Time Machine external disc icon is orange not green (?)

I'm aware it is supposed to green, but mine is orange. I've used it successfully a number of times (inc. full install) but would like to know if there is a problem.
Thanks in advance.

Hi R,
Mine starts out orange sometimes, but within a minute or so turns green. Yours stays orange all the time?

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HT1338 Error preparing Time Machine backup disc- size error usually not being multiples of 512, encryption

Trying to encrypt Time Machine backup disc getting message - Error preparing Time Machine backup disc- size error usually not being multiples of 512, encryption.

I got the same problem.
But I think it cannot be related to not being a multiple of 512.
As when I devide the number of bytes 3.000.592.982.016 by 512 is equals 5860533168.
3.000.592.982.016 / 512 = 5860533168.
So what could be the real problem?
With kind Regards

Time machine external hard drive in windows not working.

I recently bought a Western Digital external hard drive to use with time machine so that I would have my laptop backed up. When I set up the time machine, it had to format my hard drive, erasing the WD files that were on the drive. I was able to continue using it as an external storage device on the Mac side of my laptop, but when trying to use it on the windows side, it wont show up in My Computer. I'm starting to wonder if I will be unable to use this external drive on anything other than a Mac now that it is set up as my Time Machine.
If that is the case, is there a way that I can reset my drive to not show up as my Time Machine Disk.
Thanks,
JT

If you're going to use the drive on both platforms, does it need to be set up first on the PC, allocating 1/2? to Windows NTFS format, then disable/reset/delete Time Machine backups doing the Mac HFS format thing on remainder of External?
Setup on my Acomdata 7200rpm External is Mac 150GB HFS, Windows 150GB NTFS. On Windows side, is Vista, W7 (32 &64Bit) and recently my daughter's HP Laptop XP which posed a problem until I found that NtBackup.Msi was in VALUEADD folder on the Windows XP install CD. Also available from Microsoft if no install CD. NtBackup makes a .BKF string of the hard drive, runs maybe a little slower than Vista & Windows 7 Backup/Restore Maint. Long time since I restore a .BKF but think it requires an OS - unlike Vista + Windows 7 where the install Disk will retore from External in ~30 minutes.
I have not figured out how to get Leopard restored short of format, then complete (re)install with Time Machine restore kicking in at the end of that process. Takes a great deal of time and some things need fixing after completion. Wondering if Snow Leopard/Disk Utility has any improvements on this score. Refuse to pay for anything that I consider to be intrisically necessary to use of product.

Time Machine external disc formatting

OK, quick question about formatting an external drive. Let me explain what I would like to do with the drive, then we can even see if it is possible.
In the grand scheme of things, I would like take the drive, reformat it and partition it, so that I can run 3 Time Machine backups and the rest of the drive extra space. The first 3 partitions, would be 3 time machines, 1 intel and 2 ppc. The 4th partition, I want to put all of my photos, music and such on it and share that with all computers, including a Windows computer. That way, when we travel, I can just grab that drive and take it with us
Ok, I took the drive, plugged it into an intel mac, formatted it with 4 partitions as a GUID scheme.
Partition 1 - for intel time machine - Mac OS (journaled, case sensitive)
Partition 2 - for PPC Time Machine - Mac OS (Journaled)
Partition 3 - for PPC Time Machine - Mac OS (Journaled)
Partition 4 - Used to bring photos and music when traveling, also used
with windows (MS-Dos)
That did not seem to work.
THEN, I did this:
I took the drive, plugged it into an intel mac, formatted it with 4 partitions as a APM scheme.
Partition 1 - for intel time machine - Mac OS (journaled, case sensitive)
Partition 2 - for PPC Time Machine - Mac OS (Journaled)
Partition 3 - for PPC Time Machine - Mac OS (Journaled)
Partition 4 - Used to bring photos and music when traveling, also used
with windows (Free Space).
Not working. So, first off, is this even possible? Can I use Time Machine, with an external drive hooked up through my Airport Base Station, with partitions? From reading, it doesn't really seem so, but there are scripts to run in terminal, and things like that.
If I can't run it with partitions, I am fine with that, I would just use the one drive, put my photos, music and such, and the 3 sparse bundles all on it, no partitions. It's quite a large drive and I can manage the backups pretty well so space isn't an issue. If this isn't the case, how do I format the drive so both all 3 Macs (1 Intel and 2 PPC) and Windows machines can read it?? Also, I would assume I would need to use the Intel Mac to do the formatting and not the PPC ones.
Make sense? It always seems like I am trying to do something too complicated with things to make it easy on myself.
Thanks

