Time machine backup freezes on initial backup attempt - any ideas?

I just purchased a Seagate 3 TB USB 2.0/3.0 external drive to use as my time machine backup drive. I have a MacBook Pro that was purchased about 3-4 years ago. The MacBook Pro has a 120 GB hard drive and is currently running MAC OSx 10.6.8. I also have another WD 1 TB FireWire external drive that I use to store all of my media files.
After I followed the instructions for installing the new Seagate drive for use with the MAC OSx, I initiated a time machine backup. It very quickly determined that it needed to back up almost 900,000 files totaling just about 400 GB. It started the backup process at a rate of about 1 GB per minute. In a little less than an hour it reach 53 GB and remained there for an additional two hours before I decided to stop the backup.
Once I got the backup stopped, I deleted the backup and decided to look at my energy saving settings. I noticed that the "Put drives to sleep whenever possible" check box was checked, so I unchecked that option and restarted the MAC. I then initiated the time machine backup again. Like the first time it quickly determined that it needed to backup the same amount of data as before and started the backup process at a rate of about 1 GB per minute. Before going to bed at around 11 PM last night it was at about 60 GB so I thought I was out of the woods (having gotten further than the 53 GB earlier). When I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM it was sitting at 69 GB.
I am really frustrated at this point and don't know why the time machine back up would be failing on a brand new hard drive. Does anyone have any ideas?
PS - I was previously using a Seagate 1.5 TB USB drive as my time machine backup and never had any issues with it. I decided to use the 1.5 TB drive for a different purpose, which is why I have the new 3 TB drive to use as a backup. And I still have the full backup on the 1.5 TB drive just in case anything were to go awry.

Your best bet is probably to deal with the kernel panics first; whatever's causing that may be part or all of the cause of the other problem.
They are usually caused by hardware problems, but can be software, especially kernel extensions.
Start by running this: Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test. Run the Extended tests(that may take an hour or so, depending on how much RAM you have). Write down any error code(s) it shows.
If that doesn't show a problem, see this Apple article: If “You need to restart your computer” appears
If that doesn't help, post a new thread about the kernel panics, with as much detail about what's running (or not running) at the time, etc.

Similar Messages

Time Machine backup fails - any suggestions?

My Time Machine 1TB drive for my iMac (late 2009, 20.5") had started making noises. I did a disk repair and there were no errors, but it was obviously noisy, and probably at the end of its life.
So I got a brand new 1TB drive yesterday, formatted it and made it a new-from-scratch Time Machine drive and started my first backup, which succeeded.
But when I woke up this morning, there was a dialog, "Time Machine could not complete the backup. Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
I looked at the drive contents. It seems to contain a full backup:
Backups.backupdb
          Doug-iMac215
                    2012-05-01-015856
                              Macintosh HD
                                        Applications
                                        Developer
                                        Developer-old
                                        Installer Log File
                                        Library
                                        ... etc
including all the user folder files.
If I open up Time Machine I can "go back in time" to that one backup. So it looks like one initial backup was successful.
But when I tried to "Back up now" I get the same error dialog.
It was properly formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and Disk Verify reports "The volume appears to be ok."
It's a Toshiba Canvio, HDTC610JS3A1 USB3.0/2.0 Portable Hard Disk.
I then turned off Time Machine and tried to eject it via Disk Utility but got this message:
          "The disk“TOSHIBA External USB 3.0 Media” could not be unmounted. Make sure that all applications and files are closed on this disk."
Via the Finder there was a "force eject" option. I tried that and re-mounted, turned Time Machine back on and selected "back up now" again. It successfully finished the 2nd backup and now I have two Time Machine backups on that drive.
So I thought all was well.
But... the automatic backup the following hour failed with the same message.
What could the cause be?
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
doug

Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.HostUUID
Usually that error indicates a drive malfunction; specifically, the drive is spinning down and not responding to bus signals. Some "Eco" or "green" drives are known for this behavior. The following steps may help:
Select  ▹ System Preferences ▹ Energy Saver ▹ Power Adapter and uncheck the box labeled Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible, if it's checked.
If the drive is connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port on the computer.
If a firmware update is available for the drive, apply it.
Contact the drive manufacturer to see whether there's a firmware setting you can change.
If you installed vendor software for the drive, uninstall it.
If none of the above steps resolves the issue, try another drive.

