Time Machine error: backup disk image could not be created

Iet up my new time capsule day and it's working great. Now that I've got everything sorted out, I'm ready to do the initial time machine back up on it. I went into preferences, changed the backup location to my TC and clicked 'back up now'. Very quickly I get a message that the backup failed: "Time Machine Error - The backup disk image could not be created".
I've searched the apple support area but haven't been able to figure this one out. Can anyone help, please? This is an initial backup. (FYI, it worked great on my old external drive.)
Many thanks

I had the same problem. I installed my Time Capsule, fired up Time Machine and got an error that said "The backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 436.8 GB but only 182.2GB are available."
Coincidently, these are the same sizes as the space used and the space available on my iMac's drive.
I looked in /Volumes and saw that the sparsebundle was being created on the local disk and not on the main disk. Trying to backup again gave me the "Time Machine error: backup disk image could not be created." message.
I poked around the forums, and found a post about the machine name setting in sharing. I decided to give it a look, and lo and behold, I did not have a machine name. So I gave my box a name, kicked off Time Machine again, and it worked.

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Time Capsule - Time machine error "backup disk image could not be mounted"

Recently I lost a folder and attempted to resore from my Time Capsule backup (which I started when it first shipped) not only did it fail, but know I get the message "backup disk image could not be mounted" when I try to backup. I have used Airport Utility to try and sort - that shows green light and it is connected by ethernet 9and shows in network (I can see the sparsebundle). I have been trying for a couple of weeks now - any ideas??

John & Joel,
I've done some research and put together some ideas.
"The backup disk image could not be mounted"
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Now try Backing up again.
*Stalled .inProgress Files:*
Select the TC in the SideBar of the Finder window.
Click "Connect as...". Enter your TCs password.
Double click the blue folder that appears in the finder window. The sparsebundle should now be visible.
Double click the sparsebundle and then click “Skip” in the checksum message.
Once “Backup of (Users Computer)” mounts in the Sidebar open the folder containing past backups. Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.
Unmount the backup drive and try backing up again.
*Permissions Issue:*
Select the TC in the SideBar of the Finder window.
Click "Connect as...". Enter your TCs password.
Double click the blue folder that appears in the finder window. The sparsebundle should now be visible.
Highlight the sparsebundle and “Get Info” (Cmd-I). At the bottom of the Get Info window open the “Sharing & Permission” section. Beside “Everyone” it should say “Read & Write”. If it does not, change it.
Now try performing a backup again.

Time Machine Error: Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted

Time Machine was working just fine with Time Capsule for the first two days, then today I got the above error message.
The drive and the backup image both show up in Finder. I can even copy files from the Time Capsule to my hard drive.
I just can't get Time Machine to backup to the Time Capsule, even if I manually hit "Back up now".
Any ideas what I can do to fix this?

I may have fixed this ... I renamed my TC to a shorter name with no space and no apostrophe - just a few letters. That seems to have cleared it up - at least for now. Time will tell ...

Time Machine / Time Capsule Error: Backup disk image could not be mounted

So I'm trying to back up to time machine, which used to be working fine, but I have this problem happening on two computers now (which probably means the error is in my Time Capsule.)
The Time Capsule shows up on my "shared" list in my finder windows.
I can connect to it, and open the folder inside, and SEE my two disk image files in there.
But Time Machine gives me a "The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" error. No other information.
If I double-click on the disk image file directly, I get an error "The Following disk images failed to mount" and then it lists the file and says "Resource temporarily unavailable."
Help, please.

