Time Machine error "The backup disk could not be found"

I use Time Capsule with Time Machine, Lion OS and manage to setup successfully. However after I on it for few hours, there is backup error. Time Machine error message "The backup disk could not be found." But the internet wifi is working normally.
To solve this issue I have to power off and on it again, then the disk can be detected. But after few hours same thing happen again.
Is it a hardware faulty or sometime that cause the Time Capusle harddisk to sleep after sometime?

I have this exact same problem.  When I restart the Time Capsule I can then start backups normally, but it requires manual intervention.  That's dissapointing because Time Machine and Time Capsule are supposed to be an automatic, worry free backup.  I have to restart the Time Capsule frequently.  Annoyed.

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine Error: "The backup volume could not be found"

    Here's my problem: I click on "Back up now" and it "Prepares to backup" for a few seconds then fails.
    I have been here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275#4 and it didn't help at all as I'm using Time Machine, not Time Capsule. I only noticed the problem now, but it has been over a week since it was last backed up. (The computer was getting its logic board replaced)
    Has anyone got a clue as to a fix to this situation? I really don't want to reformat my external HD as it has stuff that I'd love to keep on it - not to mention I don't want the hassle.
    Thanks

    Time Machine Failed Backup
    After being without a backup for 3 months, I now have my backup program working again.My backup drive is a Western Digital 1TB drive connected by firewire. I'm not a tekkie but this worked painlessly for me and took only about 2 minutes from start to finish.
    I had the same problem of being unable to launch a backup (although I could restore files. In retrospect the ownership privileges were pooched; although I could read, I couldn't write.) The 10.5.6 updated didn't provide the solution I had hoped to see and has even caused all kinds of similar problems for other people.
    Cheers and good luck!
    Rob
    I found the thread here:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1827243&tstart=15
    and this is the important part:
    Using Terminal (found under utilities) type the following and be sure to include spaces where they occur.
    $ cd /Volumes/Backup
    $ ls -alF
    $ sudo chown Username .001b63b6df97
    "Backup" is the name of your TM drive
    "Username" is, well, your username
    .001b... is the name of the file TM states (also shown after the ls command)
    For the ‘cd’ command, replace “Backup” with your volume name, e.g. My Time Machine (hint, you can type the first few characters and press TAB and the shell should auto-complete). For the ’sudo’ command, replace “jfoster” with your account name and use the file name shown in the error dialog (or the file listing given with ‘ls’).* The ’sudo’ command allows you to run the ‘chown’ (change owner) as root, but you will need to give your password to authenticate this action.
    (*I also found the file name by clicking on the lowercase "i" in the red circle next to where it said Failed:)
    credit for his goes to James Foster:
    http://programminggems.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/mac-10-5-6/

  • Time Machine Error - The backup image could not be mounted

    Bought two new MacBooks.
    Put first MacBook on LAN connected to TC.
    1. Selected Use Time machine Backup
    Selected TC
    It then sat there for 3 hours "Checking Time Machine Backup.....
    The only way out was to power off and power on again
    Did 1 again, and again , and again
    By now the two iMacs are now reporting either the backup image is Read Only followed by The backup image could not be mounted!!!!
    So it seems that the two new MacBooks cannot use TM backups and c]have corrupted our backups!!
    Tried calling Apple Care, which I paid for both MacBooks - but they had closed. That was a very useful £400 spent!!!!!!
    Arrrrrrgh I had just been bragging about how easy Macs made things
    Very frustrating
    If I cannot get these going tonight they are back in the box and back to the store in the morning

    OK
    Called Applecare - took out the £195 Applecare option when I purchased the MacBook.
    The AppleCare guy told me said first:-
    The TimeCapsule is broken take it in for repairs.
    I pointed out the TC was working fine.
    Then :-
    After explaining again that the Macbook had been sitting for several hours saying it had 1 minute to go before finishing.
    "My supervisor says Macs take longer to do things than PCs, give it another two hours then if it still hasn't finished it's last minute call us back.
    I challenged him on this he put me on hold again for 10 mins and eventually hung up on me.
    That was why I paid and extra £195 for telephone support!!!
    Called back again and very helpful guy walked me through some options and escalated to Tier 2, couldn't get anywhere so the only thing left now is to return the MacBooks to the store.
    It Appears that Macbooks are incompatible with the Time Capsule.
    Never mind Windows 7 is coming soon and I am hearing good things about it.

  • Time Machine Error - The backup image could not be created.

    I am trying to back up to a My Book World II but when I try to back up using Time Machine I get this error. I have been able to back up to this drive through terminal and running rsync.