The restore utility fails to find any Mac os backups on my time machine disks, but they are there. Any ideas?

The Time Machine utility seems to be backing up correctly. The backups appear when I open the backup disk, however, when I try to restore a backup, the utility correctly identifies any disks which contain Time Machine backup files, but when that disk is selected, the utility cannot find any actual backup files.
I have reinstalled the operating system, and repaired and rebuilt all the disks. Apple support suspects that I have a hardware a problem, in that the motherboard is incapable of communicating with some devices. It doesn't matter whether the backup files are on an internal disk, or an external USB drive.
It strikes me as a little weird that the utility knows which disk contain backup files, and will display those disk correctly within the utility, but cannot find any actual backup files, once a particular disk is selected within the utility.
The good news is I have three months to go on my AppleCare plan. The bad news is the closest repair facility is 65 miles away.
Any thoughts on this?

Hitachi HDS722020ALA330:
Capacity:          2 TB (2,000,398,934,016 bytes)
Model:          Hitachi HDS722020ALA330
Revision:          JK0BB37B
Serial Number:                JK11H1B9K0AE9R
Native Command Queuing:          Yes
Queue Depth:          32
Removable Media:          No
Detachable Drive:          No
BSD Name:          disk0
Rotational Rate:          7200
Medium Type:          Rotational
Bay Name:          Bay 1
Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity:          209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name:          disk0s1
Content:          EFI
Macintosh HD:
Capacity:          2 TB (1,999,404,957,696 bytes)
Available:          1.24 TB (1,242,122,113,024 bytes)
Writable:          Yes
File System:          Journaled HFS+
BSD Name:          disk0s2
Mount Point:          /
Content:          Apple_HFS
Volume UUID:          B2577A0B-FA2F-32CE-B8C5-70B9F0C6EB21
Recovery HD:
Capacity:          650 MB (650,002,432 bytes)
BSD Name:          disk0s3
Content:          Apple_Boot
Volume UUID:          02A41955-B1E4-320A-8FB6-D01019433BEB
ST2000DL003-9VT166:
Capacity:          2 TB (2,000,398,934,016 bytes)
Model:          ST2000DL003-9VT166
Revision:          CC3C
Serial Number:                      5YD7LBYV
Native Command Queuing:          Yes
Queue Depth:          32
Removable Media:          No
Detachable Drive:          No
BSD Name:          disk3
Rotational Rate:          5900
Medium Type:          Rotational
Bay Name:          Bay 2
Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity:          209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name:          disk3s1
Content:          EFI
Alternative Boot:
Capacity:          2 TB (2,000,054,960,128 bytes)
Available:          1.26 TB (1,262,551,388,160 bytes)
Writable:          Yes
File System:          Journaled HFS+
BSD Name:          disk3s2
Mount Point:          /Volumes/Alternative Boot
Content:          Apple_HFS
Volume UUID:          7295CED3-FC3E-3DCC-BACF-414390B5DBFC
ST31000528AS:
Capacity:          1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Model:          ST31000528AS
Revision:          CC38
Serial Number:                      9VP3A6X2
Native Command Queuing:          Yes
Queue Depth:          32
Removable Media:          No
Detachable Drive:          No
BSD Name:          disk1
Rotational Rate:          7200
Medium Type:          Rotational
Bay Name:          Bay 3
Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity:          209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name:          disk1s1
Content:          EFI
Internal Storage:
Capacity:          999.86 GB (999,860,912,128 bytes)
Available:          999.19 GB (999,194,480,640 bytes)
Writable:          Yes
File System:          Journaled HFS+
BSD Name:          disk1s2
Mount Point:          /Volumes/Internal Storage
Content:          Apple_HFS
Volume UUID:          3074E4E5-9A3A-3C5E-81A9-473C36586C7C
ST32000542AS:
Capacity:          2 TB (2,000,398,934,016 bytes)
Model:          ST32000542AS
Revision:          CC95
Serial Number:                      5XW29K61
Native Command Queuing:          Yes
Queue Depth:          32
Removable Media:          No
Detachable Drive:          No
BSD Name:          disk2
Rotational Rate:          5900
Medium Type:          Rotational
Bay Name:          Bay 4
Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity:          209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name:          disk2s1
Content:          EFI
Time Machine:
Capacity:          2 TB (2,000,054,960,128 bytes)
Available:          1.3 TB (1,302,342,303,744 bytes)
Writable:          Yes
File System:          Journaled HFS+
BSD Name:          disk2s2
Mount Point:          /Volumes/Time Machine
Content:          Apple_HFS
Volume UUID:          BC10CF45-B06F-3044-A51E-CBB6A85934BB
And I suspect all of the internal drives are WD, except the start up drive. BUT I also have the same issue if I use a Seagate External drive as my backup location.
What brand of HD would you recommend?