Are any of your Macs desktop models?
If so, there's an alternative. Connect the drive to one of them, and back that Mac up to it directly.
Back up the others to the same drive, via sharing, over your network. See #22 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for instructions.
If there's room for all those backups (see #1 in the FAQ,) you could put the 4th MS-DOS partition on it, or you could put it on a separate HD connected to your Airport Extreme.
But note that Time Machine cannot back up a MS-DOS drive, or any drive on a network, so you'll need some other way to back up that data.
However you do it, either GUID or APM will work. While GUID is preferred for an Intel Mac, the only time it's required is if you want to install or update OSX on it. You can "clone" OSX to an APM drive, and it will boot your Intel Mac, but you can't install updates on it.
As Bob says, you might get the backups to work via the Airport Extreme, but most likely they'll start turning up corrupted before long. It's happened to me 3 or 4 times in a bit over a year, and that seems fairly typical of the many, many such posts here and in the Time Machine forums.

I cannot install ODX Yosemite over OSX Mavericks as my Mac Book Pro (early 2011) advises that the disc "Mackintosh HD" is used for Time Machine back ups. This is not the case however as I use a separate external HD for this purpose, help please ?! T

I cannot install ODX Yosemite over OSX Mavericks as my Mac Book Pro (early 2011) advises that the disc "Mackintosh HD" is used for Time Machine back ups. This is not the case however as I use a separate external HD for this purpose, help please ?!
Thanks

Check this link out...
OS X: Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups
I was apart of this thread and it helped the OP...
Re: System installer thinks my main drive is my time Machine backup and won't install.
KOT

Hello I bought my wife a new MacBook Pro, in setting it up for her, I took her Time Machine external drive to migrate onto the new machine but her old MBP not only was on 10.6, it was my old machine which I was still Administrator for. i plugged in the

Hello
I bought my wife a new MacBook Pro, in setting it up for her, I took her Time Machine external drive to migrate onto the new machine but her old MBP not only was on 10.6, it was my old machine which I was still Administrator for.
i plugged in the external drive to start the migration process after entering her name and username from the old machine which gave me the options on transferring the old data over.
I also unchecked the Administrative end that had my info hoping that ONLY her data, files, etc., would be the ones sent over to her new machine which I wanted her to be the ONLY Administrator for. All went like clockwork until the restart.
Normally the screen should show the username and only need the password but both entries were blank, as in ‘Other’ sign in option available only. I entered her name and password, nothing….used her username and password, nothing. Used my old Administrator name and password, NOTHING!
I tried defaulting to factory settings from the Restore feature but it directs me to notify Apple. I tried in Terminal to change the password, nothing. I tried to boot from MY external drive and it doesn’t recognize it. I tried to even use my external drive which actually has the Mavericks upgrade, nothing!
Basically I can only get the startup screen which isn’t accepting the username/password or the Restore feature which doesn’t offer any options helpful!
Please, how do I start from scratch and start over here? Or simply change the Administrator name and password so I can proceed with everything thats already on there? I wish I could even boot from another drive but no luck on anything!

First, on the old machine, make your wife's account an admin one. Log into it and delete yours. Then, update the TM backup. Finally, use Internet recovery mode, ⌘⌥R, erase the HD, and restore the OS. One first boot, follow the steps outlined in Pondini's Setup New Mac guide.

HT3275 Time machine at home and it will not allow me to remove the listing of my external hard drive from the excluded files list.

