Time machine hd must be reformatted

My Seagate Time Machine hd can't be repaired by the Disk Utility. " Disk Utility can't repar this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files. If it is the Seagate that must be reformatted, why must I back up the files on my Machintosh HD? Surely they will be untouched by anything done to the Seagate.
Another question is - how do I find out how much of my hard disk is being used. I have an old back-up hd that has the files from my last computer and could possibly use it to back up what I now have on my iMac, but I don't know how to determine if there is enough space on the old Lacie hd to hold what's now on my iMac.
I hope that made sense. If not I'll gladly answer questions.
Thanks
Beth

First, start a new backup on another external drive. A single backup isn't enough to be safe.
The drive has malfunctioned. If I were in your place, I'd return it for warranty service or recycle it. If you choose to continue using it, it has to be erased. I suggest you defer doing that until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on it. Put it aside and don't use it at all until then.

Similar Messages

How do I restore files from time machine backups made before reformatting macbook air?

How do I restore files from time machine backups made before reformatting macbook air?

The section titled "Restoring data from Time Machine backups" in the following may help: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

Time Machine requires me to reformat my external hard disk

I have a Maxtor 1TB external hard disk that works fine with my Mac. It has been formatted to FAT32 format so I can use it on Mac and PC. When I tried to setup Time Machine to back up to this drive, I was told I needed to reformat my external hard disk as the format was not recognised. Do I have to get a separate external hard disk to use with Time Machine? Why the discrepancy in formats? If I get another external hard disk and reformat it according to the requirement by Time Machine, will that mean that I cannot use that hard disk with a PC? What is the required format recognised by Time Machine anyway.
Thanks for your answers.

If I get another external hard disk and reformat it according to the requirement by Time Machine, will that mean that I cannot use that hard disk with a PC?
Yes, unless the PC has software such as MacDrive installed.
What is the required format recognised by Time Machine anyway.
Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Time Machine has usage requirements beyond Mac OS X's general ones.
(52969)

Time Machine - I had to reformat its external disk - how do I start TM again?

MacBook Pro - 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
OS X 10.6.8
Time Machine backups to directly-connected external disk - La Cie 2 TB
I got Time Machine error messages saying it could not complete the backup. I followed advice at the Pondini TM website. I turned TM off. The problem was corruption on the external drive. Disk Utility could not fix it - invalid sibling link. I decided to abandon the existing backups and did disk erase, writing zeros to it. Took two attempts, the second attempt running for 15-odd hours. The disk has got one partition, GUID, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - this is stuff I don't really understand.
I can't see how to tell Time Machine to forget about the old backups and start up again from scratch on the newly reformatted disk. I can't find this task explicitly covered in the Pondini website.

When you erased the data that was reflected in System Preferences > Time Machine.
Glad your backup is working. You might want to consider adding a clone backup to your drive. Just like a seat belt and an air bag protect you in different ways when driving, you need both Time Machine and a clone for full protection.
Both of these applications can be used to create a clone.
SuperDuper! http://www.shirt-pocket.com/
CCC http://www.bombich.com/download.html

Time Machine repeatedly "must create new backup"...

Hi there - I have a fairly specific problem:
After replacing my 1TB HD at Apple's suggestion, I was able to successfully restore my data from Time Machine backup which resides in a Synology NAS (DS210j to be precise). So far, so good.
After about 3 days of use, I get a pop-up message from Time Machine stating that it has completed a verification of my backup and concluded that it must make a new, full backup. This then wipes my entire history of Time Machine back-ups and then proceeds over another 3 days to complete another backup.
So far, still reasonably good.
The problem is that after the 2nd full cycle of this (ie. full backup, verify fail, full backup required etc), the message continues to recur.
I have read through Pondini's FAQ (esp. C13) and I am still at a loss because my set-up (TM via NAS) has been stable up to this point and I had more than 1.5 years worth of Time Machine back-ups until the fateful day when I replaced my iMac hard drive.
I have tried to address as many of Pondini's suggested reasons as to why C13 might recur (including rechecking power supply etc) but am at a loss because the set up was working before and nothing has changed other than the replacement of the hard drive in the iMac...
One of the things I have tried is to check my computer name via System Prefs -> Sharing and noted that my Computer Name is the same as before the backups but "Computers on your local network can access your computer at: XXX-2 (i.e. a duplicate)". So I have now edited this to make this the same as the computer name (to remove the potentially offending -2).
I also downloaded TM Buddy and wanted to post the following the log:
Starting automatic backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Time Machine using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Runtime corruption detected on /Volumes/Time Machine/XXX.sparsebundle (fsck_hfs -q termination status: 3)
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine
Recovery backup declined by user.
Backup canceled.
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Time Machine using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Forcing the backup image to mount read-only because it failed verification or is immutable
Disk image /Volumes/Time Machine/XXX.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Starting manual backup
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine
Recovery backup declined by user.
Backup canceled.
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Time Machine (FSVolumeRefNum: -126; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
I am running OS X 10.8.2 on a 2.93 GHz Core i7 27-inch iMac (mid 2010)
Anyone have any suggestions?
I am in the process of reformating the Time Machine back-up disk (i.e. the drive in my NAS) and trying the full backup again but thought I would ask here in the meantime since it's going to take 3 days or so to complete that anyway...
Any help appreciated.