All media files vanished. When time machine backup attempted it says disk full? Confused help.

I recently upgraded from osx leopard to snow leopard on my 2008 macbook to sync my new iphone data smoothly. After the installation it was v slow as anticipated and a time machine full restore was done successfully. Now however all my media files have vanished namely precious music videos and pictures. I tries reverting back in time machine but it says no disk space. Also i have 1000 new pictures last uploaded which gas also been backed up by time machine with the computer showing the rest of the files erased. How do i recover both sets of data the old and the new?

How much free space on your internal drive and how much free space on the Time Machine drive? You can use Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities to find free space. If Time Machine gets too full it could delete your backups. I suggest your turn off Time Machine in System Preferences until you get your files restored.
Rather than enter Time Machine using the Time Machine interface, go to the extrernal drive and drill down in the backups.backupdb folder. Go to a date when you know the files existed. Select Macintosh HD > Users > You > Pictures. Do you see the data. Check size? Do the same for Music.
You can drag from these folders to your Desktop as long as you have space on your internal drive.
I suspect you'll need to erase your Time Machine and start new or you'll need to purchase a larger drive. It's recommended that your Time Machine drive is 3X larger than internal drive.

The file could not be saved in folder "Time Machine Backups"

I've tried to setup TM with several external drives (USB and Firewire) and I get the same results... the file "xxx" could not be saved in folder "Time Machine Backups". Any ideas?

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
If that's exactly what the message says, it's a new one. If it's actually "An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume" or "Aborting backup because indexing a file failed," see #C3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If not, see #A1 there for a handy widget that shows the backup messages from your logs. Download and install it, then copy and post all the messages for one backup attempt here.

Restore can't find the time machine backup

I am trying to restore my system from a time machine backup and the Restore option doesn't recognize my time machine backup. Any ideas on how to force it to see it?
Some background:
I am running Mountain Lion on a 2008 iMac. About 1 week ago, my internal HD failed. I had the hard drive replaced and then hooked up my external HD time machine back-up to restore my system. I started the computer with the command-R option and selected restore from time machine backup. It recognized the hard drive itself, but when I get to the screen to select the backup, it tells me there are no backups on the selected volume. I have run the repair in Disk Utility and the drive checked out ok. I have since installed Mountain Lion again on the internal drive, but didn't bring any files.
Also, while the main computer was down I connected the external drive to another computer and used the show hidden files steps to find some files on the time machine backup and copied them to the other computer.
I don't know if this relates, but I want to share all of the info: Back when the HD originally failed, the computer froze. When my son restarted the computer, it then asked what language he wanted. Then it began a restore process and asked him to select a volume to restore the system to. This is the bad part- He selected a partitioned drive where I had stored some files that didn't fit on the hard drive. It erased that drive and began restoring the system. Of course he didn't tell me about any of this until about 2 hours later, so we lost the contents on that drive. This partitioned drive is the same drive where my time machine backup resides. One partition is the Time Machine backup and the other was external data.
Any ideas? I know I can manually restore the files, but it would be nice to be able to automatically do it. Also, is there a way to read the excluded list? I found the file that this is on...
Thanks,

Inherit a Backup
Inherit a Backup (2)

Time Machine backups corrupt or external hard drive failure?

