Time Machine doesn't recognize hard drive

I have installed Leopard on my 2.66 GHz PowerMac. I have a 200 GB Maxtor hard drive hooked to it my PowerMacthrough a hub. I have used the hard drive to manually back up files and that works fine. The hard drive shows up in the finder, but it doesn't show up in Time Machine. I have tried restarting several times to no avail.

I have a different issue but this topic seemed the closest in the discussions. Since buying our new 24" iMac with 750GB internal HDD this Winter (and Leopard) I have had Ext TimeMachine HDD issues (loss).
First, I bought a 1Tb WD MyBook - within a week of use as the TimeMachine drive (and a week of good backups as far as I can tell as we browsed the saved contents periodically) the Ext HDD started failing. It was hard to tell what the problem was, but after twice "locking up" and restarting both the drive and the Mac, I am no longer able to "see" the drive in Finder, nor does the drive act like it would (the lights/sounds of the drive at time of mount) like it is being recognized at startup. One last odd thing about this drive, when TM had trouble and "sort of" locked up or slowed down the iMac as it lost the drive, Finder could still see it (I didn't try to move files to/from it though).
Just last week I bought a Maxtor 750GB drive (to replace until I get the WD drive back from warranty) and it lasted only 3 days. Now it, like the WD drive, is not visible. The only difference is that this drive doesn't sound right e.g. if you listen closely I think you can heard the internal mechanism clicking - bearings, drive head etc.? I'm not a HDD expert but I suspect something physical.
I am suspicous that both drives would fail in such a similar way with similar results. The only things common that I can identify now are the following;
-Both drives are firewire (WD FW800 / Maxtor FW400)
-Both drives used as TimeMachine drives only
-Both drives were new
-the location of the drives and iMac are not new - our older iMac and drives used to be mounted in the same location. The old Ext HDD's and iMac have been moved to a new location and they still work fine.
- We have installed the latest Apple software updates as they became available and no other problems noted. However, it was during the last security update the the system locked up (from TimeMachine it appeared) and upon re-boot of the system we were no longer able to "see" that the drive was available.
-Both drives have only been connected to this new iMac
-No other Ext, HDD's have been used with this iMac
Until I get warrant details back from the manufacturer I am concerned what the source of the problems are. Is it two unique HDD's failures and nothing more? Is it TimeMachine? Is it my iMac?
I have invested a lot of time and money into large drives only to have them nothing more than paper weights in less then a week each.
I would love to hear of any suggestions or if others are having similar issues.

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Time Machine will not recognize hard drive

Time Machine tells me "You cannot open “Time Machine” preferences pane because it is not available to you at this time." My Lacie HD is on and mounted. I have erased it and repartitioned it and still get nothing. I get the would you like to set up TM prompt but then get the message above.

If you ever hear back from Lacie please post the result. I've given up on Time Machine for the time being. I've mostly given up on Leopard for the time being. I've partitioned my internal hard drive so I can boot in either Tiger or Leopard, and I figure I'll continue to work mostly in Tiger for the time being and apply updates to Leopard and maybe eventually it will work out. The other big problem I'm having with Leopard is the ability to repair permissions. Other than that, most programs seem to work well, although no big improvement over Tiger.
I am hugely disappointed and disillusioned. In June I became a convert from 20 years of Microsoft, and have been a huge Mac fanatic. My iMac was a gateway device to iPods and all things Mac. This experience brought me back to reality. I'll likely never go back MS, but the computer is just an appliance, and all things Apple are difinitely not "plug it in and it works". This is my worst experience with an upgrade ever.

Time Machine doesn't see Hard drive

I have an external USB hard drive attached to a macbook pro. When I go to set up Time Machine, the hard drive is not shown. It shows up in the Finder no problem. I have it attached through a USB hub with an AC adapter.
Why won't it "see" it?

try plugging it in directly without using a USB hub. also, how is the drive formatted?

