Time Machine Error message with Seagate Backup Plus ext HD for Mac.

Got a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.6.8. Bought a 4TB Seagate Backup Plus ext HD for Mac. Have 750GB of HD space I'm trying to back up via timemachine. Error message after 498GB backed. Tried reformatting, repairing disk, etc. and get stuck just before 500GB every time. Suggestions?

Have you tried repairing your system disk? It may be encountering a bad file on the Mac rather than a bad spot on the Seagate.

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HT3275 what do I do about this time machine error message? The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Paul Brandow's Computer.sparsebundle" is already in use.

How to resolve the following time capsule error message:
The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/XXXX Computer.sparsebundle” is already in use.

If you are running Mountain Lion try this:
Open AirPort Utility (If you are in Mountain Lion this will be 6.0 or Higher)
Select you Time Capsule
Select the Disk Tab
Deselect "Enable File Sharing"
Click OK Let the Time Capsule Re-Boot
Go Back into AirPort Utility and re-select "Enable File Sharing" and let it Re-Boot again.
This should fix the problem.
If you are not running Mountain Lion the advice provided by other should work (http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html). The main thing is to reset users.

TS1550 My time capsule will not back up. There is a time machine error message that states "The backup disk image "/volumes/Backup/Jane's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. How do I correct this problem?

My time machine will not back up. I get a Time Machine Error message that reads: "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Backup/(myname)'sMacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use.
I have not been able to back up for two weeks, I think this occurred after an update to the operating system, but I am unsure.
How do I correct this problem?

Have you tried restarting the computer? Also, see Time Machine Error from this pages sidebar under More Like This.

Time Machine Error Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while ...

Hi,
I've looked all around the forums for the answer to this one and I'm still unable to get it. So I'm getting this error "Time Machine Error Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while linking files on the backup volume". This started happening after I turned off and on FileVault. I was having a problem with it and turning it on an off got rid of that problem, but created this one. I've noticed that when I shut down the computer and filevault accesses the TM hard drive, it can back up.....but then when I'm logged on, or I want it to back up I get the error. I've tried fixing the drive, removing the in progress file and resetting the PRAM (i think that's what it was called). I'm starting to run out of options and have no other drive to back all this info on to reformat it.
I really don't want to loose all my stuff.
Please help!
Daria

nautical_stars wrote:
Hi,
I've looked all around the forums for the answer to this one and I'm still unable to get it. So I'm getting this error "Time Machine Error Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while linking files on the backup volume". This started happening after I turned off and on FileVault.
Usually this message happens when you replace an external disk that was being backed-up by Time Machine with another one of the same name.
Since File Vault works by making a sparse image of your home folder, and it's treated as a volume just as a HD is, that's probably what's happening here: the new sparse image has the same name as the old one, but isn't the old one.
First, consider whether you really need File Vault. It doesn't work well with Time Machine: you can't see or restore individual items in your home folder, and it only gets backed-up when you log out.
If you have a lot of other things, say photos, videos, and/or music that don't need to be encrypted, perhaps there's an easier way to secure our sensitive data. You can create an encrypted disk image via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder), then copy the sensitive documents into it. Then the rest of your home folder is backed-up normally, and individual items can be viewed and restored in the usual fashion.
But if you do continue using FileVault, you may have to use TM to delete all backups of it, via the instructions in item #12 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum. That should then allow the new version of your encrypted home folder to be backed-up by TM.

