Time machine failure hard drive read only

Hi
I have a seagate 4tb hard drive backing up my 4tb of internal hard drives on my 2008 mac pro. It has worked perfectly for a couple of months.
A couple of weeks ago, for no reason whatsoever that I can discern, the time machine back up failed and the message is that it is read only and I should repair or erase the disk using disk utility. As the back up is over usb 2 only and takes about two days I dont want to do this particularly as I don't see how this will convert the disk back into a read and write disk.
The info on the disk, which I can't seem to change is
you can only read
system read and write
wheel (whatever that is) read and write
and everyone read only
I have tried just moving a file on to it but it is rejected as read only. I can't see any write protect button on the drive itself.
Could you please advise as to whether this is a known macos issue or is this a drive fault. It is strange that I can't seem to alter the permissions in get info.
Any help appreciated
thank you

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

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Time Machine - External Hard Drive Read only error

Just recently got a Iomega 1TB MiniMax FireWire 800 USB 2.0 Desktop Hard Drive and used Time Machine to backup my computer. This was my first time using Time Machine and it successfully backed up 350 GBs. It continued to do backups every hour. When I turned my computer off and then turned it on the next day Time Machine wouldn't allow me to do a backup because it said the hard drive was read only. When I checked info it said it was read/write. I used disc utility to verify disc it said it could not verify disc do a disc repair. Disc repair failed and it said reformat disc. I erased the hard drive tried again and I got the same error message. The hard drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I searched this forum and the trouble shooting links and couldn't find anything on how to correct this. Any help on this problem would be appreciated.

See the following:
What to do if Time Machine reports you don't have permission
This was posted in the Apple Discussions by V.K. I have only modified it slightly to be more generic.
The problem seems to be that 10.5.6 changes permissions on a file so that even the root user doesn't have write peivileges. I have no idea why they did this. The workaround suggested in [an]other post will probably work, too, but i did something less drastic. Instead of deleting the file I changed permissions on it, and it worked just fine. An added benefit is that the permission change seems to stick, so you don't have to delete the file every time you change a drive.
[Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt [enter] the following command:
sudo chmod 644 /volumes/"TM drive name"/.xxxxxxxxxxxx
The name of the file .xxxxxxxxxxxx is based on the MAC address of your computer and will be different for every computer. Put the name of the TM drive in the above and keep the quotes.
You'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see) which is normal.
This was edited by Kappy just for cleanup.
Enable Finder to Show Invisible Files and Folders
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following command line then press RETURN.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
To turn off the display of invisible files and folders enter or paste the following command line and press RETURN.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
Alternatively you can use one of the numerous third-party utilities such as TinkerTool or ShowHideInvisibleFiles - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Also, see User Tips for Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.
Message was edited by: Kappy

Time Machine Turns External Drive Read Only

Folks--
I went away on vacation in December 2010 and shut my mac osx 10.5.8 desktop computer off, and with it my lacie 1T external drive, partitioned into three volumes, one of which served as my Time Machine backup volume. When I returned from vacation in early January 2011, Time Machine said that the volume in question was no longer available. Somehow it had become "read only." When I tried to fix it using Disk Utility I was unable to even verify it. When I tried to copy the files from the volume to another drive so that I could reformat, I received error message 1426. I'm feeling a little stuck. It seems like the only option is to reformat the entire drive and lose all of the back ups (the other two volumes have older backups).
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

nicx wrote:
Is it really corrupted? I can still access all the data on the volume, I just can't copy it or get the volume out of the read-only status.
Yes. If OSX marked it "read-only," it's corrupted.
Time Machine backups are intricately linked together; anything corrupted means the whole set is suspect. You may be able to restore some things, you might even be able to do a full system restore from some backups; but somewhere, something is corrupted. OSX knows that, and won't let you resume backing-up to corrupted backups, or copy them (even if you could copy them, the copy would be corrupted, too).

How do i use airport as both time machine and hard drive? currently on Yosemite 10.10.1

how do i use my 3TB airport time capsule as both time machine and hard drive? currently on Yosemite 10.10.1.....Many Thanks.

Choose Computer from the Finder's Go menu and double-click it. If needed, use the Connect to Server command to log into it.
(119763)

Time machine external hard drive requires repair every time I turned the computer off or after I ejected the external hard drive?

Time machine external hard drive requires repair every time I turned the computer off or after I ejected the external hard drive?

What kind of repair?