Time machine doesn't recognize external hard drive

Recently I went to the apple store to get help to switch from Mavericks to Mountain Lion (I had some problems with Mavericks). They used time machine to bring back my applications (from my external hard drive, LaCie) on the Mountain Liion software. They said my time machine/external hard drive should work the same when I got home. Now, when I go to back up my computer, time machine doesn't recognize that I've backed up my files before. In the past, when time machine was working, every time I plugged in my hard drive the icon for it would turn blue, time machine recognized it, and it would back up my files. Now, the icon for the hard drive shows up, but time machine doesn't recognize it.
Some other things:
- when I open my external hard drive on finder, it shows all of my previous back ups
- I used disk utility to check my hard drive and macintosh HD - both are OK
How can I use time machine to continue backing up files? Or am I going to have to partition or erase the hard drive and start a new back up?
Thank you in advance

nevermind! time machine suddenly recognized the disk after half an hour. sorry, I don't know how to delete this post!

Replaced internal hard drive, time machine doesn't recognize as same volume

Howdy,
The hard drive (call it drive "X") on my iMac (one of the 2005 models) was dying so I had it replaced. I rebuilt the new drive (drive "Y") from my most recent time machine backup (from external drive "A"). I am now having problems with one of my backup devices, in that time machine doesn't recognize that the new disk is conceptually the same thing that had been backed up before (same volume name).
More details... I rotate my backups monthly through three external drives (I store the most recent offsite). After the disk replacement and restore process, I continued to use that backup drive (drive "A") without noticing any problem. Then it came time to rotate my external drives, and time machine doesn't find enough space on the next backup drive (drive "B"). Presumably this is because it doesn't realize that the drive I am backing up ("Y") is a copy of the drive that had previously been backed up on "B" ("X").
Is there any way to convince it they are the same? Or am I in the same boat as this poster:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2770362&tstart=0
Basically I just want to verify that I am in that same boat before I remove old backup files on "B". If I do decide I need to remove those, are the instructions linked in thread 2770362 correct, or are there better ones?
Thanks for any help,
Bob H

Actually, the backup I deleted above was the backup for the new internal drive. Apparently TM had created the (incomplete) backup during the failed attempt that ran out of space on the backup device. Since the new internal drive had the same name as the old internal drive, I didn't initially realize that's what I was deleting. Not that deleting it causes any harm, but it didn't address the original problem of freeing up space on the backup device.
Not to worry though. I've figured out how to get at the backups for the old internal drive, and am in the process of deleting those. I was about to follow the instructions in your troubleshooting items E3 and E2, but upon attempting to enter time machine I stumbled into the right place. Since I had previously told TM to do no backups (because there was still not enough disk space), and since I'd left the backup device connected, when I pulled up the TM menu from the menu bar, the usual "Enter Time Machine" menu was replaced by "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" (or perhaps "Disks" was "Backups"). This then gave me a list of the machines that I'd backed up on this backup device (in my case machine names and internal drive names are the same). Of course one of those was for the old internal drive, and after choosing it I roughly followed the same course of action as I did a few days ago, to initiate deletion.
I also saw how I could delete each of those old backups individually, but decided against that as I did not expect it would free up enough space. My expectation is that nearly all the space is shared among all the backups for the same source drive, since relatively very little changes between backups.
Bob H

HT203177 Time machine doesn't recognize my hard drive archive

I have time machine archive on a hard drive (not time capsule). It recently stopped backing up. On checking, time machine recognizes the hard drive (in preferences it is listed as the back up drive.) The files appear to be present on looking into the drive, but Time Machine doesn't recognize that there are backup files there, it wants to complete another full backup. Meaning - it says for latest backup: "none".
I am afraid if I do another full backup, I will lose the ability to access the older backups.
When I try to access older files through time machine, it predictably cannot find them.
How do I tell Time Machine that the files on that hard drive are the backup files?