My goal today was to upgrade my MacBook Pro's HD, and to restore my system from my latest Time Machine backup which resides on an external hard drive. I installed the new hard drive, formatted it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and selected Restore System From Backup from Utilities. The system restore was five minutes form finishing when I received an error that the system restore could not be completed, and that I should restart my machine and try again. I did as instructed, but once the system restore process began, the screen went gray, and I was told that the Snow Leopard install could not be completed.
Before beginning the process a third time, I ran Disk Utility from the Snow Leopard install disc and attempted to verify and repair the external (Time Machine) hard drive. The Time Machine hard drive could not be verified, nor could it be repaired. I popped in the old hard drive into my MacBook Pro, booted Snow Leopard, and ran Disk Utility, and tried again repairing the Time Machine hard drive. Here is the log of the error I received:
2010-12-29 21:14:30 -0800: Verify and Repair volume “Time Machine”
2010-12-29 21:14:30 -0800: Starting repair tool:
2010-12-29 21:14:31 -0800: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
2010-12-29 21:14:31 -0800: Checking extents overflow file.
2010-12-29 21:14:31 -0800: Checking catalog file.
2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: Invalid node structure
2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: The volume Time Machine could not be verified completely.
2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: Volume repair complete.
2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800:
2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: Disk Utility stopped repairing “Time Machine”: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
Do these errors indicate that my Time Machine backups located in the Backups.backupdb are corrupt, or is the external hard drive corrupt and failing?
The Time Machine backups are on a Maxtor OneTouch, and from what I've read, they're prone to an early demise. I've also recently noticed that my Time Machine backups started slowing. For example, I would plug in my external hard drive and if 1.3GB needed to be backed up, it would stall at 300 MB before jumping to 700 MB, stall again, then jump to 900 MB. That could be a sign of a failing hard drive, correct? If the external hard drive is failing, I can purchase a new eternal hard drive then copy the Backups.backupdb to the new hard drive, correct?
However, if Backups.backupdb is corrupt, then from what I understand, I would have to start fresh. I would prefer to not start fresh unless there's no other option, as I would be losing almost three years worth of Time Machine backups.
Any guidance is appreciated. Thanks!

ali_baba7 wrote:
2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: Invalid node structure
2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
It's possible a heavy-duty 3rd-party utility such as +Disk Warrior+ can fix that. It's about $100, and there's no guarantee, but it's probably a good investment for the future.
Do these errors indicate that my Time Machine backups located in the Backups.backupdb are corrupt, or is the external hard drive corrupt and failing?
The structure of the file system is damaged.
That may have been caused by the disk beginning to fail, but there's no way to tell for sure until you erase and reformat the disk and try to use it.
I've also recently noticed that my Time Machine backups started slowing. For example, I would plug in my external hard drive and if 1.3GB needed to be backed up, it would stall at 300 MB before jumping to 700 MB, stall again, then jump to 900 MB. That could be a sign of a failing hard drive, correct?
It could, but it could also be whatever's wrong with the file structure.
If the external hard drive is failing, I can purchase a new eternal hard drive then copy the Backups.backupdb to the new hard drive, correct?
No. You can't copy corrupted backups. They're all linked together, like a database, so if anything's damaged, the whole set is suspect, and can't be copied.
There are a couple of options:
If the disk is physically ok, and the directory damage was recent, you might be able to restore from an earlier backup. But since you noticed problems some time ago, the damage may not be recent.
Or, you might be able to get up and running by just installing OSX from your SL Install disk (and the 10.6.5 "combo" update). You'll be missing whatever wasn't restored in that last 5 minutes or so. Things are restored in the same order they're listed by the Finder, so it will be the last things in the last user account. You should be able to figure out where it stopped, check or delete the very last file (likely incomplete) and selectively restore as many of the remaining things as you can, via the "Star Wars" display.
Just to make things more difficult, if the disk is failing, the more you use it, the more likely it is to get worse or fail completely.
So your safest bet may be to install OSX, then download and install the 10.6.5 "combo" update. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1324 Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards. Then recover what you can.

