Time machine cannot see external disks

Hi,
Time machine is not seeing my external hard disk (an iomega Storcenter network hard drive). However, I can see and access files from this external disk as usual on my network.
I want to use Time machine to back up to this disk. Can anyone help me please?
Greg

gr3len wrote:
Hi,
Time machine is not seeing my external hard disk (an iomega Storcenter network hard drive). However, I can see and access files from this external disk as usual on my network.
I want to use Time machine to back up to this disk. Can anyone help me please?
No, sorry. Time Machine does not back up to network drives, except Time Capsules or a drive on another Mac on the network that's running Leopard. It will back-up to a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme, but even that is, technically, unsupported, and requires a running a Terminal command to make it work.
Here's the official word: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1733
You may find some "hacks" that might make it work, in some cases, to a degree. But use them at your own risk.
First, since this is *unsupported by Apple,* there's nowhere to go when there's trouble.
Second, you're risking a future update preventing it from working, and perhaps rendering your backups useless.

Similar Messages

Time machine not seeing external hard drive in time line

can anyone help
time machine not seeing external hard drive in time line
before 2013
information say in 2009 is not accessable to view this
i must select external drive from finder
the time machine icon not recognising

thanks for reply
when i open time machine the time line on right side of page
has date ranging from 2014 back to 2010 but only highlight date from 2014 back to 2013
anything before 2013 is greyed out and cannot not be selected
when i touch the pages they only rush towards me a limited amount then stops
also why it shows date as 2014 is strange

I have just upgraded to Mavericks and have been using Time Machine on an external disk with Snow Leopard. Can I continue to backup with Time Machine on the same external disk or do I need a new disk since the operating system has changed?

I have just upgraded to Mavericks and have been using Time Machine on an external disk with Snow Leopard. Can I continue to backup with Time Machine on the same external disk or do I need a new disk since the operating system has changed?

Hi there,
I found that Time Machine in Mavericks will sort it all out for you. You shouldn't need to buy another backup drive, unless you have insufficient space left and can't afford to delete whats on there. It should just work fine.

Time Machine Backups of External Disk are Missing

I have followed the troubleshooting tips at http://pondini.org/TM/E3.html.
My circumstance is this:
I have a time machine on an external drive (not a time capsule). As far as I know it's backing up my main internal drive normally. This is a macbook pro, it gets connected irregularly. The drive has plenty of space, no old backups have been deleted.
I store my photos on an external sd card. It gets attached even more irregularly. The external sd is not excluded in TM preferences, nor has it failed (thankfully), been reformatted or renamed.
Entering TM, I see only a backup of the most recent time both TM disk and photos disk were connected (today). I know for certain both have been connected previously connected, and TM has generated a backup.
I know this because I have had this problem previously. Twice I have noticed the disappearing backup except for whatever was most recent at that time. I furled my forehead, assumed I was doing something wrong, and let the problem lie (creating a manual copy of my iPhoto library for safekeeping each time).
Fortunately, I do not need access to the backups now. But who knows what tomorrow brings?
I'm grateful for any input into this problem, so I may start relying on the backups.

While in Time Machine, to see all mounted volumes shift - command - c. Information learned from Linc Davis.

Time Machine cannot access backup disk

How can I fix this issue with Time Machine?:
"The+backup+disk+image+“%2FVolumes%2FGoFlex+Home+Backup%2FJohn’s+MacBook+Air.spa rsebundle”+could+not+be+accessed+(error+(null))."

Backing up to a third-party NAS with Time Machine is risky, and unacceptably risky if it's your only backup. I know this isn't the answer you want, and I also know that the manufacturer says the device will work with Time Machine, and that it usually seems to work. Except when you try to restore, and find that you can't.
If you want network backup with Time Machine, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to another Mac or to an 802.11ac AirPort base station. Only the 802.11ac base stations support Time Machine, not any older model.
If you're determined to keep using the NAS for backup, your only recourse for any problems that result is to the manufacturer (which will blame Apple.)

How do I remove Time Machine from an external disk

After trying it once, I decided that I do not want to use Time Machine. I only want to backup user directories, and use the disk to hold other things. Problem is that I can't reformat the disk and remove the Time Machine stuff. Right clicking only gives me limited options. Is there any way to remove the Time Machine stuff from this disk?

TM data is just that, data.
First, be sure you disconnect the TM engine from the drive in the TM preferences by turning the switch to Off.
There is no right-clicking involved.
Run the disk utility, select the drive and erase/format/partition or whatever. Nothing to it.

HT4500 how do I transfer files I backed up with Time Machine in an external disk to a PC?

I back up using Time Machine in an external hard drive in my Mac Air. I need to open those files in a PC, but I can't open the files. How do I open them from a PC?

