Lion, Time Machine obviously couldn't back up while I was out and about so it used to notify me in the Time Machine menu on the top of my screen. This worked fine for me and I knew that data I added to my machine wouldn't be backed up until my laptop was connected to my network at home.
Since upgrading to Mountain Lion it seems that Time Machine has changed so that it repeatedly notifies me about the unavailable Time Machine Volume by way of putting a dialog message in the middle of my screen, in front of everything and interrupting my workflow by demanding I hit the OK button before I can do anything else. It seems to do it several times in a row each hour or thereabouts. It's so annoying! Why has the behaviour been changed so that it constantly gets in my way?
OK, I understand that some users might not have noticed that subtle little bit of feedback in the menu and this could be dangerous. I also understand that stopping the user in the middle of whatever they are doing and getting them to positively respond to a dialog message does ensure that they have some idea about something, but in all fairness the message doesn't exactly say "Time Machine cannot back up your data because the disk it backs up onto couldn't be found". If users are so unaware of the intracacies of Time Machine then this dialog doesn't cut the message clearly enough, and if they are savvy enough then it just annoys them.
I believe it would have been better if a setting had been introduced, and was set to "on" by default, allowing the user to choose to have 'verbose and insistant' reporting of any errors. That way, less familiar users would by default get messages like this one, but with much clearer wording, suggesting there's a problem, and people who are aware that their Time Machine can only back up data while they are connected to the Time Machine drive could disable the messages and just have the little bit of validating information in their menu bar.
Would this not seem like a good way forward?
While I admit that this issue could go away when I install 10.7.5 I am still somewhat certain that it wont have the helpful feature that I suggest here.
Now, how do we get Apple to take this on as a feature request?

vincas,
Your backup of the failed drive should still be there. You're not seeing it because the volume is not present, according to your Finder. This is one of those "ah, I see" things.
Do you have a replacement for the failed drive yet? If so, either format it and give the new volume the exact same name as that on the failed drive, or simply change the name of the mounted volume on the new drive accordingly (with the same name). Once you have done this, connect your Time Machine drive. Open a Finder window showing the empty, but properly named volume, and click the Time Machine icon in your Dock to open Time Machine. You should be able to navigate "back in time" to see the backed up contents and restore same.
If you do not yet have a replacement, the backed up files can be accessed in the Finder normally by navigating into the Time Machine backup folder. Open a date/time stamped backup, and you should find a folder for every volume that was backed up at that time. Any files you find can be copied manually.
Scott

Time machine and hard drive space problems

It's a long story, but in a nutshell...I've had some problems with my time machine backups on my external hard drive and my MacBook Pro has been taking a long time time boot up. So, I decided to wipeout the backups on my external by deleting them (I know that's a bad idea) and then I started to transfer all the stuff from my MacBook Pro that I wanted to backup, and now I have ran out of room on the external (1TB) drive. However, the space that is being used doesn't seem to match what should be available. There is around 200gb (I think) that isn't accounted for.....is there some hidden stuff I might have missed?

johnl927 is suggesting you wipe your external hard drive to remove any ghost files or errors in the file system. That would be the fastest and least time consuming way to go.
Your alternative is to run Disk Utility, verify disk and the partitions of the external hard drive, and if still in doubt verify permissions. The disk may sometimes claim to have less free space than really available because at some point in the past your computer or else where you plugged it in forgot to do some general housekeeping on the external hard drive.

Time Machine external USB drive not available at boot

I have a late 2012 iMac running Mavericks 10.4.9. I use Time Machine with a Toshiba 3TB external drive. The Toshiba drive is usually left powered up. Every time I boot the iMac and try to force a backup, Time Machine reports the Toshiba disk is not available. When I open Time Machine preferences, the Toshiba drive does not show until I power-cycle it and re-select it. Also occasionally it reports that I did not eject it properly. But it NEVER shows in Devices or on my desk top (like a thumb-drive does for example) so I wouldn't know how to eject it anyway.
Any ideas on where I am going wrong?
Thanks!

I also have a MacBook Pro with Leopard. I have a new 500GB Lacie d2 safe external drive that my computer recognizes but Time machine does not. Formating the disk in journaled Mac OS Extended format does not solve the problem. Lacie says they are working on it. Anyone have any ideas?

Time machine and 2TB drive...can t backup

I have a 2TB drive as main and a 2TB drive as target. Even if there is less than 1TB of data on the original drive, time machine refuses to back up the drive and instead asks for 2.5 TB as a destination drive.
This is clearly a design problem. The backup target should be relevant to the amount of data to back up and NOT to the size of the original drive. If there is 500Gigs on the original drive and that data reides on a 2TB drive, Time Machine should be able to back that 500Gigs and then when in need of more space either warn that space has to be made or requesting a bigger drive.
So basically after having spend 2 days copying my data to a single drive I realize that Time machine is not clever enough to dynamically calculate the space needed.
Or am i doing something wrong? having to clone the drive, replace it with a 1TB and then reclone back is a pain in the sphincter. Please fix this for a future version. If there is the space for at least one backup, one should be able to at least have one copy.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to a failed backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showning, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Time Machine and partitioned drive

Hiya.
I have a macbook pro running snow. I use TM to an external hard drive.
When I first got the macbook I (foolishly) thought it would be a good idea to partition the internal hard drive. I've now realised my error and would like just one partition, however this does not seem to be possible without wiping the drive (or buying something like ipartition...)
Can I wipe the hard drive starting up from a version of osx on the hard drive, create one partition and then use TM to put back my osx setup to the new single partition? Or can it only put back the two partitions?
Thanks!

jonniecrossley wrote:
Hiya.
I have a macbook pro running snow. I use TM to an external hard drive.
When I first got the macbook I (foolishly) thought it would be a good idea to partition the internal hard drive. I've now realised my error and would like just one partition, however this does not seem to be possible without wiping the drive (or buying something like ipartition...)
Can I wipe the hard drive starting up from a version of osx on the hard drive, create one partition and then use TM to put back my osx setup to the new single partition? Or can it only put back the two partitions?
If OSX is the first partition (on top of the diagram that Disk Utility shows, when you select the top line of the drive and click the Partition tab), then you'll only have to delete the other partition. If it's second, this is going to be a bit more complicated: if so, post back and we'll tackle that.)
Then you can just drag the lower-right corner of the top partition down to fill the remaining space.
As Jolly Giant mentioned, I'd strongly recommend making a second backup of everything before you start this. You shouldn't need it, but remember: Murphy was an optimist!
Once that's done, you'll have to be careful of a few things. First, you'll need the procedure in #E3 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* to view the backups from the now-missing partition.
Second, you'll need to restore the top-level folders to an alternate location. Select them, click the "gear" icon in the TM Finder window's toolbar and select the +*Restore <item> to ...+* option, then specify the now-single partition on your internal HD.
Third, you may have to "redirect" some things from the deleted partition, if you had, say, your iPhoto library there. And you may have had some aliases directing things there.
Last, do all this with TM off. TM's first backup after this will be a big one; everything you moved from the deleted partition is new to the remaining partition and will be backed-up again. That will, of course, take a lot of space and considerable time. TM will, eventually, delete it's backups of the deleted partition, but if you're going to have a space problem on your TM drive, you might want to leave TM off for a while, be sure everything came over properly, then use TM to delete all backups of the deleted partition. Use the same procedure as above, but this time select the +*Delete all backups of <item>+* option.

Time Machine and USB Drive

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