HT201250 How to retrieve external drive backups from time machine on hard drive without external drive connected

I am keeping my work files on an external drive which are backed up using Time Machine onto my computer's hard drive. I set it up this way so I can take my actual work drive with me if I need it. However, I just noticed that I can't see any of those files in time machine if the drive itself isn't plugged in, which makes this method useless. Is there any way to get to those, or do I need to reconfigure my backup system? I always thought if something happened to my hard drive I'd have a backup, but that won't work if I can't get to the files.

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

Time machine and hard drive space problems

It's a long story, but in a nutshell...I've had some problems with my time machine backups on my external hard drive and my MacBook Pro has been taking a long time time boot up. So, I decided to wipeout the backups on my external by deleting them (I know that's a bad idea) and then I started to transfer all the stuff from my MacBook Pro that I wanted to backup, and now I have ran out of room on the external (1TB) drive. However, the space that is being used doesn't seem to match what should be available. There is around 200gb (I think) that isn't accounted for.....is there some hidden stuff I might have missed?

johnl927 is suggesting you wipe your external hard drive to remove any ghost files or errors in the file system. That would be the fastest and least time consuming way to go.
Your alternative is to run Disk Utility, verify disk and the partitions of the external hard drive, and if still in doubt verify permissions. The disk may sometimes claim to have less free space than really available because at some point in the past your computer or else where you plugged it in forgot to do some general housekeeping on the external hard drive.

Time Machine won't back up to my ext hard drive - 'read only' error

My (two week old) external hard drive that is used for Time Machine has just given me this warning: Files can't be copied onto the backup disc because it appears to be 'read only'. It tells me to repair or reformat the disk using Disk Utility. I have my doubts as this is the third EHD that has gone this way over the past month. I use an iMac, OS 10.6.8. Is this a Time Machine issue that I can fix via changing some settings - I can't realisticallly accept that two top end La Cies and one brand new G-Tech G-Drive have corrupted in one month due to their own faults. Can anyone shed any light on this? I'd be really grateful.

Please look over Time Machine FAQs & Time Machine Troubleshooting. If you don't have any luck finding your issue then please repost in the Snow Leopard forum, because TM is part of OS X and there is a TM section in the Snow Leopard forums that is where you are more likely to find someone that has the expertise you may need.

Time capsule as hard drive, not only time machine

What do I need to change in the settings to be able to use the Time Capsule as a regular wireless external hard drive?
I find two options in the right column in finder, being the name I have given the time capsule, as well as the Time Machine. I can drag and drop files to the Timne Machine (but then only retrieve them by using the Time Machine). I can not, however, drag and drop files to the Time Capsule as such.
Reason I ask is that I also need to be able to get access to files via a PC. I can find the Time Capsule with my PC, but with only Time Machine files, it does not help much.
Any input appreciated.
C

I think you are simply not mounting the TC.
Ok in finder I can see my TC.
Click on it..
The shared disk is shown.. but is not mounted.. double click the data share name (I called it something a bit different, TardisData) and wait for the disk to spin up and the share to mount.
Now you can create a new folder in the main share so you do not mess with TM sparsebundle and copy files to it.. but be warned .. you are going to have issues at some point using TM and data.. please read the warning Pondini has given.
Q3 http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

Problems restoring files with Time Machine after hard drive failure

Hello everyone,
I had a Mavericks (10.9.5) installation on my Mac Mini when my hard drive suddenly "died". I therefore replaced the hard drive with a new one and started the recovery mode using the cmd + R keyboard shortcut during booting. I then partitioned and formated the new hard drive and afterwards selectd "Restore from Time Machine Backup" (see the screenshot on the following page: https://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/). To my surprise, the following error message was displayed: "An error occurred while adding a recovery system to the destination disk". After some research, I discovered that this problem is probably caused by a Mountain Lion installation bug (http://macdailynews.com/2013/02/28/new-macs-suffering-from-os-x-mountain-lion-in stallation-bug/). This leads to my first question:
1) Why does the recovery mode start the Mountain Lion (10.8.5) installer and not the Mavericks (10.9.5) installer?
Anyway, since this problem left me no alternative, I selected "Reinstall OS X" instead, which downloaded Mountain Lion from the Internet. After the installation was complete, I used Migration Assistant to recover my two accounts, their apps and data. However, after the process was completed, I discovered that some files were missing in a folder that I was using before the hard drive "died". This leads to my second question:
2) Why are some files missing from that folder?
Anyway, I though I could quickly recover these lost files by entering Time Machine. I did that and selected the respective folder. However, having that folder or any other folder selected, Time Machine doesn't display any previous back-ups on its timeline although the latter goes back as far as 26 August 2013.
3) Why doesn't Time Machine display older versions of that folder on its timeline?
I will greatly appreciate any help!