TimeMachine first saves a complete state of your Mac's boot drive, then it saves incremental updates consisting of changes and uses placeholders (file names with no content) for those files that didn't change between states.
Now it will do this until there isn't enough room on the drive and then it starts deleting older states.
So it does it like this so there isn't any duplicated files wasting precious drive space.
Now what does that have to do with your problem? Well there is no TimeMachine software for PC's that can decode this mess and get to the files you want.
However if you understand a bit more details about it, then you can perhaps recover your files.
TimeMachine uses the same drive formatting as on a Mac, OS X Extended Journaled otherwise known as HFS+ or JHFS, and Windows PC's can't read that format natively.
However there is third party software called MacDrive which you install into Windows that can read that drive format.
The next trick, if it works, is to look a the TimeMachine folders and find your data, but have to recall when it was created as to go back into the correct folder or else you will find the empty placeholder with the same name and no data.
Next if you can recover files, is being able to open those files in a compatible PC program, which a lot of Apple software and OS X based software might not have PC versions.
Neutral formats like Mp3, jpg, .mov, .doc, .txt and so forth can be opened on other platforms using other programs, however the more platform or proprietary the files are in, then the harder it is to find a PC version that will work.
What you can do is to use the TimeMachine drive on a temporary Mac (OSX version has to be same or later than on the TM one) and restore the users accounts/software to that Mac and then go about retrieving data or simplifying the data or transporting it into more neutral/cross platform formats.
LibreOffice is excellent for this as it's the only Office suite that's cross platform with Linux, Windows and OS X, plus works with OfficeMac/Office Win files. So pasting into that will preserve a lot of formatting etc, that will be lost if you just pasted into txt format.
I've been aiming to create a transition to Windows User Tip, perhaps one day I will.

Mac OS 10.6/Time Machine cannot 'see' HD to re-install or restore

Upgraded my Mac Mini to Snow Leopard a couple weeks ago and had no problems. Then yesterday the computer froze up (the mouse still moved and icons in the dock expanded with the mouse but NOTHING was acknowledged when clicking to tabbing to any commands; could not even click from screen to screen for various functions that were currently open ... yet the mouse moved fine). Tried to restart computer and all I get now is a gray screen with a flashing file folder with a question mark in it.
Have tried all attempts listed here and in Support to (1) re-install Mac OS X 10.6 from the original disk, and (2) restore my computer from my Time Machine. Have tried many, many times now for both options and in ALL cases the computer cannot see or find my computer. The only disks it can find to re-install or re-store to are the 2 external hard drives I have. If I disconnect these, the computer can find NO disks to re-store to. (I've now let my system search for disks for over 3 hours this time around, and it still cannot find any disks to install to.)
So what's happened to my Mac Mini and "where" has this disk gone to? Why can't my Time Machine or Mac OS X installation disk find (or see) my Mac Mini?
(Really do need a new computer and was seriously thinking about just buying the new iMac this week, so maybe this is the sign. But would still like to get the last few files off my Mac Mini that I was working on when it crashed -- don't think Time Machine actually had time to back these up ...)
Cheers, and thanks for any suggestions and help!

Karl
It sounds like you are having trouble with your internal Hard Drive.
Whilst this is quite serious, sometimes you can fully recover from the situation, depending on what happened.
One of the most useful and reliable rescue utilities is DiskWarrior:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11707/diskwarrior
If you are lucky it may be something as simple as a damaged HFS+ wrapper, which can be repaired and have you back up on your feet again in relatively short order.
It pays to periodically check the *S.M.A.R.T. Status* of your drive, at the bottom of *Disk Utility.*
This is a self diagnosis function that may indicate impending problems. However if the disk has sustained physical damage, such as caused by a hard knock, nothing will redeem it.
Peter

Time machine not recognising external disk on airport extreme

Hi
I have connected a LaCie d2 Quadra disk to the usb port on my airport extreme.
The disk is formatted as HFS+
If I look in Finder (with Bonjour computers enabled as displayed) I can see the external disk through the airport extreme. I can enter the disk and see the drive (it is connected), but I cannot add files to the disk.
If I open Time Machine setup, I cannot see any external disk at all.
If I look in Airport utility, I can see the d2 Quadra listed as an external disk on the extreme, and I have set it up for File Sharing (using the device password)
Can anyone advise why Time Machine (OS-X Yosemite 10.10.1 on iMac) cannot see it?
And what to do to get it connected please to allow backups from any mac user's machine?
Thanks
Andy