Time Machine Error "Unable to complete backup"

I have not backed up my hard drive for about 30 days. When I plug my external hard drive in, Time Machine "prepares backup" for a while, then gives me the following message:
*Time Machine Error*
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume.
I tried unplugging and re-plugging, rebooting my computer, trashing the ".inprogress" backup file and restarting. It did not help. While it time machine is preparing the backup, my computer runs crazy slow, with the rainbow pinwheel spinning for about 5-10 seconds just about every time I click the mouse, in any program.
Per someone's suggestion, I put "sudo grep backupd /var/log/system.log" into terminal, and this is what came up:
"No pre-backup thinning needed: 4.98 GB requested (including padding), 70.16 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (906 > 0)
Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
Indexing a file failed. Returned -12 for: /Applications/iChat.app, /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/My Computer (2)/2011-01-13-113417.inProgress/CB0D491E-EF04-48A0-9AE9-32AE43E9209C/Macintosh HD/Applications/iChat.app
Aborting backup because indexing a file failed.
Stopping backup."
This time, it was apparently iChat, but in each of the three times I've tried to backup and gotten this error message, a different file has been the culprit for the indexing error.
Any suggestions?

orchestr wrote:
Indexing a file failed. Returned -12
see [this_|http://web.me.com/pondini/TimeMachine/C3.html] user tip by Pondini.
JGG

Time Machine Error Message: "sparsbundle could not be accessed (error-1)

hi,
I am running snow leopard on my iMac and have a mac mini connected via ethernet running Mac Leopard Server version 10.6.
I backed up my iMac onto my Mac Leopard Server using Time Machine about a year ago and then I turned it off and haven't done it since. I turned it on today and was attempting to back it up, but I keep getting the following Time Machine Error Message: "sparsbundle could not be accessed (error-1) when i try backing it up.
Any thoughts on why and how to fix this? I can access my server via screen share, so i know its accessible and I can get online with it as well, so its connected to the Internet.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Josh

jnp1 wrote:
not backing up yet, but more progress than before...now its on an infinite loop of "preparing" and "scanning"...just keeps doing that over and over...but never actually backs anything up.
Anything in the log files on either the client or the server?
Usually, when Time Machine is being flaky, the easiest solution is just to delete the backup and start a new one. Since you have a server, you could just move that sparsebundle file elsewhere instead of deleting it. That is, of course, assuming you can still open it. If not, then it doesn't matter because that backup is toast.

Time Machine Error Message. What to do?

Hello,
My G5 has 2 built-in drives, each 160Gb. I have reserved one of these drives exclusively for Time Machine. There is no issue regarding the connection of these drives since they are internal.
I started Time Machine 3 weeks ago, and it has been running successfully. With each backup, the available space has been declining. Tonight the available space reached the megabyte range - insufficient space for the next backup. It is my understanding that when new space is required by TM, old backup(s) are AUTOMATICALLY deleted.
Tonight when a backup starts, the window (System Preferences) shows that the backup is preparing. However, as soon as it starts copying to the TM drive, I receive the following error message:
"TIME MACHINE ERROR
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume."
No further information is provided for diagnosing the problem. I have no idea about the cause or what to do.
Can anyone identify the problem and a workout? I would appreciate some help. Thank you. Dale

Hello,
I'm back on this thread after having been absent for several weeks. I hope that the original helpers are still subscribed to this issue. I continue to get the message: "Time Machine Error . . . Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume."
Below is the system.log file pertaining to backupd. I am not a technician, so I cannot understand the entries. Can someone help, please? Thank you, Dale
Feb 20 19:23:29 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Backup requested by automatic scheduler
Feb 20 19:23:29 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Starting standard backup
Feb 20 19:23:36 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Mach 160Gb HD/Backups.backupdb
Feb 20 19:23:37 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume Leopard HD
Feb 20 19:23:37 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
Feb 20 19:27:47 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 10.18 GB requested (including padding), 14.37 GB available
Feb 20 19:27:52 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: MDBackupIndexFile returned -12 for: /Library/Application Support/5221530, /Volumes/Time Mach 160Gb HD/Backups.backupdb/Sherborn G5/2008-01-25-202510.inProgress/0FA23087-5ECE-44FB-8C5D-C089622A374E/Leopard HD/Library/Application Support/5221530
Feb 20 19:27:52 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Aborting backup because MDBackupIndexFile failed
Feb 20 19:27:52 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Canceling backup.
Feb 20 19:27:54 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Copied 2 files (18 KB) from volume Leopard HD.
Feb 20 19:27:54 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Copy stage failed with error:11
Feb 20 19:27:55 sherborn-g5 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[335]: Backup failed with error: 11

