Time machine freezes with any drive

I have tried everything - connecting several new drives, plugging it directly into the USB 3 port, taking it to the Apple store.

Are the drives formatted properly?
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Similar Messages

Does time machine work with ANY portable hard drive or backup drive?

I am just wondering. Please help.

Time Machine Compatible External Hard Drive
What drives are time machine compatible?

Time Machine freezes with USB External attached to iMac

I've got a WD 320GB external USB HD attached to my iMac. I've formatted the external and set it up for Time Machine backups, but it freezes every single time midway through the backup process. Yesterday I tried for the third time, wiped the drive and again set it up for Time Machine. I then started the backup process, with an estimated 8-9 hours remaining. Woke up this morning and the time machine process stopped backing up at ~70gb, still saying it was in progress but nothing was being accomplished. My computer is not set to sleep whatsoever and the hard drive is having no issues with SMART status. It's been formatted properly as Time Machine recognizes this and does start the backup process.
How can I ever utilize Time Machine if something in Lion keeps preventing the backup from being completed? Any suggestions/recommendations?

Boot in safe mode. First, disconnect all wired peripherals except keyboard, mouse, and backup drive, if applicable. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including your login items.
Manually start a backup from the Time Machine menu or preference pane. Same result?
After backing up, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

Does Time Machine work with Networked drives yet...?

Yes, I did search, and nothing recent came up.
I have a 500 GB lacie hard drive that is attached to my router, and it works great.
Without using any of those hacks, should Time Machine work properly with a networked drive?

No. At present on drives attached to a Time Capsule seem to work.
My AEBS has a 500GB USB drive attached - and Time Machine won't use it.
My Time Capsule has both the internal 1TB disk and a 1TB external Western Digital drive attached - and the Time Capsule drive and all of the partitions on the USB drive are available for use by Time Machine.
Time Capsule comes with a new version of the Airport Utility (5.3) - I don't see that this is available as a separate download right now.
Perhaps Airports will support Time Machine in the future - but that is by no means guaranteed. I don't think many people know what the hardware differences between an Airport Extreme and a Time Capsule really are.

Time Machine freezes with OS X Mountain Lion

I recently bought a Seagate 3TB backup drive for my Mac Desktop, which runs on OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2. The Mac recognizes the drive, but when I launch Time Machine to execute the backup, it starts to work and begins counting the backup bytes, but then freezes and goes into the spinning wheel death spiral. Despite leaving it run for extended periods of time, it does not complete the task and requires me to do a hard power down (ugh.) Have tried it several times now, from two different login IDs.
I must have a setting somewhere that is causing it to get hung up. It stops at the exact same count each time. Very frustrating. Suggestions?

Maybe this will help:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20083046#20083046

Time Machine "freezes" with Restore attempt

My Time Machine backups appear to work as they should. However, when I launch the Time Machine app (such as to do a Restore) I can move the cursor around the screen but nothing at all happens when I click on any object. I have waited for as long as 30 minutes for the app to become responsive, but no luck. So I have all this great backup data but could not do a Restore if necessary.

You're in the wrong discussion group... This is about iDVD '08.

Time Machine issue with multiple drives...

So I am trying to run two backups, one wirelessly and the other through a wired USB connection. This is for a MacBook Air, so it's not always connected to the USB drive. The instructions I found online said that once you click "Select Disk" and to to add another disk, it will ask you if you want to switch disks or use both. That option for "both" never came up, and it was like I was selecting a new Time Machine disk. Why is that? Can't I use both disks as automatic back-ups? I am thinking of adding a third, and didn't want to continue unless I was sure. I have OS 10.7.5

The option to use multiple backup disks is only in OS X 10.8 and later.

Selective Time Machine Restore with new drive?

I have a late 2011 MBP. Running an OCZ Octane drive which is not compatible with ML. Want to upgrade to ML from Lion.
I have a TM setup with a backup of the internal 128 GB drive, of which I'm using about 40 GB of, and my external 750 GB drive, on to a 2TB TM disk.
If I do a final back, shut down, swap the drive for a new SSD, and boot to restore from TM, will it balk since the TM backup is in fact much larger than the 128 GB SSD that I just put in? TM would be around 600GB total. OR, can I just have it perform the backup of the original 128 GB drive, and not bother with the external 750 GB drive?