I'm caught in the same loop, with no end in sight. I've only been using Time Machine and Time Capsule for 2 months. This week it stopped working. First error message:
"Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume."
Checking the Time Machine preferences, "Last backup" would read "backup failed"
When I got this error, all the wireless functions went offline, even thought the TC light was still green.
I would shut down, shut down the Time Capsule, shut off my modem reboot everything in order.
Next error message:
"Disk repair. The disk 'Backup of [my computer]' was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must backup your data and reformat the drive."
Then: "Time Machine Error: The backup volume is read only. To select a different volume ... Time Machine preferences ... "
I spoke to someone at Apple, who sent me the Time Machine Troubleshooting page:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275?viewlocale=en_US
I went through:
1. updated my system software
2. updated the TC firmware to 7.4.1
3. dragged the sparsebundle to DiskUtility. It took a while (more than an hour?) but said the disk could not be repaired. When I tried again, the repair function wouldn't run.
4. tried to delete the sparsebundle, but it would choke at almost the end, sometimes it would just crash the finder, sometimes say "Sorry, an unexpected error occurred," sometimes "Operation cannot be completed because the item 'bands' is in use." I even tried to Stuff the bundle with 'delete original' checked, but the stuffing, after about 15 hours, jammed near the end (stuffed 20 gigs of 35 gigs).
5. tried to reselect the TC, and run backup anyways ... now it can't find the volume, back to the error messages and crashing Finder
6. checked password in Keychain, all ok.
Now what??
Do I use Airport Utility to erase it? At least TC is still showing up there. Or press the rest button on the back of the Time Capsule to reset to factory defaults?
I've resigned myself to losing my backups. Now I would just like to get it up and running again.
In hopes,
Linda

Time machine - "the backup disk image could not be mounted"

SInce a few days, I am unable to backup via Time Machine.
I always get the message:
TIME MACHINE ERROR
The backup disk image could not be mounted
I use an Apple Time Capsule and still have more than enough free space on it.
Use OS X 10.5.5
Help.....
Tks

Rosy,
*_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”)_*
First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be mounted”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
Consider each topic below separately. When one option does not resolve your issue, then move on the next one.
*Unmount the Backup Disk Image* (TC)
If, for some reason, you have manually mounted the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle), or Time Machine failed to eject it after the previous backup, subsequent backups may fail. (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”… “Backup failed with error: 21”)
Eject the backup disk image (white drive icon) by either clicking the little Eject icon to the right of the disk image in the Finders’ Sidebar, or Ctrl-Click the drive icon on the desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu. Now try backing up again or launching Time Machine to view previous backups.
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Close the Airport Utility.
Now try Backing up again.
“I got it resolved. Apparently it had to do with one of the files being open on the disk from the drive. I had browsed the disk with one of my windows boxes here and it must have left one of the folders "open". Anyway, I rebooted the TC and we are good to go now.”
*Proper Computer Name* #
Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
According to this article, [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
(0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
Let us know if any of the suggestions above resolves your issue.
Cheers!

Time Machine error - backup disc image could not be mounted

I have a LaCie external hard drive attached to my Mac and (through Time Machine) there are several other macs, including my own, which back up to this device (through the network).
One of the other macs has suddenly started to bring up an error message when it tries to back up - "backup disc image could not be mounted". But my mac is backing up without any problems. I've tried switching the LaCie on and off but it still won't back up anymore
Can anyone help?

BTW--when I go into finder and click on my .sparsebundle, I get the following:
The following disk images failed to mount
Reason: Operation not supported on socket

Backup disk image could not be created

Hi All-
I need suggests on how to deal with a "shy" file.
The story begins when Time Machine stopped backing up from my MacBook to a disk attached to my AirPort Extreme. It had worked successfully for a month then stopped. Time Machine spends a long time "preparing" then exits with a window bearing the error "backup disk image could not be created".
This led me to the Console, where I found error messages like
9/29/08 12:33:42 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[31071] Error moving disk image from /Volumes/Backup/Zinc_0019e34844e2.tmp.sparsebundle to /Volumes/Backup/Zinc_0019e34844e2.sparsebundle - Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=512 UserInfo=0x529e50 "“Zinc_0019e34844e2.tmp.sparsebundle” could not be moved to “Backup”."
Ah-ha I thought, there's some permission problem with Zinc_0019e34844e2.sparsebundle, preventing it from being copied over. If I mount the Backup disk manually, the Finder lists 2 files and one folder in /Volumes/Backup/
Backups.backupdb
Zinc_0019e34844e2.sparsebundle
Zinc_0019e34844e2.tmp.sparsebundle
However, when I click on Zinc_0019e34844e2.sparsebundle it quickly disappears from the Finder window before I can do anything to it. When I try to attack the problem through the terminal, I get another surprise.
Zinc:/Volumes/Backup raph% ls -l
ls: Zinc_0019e34844e2.sparsebundle: No such file or directory
total 0
drwxrwxrwx@ 4 raph staff 264 Aug 25 20:21 Backups.backupdb
drwxrwxrwx@ 6 raph staff 264 Sep 29 12:30 Zinc_0019e34844e2.tmp.sparsebundle
but plain ls gives
Zinc:/Volumes/Backup raph% ls
Backups.backupdb Zinc_0019e34844e2.tmp.sparsebundle
Zinc_0019e34844e2.sparsebundle
I've never seen a file which disappears when you try to access any of its properties. Any ideas on how to get rid of it? It disappears too fast in the Finder and the command line doesn't work either.
Zinc:/Volumes/Backup raph% rm Zinc_0019e34844e2.sparsebundle
rm: Zinc_0019e34844e2.sparsebundle: No such file or directory
Can I cp Zinc_0019e34844e2.tmp.sparsebundle to a new backup directory and rename it without the .tmp?
Raph

