Time machine back up failed on my external drive & more problems

Hi,
I'd be grateful for any help.
I have a G-TECH 1TB external drive (7 months old) and decided to use that with Time machine to back up my files. I hadn't used the drive for about 4 months but it had worked fine the last time I used it. I connected it to Time Machine and a back up failure message of some kind appeared. Since then the drive is unusable... I'm lucky if I can get the drive to mount ("the disk you inserted is not readable by this computer)" yet I can't reformat it - disk utility can't erase or partition it. It throws up a variety of error messages (can't unmount drive & resource busy are a couple) which usually ends with the spinning ball of death. Tonight I spent my hard earned money on Disk Warrior, which appeared to check and rebuild file systems and the drive mount now mounts but I still can't reformat it or use it in any way. Have now spend hours trying to mount and reformat it and it's driving me mad...
Thanks very much.

Yellowvan wrote:
Hi Pondini,
Yes, I bought DiskWarrior 4.1.1 - it came up with this report:
" DiskWarrior has successfully built a new optimized directory for the disk named "Untitled."
The new directory is ready to replace the original directory."
Did you let it do that? If not, nothing was changed!
The drive is still under guarantee - can they really fail this quickly?
Sure, a few drives from any production run will be D.O.A, and a few others will fail very quickly, as with nearly any manufactured product.
But you don't know yet whether the drive is bad. If you didn't let DW replace the directory, run it again and do so.
If it's still troublesome, try the other things in my last post before deciding it's the drive.

Similar Messages

Can Time Machine back up to 2 separate external drives?

I have one 1TB drive in addition to a 2TB drive. The 2TB drive is used by Time Machine. I'd like to add the 1TB to Time Machine's space. So I need Time Machine to back up to both drives. Is that possible? So my total backup space for Time Machine will be 3TB.

Only one backup drive at a time can be used. You can switch backup drives by changing the backup drive in TM preferences.
You can try creating a striped RAID array using Disk Utility and using the array as the backup destination. A striped array will give you the 3 TBs you want but it will appear to TM as a single backup device.
RAID Basics
For basic definitions and discussion of what a RAID is and the different types of RAIDs see RAIDs. Additional discussions plus advantages and disadvantages of RAIDs and different RAID arrays see:
RAID Tutorial;
RAID Array and Server: Hardware and Service Comparison.
Hardware or Software RAID?
RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?
RAID is a method of combining multiple disk drives into a single entity in order to improve the overall performance and reliability of your system. The different options for combining the disks are referred to as RAID levels. There are several different levels of RAID available depending on the needs of your system. One of the options available to you is whether you should use a Hardware RAID solution or a Software RAID solution.
RAID Hardware is always a disk controller to which you can cable up the disk drives. RAID Software is a set of kernel modules coupled together with management utilities that implement RAID in Software and require no additional hardware.
Pros and cons Software RAID is more flexible than Hardware RAID. Software RAID is also considerably less expensive. On the other hand, a Software RAID system requires more CPU cycles and power to run well than a comparable Hardware RAID System. Also, because Software RAID operates on a partition by partition basis where a number of individual disk partitions are grouped together as opposed to Hardware RAID systems which generally group together entire disk drives, Software RAID tends be slightly more complicated to run. This is because it has more available configurations and options. An added benefit to the slightly more expensive Hardware RAID solution is that many Hardware RAID systems incorporate features that are specialized for optimizing the performance of your system.
For more detailed information on the differences between Software RAID and Hardware RAID you may want to read: Hardware RAID vs. Software RAID: Which Implementation is Best for my Application?

HT1338 Attempt to install Mountain Lion has highlighted need for internal disk repair. Even after "repair" ML still says disk is damaged. Attempt to restore from Time Machine back-up failed - cannot 'see' internal HD to restore to. Help!

Attempt to install Mountain Lion has highlighted need for internal disk repair. Even after "repair" ML still says disk is damaged. Attempt to restore from Time Machine back-up failed - cannot 'see' internal HD to restore to. Help! Has attempt to install ML caused these problems or just highlighted existing need to Repair Disk? Even so, why can back-up from Time Machine not see the internal drive to restore to?