Try E2/4 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems
James Pond (Pondini) died last year unfortunately.

Should I restore from Time Machine, replace hard drive, or neither?

I appeared to have a full functioning Macbook Pro, until I ran Onyx, and after scanning my hard drive, it said that there were issues and restarting in recovery mode and repairing the disc should be done. Both Disk Utility and DiskWarrior were unable to repair the damaged hard drive.
Obviously replacing the hard drive would sort out the problem, and I realise that it might be a sign of the start of a failing hard drive... OS X said to backup, erase my drive and restore, so should I do a restore from Time Machine?
Or should I just leave things now until there are more signs of failure?

Alilynx wrote:
I appeared to have a full functioning Macbook Pro, until I ran Onyx, and after scanning my hard drive, it said that there were issues....
OnyX runs the same Disk Utility program that's in your Applications/Utilties folder, it uses the Terminal/command line verision. The Disk Utility program is a GUI front end to the Terminal version.
OnyX launched the Terminal version of Disk Utility in other words, and so it's Disk Utility that is telling you that there is a problem with the drive it's unable to repair.
it said that there were issues and restarting in recovery mode and repairing the disc should be done.
Disk Utility on the Macintosh HD partition (in OS X) is telling you to boot into Recovery HD partition and use that version of Disk Utiltiy to repair the Macintosh HD partition. To do this you hold the command and r keys down and boot the computer.
Both Disk Utility and DiskWarrior were unable to repair the damaged hard drive.
Yes because to be able to repair the Macintosh HD partition it can't be booted from, why you instead boot from the Recovery HD partition instead.
Obviously replacing the hard drive would sort out the problem
You don't need to go that far at this point, unless the drive is having mechanical issues.
OS X said to backup, erase my drive and restore, so should I do a restore from Time Machine?
You have software issues, when booted from the Recovery HD partition that version of Disk Utiltity says it can't repair the Macintosh HD partition then it's time to erase the Macintosh HD partition and restore from TimeMachine.
However there could be a problem if the data on your TimeMachine drive is not current or is also corrupted which it copied from the failing internal drive.
You might want to perform data recovery steps first to grab your data off the Macintosh HD partition so you have a clean copy.
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
If this is all above your head, your local PC/Mac repair shop will image your current boot drive to a new extenral drive, then erase the Macintosh HD partition and reinstall OS X for you or restore from TimeMachine etc.
They will hand you the external drive with your files and everything which you can pick through to restore back to your machine.
It all depends how important your data is, because if you go and erase the Macintosh HD partition, your destroying one of your copies leaving only one on the TimeMachine drive, which might be in worst shape or outdated without your knowledge.

Time machine won't back up since I have restored from time machine following hard drive replacement. I am being told there is not enough space, however the back up is less than the hard drive size

We recently had the hard drive replaced on our Mac as part of Apple's replacement programme. Prior to sending it off for repair we did a final Time Machine back up, which was completed successfully. SInce getting the computer back we restored everything from the backup disk using Time Machine, which all worked fine, however now we are having problems with it completing regular backups. We receive a message each time telling up that the backup disk doesn't have enough space on it. It is telling us that it needs in the region of 370gb and only has around 30gb available. The computer hard drive is in the region of 350gb and the hard drive is a 400gb one. It is almost as if it is not recognising that the data already on the disk is the back up of this computer and is trying to complete a completely separate back up as opposed to just updating the backup already on the disk.
Has anyone else got any experience of this and therefore could give me some hints on what to do. I am reluctant to wipe the backup drive and start again, however I would prefer not to have to buy another hard drive if I can avoid it as this one is technically big enough
I look forward to getting some responses

Hi, I never use TM myself.
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imaging something not being covered there.
PS. It's generally recommended a TM drive be at least twice the size of your main drive.

How to stop my Time Machine external hard drive preventing iMac from sleeping?