I'm in the same situation as the original poster, the leopard DVD is at work, and on a Saturday my laptop crashed. I get this "Unable to load XIPanel_RestoreIntroduction nib file" error and I'd like to know if others have been able to:
1) understand what this message is about, e.g. are there additional checks in the nib file or is it just not found?
2) work around the issue one way or another.
Apple making computers -- deterministic creatures of all, and not casinos I'm not fully satisfied with the idea that this is a gamble to work around the issue. Unless of course there is a list of "other issues" that's been published somewhere in which case I'll be grateful to not embark on a useless and ultimately doomed effort to get my mac to work.

Does Time Machine work with eSATA drives?

Or does it only work with USB, FW, and Time Capsule?
TIA

yes, it works with eSATA. I've seen posts by people who do it.
Message was edited by: V.K.

External Drive with Time Machine, booting from external drive with utilitie

I'm using Time Machine now with
a LaCie 1TB external hard drive.
Everything works fine.
But, I've been wondering:
Can I place a program like TechTool
on the external drive (that Time Machine uses)
and boot from that external drive.
I would like to be able to do that,
because diagnostics and repair programs
only works properly and fully when they run from
external drives. Anything on the internal drive can be repaired
and examine. Impossible to do if Techtool is on the same
drive that's been examined.
Any thoughts as to what I should do?
Thanks
iMac, Leopard, Time Machine, Lacie Quadra 1TB drive.
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?

pitou wrote:
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?
As V.K. says, you can't boot from TM backups.
But you can restore your entire system from any one of them, per the procedure in #14 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
You can also selectively restore from them, while running normally. See #15 in the FAQ Tip.
You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the rest of the FAQ Tip.

Time Machine freezes during back up to Passport Ext drive

Time Machine freezes during first back up to My Passport Ext drive. It is a 1TB, and seems to keep stopping at 6 to 10GB stage so never actually backs up. I have excluded files to limit first backup to about 40GB.

you sure this is a Mac Pro and not a MacBook Pro first. Most every report of issues with bus powered like Passport are best solved using a drive case with its own power instead.

Lion breaks Time Machine backups with Western Digital Drives.

How can I find out what's being done about this from an Apple and a Western Digital angle? WD has nothing on their site. Apparently there is an 'AFP' protocol change. Help, I have upgraded all machines to Lion and now no upgrades are possible.

Time Machine was never supported on 3rd party remote drives other than Apple's own Time Capsule and MacOS X Server. Event the Airport Express with an external drive didn't support Time Machine. If any 3rd party products want to support Time Machine, it is their responsibility to stay up to date. Lion has been available to developers for months.
If you want to hack up your Lion to use the older protocol that Apple now feels is insecure - here you go.

Copying Time Machine files to external drive for use with PC

Hello! Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
My MacBook Pro recently died. I have it backed up by Time Machine on an external drive. Now I'd like to copy my files from the backup to another external drive so that I can access them later from a PC computer running Windows (7 or 8). Is that possible? The Time Machine drive, I believe, is formatted specifically for Mac, but the external drive I'm trying to copy to is FAT32. Can I connect both to a friend's Mac, look for the files I need, and then copy them from the backup drive to the other external drive? Will a PC computer be able to read them?
Thanks!

Usually that error indicates a drive malfunction; specifically, the drive is spinning down and not responding to bus signals. Some "Eco" or "green" drives are known for this behavior. The following steps may help:
Select  ▹ System Preferences ▹ Energy Saver ▹ Power Adapter and uncheck the box labeled Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible, if it's checked.
If the drive is connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port on the computer.
If a firmware update is available for the drive, apply it.
Contact the drive manufacturer to see whether there's a firmware setting you can change.
If you installed vendor software for the drive, uninstall it.
If none of the above steps resolves the issue, try another drive.

Is a WD My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive bootable with my Powerbook G4 12" PPC 10.5.8?

Sirs or madams,
Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
Thank you very much.

Mr. BGreg,
Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components.
My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer. Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
So, anyway, thanks very much for your information.

Will Time Machine work with an external hard drive connected (via usb) to Airport Extreme?

Will Time Machine work with an external hard drive connected (via usb) to Airport Extreme?

Sorry, but this article is about 4 years old, and was printed based on preliminary information at the time.
The bottom line here is that Apple does not officially support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme.
If it works for you, great.
You might want to review the Apple Support documents below, which are far more recent than the article you reference:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
It is supported.....
This is NOT correct. Please do not post false information on the forums.

Time machine freezes with any drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for