Csound1, William & Sig .... thanks for taking the trouble to reply. I fear you are right - I'll need a new disk. I'm booked in at the Apple Genius Bar in Bordeaux, France on Wed ... quite a challenge as my French isn't great! The current internal disk is 500gb, does anyone know whether I can upgrade my 21.5" iMac (circa Oct-2009 vintage) to a larger size internal disk, 1Tb or even 2Tb? I already have one external 2Tb drive and another one on order (I have masses of media stored and more planned as I've just taken up photography). Seems a bit of a pain managing with only 500gb internal storage. OR, can you advise me on how I can store all my photos on my new 2Tb external drive - I can't seem to figure out how to set the path for iPhoto to see them (I can't even figure out where they are stored right now!). Same with iTunes, how do I set the default storage to the external drive (I moved everything manually and then imported them all from the new drive - it worked but seemed very convoluted). Any advice on how to manage multiple drives gratefully received. And thanks again for previous replies.

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.

My time machine back up failed because it says the backup volume could not be mounted

My time machine back up failed because it says the backup volume could not be mounted. What does that mean and how do I fix it so that it backs up?

A whole lot about Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.
Use Disk Utility to repair the TM drive. If that doesn't help, and you don't find help from the above, then erase the drive and start a new TM backup.

HT201250 Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? I'm trying to restore lost photo files and I see them listed in Time Machine (without use of an external drive), but when I try to restore I get a error code 36.

Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? While I was transferring photos back and forth from a thumb drive something went haywire and my IPhoto was wiped clean! When I click on Time Machine I see all the dated pages (without an external storage drive connected), go back to a date where all my photo files are there, click "restore", and I get the message: "The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in file cant be read or written (error code - 36)"

Thanks so much Terence. I tried some of the fixes from that page, but then discovered the suggestion to compress the Time Machine Back up of the original library and transfer it as a zip back to my computer as detailed here:
http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html
That worked like a charm. I really appreciate it.

How can I delete time machine back up from my computer hard drive

How can I delete time machine back up from my computer hard drive?

How to Delete a Time Machine Backup - YouTube
If you want to remove an entire Time Machine backup on a backup drive, then the easiest way to do that is to erase the backup drive using Disk Utility. However, this will delete everything on the disk:
Drive Erase Snow Leopard and Earlier
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
If you are preparing an external or a non-startup drive, then open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select the volume you wish to format from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine
and if it yes i want to know if i have 1TB hard disk to use the 500gb for time machine and the other 500gb for normal use

thank you very much because i am considering to buy the porsche design hard disk 1TB and i want to have it for normal use and for time machine is a pitty to give 1TB for back up only again thanks and i know seperate the back and the working jobs are better but the i have to have 2 hardisks and i want only 1

Creating Encrypted Time Machine Back Ups to a Network Hard Drive

Hello all, I can't seem to create an encrypted Time Machine back up on a network hard drive. Can this be done? And if not, why not? It seems that Macs have all the necessary functionality already available in Mac OS. Time Machine can create encrypted backups with multiple computers so what's the difference if it is to a network backup drive, honestly? Any suggestions?
My Set up: Three Macs, Airport Extreme Base Station, Seagate 3 TB HD (with separate partitions for each computer's backups). 2 of the Macs use ethernet to connect to the network and one uses wireless regularly. Basically, I'm trying to encrypt my family's backup drive and I don't know how or why I can't.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Appleguy514

First, you need to know that backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple. See: Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.
Second, no, you cannot encrypt a network backup on Lion or earlier. Only Mountain Lion.

How do I set Time Machine to alternate between two attached external drives (so that if one fails I will have a separate backup to use)?

Hi Everyone.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Right off the bat let me say I am using Mavericks 10.9.1 on a 2011 Macbook Pro and using all Lacie external hard drives.
I am trying to get Time Machine to alternate between two attached external hard drives, trying to be safe in case one of the backup drives itself fails.
I have both drives set in Time Machine.
From what I gather Time Machine should by default alternate between drives when backing up (I would assume it does one big initial backup on each then subsequent backups are just changes).
But this is not how it seems to be working and I cannot find a straight answer despite much Googling and Foruming
Unfortunately it seems to only be backing up to "External Hard Drive 1".
There have been 4 backups since I set it up, all on "External Hard Drive 1", even though "External Hard Drive 2" is also attached and set in Time Machine.
I manually clicked "Back Up Now" and it started to work on "External Hard Drive 2" (like I want it to) for a minute but it appears to have stopped and gone back to backing up to "External Hard Drive 1".
Am I missing something? Does Time Machine only move on to another disk when the first one runs out of space? Do I have to turn one off in order to force it to back up to the other drive (that would be less convenient of course)?
I am hoping that I am missing something and that it will just alternate between the two. Otherwise it is not the most comforting and thorough backup system as I had hoped when I purchased the additional external hard drive.
I have a 1TB drive and a 500gig partition on another drive, both dedicated to backups (my Macbook HD is 475gig). It will take awhile for each to fill up and who knows what could happen during that time. Having Time Machine alternate between hard drives would be a nice small bit of security if the worst happened.
I realize that there are tons of other options for backing up but I just want to use Time Machine if I can.
Again thank you for your help!