Time Machine Error-Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copyi

My son played the video game Spore on my iMac Saturday. An hour or two later I sat down at the computer and the Time Machine Error message box was in the middle of the screen:
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume.
I downloaded Time Machine Buddy and this is my error: Error (-36) No Copy/Users/iMac/Library/Application Support/Firefox Profiles

norauc wrote:
I am having the same issue, I got the latest security update and then Time Machine just gets stuck for hours and then says error, run Disk Utility, which I have and it says everything is fine. Run Time Machine again and same thing.
As posted above, see #C3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Time machine error unable to complete backup. an error occured

Hi All,
I have a question: i try to set up timemachine. Everything seems to work. but i cant get the first backup, it gives me the follow error: time machine error unable to complete backup. an error occured while copying files to the backup volume
My setup: an internet wireless router with a ethernet connection. On the ethernet connection i have a FreeCom Network Drive.
The Freecom Network drive have fat32, i think i cant format the netwerk drive cause there is some software on it, that give me access to my network drive via lan.
I configure that i can have acces to my netwerk drive. I can setup it from Time Machine, and Time Machine starts to put data on my network drive. After a while (mostly between 500mb-1,2 GB) it gives me the follow error: time machine error unable to complete backup. an error occured while copying files to the backup volume.
What to do???

Hi Norm,
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
(Repair both Drives)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)

I have not been able to back up for2 days. Time machine error message: /Volumes/Data/David's MacBook Air.sparsebundle" is already in use.

I have not been able to back up for2 days. Time machine error message: /Volumes/Data/David’s MacBook Air.sparsebundle” is already in use.
What now?
Macbook Air.
Was working fine for the past year until now.

See more like this on the right.. this is the most common error reported here since mountain lion came out..
Or read C12.. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Or just restart the whole network.. in right order from off.. modem.. router / TC.. clients 2min gap.

Problem using Time Machine with Seagate BackUp Plus Pls HELP!!

I have a late 2006 iMac (running OS 10.5.8) & am trying to back up using Time Machine with a new Seagate BackUp Plus drive. When I select the Seagate drive in Time Machine it tells me I msut first erase the (Seagate) disk. When I hit ERASE, I get a Time Machine error : COULD NOT UNMOUNT DISK. I see from various posts that 10,5 & 10,6 have issues with some external drives so want to upgrade to Mavericks (to get around this incompatibility issue): HOwever apparently my iMac is too old (by 1 year) to allow this. Can anyone give me any advice on how to get my iMac content backed up via Time Machine using the Seagate BackUP PLus drive I bought (becasue it is supposedly "compatible with PCs & Macs".
Thank you!!
Wendy

Your Seagate drive should work just fine. If it doesn't have any important data on it, try re-formatting it with Disk Utility to blank it out. Or run the Disk verify/repair and see if you can get it to fix any problems.
I have a Drobo FS too. You probably need a firmware update, they issued one a while back to fix problems with Time Machine. Use the Dashboard or download it from their support site, http://www.drobo.com/support/updates.php
Just curious how long you let it run after it "stalled". If it is a big file it could just be taking a while to copy over, do you see activity lights on the USB drive? The first time you use time machine let it run overnight, it's going to take a while, after that it will update quickly.
While you're at it, you might want to verify your start-up disk too with Disk Utility.

Time Machine error message: The backup disk image is already in use.

