Time Machine Hard Drive will never enter sleep mode or stop spinning

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone could help me.
When i recieved my MacBook I took the 80gb hard drive out, and placed it in an external USB drive case to use as my backup device, and placed a 120gb drive into the MacBook.
Now when I'm using this drive, it never stops spinning when not in use, and when the MacBook goes to sleep, it still continues to spin, even the light continues to flash whilst the MacBook is sleeping.
Is this because I've bought a naffy external case (it only cost £5 from ebay, it's not even branded with a manufacturers name), or will there be some settings somewhere?
Thanks guys,
Seb

p.s. the external drive case is a SATA-Drive case, self powered by the USB 2 connection, there is no external power involved.

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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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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.
Nano

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive. Help

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Time Machine hard drive is not sleeping.

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.
• Set up a temporary User Account (different from any on your backups).
• 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.
• Restore whatever data you saved. See #28 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 this forum) for some common data.
• 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 need to be reformatted?

I upgraded from Leopard about 6 hours ago and so far I haven't had any issues with Snow Leopard and it is noticeably faster and more stable. However, when I just plugged in my Time Machine backup drive I got a message saying the "disk was unreadable by this computer". That never happened until I installed Snow Leopard. Does my time machine backup HDD need to be reformatted to work with Snow Leopard??? Is there a chance that version 10.6.1 will fix this little issue soon?

If you're sure you've got all your data on your Mac now, and it's solid, you could erase your external drive and do a backup right off.
I also would search as I thought I saw someone with a simple fix for a similar issue here.
Scott

Erasing Time Machine hard drive after formatting for both PPC and Intel

Ok, I made a mistake. First I formatted a Western Digital 500 gig hard drive for both my wife's PPC G4 laptop and my own Intel MBP laptop, so we could both use Leopard's Time Machine for backing up to the same drive. That wasn't my mistake though, it's been working fine. I formatted my partition using the GUID option and hers using the Apple Partition Map option (I think that's what they are called, I'm going from memory).
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So... I tried to repair it, no good. Tried to erase both her partition and mine (to just start over): no good. I can't do anything to either of these partitions now, from either computer. Tried everything I could think of in Disk Utility, from both computers. Won't erase, won't re-partition. Not a hardware issue: it all started when I did this stupid Re-Partition. Help!!!!
I want to erase the drive and start over. Can anyone advise??

Jasonmo,
First, let's talk about the various partition schemes. A partition scheme applies to the entire drive. Specifically, these are different maps written to the drive, within which volumes are created. As such, this is an either/or thing; your drive is partitioned using either the GUID Scheme, or the Apple Scheme, not both.
"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

If i delete some media files in my IMac = it will delete in my time machine hard drive (connected via usb)?

I have film on IMac hard disk and copy of it in time machine removable hard disk (2tb).
If i delete film from my native, system IMac hard disk - it will be delete automatically in my removable hard disk or not?

You should ONLY use the TM drive for TM activity. If you were backing up using a Bootable Clone I would recommend the same thing. There are several reasons for this with a TM drive, first being that if you store data and TM info on a TM drive if that drive crashes (it's a mechanical device and they do break) not only will you have lost your data you will have lost the backup for it! Next is TM will eventually fill the HD, that is how TM works. Therefore if you place additional data on the TM drive you are shortening the useful life of the TM drive. In short if you want to store other data such as music, photographs and movies which tend to occupy a lot of HD space buy another EHD and save the media there. EHD's are inexpensive so there isn't any reason not to. TM will still back these up.
If you need help moving these libraries to an EHD then bookmark and use:
iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD
iTunes: How to move the library to an EHD
iMovie: How to move the Library to an EHD
On my iMac I have 3 external HD's connected. Disk 1 is Time Machine, Disk 2 is a Bootable Clone backup and Disk 3 is for my media. I've been running this way for 4 years reliably.

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, AirPort Extreme, and possible damage?

I plugged in an external HD to my AirPort Extreme (gigabit) base station today and started a Time Machine backup to it. After about 8 hours, I had transferred only 12 gigs of my 46 and ended up stopping it. I realize only the initial backup should take forever, but I am afraid that running the MacBook Pro hard drive constantly for hours could damage it. Are the portable hard drives capable of running for hours on end? What's the risk of damaging it?
I didn't notice any major heat issues with the Penryn MacBook Pro while doing this, but I didn't want the hard drive to break either. Plus, the wireless backup just takes way too long. I can't run an N only network because I have older AirPort expresses (WDS), older G clients in the house, and some iPhones that need to get online. I understand that 802.11g is slower than N, but it's way too slow for wireless backups.

Connecting a USB HDD to an Extreme can be used for Time Machine backups, but it is not officially supported by Apple. You will have to start a new TM backup if you are using the Extreme as TM backups to a NAS (vs. local disks) will backup as a sparsebundle (vs. your current folder format). The same goes for backup to a Time Capsule.