You cannot use Time Machine in that way. I'm not sure where you heard that Time Machine alternates between drives automatically. What you can do is create a mirrored RAID array for the backup. This automatically duplicates whatever is on one drive onto the other drive.
Both drives must be the same size, and prefereably, exactly the same make and model. RAIDs can be configured using OS X's Disk Utility.
RAID Basics
For basic definitions and discussion of what a RAID is and the different types of RAIDs see RAIDs. Additional discussions plus advantages and disadvantages of RAIDs and different RAID arrays see:
RAID Tutorial;
RAID Array and Server:
Hardware and Service Comparison.
Hardware or Software RAID?
RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?
RAID is a method of combining multiple disk drives into a single entity in order to improve the overall performance and reliability of your system. The different options for combining the disks are referred to as RAID levels. There are several different levels of RAID available depending on the needs of your system. One of the options available to you is whether you should use a Hardware RAID solution or a Software RAID solution.
RAID Hardware is always a disk controller to which you can cable up the disk drives. RAID Software is a set of kernel modules coupled together with management utilities that implement RAID in Software and require no additional hardware.
Pros and cons
Software RAID is more flexible than Hardware RAID. Software RAID is also considerably less expensive. On the other hand, a Software RAID system requires more CPU cycles and power to run well than a comparable Hardware RAID System. Also, because Software RAID operates on a partition by partition basis where a number of individual disk partitions are grouped together as opposed to Hardware RAID systems which generally group together entire disk drives, Software RAID tends be slightly more complicated to run. This is because it has more available configurations and options. An added benefit to the slightly more expensive Hardware RAID solution is that many Hardware RAID systems incorporate features that are specialized for optimizing the performance of your system.
For more detailed information on the differences between Software RAID and Hardware RAID you may want to read: Hardware RAID vs. Software RAID: Which Implementation is Best for my Application?

How to stop Time Machine backing up on a specific external hard drive?

I work on a iMac 2.66 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, with Mac OS X 10.6.8. I use two external hard drives that are the exact same model, 2 TB WD My Book 1110 Media: one is intended for back-up, the other for storing video editing files. They're both connected through USB 2.0.
I set the "back-up" hard drive as back-up disk for Time Machine, through the Time Machine preferences. Now, everytime I connect the "video" hard drive, Time Machine recognizes it as a back-up disk, and starts backing up on it. I could delete the "Backups.backupdb" file that Time Machine had created by connecting the "video" hard drive to another Mac and moving it to the Trash, but as soon as I reconnect the "video" hard drive to my iMac, Time Machine backs up on it again.
Is there a way to "de-select" a hard drive from Time Machine's list of back-up disks?
Note: I should mention another thing that might indicate a conflict. When both hard drives "back-up" and "video" are connected to my iMac, if I open Final Cut Pro X, I can only see my "back-up" hard drive. To access the files I am working on, I need to eject the "back-up" hard drive, and suddenly the "video" drive appears.
If you have any idea of how to solve this conflict... I am a bit lost.
Thank you!

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
Give them unique volume names using Disk Utility.
Then set Time Machine back up to that unique volume name.
For example, I regularly use 4 external drives (though they're not all the same model).
The descriptions quickly tell me which drives I have connected to my MacBook when open Finder:
My Time Machine backup volume is named 'Time Machine 1TB'.
My iPhoto backup volume is named 'iPhoto Backup 320GB'
My iTunes backup volume is named 'iTunes Backup 120GB'
and the last is 'Windows 7 Backup 250Gb' but since it's a Windows volume, it is formatted NTFS.
This likely means that you will have to erase and repartition one of your drives to name it.
You MIGHT be able to rename it using Finder, right-clicking on the volume, and selecting Rename (current volume name).
WARNING: I can't be certain of what just renaming it that way could screw up in the way of permissions and file links.
Within Disk Utility, it seems it is absolutely not possible to change a volume name without clicking the Partition tab, and that involves erasing.
Given the choice, I'd probably choose to rename (erase and repartition) the Time Machine drive. A current backup or two on Time Machine, and I'm good. I don't really need to go 'way back' to recover files, because I really don't ever erase anything. I just keep buying bigger drives!
And I still burn the 'absolutely critical, priceless, can't ever be without this stuff' files to DVD or CD at least monthly or quarterly, in case one of my TM or backup drives fails at the same time as my primary hard drive. Call me paranoid, but I worked in Information Technology for many years: Murphy was an optimist!
Message was edited by: kostby

Can I use my time capsule for time machine back ups and as an external storage device?