Time Machine Backup of iDisk

I have two Macs so I store all of my documents on my iDisk and sync to both computers. I am trying to use Time Machine to backup my iDisk to a Seagate Free Agent disk. I have been doing this since September and everything seemed fine until I tried to recover a document from my iDisk using Time Machine. When I look at my iDisk on Time Machine, it is identical to what was present on the first backup in September, and nothing that I added since then seems to be present. The few documents that I saved recently to my local hard drive do appear in Time Machine.
Any ideas about what is going on?

AGM1976 wrote:
Thanks for the clarification. I am trying to backup my local copy of my iDisk. I thought that I could access it through Devices (I see two folders: one is my local hard drive and one has the name of my local iDisk).
I'm at a bit of a disadvantage, since I don't keep a local copy of my iDisk.
But the only iDisk I've ever seen under DEVICES in a Finder sidebar is the actual iDisk. I don't think a local folder on your Mac can be made to show up there. You can drag the "local" file or package under PLACES, though, like a normal file or folder.
I can go back to any date in Time Machine and open this folder. I see everything that was on my local copy of my iDisk on September 9 (when I first set up Time Machine), but none of my Time Machine backups show any changes in that folder. So, what exactly am I seeing here?
I tried to access it through my home folder/Library/Application Support/SyncServices/Local but when I right click on the Local folder, I am not prompted to select +Show Package Contents+
Also, when I activate Time Machine and attempt to follow the path above, I don't have a SyncServices folder in Application Support.
That's odd.
This seems to be handled somewhat differently on Leopard. I just looked at my old Leopard partition, and it shows the Local item in the Application Support/SyncServices folder as a normal folder, not a package, as it does on Snow Leopard, so I may be misleading you a bit.
That still doesn't explain why it apparently isn't getting backed-up, though. Look in TM Preferences > Options. See if anything in the +Do not back up+ box would prevent it from being backed-up.

Sophos found a virus and trojan in Time Machine backup. What to do?

I ran Sophos Anti-Virus last night and it found two Windows viruses (one of them is Troj/20120158-P, a trojan, the other is Mal/TibsPk-A, a "malicious behavior" type). Both are attachments on emails that are in Time Machine only. Obviously I'm not worried about them affecting the Mac, but I'd like to avoid accidentally sending them to some poor victim who's using Windows.
I can track down the files by going into the drive and manually deleting them, but would that mess up Time Machine? Is there a better solution?
Thanks!

You should never poke around in your Time Machine backups to delete files in the Finder. That can damage the backups. You also should make sure that Sophos does not attempt to quarantine files from your Time Machine backup. In fact, you probably should ensure that Sophos (and any other anti-virus software) never touches your Time Machine backups in any way, even just for scanning. Let Sophos do its job of keeping the malware off your main hard drive, and leave Time Machine alone to back up freely without interference.
As for how to handle those e-mail messages in your backups, I would just leave them. They're not doing any harm there, and there's almost no chance that a chain of circumstances would arise that would result in you restoring those messages and then sending them to a Windows user. They will eventually be removed from your backups, when the backup drive fills up and Time Machine has to start removing the oldest deleted files from the backup to make room for new stuff.

Hard drive failure! New hard drive/Time machine backup/iPhone questions

Hello,
I have a 2011 MacBook Pro who's hard drive failed (rather acutely too, I do use disk utility to check it's health regularly) and I bought a replacement to install (SSD!). I have a bunch of questions but have only found partial answers in searches. Maybe it's best to list them:
1. I'd like to do a fresh install of the OS X using OS X Recovery because I'm concerned my Time Machine backup is partly corrupted. I hadn't updated to Mavericks, will I be able to install Mountain Lion? If not: will this be a problem with my backup files?
2. Say the OS X Recovery works, how do I use Time Machine to restore things like my iTunes library/iMessages/email/iPhoto library etc? In other words: just the data I can't get any other way (I hope it's not too corrupted). And/or should I use my iCloud backup on a few of these (iMessages/contacts)?
3. Do I need to set up the new OS X install with the same account names/home disk name etc. for the restored backup files to function?
4. Is this going to f'up iCloud or vice versa?
5. Finally, how do I sync my iPhone to the "new" computer without erasing the iPhone (which had an iOS update since my last backup to Time Machine). Or do I have to restore the iPhone too.
6. How come Apple doesn't have a mobile theme for their website yet?
Any help would be much appreciated,
Matt

