Time Machine hard drive back-up. Is it gone?

Hi,
I just bought a My Book 3T to backup my macbook pro 2009 (OS X). It asked (and I agreed) if it would be my Time Machine and I agreed. I didn't realize that Time Machine would actually erase files if the hard drive gets too full. I don't need this as I already have Blackblaze to provide backup in this form. I just need a hard drive to keep my files safe there so I can erase them from the mac which is running out of space (this would be backed up less often, but also backed up on Blackblaze).
Sooo... AFTER installing time machine and backing up the whole thing I went and did a partition on the hard drive so I could use it as time machine in 1 T, clone in 1T and keep the other 1 T for future use.
Obviously I did so successfully because I can no longer see the time machine drive. My question is is it gone or is it saved somewhere using up space in the hard drive? Can I now safely back up as Time Machine and Clone in those compartments?
Thx

If you partitioned using the normal disk utility you will have deleted your old TM backup. You will now need to start a new one.

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Can I clone my Time Machine hard drive, to another HD, and store Off Site?

Good day All, I love my new Macbook, but am trying to come up with a foolproof method of backing up all my data, documents, and business.
I have become very nervous about BACKUPS, and want to have an OFF-SITE week old backup done on a external Hard Drive?
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Thanks for reading my post, and am lookin forward to all of your comments, IAN...

Hi Ian,
Sorry I missed the discussion last night. I'll tell you how I'm accomplishing the backup task and you can let me know if this is what you're trying to do.
I now have 2 external HDs. A 1TB Seagate and a 250 GB LaCie. The LaCie used to be my TM backup drive, but it was the same size as my internal iMac drive. I knew I'd eventually need a bigger drive so I bought the 1TB Seagate yesterday and cloned the LaCie drive onto it using SuperDuper. The only thing on the LaCie drive was TM backups. Now the TM backup are on the Seagate. I unmounted the old TM drive and changed the name of the new drive to "Time Machine". I activated TM and it picked right up where it left off. I did test it by restoring an old file. I also changed a current file and made sure TM was still operating as advertised. Everything worked as expected.
Now I simply used the 250 GB drive to clone my system HD using CCC. It is a bootable backup and can be used to run the system should my internal drive become unusable. I will update this drive once a month with any changes to the system drive using CCC and keep it off-site in a safe deposit box in the meantime. Using this methodology, I don't see why you'd want to swap the drives weekly/monthly. Just let TM run on the large drive and keep the other drive as current as you like. I've decided monthly is good for me. I'm mostly worried about photos, but I keep them on the camera longer than a month, so there's my cover for the month.
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Jasonmo,
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"Live" partitioning or re-sizing of existing volumes is supported only under the GUID Partition Scheme. If the drive wasn't using this scheme, you would not be able to re-size as you were attempting to do. Even re-sizing under the GUID scheme requires that the drive's maps and directory structures be in very good shape, if it is to work without hitch.
Are you absolutely certain that there isn't some physical problem with the drive, or with its interface (cables and such)? If it is operating normally, you should be able to re-partition it without problems. In DIsk Utility, select the drive (not a named volume that will appear indented underneath), then click the "Partition" tab. If you wish to be able to re-size volumes later, you must choose the GUID scheme from the "Options..." dialogue sheet. Set appropriate sizes for the volumes, then click "Apply." Doing so will destroy all current volumes and data on the drive.
Scott

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Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
With what OS X version did you make the backup? If it was the same as the version you are using now, you don't have to use Migration Assistant to restore the backup. Instead, there's a safer and better method, but you will lose all the changes you have made since the last time you made the backup.
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Hello there,
I'm using time machine for my back up, I've get a message saying mi disk it's full, and I want time machine to continue back up in en other empty disk.
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my system:

Start with C4 in the 1st linked article.
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Leo666 wrote:
I want to bring my back up hard drive on a trip, but now it's attahced to my Airport Extreame.
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Specs: 1-year-old iMac (2.8 GHz i7 etc) running OS X 10.6.7.
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I have also looked at the drive using Disk Utility where it appears in the left column as always. I am able to Unmount, Mount, and Eject the drive but that is all. Time Machine now provides the only access to data on the drive, but this does not represent everything on it.
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just got back to taking a look at this...
appreciate the suggested terminal commands but no luck. I get this with both command line versions:
(hard drive name):~ (my user name)$ chflags nohidden /Volumes/HQ 2big Quadra RAID
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chflags: 2big: No such file or directory
chflags: Quadra: No such file or directory
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(hard drive name):~ (my user name)$
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mystified. thanks for any add'l suggestions.

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I have been using a 1TB Maxtor Basics (Seagate?) external USB hard drive for Time Machine on my iMac for over a year now without any problems, until recently. Between backups, the Time Machine HD does not go to sleep anymore. I am certain that until recently it would automatically go to sleep between backups and wake itself for each scheduled hourly backup. The USB HD is now running constantly when the iMac is awake. Has anyone else had this issue? Can anyone confirm that their "Time Machine" does in fact sleep between backups?