    Yeah, I'm having the same problem as well. The only way it works is if you downgrade to 10.5.1, which I really don't want to do. Let me know if you found a solution. Thanks,
    Mike

  • 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/

  • HT3275 TIME MACHINE ERROR: The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Sean McGuire's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 1).

    I can select a disk (Time Capsule) and initiate the backup.  It only "waits to back up" then "making backup disk available" and remains frozen there.  I tried to update the software a while back and was unsuccessful, I think that may be the issue.
    Any insight would be greatly appreciated.  This is the error message I receive.
    TIME MACHINE ERROR: The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Sean McGuire’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” could not be created (error 1).
    Thanks

    See #C17 in Pondini's excellent support document Time Machine - Troubleshooting
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • HT3275 Time Machine Error: The backup disk image "Volumes/Data/My Macbook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. (How do I correct this issue?)

    Time Machine did not back up:
    Time Machine Error; ("The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/My MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use.")
    How do I correct this issue?
    Thanks!

    You need to be careful Bob.. people might take this literally.
    Bob Timmons wrote:
    How do I correct this issue?
    Call the exterminator to get rid of the bugs in Lion and Mountain Lion.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5222487?tstart=0

  • I am running 10.7.5 and getting Time Machine error The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Kathy P's MacBook.sparsebundle" is already in use. what do i do now?

    i am running 10.7.5 on an older MacBook and getting Time Machine error The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Kathy P’s MacBook.sparsebundle” is already in use. what do i do now?

    See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

  • I am getting a Time Machine error "The backup disk image could not mount"

    Time Machine message "The backup disk image could not be mounted"

    Go to Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for assistance.

  • Time Machine says "The Backup Disk is Not Available"

    Line 0:  I have a 400 GB external Western Digital drive that I leave plugged into an Airport Extreme.  Previously, this worked mostly without a problem.  It took some massaging to get it to work at first (I had to create the backup with the drive directly connected to the computer, and then I moved the drive over to the Airport Extreme and it was fine after that), but after that, it worked forever.  This was in the previous version of the OS that I was running (snow leopard?).  I very recently upgraded to Lion and it seemed to be OK, but then suddenly it gave me an error that said it had not been able to do a backup for 10 days.  I thought "wow, that means it hasn't backed up since I upgraded to Lion." 
    So I told it to do a backup right away.  It failed with the error "The backup disk is not available."
    I unplugged the drive and plugged it back in.  No go.
    I tried to reselect the drive from within Time Machine preferences.  It would not appear and in fact it kept forcing me to go to the Airport Extreme software.  I did this and there was no obvious way to set anything up from within that software.  I left everything as it was ("Enable file sharing" checked, "Secure shared disks" was at "with device password," and it was remembering the password in my keychain). 
    Go back to Time Machine preferences and the disk still doesn't show up.  Force a reboot on the router, it still doesn't show up.
    I brought the drive over to the computer and plugged it in directly, and everything was fine.  It did a backup on the spot, it read the backup that was there, the drive showed up, etc.  I formatted it just for the heck of it and started over completely and it was happy.  I did a disk check and everything was fine.  After leaving it on all night to complete a new backup, I unmounted the disk, brought it over to the Airport Extreme, plugged it back in, and now we go back to line 0 and rinse repeat.
    Can someone please tell me how to get my drive to start working with Time Machine again?

    It should not have worked in the first place.. when you moved it from the PC to the airport extreme.. that is not correct.. I don't know how SL managed to work around it.. but Lion obviously cannot.
    You will need to start all over again..
    Also note.. the flakey nature of this setup.. according to well respected people here AEBS with USB drive does not give reliable TM backups.. I would pay close attention to what they are saying. Time Capsule is more than a AEBS with a hard drive inside.. although exactly the difference I don't know.
    But you can expect the current setup to not work, because it never should have.

