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?

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Time Machine doesn't see shared drive

iMac running 10.5.8 with an external hard drive
MacBook running 10.6.7
On the iMac I've been successfuly using Time Machine to back up to the external drive. I now want to use the same drive to back up the MacBook. The problam I'm having is that Time Machine on the MacBook doesn't seem to see the shared drive. O can see the share in Finder on the MacBook but not in Time Machine where I have to select the drive.
I do notice that in Finder on the MacBook all the shares, including the disk, use the file icons. Should the disk be showing up with a disk icon and is Time Machine perhaps not seeing it because it thinks it's not a disk and just a folder?
When I share the drive, to which account do I need to give access? I have accounts with the same names on both machines. Is there is special hidden Time Machine account?

Thanks for the tip. So I figured out how to mount the drive and I now can select it in TM. The next question is will the drive be mounted whenever the system starts up or do I need to manually mount it? I would like it to be mounted automatically at boot time and not at user log in time. Is there a way to do that? I want it always mounted, regardless of who is logged on or even if no one is logged on, so that it is always available for TM.

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.

Time machine doesn't see my external hard drive.

Why doesn't Time Machine recognize my external hard drive? The icon is on the desktop but it won't back up and fails saying the backup volume can't be found.
It works on my mac mini but not on my intel core 2 duo. I have other backup files on my external hard drive. Any suggestions ????

I used it with my imac power pc before and now am using with my intel iMac. Is this possible without reformatting? Here is information you requested.
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Name : My Iomega HDD
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk1s3
Mount Point : /Volumes/My Iomega HDD
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : FireWire
Device Tree : /PCI0/RP04@1C,3/FRWR@0/node@d0b87de0002bb1/sbp-2@c000/@0:3
Writable : Yes
Universal Unique Identifier : 4692F5BF-C808-3459-8090-F05D5724133C
Capacity : 298.0 GB (319,938,674,688 Bytes)
Free Space : 199.7 GB (214,375,014,400 Bytes)
Used : 98.3 GB (105,563,660,288 Bytes)
Number of Files : 367,381
Number of Folders : 85,981
Owners Enabled : No
Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : Yes
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 3

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.

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.

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.

How to reinstall from time machine onto a new hard drive?

how to reinstall the system from time machine to a new hard drive?

If you are connected to the internet you can do this.
Boot your computer and immediately hold down command, option and R (three keys together). This gets you connected with internet recovery.
See this article for more directions: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718.
This process installs an OS on your blank drive. You can then boot from the fresh OS installation and restore from your Time Machine back up.
Note that you cannot boot from a TM back up.

Time Machine doesn't see MyBook Live NAS.

I just got a new SMC-D3GNV gateway from Comcast and now Time Machine doesn't see my NAS MyBook Live. I can access all my files on the MyBook Live via finder. Also, all software/firmware is current. Any idea's?

mwithers wrote:
I know variations on this question have been asked many times before, but I've just read many of those threads, and I don't see an answer.
Time Machine does not see my La Cie Network Space NAS and neither does Disk Utility (the La Cie support pages imply that it should, believe it or not).
If your Mac can contact the NAS, it should appear in a Finder sidebar (if your Finder preferences are set for that). If you can set Time Machine up to back up to it, it will create a +sparse bundle+ on it. That sparse bundle, when mounted, will appear in Disk Utility's sidebar, and you can do a +*Repair Disk+* on it. Otherwise, no, Disk Utility won't see network drives.
Does not matter if it is connected via WiFi or directly through ethernet. I suspect this means that it is not Mac OS extended formatted, and not formattable (by Disk Utility) either.
Correct; Disk Utility can't format a network drive.
Review the LaCie specs and setup instructions carefully. My quick read on their site does not turn up any claim that it's Time Machine compatible, though.
Can you return it?

Can you use time machine on a networked hard drive

Can you use time machine on a networked hard drive?

See if this helps: Using Time Machine with a networked hard drive

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?

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.

Time Machine doesn't see Hard drive

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