So, LaCie advised to connect direct to Mac to check all ok. It was.
As soon as the HD was plugged in directly, TM recognised it and asked if I want to use it for backup. In Finder, the d2 Quadra appears, I can open it, and transfer files directly to and from it.
For reference, the Airport Extreme is connected via Ethernet to the iMac I am using (so no WiFi in this particular chain of connectivity), and the Extreme firmware is the latest (7.6.4) for the model (802.11n)
The issue is that connecting to the USB port on the Extreme, I cannot get the HD to operate like this!
LaCie now state that they cannot help further!!!
Does anyone have any idea why the Extreme is not sharing the HD as it is meant to?
Thanks
Andy

Time Machine cannot find external hard drive

I have just recently purchased an airport extreme and have enjoyed being able to plug in an external hard drive for time machine. I think I must have reset my laptop while it was backing up because now I get an error every time it tries to back up. The error I get is disc image cannot be accessed (error 2) I have tried everything I can think (reseting router, unplugging and plugging back in the hard drive, changing networks, and then back) but still nothing. I am not even able to enter the time machine to back up to a time before I had this problem. I can however access the contents of the drive just not successfully complete a time machine back up. Thanks for the help

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Start by Repairing the sparse bundle that contains your backups, via #A5 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.
If that doesn't help, try a "full reset" per #A4 there.
You do need to know that backing-up this way is "iffy" and +*not supported+* by Apple. See the Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Incremental backup from time capsule (time machine backup) to external disk

I have two questions regarding backing up a time capsule backup.
I would like to backup the time machine backup of my Macs from a time capsule to an external hard disk. The time capsule is a first geneneration one with 500 GB. The external hard disk has 500 GB as well with USB and firewire ports..
First question: What is the best way to connect these two hard drives - I am using a MacBook Air with two USB ports ?
Second question: What backup software could I use to do incremental backups - I tried ChronoSync but it is not picking up the changes of the sparcebundles ?
Thank you for every valuable advice
Regards

CAAN wrote:
I have two questions regarding backing up a time capsule backup.
I would like to backup the time machine backup of my Macs from a time capsule to an external hard disk.
Backing-up your backups is generally not a good idea. If there's a problem with the original backup, it will be copied to, and perhaps magnified on, the copy.
You'd be much better off making "secondary" backups separately. See #27 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for some suggestions.
About the only alternative is to "archive" the TC's contents to a USB drive connected to it, but that's not incremental, and has other downsides as well. See #Q6 in [Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule|http://web.me.com/pondini/TimeMachine/TimeCapsule.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Time Machine cannot find Backup Disk

Hey I just got Leopard and I have a backup disk connected to my router which is shown in finder on my shared list, however, when I try to set up Time Machine it cannot find the disk... any ideas?!
Many thanks

Only Time Capsules work wirelessly with Time Machine.

Time Machine cannot "see" its back up?

Running Time Machine with Time Capsule (actually a disk attached to TC) on updated Mountain Lion (13in MacBook Pro 2.3GHz Core i5 4GB) for about 6 months and have a 62GB sparsebundle that appears to be fine -- that is, when Time Machine runs an hourly update the file timestamp updates indicating that it was modified. I have not received any error messages. Yet, System Preferences indicates that there are no backup (see screenshot below) and when I run Time Machine as if to restore there's nothing older than a few days when I should see snapshots going back months. I got bupkis from Support on this, only solutions to error messages.

WaterbedWilma wrote:
when Time Machine runs an hourly update the file timestamp updates indicating that it was modified.
What "file" is that? Where are you seeing a date?
It's possible the backup is crashing (not failing with a message). Use the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to display the backup messages from your logs. Locate the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages here.
Yet, System Preferences indicates that there are no backup (see screenshot below)
Another reason I suspect the backup is crashing. Those dates are updated when a backup completes normally, not when it fails or crashes.

Time machine cannot see time capsule event though I have a green light

I have a green light on my time capsule but time machine on my macbook pro cannot no longer see the time capsule. i have gone through the procedures to find it and reset the time capsule, only again to get to the solid green light stage but time machine still cannot see it.
can anyone tell me what i am doing wrong? Thanks

I had the same problem this morning. Anyone have any ideas?

Cannot See External Disk in TM

My iMac has an internal disk, plus a 1TB external disk, for data.
I also have a 2nd 1TB external disk for TM.
My external data disk went offline (TM disk still online). TM shows nothing there for my external data disk (not even an icon).
Did I do something wrong in my settings, or does TM not support backup of multiple disks?

TM does support backups of multiple disks and if you set it up correctly that disk should have been backed up. It has to be formatted mac os extended journaled. then TM will back it up automatically unless you add it to the TM exclusion list.
click on your computer name in the sidebar (check the box to show the computer in the sidebar in Finder preferences). start TM and scroll back in time to when the data drive was attached. it should show up on the list and you can restore things from there.

Time machine cannot see external disks

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for