Update:
1) Right click on TM icon - Menu choice "Browse other TM disks" allows me to see the data - i.e. it is a valid TM archive, not corrupted.
2) Looking at TM preferences immediately after showed the proper disk was targeted, but still Latest backup: None.
3) Shut down, anomalous shut down -required power button hit. (AHH - the problem??)
4) restart using command - R works - i.e recognizes the disk and emergency recovery system software
5) Restart - Still shows latest backup: None
6) trying to access data through standard TM startup shows data now.
7) go back to preferences - still no backup shown.
Aside - I can't recall what the purple vs white dates on right side of the screen signify, and can't find it in the documentation right now. Anybody know?

How do I move data on time machine from one external hard drive to another

How do I move data on time machine from one external hard drive to another?

Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. Turn Time Machine OFF in its preference pane while copying the volume.

HT3275 Time Machine says my external hard drive does not have enough

Time Machine says my external hard drive does not have enough space for the current backup. It needs 34 G out of a 250G hard drive. All that is on the drive is earlier backups. I recently added memory, which may confuse Time Machine into thinking it is a new computer. How can I erase old backups and complete this one?

Walter Goodman wrote:
Time Machine says my external hard drive does not have enough space for the current backup. It needs 34 G out of a 250G hard drive. All that is on the drive is earlier backups.
See #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If that doesn't clear it up, how much data is on your Mac? If TM is only trying to back-up 34 GB, it should be able to delete old backups to do that (assuming you're running Lion).
It sounds like your backups may be corrupted. Try to repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
I recently added memory, which may confuse Time Machine into thinking it is a new computer.
If that's all you did, no.
How can I erase old backups and complete this one?
Just erase the drive per #1 or #2 of Using Disk Utility.

HT201250 i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. do i keep my files in the portable hard disk when I connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will era

i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. Am i keeping my files in the portable hard disk when I will connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will erase all?
I would like to know if after I erase all my data, empy hard drive inside the macbook, the time machine will erase all my files that I have saved in my "WD "My passport" external hard drive

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Time Machine has to erase the external disk in order to make backups. Before setting Time Machine up, copy the files of your external disk to the hard disk of the Mac in order not to lose them, and then, set up Time Machine. The first backup will start automatically.
If you want more information about Time Machine, read the Pondini's site > http://pondini.org

Is it possible to have two encrypted time machines on one partitioned hard drive?

I am trying to use encrypted time machines for two macbooks (15" and 11") with only one USB hard drive. The problem is that after creating one encrypted time machine for my 15" in a separate partition, the hard drive does not work when plugging it into my 11".
What happens is that I am prompted to enter in my encryption password for the 15" time machine on my 11". I enter in the correct password but it does not work (i.e., password fail). The interesting part is that when I plug the hard drive into my 15", I am asked the same thing, but the password entry works.
This is my current setup for my 1tb usb hard drive:
1) 400gb for data
2) 400gb newly encrypted time machine for my 15"
3) 200gb unencrypted time machine (with old 11" time machine backups) for my 11"
The hard drive is formated/partitioned in RAID format.
All I want is to be able to have two encrypted time machines for each macbook on one single hard drive. Previously I was able to maintain two separate time machines (unencrypted) on this hard drive. I decided to try and encrypt both but seems like I am getting something wrong.

I am prompted to enter in my encryption password for the 15" time machine on my 11".
If I understand correctly, you want to mount the other partition. Are you prompted to do that? Does the password include any characters other than plain letters and digits? Are you using the same keyboard layout on both machines?

Using Time Machine to restore external hard drive data

I have been using a Mac Mini running 10.6.8 for years as a media server. I have always been very careful to maintain backups of everything, and the inevitable did happen - the hard drive containing all my media did fail.
To clarify my set up, my Mac Mini internal hard drive is insufficient to store all my media, so I have been using an external 2TB drive to store it. I then set up Time Machine to back up both the Mac Mini and the 2TB external drive to a second 3TB external drive. Now that the 2TB drive with my media has failed, I seem to be having problems restoring all the media from 3TB drive. This is because the Time Capsule interface is designed to display finder windows at various points in time so you can go back to when your missing files existed and restore them. The problem is that I need the entire contents of the dead 2TB drive restored to a new drive, but I can't open a Time Capsule window that shows the contents of the old drive. I have tried opening /Volumes in a finder window, then invoking Time Machine, but my dead hard drive does not show up in the list of volumes. When I open the 3TB drive in a Finder window I can clearly see that it has backups of the 2TB drive, but they are spread out among 83 different snapshots of various dates.
How can I use Time Machine to easily restore the entire contents of the dead 2TB external drive to a new external drive?