Do you still have the original System Reinstall DVD set that came with your Mac?
If you created that Lion external drive you have from YOUR Mac, when Lion was installed on it, and it also contains a Recovery HD partition you can use that to boot to the Recovery HD and reinstall Lion on the new drive. And or Clone that external to the new internal drive you installed.
Right since your Mac came with Snow Leopard you can't use the Online Internet Recovery system to reinstall Lion, as your system didn't originally come with Lion, but you should still be able to boot to it to do diagnosic things like using Disk Utility, going to the Net to get help and even Restoring the system from a Time Machine backup. But you will get an error if you select Reinstall Mac OS X. The firmware update is usually applied with system updates.
If you created a New Time Machine Backup when any of the Download Only version of OS X were installed on your internal drive Time Machine, the system, Copies over the files needed to boot the system from that backup drive. If it was a care over backup from when Snow Leopard was installed is might or might not be bootable. Only way to tell is to connect it and at startup hold down the Option key to get the Boot selection screen, IE The Boot Manager screen, and see if it shows up as a Boot Source. If it does thenn it contains the files needed to get to the Mac OS X Utilities, IE the Recovery HD files.
What you should do is Boot the system from either the Time Machine backup, if it is bootable, or your External that has Lion on it, The Recovery HD if that drive contains a Recovery HD, or your Original Snow Leopard reinstall DVD that came with your Mac and then try to Restore from your Time Machine backup drive.
If that fails to restore your system properly then nyou should reinstall Snow Leopard and the iLife Apps from the Original Discs then upgrade to Mt Lion which will be in the Mac App Store under your Purchases area. Then maybe you can restore your files from that Time Machine backup.
scardanelli wrote:
I've had a bunch of issues with my computer (you can look at some of my other questions on these forums) which, to my mind anyway, seemed to be finally given a diagnosis when my HD crashed. It may be paranoia but there have been enough problems that I'd rather do a clean install to be on the safe side.
I have an early 2011, shipped with Snow Leopard.
I was under the impression that Time Machine can't be used as a boot drive and the OS X Recovery is a firmware update (on my computer) or hard wired in (on later computers). I might be wrong. I was planning on using the internet recovery, the HD failed right after I got some password protected files unencrypted and onto an external drive (was that necessary?) but wasn't sure if it's a problem if it installs Mavericks.
So Setup Assistant will configure my accounts the same and I don't need to worry about that? That's a relief.
Thanks for the lengthy response.

Error Dialogue: "Time Machine Backup Disk Can't be Found"

Hello -
I am trying to "Enter Time Machine" (which is on a Time Capsule); but when I try this, I am met by the error message "Your Time Machine Backup Disk Can't be Found" with the option given to "Set up My Time Machine".
Needless to say, my Time Machine has been set up for months. When I look in the preferences, it clearly shows the disk I'm connected to (here's a screenshot of the error dialogue alongside my Time Machine preferences: http://cl.ly/1HGk).
Any idea what the best course of action is here.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: notice from the screenshot that Time Machine thinks the earliest backup is only 1 day prior. This is also strange as I have said I've had Time Machine working on this Time Capsule for months. I called Apple about this and was told that a software update had gone out yesterday that reformatted the drives and started the backups all over again. While completely fishy - I don't remember agreeing to any software update dialogue about erasing my Time Capsule - I took them at their word. Not sure if this is related, but thought I should mention it.
Thanks Crew!