Please help guys, I have a Time machine at home and it will not allow me to remove the listing of my external hard drive from the excluded files list.
I am trying to use time machine to back up the hard drive. For backing up from Macbooik pro and Imac, there is no problem. It seems to not want to allow the external drive to be removed from the Excluded list and as such will not back up from it.
Is there a way to be able to transfer files (music, movies etc) to time machine, format the external drive then put the files back to hard drive?
Sorry it is a long winded question but it is driving me nuts that I cant sort this out.
The <Macbook and Imac are both running mountain lion.
Thanks Guys

As for the hard drive to which you have never been able to write, is it by any chance in NTFS format? OS X can read NTFS for importing files, but it does not contain code for writing on an NTFS volume. That's a choice, not a bug.
There is third-party software available to install NTFS-writing capability into OS X. An example is Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X. Another alternative would be to use a disk format that both Macs and Windows systems can use for both reading and writing; this would require either a new drive or erase the existing data.
If by "the new system software" you mean OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you may want to repost that portion of your query in the Mavericks forum at https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mavericks . I haven't made the leap yet.
I don't know what other problems you have been having, so I cannot comment on them. You don't seem to have any other recent postings on these forums.

I need to erase my hard drive and start anew, will time Machine(external drive) and all the discs I got with my computer be enough to restart things

I need to erase my hard drive and start anew, will time Machine(external drive) and all the discs I got with my computer be enough to restart things. And secondly does RAM memory cards go bad. Here's the info on my IMac:
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac6,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          4 MB
Memory:          3 GB
Bus Speed:          667 MHz
Boot ROM Version:          IM61.0093.B07
SMC Version (system):          1.10f2

I need to erase my hard drive and start anew
Why do you feel you need to do this? That is such a 'Windows thing' to do!
And secondly does RAM memory cards go bad
Very rarely, but nothing in life is guaranteed (except death and taxes)! If you purchased RAM from a reputable source like Crucial or OWC it will carry a lifetime warranty.

Firewire thunderbolt adaptor does not recognize my time machine external hard drive

Hi everybody. I have a retina MacBook Pro, and wanted to connect my time machine external HD to the mac using a firewire-thunderbolt adaptor.
I did so, but the HD does not show up in the devices menu. Any suggestion?
thank you for your help
Giulio

Have you tried rebooting? If you share what type drive you have, perhaps others will share their experiences. Is your drive bus powered? I haven't had any trouble so far connecting through a TB-FW adapter to my external hard drive (Hitachi drive in an OWC case, bus powered).

I have backed my Mac Book pro up to my external hard drive using time machine. My iPhoto now does not show any images, even when I upload from my iPhone

I have backed my Mac Book pro up to my external hard drive using time machine. My iPhoto now does not show any images, even when I upload from my iPhone

Mac 101: File Sharing
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Mac Pro early 2008 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Core 10.7.5, replaced 4 x 500ghds with 4 x 3Tb and Raid card Raid5 them OK but can not load time machine back up as it does not see any of the 4 drives, neither does disc utilities, any thoughts?

On my Mac Pro, early 2008 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Core 10.7.5, replaced 4 x 500ghds with 4 x 3Tb. The Raid card Raid 5ed them OK but can not load time machine back up as it does not see any of the 4 drives, neither does disc utilities, any thoughts?

You don't see drives when using a hardware RAID only the volumes.
WD Green are not suitable for hardware RAID (or software RAID for that matter).
USB2 and TimeMachine are a disaster waiting to happen. I've used SATA (internal) and eSATA (using SATA PCIe cards) trouble-free.
I can't say I begin to understand your use or "choosing the install drive for the backup"
Install what?
You don't load TimeMachine. Maybe seems minor but that is not how to describe the behavior of software.
You read FAQ and How To http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine
Time Machine’s Gory Details:
https://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
TimeMachine 101
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Lion Recovry & TimeMachine
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/
How To Restore Your System
http://pondini.org/TM/14.htmlMac OS X v10.7 Lion
Pondini's Blog: Time Machine - Troubleshooting -- B5. Would you like to inherit (or re-use) the backup . . . ?