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.

Time machine hard drive for transfering files from 2010 MBP to rMBP

Hello!
I have a couple of questions here!
I will be getting the rMBP in the next few weeks so want to do a bit of housekeeping before transferring across.
1) What is the best way to clear my current MBP of files and applications that i dont use and are just taking up space? I currently have a 256GB hard drive with 8GB free - there should be no reason for this as my large audio/ Raw photo/ video editing files are on an external hard drive. So i think there must be a lot of flotsam and jetsam on there that needs to be removed as i don't want to carry that from computer to computer!
2) Is Time machine the best option for this kind of service?
3) Can anyone recommend an external hard drive for the job? I don't want to rely on thunderbolt ones at the moment so would it just be any usb hard drive seeing as Apple has sodded of firewire?
Cheers
K*

OK, I'll bite:
1) you can just delete the documents that you don't use by throwing them in the Trash. To delete apps and all associated files (and some will disagree with me or suggest another application) I recommend using AppDelete. I believe it's $13 or so but I have used AppZapper and AppCleaner as well but find that AppDelete finds all associated files.
2) After you've rid yourself of your 'junk' files, I recommend using Time Machine on a dedicated or partitioned hard drive for backups. When you get your new machine, you can just use Time Machine to restore all of your settings, apps, documents, etc. For everything you ever wanted to know about Time Machine, see http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html.
3) A USB drive is definitely the way to go. I would recommend the G-Drive series from Hitachi here. They have all sorts of connections, including USB 2.0 and Firewire 800. When Apple (finally) releases their Thunderbolt>FW800 adapter, you'll be ready. Others might recommend USB 3.0 drives for the speed but I've seen too many posts of, in particular, Western Digital USB 3.0 drives that have problems with the 2012 Macs to go the USB 3.0 route right now. Maybe someone will jump in and recommend a USB 3.0 drive that they actually have working on a 2012 MBP?
Good luck,
Clinton

Can I use my time machine hard drive to transfer files to a pc?

Hello everyone.
I recently broke my macbook, and had to replace it with a pc laptop. I have my data saved on a time machine enabled external hard drive.
How can I use that hard drive to put my files (music/word documents) to the pc?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.

YoHenYo wrote:
Hello everyone.
I recently broke my macbook, and had to replace it with a pc laptop. I have my data saved on a time machine enabled external hard drive.
How can I use that hard drive to put my files (music/word documents) to the pc?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Sadly, in your case, the TM backup is practically useless. TM provides a backup primarily for the machine to which it is connected, and then, only through the TM interface engine, never directly.
The files are not stored in a linear manner as would be in a regular backup - they are linked to each other and each "file" only represents a "delta" or incremental backup unit. The TM engine knows how to reconnect all the links to create the proper file.
What you need to do is get another Macbook similar to yours, and see if you can connect to the TM backup with TM. If you can, then you can restore the files and them copy them onto a FAT32 formatted external HD.
If you network the borrowed Mac with the PC, you can transfer the files over the network, but in any case, you have to use the TM engine to do so.
The only files on the TM backup that are most likely "normal" would be the original files created during the first backup.

HT201250 I just had a new hard drive installed in my iMac. Migration manager cannot see my external Time Machine hard drive to restore the files and applications. The drive is operational in Finder

I cannot seem to migrate the full time machine backup from an external hard drive back to the new hard drive. Finder sees the drive and files. When I use Migration managers, it only sees the computer hard drive after I select the time machine option to restore the files.

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.
Just hold Command and R keys while your Mac is starting to start into OS X Recovery. Then, select the option to restore a Time Machine backup, and follow its steps. Also, you will be able to select the backup you want to restore

Can I get a time machine hard drive to restore onto Windows XP?

Yeah, I just bought an iMac and I figured why not sell my Mac Mini? So I have time machine on and I back up all my files to my external hard drive of course. Now, sense I am selling my Mac Mini, I need to use Windows XP on my old PC for a month cause I custom ordered an iMac and that takes 6 weeks. Will my external hard drive with time machine back ups work with Windows XP so I can restore all of my files from my hard drive to Windows XP? and than also, will I be able to put my files back onto the hard drive and than load them all up to my new iMac?

The external hard drive you have been using for Time Machine will most likely not be recognized by Windows XP. The external hard drive is formated as HPFS. You may be able to read files from it (not sure) but you won't be able to write anything new.
When you get your new iMac, however, you can plug in that external hard drive and tell Leopard to load your account, documents, bookmarks, contacts, applications, etc. It will make your new iMac look like and behave like your old mac mini. It's pretty cool.
I hope this helps,
Julian

Time Machine Hard Drive will never enter sleep mode or stop spinning

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