Hi,
Everytime my Time Machine tries to perform a backup I get the following error message: The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Celine Gauld’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use.
I'm not very tech-savvy and certainly don't know my way around the Mac that well. Any suggestions as to how I go about solving this?
Thanks.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Restart your iMac and Time Capsule. In most of cases, this should solve the problem. If it doesn't work > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

Time Machine error message while restoring..."an error occurred while adding a recovery system to the destination disk

I had to change my hard drive in my MBP 15". I use Time Machine on a Time Capsule for backup. I am booting up my laptop with a bootable USB key. I have partitioned my new hard drive (bigger than the old one) and named it Macintosh HD (same as the old one). I select the option to restore from Time Machine Backup. I select one of my latest backup....select my destination drive...the restore process starts but stop within minutes with the following message. "An error occurred while adding a recovery system to the destination disk" It then prompts me to restart....
I need your help...what can it be.
Thanks

I've encountered this issue when the Time Machine was encrypted with FileVault.
Article: HT4718
Additional Information
Please note that OS X Recovery must be present on the computer's startup volume in order to use FileVault 2. Using RAID partitions or a non-standard Boot Camp partition on the startup disk may prevent OS X from installing a local Recovery system. See "OS X: Some features of Mac OS X are not supported for the disk (volume name)" for more information.
What seems to work, is reinstalling the OSX from the internet, and then using migration assistant to pull the user from the time machine backup external when logged into a temporary administrator user to move the original user back over.
Perhaps if you're stubborn, what would work is the following from the same article:
What to do if the installer warns that no Recovery System can be created
Some disk partition configurations may result in the OS X installer reporting that it could not create a Recovery System. In these situations, even if you are permitted to continue the install, you may want to quit the installation and create an external, bootable OS X hard drive with a Recovery System, first. You can continue your OS X upgrade on your computer's startup drive after creating an external Recovery System.
Your storage device must have at least 13 GB available (after formatting) to install OS X Lion or later and a Recovery partition.
These steps erase and reformat the storage device. This article instructs you on setting up a storage device to use the GUID partition scheme and the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, which are required to install OS X and a Recovery partition on your external storage device. You should back up any important files that are on the device to a different drive.
This procedure installs a version of OS X that is compatible with the Mac it was created with. Using this OS X system with a different Mac model may produce unpredictable results.
Your computer's serial number is sent to Apple as part of this process to help authenticate your request to download and install OS X Lion.
All of this information was collected by browsing through the public articles on the Apple Support website.

Time Machine Error: Unable to complete backup. An error ocurred while copy

Hi.
Everytime Time Machine tries to update my backup copy is gives me the same error: "Unable to complete backup. An error ocurred while copying files to the backup volume."
What's going on and how can I solve this?
Thanks.
Regards,
Telmo

I have had this problem and solved it. It began when I upgraded to Snow Leopard server after a hard drive failure under Leopard Server. My problem was caused by a number of bad files.
To locate the files that are stopping the backup, open the Console utility in the Utilities folder. On the top left, show the Log List, and select the ALL Messages. Then in the search box, top right, enter .backup , this will locate all the backup logs. Go to the bottom of the log and locate the log that reads "stopping backup." Then, look at the log directly after "stopping backup," this log should contain the error message. In my case the log had an error -41, and the file path and name were listed. After locating and removing the bad file, run your backup again. If you have this problem again, repeat this process.
I had about 15 files with this problem, and oddly they all came from either a very old Mac OS X backup or had been moved from a Window XP computer using file sharing.
Hope this helps.

Issues with Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drives

I had posted earlier about how the new Mac Pro I had been working on was really struggling. I isolated and discovered that the cause was some sort of incapability with the external drives I was connecting to the computer. Whenever a Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive Model: SRD00F1 was connected it would cause major errors and communication, the computer would eventually crash and would not work again until we did a SMS reboot. Regardless of how the drive was formatted or mounted, the computer and drive were not compatible.
The purpose of this post would be to let users, Apple and Seagate know that there is an issue when using these drives. This happened using dozens of different portable drives over three different new Mac Pro towers. Has anyone else experienced similar problems?

What format is the Seagate drive? What do you see on the iMac when you select the drive and bring up it's Info window? For best compatability it should be formatted and setup as shown in this screenshot:
Also make sure on both machines the Finder General preferences are set as follows:

Time Machine Error message with Seagate Backup Plus ext HD for Mac.

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