  • Time machine error: The backup disk image could not be mounted

    Time Machine worked OK for several months. Now I get this error every 10 minutes or so.
    I unplugged Time Machine capsule and "Change Disk" in Time Machine options.
    Nothing helps, I continue to get this error.
    I cannot Enter Time Machine either. "Connecting to Server, Connecting to backup" does not work.
    Help please because I will probably have to archive and reinstall Leopard. I need the backups,
    Christine

    Christ1ne,
    Before you reformat the disk, consider these causes of this error.
    *_"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.
    One poster reported: “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.
    # Try removing the apostrophe from the disk images name (sparsebundle).
    *A Stalled .inProgress Files:* #
    It may be that the previous backup attempt was ungracefully interrupted leaving remains that Time Machine can’t deal with.
    Stop any current backup attempt. Choose “Stop Backing Up” from the Time Machine menu.
    Open the Time Machine Preferences and turn “OFF” Time Machine.
    Open your Time Machine drive.
    Open the folder labeled “Backups,backupdb”.
    Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
    Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them by dragging the file to the Trash. Or Ctrl-Click the file and select "Move to Trash" from the contextual menu. (Give this time as deleting a large file on an external disk can take a while.)
    Turn Time Machine back “ON”. Now try backing up again.
    NOTE: If the above procedure becomes impossible to perform, try accessing the disk image from another Mac. Some have discovered that attempting a repair from another computer succeeds where the original computer failed.
    Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped to resolve your issue.
    Cheers!

  • 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 Contradiction: "The backup volume could not be mounted"

    (This is only one wireless issue I've had this year, but I'm trying to keep this brief -- hoping clarity will instigate some help.)
    Recently I bought a Western Digital 500GB drive to go with my AEBS. I was intent upon using the drive as an Airdisk for Time Machine backups, but it isn't working. (I also have the WD drive partitioned in halves, but there is no reason to believe that is an issue.) When wired, the disk backs-up quickly and easily. After the initial backup, and attempting to do so wirelessly, however, it doesn't work. I get the message: "The backup volume could not be mounted."
    And there's the contradiction: the disk is mounted, I'm looking at the mounted disk as I type -- I even have no problems reading and writing from the Airdisks independent of Time Machine. I have all the latest software updates and am running Leopard. I've been going at this for hours, but I would really appreciate some help.
    Here are some of the things I've tried:
    -checking all connections
    -erasing the Airdisk and starting from scratch
    -repairing disk permissions(on my internal harddrive, the one I boot on, not the WD)
    -attempting to "Connect to Server" in the Finder, only to get this:
    And if you look, you can see that while the Airdisks are there, they are grey and can't be selected. It
    never becomes possible to select them, and "Connecting to Server" never connects.
    -I've toggled every Airport Utility setting to no avail(I will admit I might have missed something though).
    -I've done everything I can think of
    -banged my head into walls...
    -and pulled my hair out, but nothing.
    I really would like to get this working. This is my worst Apple experience yet, and it is literally making me sick. You will be my God if you can help me with this. Let me know if you need anymore information. Thanks in advance.
    <Edited by Moderator>

    Okay, so it seems you need to do initial Time-Machine-ing over WiFi if you intend to use it that way. Why nobody at Apple mentioned this baffles me; why this is even a problem, makes me wonder if Time Machine went through adequate testing.
    So my problem is solved! I am my own God!
    <Edited by Moderator>

  • Time Machine Error: The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly.

    I keep getting the following message when I try to back up my MacBook using Time Machine: "The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
    However, I have deleted everything from the external harddrive, which holds 500 GB. I have only used 38.9 GB of space on my computer. The errors being recorded are as follows:
    Starting standard backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega_HDD/Backups.backupdb
    Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
    Backup content size: 36.5 GB excluded items size: 5.0 GB for volume Macintosh HD
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 38.19 GB requested (including padding), 437.50 GB available
    Waiting for index to be ready (101)
    Stopping backup.
    Error: (-34) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/.DS_Store to /Volumes/Iomega_HDD/Backups.backupdb/Jennifer Kwapisz’s MacBook/2011-08-06-113458.inProgress/9273E0A6-8BD8-4282-ACEC-E1E410605A89/Macin tosh HD/Applications
    Copied 0 files (36 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Copy stage failed with error:28
    Backup failed with error: 28
    Any idea what's going on and what I need to do to fix it?

    Please read this:
    http://pondini.org/TM/C18.html
    Ciao.

  • HT3275 Time Capsule error message: "Time machine error-The backup disk image /Volumes/Data/Zeb's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle could not be accessed (error -1)".

    Please help! Got myself a timecapsule a few months back. I just use it to back up my mac, and also have a wireless printer connected. I have a Macbook Pro (Mac OS X 10.7.3). When I first got my Time Capsule it backed up flawlessly, but in the last few months has started showing the message above. So now it wont back up at all.
    Have done probably 2 system updates during this time, and even a firmware update a few days ago for the timecapsule. This recent firmware update seem to fix it for a day, but now the problem is back!!! Even Mac support wasnt able to help last time I called.
    HELP HELP HELP!!!
    Cheers

    See #C17 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting

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