tuttle1150 wrote:
Hey Pondini. It appears my Internal HD is not sleeping either.
Since you've already replaced the preferences file (the first suspect), there may be something using both disks. If you're running any anti-virus software, turn it off (or uninstall it). Exclude both from Spotlight Indexing, if you haven't already, via +System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.+
If that doesn't help, use the +Activity Monitor+ app (in your Applications/Utilities folder), to see what's running. When it starts, select either +All Processes+ or +Active Processes+ in the toolbar, and sort the list by the +% CPU+ column, so the highest numbers are on top, and select the CPU tab towards the bottom. Some system processes run more or less continually, so it's not easy to see what's using the disk(s), but you may find something. If the process(es) involved aren't familiar to you, post their names here (and/or check this out: http://triviaware.com/macprocess/all)
I would like to do an "Erase and Instal"
That's extreeeeeeeemly unlikely to change anything, unless you have some software that you loaded for the Maxtor (if so, just delete it and Restart).
As another poster (Kiraly, I think) says, that's like fixing a dripping faucet by tearing out the kitchen!
but although I know my Documents are backed-up, where are the other things like all my emails and stickies, favourites, notes etc. filed?
What are you contemplating? Erasing your HD, installing OSX, applying the "combo," and selectively restoring things? If so, that's a large project, with very little chance of success.
First, make a second full backup on a separate external HD, via the Restore tab of Disk Utility, CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, or the like. It's rare, but on occasion a backup drive fails during a restore, and everything is lost.
Then, here's what you'd be looking at:
|
• Erase your internal HD, per the yellow box in #1 of [Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Using Snow Leopard+ forum).
• Quit Disk Utility, and install OSX from your Snow Leopard Install disc.
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• Go through the set-up procedure for your Internet connection(s), power settings, and other system-wide settings and preferences.
• Download and install the "combo" update, to get back to your current version of OSX.
• If you've upgraded either OSX or iLife since purchasing your Mac, find the disks with iLife and restore those apps.
• Find all the discs for 3rd-party apps and install them. Re-enter any purchase keys.
• Find the websites for all downloaded 3rd-party apps, download and install them. Re-enter any purchase keys.
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• Re-enter all your Users' preferences and settings, including email accounts: account info, passwords, server names, etc. (if you didn’t save them).
• Wonder what you missed, and find out the hard way . . . for months . . . or longer.
|
Is it really worth all that?

Time machine (hard drive) no longer recognized

Took note that the Time Machine was no-longer backing up onto my iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive (last backup states 8/18/11). This was noted when I was attempting to recall an Excel worksheet; alerted that the worksheet I most-frequently use could no-longer be read. When attempting a (Time Machine) backup retrieval it was realized that the system had not performed a backup since the above date; now the system doesn't even "see" it (backup drive)???
Can you help?

BUMP! Count me in on this one. The last Time Machine back-up was 12/6. I take my machine to the office during the week but am working from home this week. My other external drive (Archives) shows up, but Time Machine is MIA. Looking at System Profiler under USB, I can see the drive on the USB hub and the volume is labeled Time Machine, so the computer sees it, it just doesn't mount it to the desktop so Time Machine can't find its drive.
I've turned the drive off and on. I've swapped cables with the Archive drive. I've rebooted. Nothing works. Both are Western Digital MyBook Studio editions. Both are plugged in to the same hub. I also switched the cables on the hub, but if it's showing up in the Profiler, the problem isn't with the hub, the drive or the cable.
Suggestions? Clues? Comments? I'd rather not lose a year's worth of Time Machine back-ups at this point, plus I can't even reformat the drive.

Time Machine Hard Drive for other uses other than backups

I use a WD My Studio II, 2 TB Hard Drive.
Time machine uses the drive as its backup drive, but since the the drive is so big I would like to use it as a general hard drive too. In other words, on a single hard drive, can I have Time Machine backing up my Macbook, as well as use the remaining space to store general stuff that is to big for my mackbook.
The may seem a little illogical, but bare in mind I have the RAID 1 setting, so the one drive is automatically backed up onto the 2nd 1TB drive.
I hope this makes sense, and I hope someone has an answer.
Regards
H

you might want to consider partitioning your drive, one for TM backups and one for other stuff.
see these user tips: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/3.html and http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/6.html
JGG
edited by the Jolly Green Giant (where Green stands for environmentally friendly)

Time machine & hard drive errors

I'm using Time Machine to back up my OpSys hard drive to an external USB connected hard drive.
It will run without a problem for a week, or two weeks, maybe even a month before I get a message telling me the backup failed because (a) could not read from the external drive (b) could not write to the external drive. I'm told to run disk repair and when I do I am told it cannot be repaired. It is always an invalid node value. Something like the node should be 4067 but is 125429461.
Erasing the USB connected disk and starting over seems to work better if I first erase the disk using data protection (write 0s across the entire drive). I've never seen an error when performing the protected erase.
*Is the partition / format / erase utility capable of producing an error message if the hard drive has problems?*
After the erase of the drive Time Machine will usually be able to run back ups normally for a week, two weeks, maybe a month, before I get another error (bad NODE).
I also used another hard drive in the external USB enclosure and encountered similar problems before switching to another hard drive which is three years old but until recently was rarely powered up.
After searching for tools which would allow me to perform a diagnostic on the hard drive I have come up empty. This hard drive has not been used extensively. It spent most of the first three years of it's life powered down in a external USB enclosure, thus I am reluctant to assume the hard drive is failing, but anything is possible.
I did recently have this hard drive installed internally for a short time and never saw an error message when it was in use.
I'm beginning to form the opinion Time Machine might be the source of the problem, perhaps a bug in it's process. I have noted some other people posting opinions that Time Machine isn't very reliable in other internet forums.
While I could buy a new hard drive and see if that solves the problem, I thought I would see if anyone here has any useful feedback.
Another possibility is the USB enclosure is the source of the problem. An intermittent failure of some kind within the enclosure could easily make solving this very challenging.
I'm very interested to read any and all feedback,
Thank you,
~ Allen

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
It's unlikely a Time Machine problem; Time Machine uses the normal OSX facilities to read & write, they're the ones that actually manage the +file structure.+ Time Machine does use a complex and somewhat unusual file structure, though, including a huge number of hard links (sort of like aliases).
You're probably right that it's somewhere in the chain of port, cable, enclosure, and drive. So try different ports, cables, and combinations of the two (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another). If that doesn't help, it's probably the enclosure or drive.

Time Machine hard drive back-up. Is it gone?

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