I have a late 2012 iMac, and have discovered that sometimes (I haven't noticed a pattern of when it doesn/doesn't happen) the computer will immediately wake up after I set it to Sleep (Apple Menu>Sleep). Through elimination I have found that it is the the USB 3.0 external hard drive I use as a Time Machine back-up that is the culprit; unplugging it then allows the computer to sleep. If I unplug it, then plug it back in later on, this normally solves the problem for a while, but not forever. This same Hard Drive didn't cause the wake problem on my previous '08 iMac.
A big issue is that when the machine immediately wakes from sleep, the display stays off (until I move the mouse) - this is good from a power saving point of view, but means I don't know if/when the machine is immediately waking from sleep (I have to listen to the fan when setting it to Sleep mode to hear if it has actually woken back up).
I've searched the forums, but can't find another poster with the same problem as myself. Can anyone advise a course for me to pursue to prevent this from happening?
Thanks. Jamie

Hi Frank. Nope, I'm still having the same symptoms; the plugged in external drive (TIme Machine) will wake the machine up a couple of seconds after it winding down when put to into sleep mode. Ejecting the drive and then sleeping the machine works. After plugging it in again to do a Time machine backup, it will allow the computer to sleep soundly for the first few sessions (eg a few days of sleeping, waking, sleeping, waking, etc), but then it will then suddenly start preventing it from sleeping again after a while.
It seems I'm fortunate in my case that the display stays dark (or off?) when the machine has been woken from sleep, but this was actually preventing me from knowing the machine wasn't in fact asleep for quite some time; I only eventually cottoned on because there wasn't any delay when 'waking' my machine (which there normally is). I would then have to carefully listen to the spinning fans to know if in fact it had gone to sleep or not.
So, to summarise, unfortunately no, I haven't solved this yet. If anyone else has a solution, please let us know?
Also, I've noticed occasionally after waking that there is a relatively quiet 'crackle' sound (kind of electrical sounding) from the bottom-right area of the machine. This goes on every so often for about 30mins. I see this is also an issue with other people's late 2012 iMacs, but I've not seen if anyone has a solution to it?

Can't restore latest Time Machine backup after drive replacement- only the very first.

My 13" Macbook Pro running 10.8.5 had a bad hard drive which had to be replaced. After the new drive was put in I tried to restore everything to the new drive with Time Machine but could only restore the first backup I ever did after getting the computer, which was over a year ago. I can drag and drop files but I would rather have all my preferences and bookmarks etc. How do I restore the latest backup which was only about a week ago? Thank you.

Not yet; I'm not sure if Migration Assistant is quite right. Since I posted the question I ran across this youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYUem-QfYBs
which suggests that I need to start up from a bootable external disc in order to restore a Time Machine backup to the same computer that the backup came from when the drive is replaced. The video actually seems to describe my issue exactly. The only confusing thing is I don't know why I would have been able to restore the very first Time Machine backup if I need to boot from an external disc. More investigation needed.

Can I back up to Time Machine from hard drive of failed Macbook?

My Macbook has just completely failed (I think an issue with power supply).
I had a bulging battery and have a new Macbook Pro on the way, but as I live in a very remote area this is taking a while. So, one day, my Macbook just wouldn't start again.
I hadn't backed up to Time Machine for about a week and would really like to get all the missing data. When the new computer arrives I'm planning to use Migration Assistant to migrate all my data from Time Machine.
So, my question is, is it possible to back up to Time Machine from the hard drive of my dead Macbook? I was thinking either cloning it somehow, or making a disk image and booting it from another Macbook, but this is stretching the limits of my limited IT skills. I don't want to interfere with the other Macbook I'm using or inadvertently wipe the data on the hard drive or Time Machine disk.
Any advice much appreciated!
My Macbook ran Snow Leopard and was up to date with software updates as of two days ago. It was purchased about two years ago, but I think it's manufacture date was about March 2008.

Thanks Noondaywitch and Pondini!
The HD of the failed Macbook turned out to be fine. Just to be safe I did a full functional back-up of my Time Machine disk to another external disk as well as cloning my Macbook hard drive using Carbon Cloner to another partition of the external disk.
I then booted from a friend's Macbook and did an incremental Time Machine backup from the original Macbook HD to the original TM backup (making sure I excluded the host computer's hard drive from the backup!); when I did the backup it asked whether I wanted to "Reuse backup" I clicked yes.
As said, the hard drive was fine, but at setup I needed an ethernet or firewire connection, which I didn't have on the enclosure, so I migrated my data to the new Macbook Pro using the original TM backup. Strangely, the backup said it was transferring only 120GB, whereas the HD had 150GB of used space. Redundant files, etc. perhaps? Anyway, it's just transferring now, so will sit back and read the paper and see what it looks like in an hour and a half!
Thanks very much again!
Now, if anyone's got any suggestions to fix my old Macbook, which I was going to give away to impecunious friends if they bought a new battery……
HD is fine, power seems buggered, the rest, I don't know. Suggestions welcomed (I live 300+kms from the nearest service centre, so it's strictly DIY or go to local computer shop who know nothing about Macs).

Time machine failure hard drive read only

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