MattLat wrote:
Hello -
I am trying to "Enter Time Machine" (which is on a Time Capsule); but when I try this, I am met by the error message "Your Time Machine Backup Disk Can't be Found" with the option given to "Set up My Time Machine".
Needless to say, my Time Machine has been set up for months. When I look in the preferences, it clearly shows the disk I'm connected to (here's a screenshot of the error dialogue alongside my Time Machine preferences: http://cl.ly/1HGk).
Any idea what the best course of action is here.
The +sparse bundle+ containing your backups may be corrupted. Repair it, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
If that doesn't help, try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 there.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: notice from the screenshot that Time Machine thinks the earliest backup is only 1 day prior. This is also strange as I have said I've had Time Machine working on this Time Capsule for months. I called Apple about this and was told that a software update had gone out yesterday that reformatted the drives and started the backups all over again.
That's the first I've heard of that. They may have been referring to the +Time Capsule Backup Update 1.0+ update several weeks ago, that some folks got but others didn't. If it finds a problem, it sends the message in this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4076 The existing sparse bundle is renamed and locked, and a new one made.

Can't find Time Machine backup for restore

Hard drive died for my MacBook, now I'm trying to restore from the Time Machine file. I have a Linux server set up for Time Machine backup. I've mounted the server to /Volumes/Time Machine, which seems to be working fine, I can see the files there. Problem is the Time Machine restore tool cannot find that drive
Any ideas, is there a way to manually point it to the backup?

Oliver Jobson wrote:
My MBP is plugged into my lan, my time machine is on another mac on my network, but after inserting the install disc in the MBP (I have upgraded to a bigger drive on my MBP) I try to restore from the time machine, but it isn't finding the TM! Does it have to be over wifi as per the on screen instructions?
No. Connect the drive directly to your Mac. See #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Save that hair!

Can't install Lion on my HD. Says this disk is used for time machine backups

I just downloaded Lion to install on my 2008 macbook and i can't get past the window that asks me to select the disk where I want Lion installed. It says my hard disk is used for time machine backups. Any suggestions on how I can select my hd to install Lion?
Thanks

That means there is a directory on your HD called something like backups. backupdb
It thinks you're using the drive for TM. Delete this directory and it will then load.
Regards,
Captfred

Can't install Yosemite because my startup disk is used for Time Machine backups?

Tried to install Yosemite, but when I get to the screen which asks which disk I want to install it on, it won't allow me to select my computer's hard drive because "This disk is used for Time Machine backups." Any suggestions?

Because at the time I originally set it up I couldn't afford an external drive for a real backup, but thought it would be useful to have Time Machine copies in case I accidentally deleted a file or changed my mind about having done so. Once I finally got that external drive and started backing up to it, I forgot I had Time Machine files an my startup disc and didn't know that would be a problem. Anyway, thanks for the info, that fixed my problem.

Password protect Time Machine backups

Hello,
I share a LaCie external HDD for Time Machine backups with other people (who also use the drive to back up).
Inside the 'Backups.backupdb' folder, there are folders from the people who back up. Everyone can open all of them - without needing any passwords. I'd like it so that each owner has access to their files, but still have Time Machine backups without any problems or whatever.
When choose 'Get Info' of my folder, and look at the 'Sharing & Permissions' I see:
system - Read & Write,
staff - Read only, and
everyone - Read only.
Why is there no "myusername"? I don't know which one to change (and how).
How do I do this?
I've been looking around a little - I can't find anything that sounds like it'd help me.
Thanks in advance!

rudieih wrote:
Hey, sorry, I guess I wasn't clear.
The drive is used by several MacBooks, each with only one user installed on it (no Guest accounts, nothing else). So each backup file in Backups.backupdb is only for one user/machine.
that doesn't matter. the fact that there is only one account doesn't mean that there could not be more accounts. the permissions for this folder are still set for the whole computer.
I'd like it so I can't see the backups of their computers and they can't see mine. How can I do this?
You can't. if you use the TM backup drive in this fashion there is no way to hide backup folders for different computers from each other. The only thing you can do if you are worried about this sort of thing is to turn on filevault on your account. then nobody but you will be able to see backups of your home directory (not the whole computer). Filefault stores your home directory inside an encrypted sparse bundle which can not be accessed without knowing the password to open it. However, Filevault is a very finicky software and it's extremely poorly integrated with Time machine. It only backs up your home directory once you log out and you won't be able to browse old backups of your home directory using TM interface.
Right now everyone can browse everything.

Time machine backup freezes on initial backup attempt - any ideas?

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