This web site might answer all of your Time machine questions:
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Ciao.

Can I increase the capacity of Time Machine with an external hard drive connected to Time Capsule?

Can I increase the capacity of Time Machine with an external hard drive connected to Time Capsule via the USB port? My current Time Machine has a total capacity of 1TB. I'd like to double or triple its memory. I don't want to use the external hard drive in lieu of the Time Capsule hard drive. I'd like to use it in addition to. Just don't know if/how it's possible.
This is another one of those questions that I've searched the web for answers, and have gotten tricky answers back. So now I'm trying to introduce a clean slate to the mix.
Thank you for your time!

Well, what you mentioning is possible. However, I don't know whether it's supported (as in, "easy to set up."). Time Machine officially supports backing up to a locally attached drive, to a machine running a Time Machine server (i.e. running OS X Server software), and to a Time Capsule. I don't know that it officially supports a drive attached to an AirPort or to a Time Capsule. Though I know some people have gotten it to work.
Best I can say is to try it. Plug the drive into the Time Capsule, ensure it's shared on the network, and then try and set it as a backup target from a machine in the Time Machine backup panel (you'll need to ensure it's mounted first). If it works, you're all set.

HT1553 DO I HAVE TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL INSTALLATION DISCS IF MY HARD DRIVE IS REPLACED BUT I MADE A BACK UP WITH TIME MACHINE TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ?

I have an imac from late 2009 and received an email saying the seagate hard drive may fail and apple is going to replace it free of charge. I will back up using time machine to an external hard drive but do I absolutely have to have the original installation CD's or is there a way around this to restore the computer once they replace the hard drive??

Yes, you can partition your 2TB drive that way. In fact, I have an external hard drive with 3 partitions: one for a SuperDuper! clone of my Snow Leopard partition, one to clone my Lion partition, and one larger partition for Time Machine (which only backs up the Lion partition).
I would expect the authorized reseller to have a complete set of OS X disks.

Time Machine on an External Hard Drive - used with another computer or mac?

I'm planning on selling my computer but want everything that is on my Mac saved so when I can afford to buy a new computer I will have all of my files, music, pictures, etc. I hooked up Time Machine to an external hard drive last night. So everything should be saved to the external hard drive now right?...will I be able to open any of those files on another computer using my external hard drive that has my backup on it? For example, if I have my resume as one of the files can I plug in my hard drive that has my Time Machine back up on it to open edit and resave the file? Or am I better of manually saving the files to the external hard drive without using Time Machine?
Please help...I need to sell my computer but don't want to lose any of my stuff on it...
Thanks!

Time machine works great for the file you accidentally delete or modify even if you need to go back months and months. There are better solutions when you really just need to clone your existing system like CCC or Superduper. A clone is more flexible when it comes to getting your stuff. The only downside is you will lose the multiple copies time machine keeps. The upside is you know exactly what's on it and you can boot from it if needed. The file structure is definately more stable on a clone.
A time machine is OK for what you're doing. I just think a clone is better. The choice is yours.

HT4413 When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, only some files and applications and setting are transferred, not all of them. In my latest back up I have them all. How can I fix that?

When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.

sohs wrote:
When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.
If you want to use Time Machine to recover the contents of one of its a backups to a new drive, follow the instructions in Mac OS X 10.6: Recovering your entire system. Note that you must select the "Restore System From Backup" option from the Utilities menu of the Installer disc to do this.
Also note that if you are transferring files to a hard drive to be used with a different computer, you should use Migration Assistant instead. This intentionally will not copy everything because some settings, applications, etc. are not compatible computer-to-computer. Migration Assistant will copy everything that is.

Time Machine doesn't recognize hard drive

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