William,
Here are a couple possible reasons for the error message, “The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Created”:
*Missing Computer Name*
First you might be missing a computer name in the Sharing Preference pane. Go into System Prefs. Then Sharing. In the box labeled “Computer Name” is it still “Zinc”? If it is blank, you need to put “Zinc” back in. Otherwise Time Machine won’t be able to link this Mac with the previous backups.
*Reselect Time Machine Backup*
Next, the link to the network drive “Backup” has been lost. Go into System Preferences --> Time Machine --> “Change Disk…” and select the the backup drive again from the list of available volumes. Do this:
Go to System Preferences --> Time Machine.
Click the "Change Disk..." button.
Select "None" and click "Stop Backing Up".
Now click "Choose Backup Disk" and reselect your drive again.
Close System Preferences and try backing-up again.
Let us know if this helps.
Cheers!

I'm having trouble backing up my second macbook to a new time capsule. continue to get an error message -- "Time Machine Error. The backup disk image could not be created." Is there something I need to change in my time capsule or time machine?

I just set up a new time capsule. it worked fine on my first macbook. But now I cannot backup my second macbook. Getting "Time Machine Error" "The backup disk image could not be created." Do I need to change settings on my time capsule to allow the second computer, or do I need to change something on the computer to allow time machine to work right?

Try #C9 in Pondini's Time Machine Troublshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Machine error "The backup disk image could not be created"

I'm trying to back up to an external hard drive on a home network (not Time Capsule). Time Machine appears to recognize the drive, and the correct amount of free space on it, but fails with the error "The backup disk image could not be created" after a lengthy "Preparing" wait. What's going on? Other applications are able to access this drive with no problems.

I know Apple won't support other makes of NAS, but this post I found from Pondini worked for me.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Check your Computer Name at the top of the System Preferences > Sharing panel.
It must not be blank; it should not be more than 25 characters long; and you should avoid punctuation, spaces, and special characters.
After changing it, click the Edit button and make the corresponding change to the Local Hostname.
If that doesn't help, apply the same rules to the name of your Time Capsule and Network, via Airport Utility.
It was really as simple as that (after I had done such things as delete the sparsebundle file, created a new one, zeroed-out the new one, nightmare!)
Problem seems to be with OS X's naming of Macs when you first set it up, as it creates a hostname "<yourName>'s Mac Book." When the NAS software (mine anyway) creates the sparsebundle image it replaces the spaces of the hostname with hyphens and strips out the apostrophe, which is never gonna work.

Time Machine Error: "The backup disk image could not be created." Help.

I have two Macbook Pro's. One is able to backup to the Time Capsule with no problems. The other connects just fine to Airport Utility, but I get the following error after I attempt to backup: Time Machine Error: "The backup disk image could not be created."
I have reset the Time Capsule several times, so that is not the fix.
The first thing I see when attempting to open Time Machine is the following message: :The storage location for Time Machine Backups can't be found." It gives me the option to setup the Time Capsule, which I select. The next thing I select is to Change Disk. The window that opens has the Icon with Three people on it. The name of that Icon is The Moreman Time Capsule. I select it, and enter the password I created. I then choose to Backup. Then I choose to backup now. That is when I get the error: Time Machine Error: "The backup disk image could not be created."
Any ideas? Has anyone encountered this problem?