I have a time capsule and have set it up so that my time machine back ups are saved on it, but I would also like to use it as an external hard drive. Is this possible?
I know nothing about computers so please tell me in very basic terms. thankyou!

By external hard disk we usually mean one plugged into the computer by USB or Firewire or Thunderbolt.
None of those works on the TC.. it is plugged in by ethernet or use wireless connection.. that means it is a network drive.. not an external drive. The difference might not mean much to you.. but it is totally different to the computer. In the former case the computer has full control of the disk. In the case of the network drive, the disk is controlled by the TC firmware and the files are stored and accessed by network. This has large implications.
So here is my standard response.
Store files on the TC.
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
The following are controls on the hard disk side.
Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
Even apple btw say don’t do it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32 it adds network drives.
5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

Time machine back up failing after itunes update

I am having a massive problem with my Time Machine back up.
My set up is as follows
late 2011 Macbook Pro 13" running latest version of Yosemite
An older Airport Extreme running version 6. something (latest version)
Macbook connected via WiFi on the 5Ghz
Connected via USB to the Airport Extreme is a Western Digital 2TB hard Drive.
My last successful back was 5.40pm on 1st February 2015. The only changes to the system that have been done since that time is an updated to the latest iTunes version.
This is what is happening.
Time machine shows the disc as connected and that there is 905GB of 2TB avaialble.
When the back up starts it finds the disk, prepares the back up and than starts.
It states the back up is about 29GB in size (so more than enough room on the hard drive).
The back up begins and after about 10 minutes (or somewhere around 4 or 5 GB) the back up fails and a pop up window in top right hand corner comes up saying that the back up has failed as there is not enough room on the Time Machine Backup (that is what I have called the drive).
I have run it a number of times and always the same thing.
I have run a disk utility check on the hard drive and run a repair disk and veriofy disk and both stated that there drive was fine with no problems.
I have powered down the entire network, shut the computer down and rebooted the whole thing but still the same problem.
I can't think of anything else I can do. Any suggestions from anyone greatly appreciated.

Problem solved. Can't remember what I did though!

Time Machine Question: How does it handle external drives?

Hi,
To date, I have only been backing up my HD (macbook pro) though Time Machine onto a dedicated back-up external drive.
Today, I backed-up and forgot that my 2nd external drive (for music) was plugged into my Macbook. So, Time Machine seems to be backing up both my HD and my Music. This is not a bad thing. But, I have one question - worded two different ways:
1. If I back-up again next week and my Music External drive is not plugged in, will the future back-up simply write over the music back-up?
2. Do I need to plug in my Muisc External drive next time I want to back-up my HD?
A third, related question:
3. I also have a 3rd external for pictures and movies. Will Time Machine back this up as well? Is this a reliable way to back things up?
Thanks in advance,

Read Pondini's TM page here
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Home.html
My advice is not to let TM become a catch all backup because it's placing all your software eggs in one hardware basket. Hardware fails just as much as software does and a catch all TM failure takes it's all down in one shot. Not only that TM also traps your data.
Maintain two seperate hardware backups of your data in easy accesible (from any computer) as possible.
I use a 50/50 partition on my main boot drive and Carbon Copy Cloner to auto-clone A to B nightly, but this only offers software protection, then I have a external drive clone spaced back a few days, and then a another clone spaced back about a few weeks or months. The external clones offer hardware and software protection.
This might not work in your case, each person's needs are different, the key is to have a multi-based approach to give you diversity in case something goes wrong.
More good advice here
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

How do I install my time machine back up on a new hard drive because the old one died?

Hi! My MacBook hard drive died, so I had a new one installed. Now, I am hoping I can transfer my Time Machine back up on it without having to do it manually. I was running Leopard on it. Can I boot from the Time Machine back up or will I have to install Leopard on it first? I'm not extremely computer savvy so , of course, I am looking for an easy way to do this! Thanks for any suggestions!

The Time Machine backup is not bootable
You will have to install Leopard first

Time machine back up failed on my external drive & more problems

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for