Time Machine external USB drive not available at boot

I have a late 2012 iMac running Mavericks 10.4.9. I use Time Machine with a Toshiba 3TB external drive. The Toshiba drive is usually left powered up. Every time I boot the iMac and try to force a backup, Time Machine reports the Toshiba disk is not available. When I open Time Machine preferences, the Toshiba drive does not show until I power-cycle it and re-select it. Also occasionally it reports that I did not eject it properly. But it NEVER shows in Devices or on my desk top (like a thumb-drive does for example) so I wouldn't know how to eject it anyway.
Any ideas on where I am going wrong?
Thanks!

I also have a MacBook Pro with Leopard. I have a new 500GB Lacie d2 safe external drive that my computer recognizes but Time machine does not. Formating the disk in journaled Mac OS Extended format does not solve the problem. Lacie says they are working on it. Anyone have any ideas?

Installed new harddrive and I am trying to restore from time machine external back up. I restarted the computer and held the Command key and the R and the restore utility does not appear. what can I do

I installed new hard drive and I am trying to restore from time machine external back up. I restarted the computer and held the Command key and the R and the restore utility does not appear. what can I do

Command + R keys are for Macbooks running Lion and Mountian Lion only. ( i could be wrong on this)
you have a couple of options:
Do a clean install of Snow Leopard via Install DVD.
Clone your old hard drive to your new hard drive via Carbon Copy Cloner
Or click on the link below to give you a better idea.
Hope you get it sorted out.
http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

How do I restore the entire system from a Time Machine external drive?

Hello everyone,
Up front - I have searched through numerous threads but have not yet been able to solve my problem - even though it is presumably easy for many.
So... I had to bring in my late 2009 27" iMac to Apple to replace the hard drive - mine was one of the thousands affected by the defective Seagate 1 TB disk recall. I was told that the disk would be cloned, but nevertheless I made a full system backup with Time Machine to a dedicated external hard drive.
A week later and I now have my iMac back - but when I boot, I only see a white screen with a pointer, so it appears that the drive was not cloned - but that I now have a blank 1 TB disk, correct?
I have also tried booting with the external drive attached, thinking that the dedicated Time Machine external drive would allow me to boot directly from it and restore the system if need be - I booted with CMD+R, tried again with ALT ... no luck.
And I cannot find my Mac OS DVDs...
So... is the drive blank, or am I missing something here?
If so, how can I boot from the external Time Machine drive, or is that not possible either?
Any pointers greatly appreciated, thanks very much in advance.

Call Apple to get replacement DVDs > http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57
1. Insert the Mac OS X DVD and press C key while your computer is starting.
2. Go to Utilities menu and restore the backup.
You should have made a clone instead of the backup because Apple gives the hard disk without OS X

Time Machine External Hard Drive Disconnected Incorrectly

I have an external USB hard drive functioning for my Time Machine back-ups. I usually turn off my iMac by using the sleep function. Often, when I activate out of sleep, I get the error message that the hard drive was disconnected incorrectly (I assume this means not ejected properly). But I haven't disconnected the USB wire. I can't figure ot why I am getting this message so often. Any ideas? Thanks.

mr1213 wrote:
I have an external USB hard drive functioning for my Time Machine back-ups. I usually turn off my iMac by using the sleep function. Often, when I activate out of sleep, I get the error message that the hard drive was disconnected incorrectly (I assume this means not ejected properly). But I haven't disconnected the USB wire. I can't figure ot why I am getting this message so often.
It may be that your TM drive isn't "waking up" quickly enough for Time Machine.
An improper disconnect (yes, not ejecting first) can cause directory damage to the disk. Do a +Repair Disk+ (not permissions) on your TM drive, via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
Depending on your drive, one or more of the following may help:
Un-check the +Put the hard disk(s) to sleep ...+ option of System Preferences > Energy Saver.
See if it has an auto-sleep or "spin down" mode you can disable.
Check with the maker to see if there's a firmware upgrade for your model.

Time Machine external disc icon is orange not green (?)

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