You have to delete the .dmg file and start over. This happened to me 3 times already, I finally switched to Déjà Vu, works perfect and only once a day instead of 24 times a day.
http://propagandaprod.com/

Time Machine error message: The backup disk image could not be created

I got a new MacBook the other weekend and Time Capsule. I have set up the time capsule, its light is green, it shows up as a device in my finder window and the printer it shares is accessible.
The problem is when I try to run time machine I get the error message "the backup disk image could not be created" I have the time capsule selected as the drive I want to back up to. I have read through all 150 help topics on the Mac Support page regarding time machine and am now turning to you the community to help!

I found an answer in another place on this forum...http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1422065&tstart=330
Just have to give my computer a name under system preferences/sharing

I am having issues with Time Machine. Error message "The backup disk image could not be created.

Error message "The backup disk image could not be created." I have tried everything I have found online in the community from TM full reset to changing my computers name. Anything else I can try? I am using a Seagate external HD with a connection through my router. I spent an hour on the phone with seagate and everything is ok on the HD end.
TM sees it and it is mounted but cannot go any further. HELP?!!!!
Thanks
-A

How should it be connected? It has a usb port and ethernet. The USB on the ExHD looks like the port on the back of my computer, so I would need one wth the same ends? Do they make those?
I can usually fix most my comp problems myself, but this new ExHD has stumped me.
Thanks for your help.
-A

Time Machine - "backup disk image could not be created"

I have been successfully using the Time Machine to backup my Macbook Pro to an HP Network Server for about six months. A month ago the the Time Machine setup became corrupted and no backups were conducted until yesterday when I found a solution to Time Machine setup problem. Once I set the Time Machine up again, a backup was unsuccessfully attempted with an error message: "backup disk image could not be created" being generated. I followed several other posts on this issue and confirmed my computer is correctly named in the file sharing setup. Since I am not using a Time Capsule - that other suggestions in that post possibly may not apply. The file image showing all of the previous Time Machine backups is present and accessible on my desktop. The NAS is functioning properly. Any help is appreciated.

gonecoastal wrote:
Once I set the Time Machine up again, a backup was unsuccessfully attempted with an error message: "backup disk image could not be created" being generated.
That sounds like it's trying to create a new sparse bundle for a new set of backups, but can't for some reason.
It's possible that your backups are corrupted; see if you can repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If that doesn't help, try re-selecting them in Time Machine Preferences. If still no help, try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in the same link.
If still no help, you may need to reset the NAS, or use it's instructions again to "reconnect" to the backups. Unfortunately, that's different for each NAS, so you may have to work with the maker on that.

"Backup disk image could not be created" error

When Time Machine begins its first scheduled a backup (I've not been able to back up yet) or when I choose "Backup now" in Time Machine (to my new Time Capsule), I get the error message, "Backup disk image could not be created." I get this even though the Airport is turned on, and my Time Capsule is connected and selected as the backup disk.
Any ideas of what the problem might be?

The trick is... you need to have given your computer a name in the System Preferences. Without a name, the computer cannot be backed up by Time Capsule

Time Capsule - "Backup disk image could not be created"

Trying to set up time machine and consistently getting this error message. I can login in to the device and see the drive and space quantity with the airport utility. Airport wireless network is working fine - just can't get past this error message when I initiate the time machine backup process. Ideas? mike

Mike,
"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Created"
Here are a couple possible reasons for the error message, “The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Created”:
*Missing Computer Name*
First you might be missing a computer name in the Sharing Preference pane. Go into System Prefs. Then Sharing. In the box labeled “Computer Name” is it empty? If it is blank, you need to put in a name for your computer. Otherwise Time Machine won’t be able to link this Mac with the previous backups.
*Reselect Time Machine Backup*
Next, the link to the network drive “Backup” has been lost. Go into System Preferences --> Time Machine --> “Change Disk…” and select the the backup drive again from the list of available volumes. Do this:
Go to System Preferences --> Time Machine.
Click the "Change Disk..." button.
Select "None" and click "Stop Backing Up".
Now click "Choose Backup Disk" and reselect your drive again.
Close System Preferences and try backing-up again.
Let us know if any of the above resolved your issue.
Cheers!
Message was edited by: Glenn Carter

Time Machine error: backup disk image could not be created

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