Hi there - I have a fairly specific problem:
After replacing my 1TB HD at Apple's suggestion, I was able to successfully restore my data from Time Machine backup which resides in a Synology NAS (DS210j to be precise). So far, so good.
After about 3 days of use, I get a pop-up message from Time Machine stating that it has completed a verification of my backup and concluded that it must make a new, full backup. This then wipes my entire history of Time Machine back-ups and then proceeds over another 3 days to complete another backup.
So far, still reasonably good.
The problem is that after the 2nd full cycle of this (ie. full backup, verify fail, full backup required etc), the message continues to recur.
I have read through Pondini's FAQ (esp. C13) and I am still at a loss because my set-up (TM via NAS) has been stable up to this point and I had more than 1.5 years worth of Time Machine back-ups until the fateful day when I replaced my iMac hard drive.
I have tried to address as many of Pondini's suggested reasons as to why C13 might recur (including rechecking power supply etc) but am at a loss because the set up was working before and nothing has changed other than the replacement of the hard drive in the iMac...
One of the things I have tried is to check my computer name via System Prefs -> Sharing and noted that my Computer Name is the same as before the backups but "Computers on your local network can access your computer at: XXX-2 (i.e. a duplicate)". So I have now edited this to make this the same as the computer name (to remove the potentially offending -2).
I also downloaded TM Buddy and wanted to post the following the log:
Starting automatic backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Time Machine using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Runtime corruption detected on /Volumes/Time Machine/XXX.sparsebundle (fsck_hfs -q termination status: 3)
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine
Recovery backup declined by user.
Backup canceled.
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Time Machine using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Forcing the backup image to mount read-only because it failed verification or is immutable
Disk image /Volumes/Time Machine/XXX.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Starting manual backup
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine
Recovery backup declined by user.
Backup canceled.
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Time Machine (FSVolumeRefNum: -126; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
I am running OS X 10.8.2 on a 2.93 GHz Core i7 27-inch iMac (mid 2010)
Anyone have any suggestions?
I am in the process of reformating the Time Machine back-up disk (i.e. the drive in my NAS) and trying the full backup again but thought I would ask here in the meantime since it's going to take 3 days or so to complete that anyway...
Any help appreciated.

Can an external hard drive be used for two Mac compters each using for Time Machine or must I have two hard drives?

I'm upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard and need to provide system back-up. Are there any especially good drives?

I like, and use, external hard drives that OWC sells, as many of them use Oxford chipsets, which work well with macs.
Also, the BackPack is handy to use with an iMac to get a drive off the desktop.

How do i reformat a time machine drive to regular external drive

i have an external hard drive that i used for time machine. how do i reformat it so it goes back to it's original setting and i can use it for transferring and storing files?
also, is there a way i could partition an external hard drive so that maybe half is used for time machine and the other half is used for transferring files and such?

1. Format, Erase, or Reformat a drive

My time machine keeps freezing when I am backing up

I have recently purchased a seagate 1.5TB external hard drive and am trying to back up my computer using time machine.
My compute is 56GB large.
I have tried 3 times and have been forced to stop it everytime because it keeps freezing.
What should I do?
It says it is compaitble with USB 2.0 and 3.0
My MBP is from late 2011 and I think it is 3.0 yet when it does backup a bit it doesnt do it particularly fast then it pauses.

If you have a late 2011 MBP, then you have USB 2.0 ports. Only the mid-2012 models came with USB 3.0 ports. Is your Seagate a USB 3.0 model? It should be backward compatible with your machine; you just won't acheive USB 3.0 speeds. How did you format your drive? To use with Time Machine, it must be formated as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
I'm suspecting (and rather hoping) that it's just a formatting problem. Try using Disk Utility to reformat the drive as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" in order to work with TM.
Good luck,
Clinton

Using Time Machine and other uses on one drive

I want to get the Iomega Prestige 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 34270 to back up some files from a Tiger machine, and possibly from some Windows machines to, but I also want to be able to use it for Time Machine in the future.
How do I format the drive for Time Machine? If I format it after I start putting files on, would the files be removed? If it's formatted for Time Machine, will it work with the Windows computers? If formatted for Time Machine, will I be able to use it for Time Machine AND regular file storage?

Prepare the drive as follows:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. 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 Options 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.
Now, you cannot use a Mac formatted drive with Windows unless you install Windows software that enables this such as MediaFour's Mac Drive.
If you format the drive FAT32 instead of Mac OS X Extended then you can use the drive on both the Mac and Windows without anything additional, but the drive will not be usable with Time Machine unless it's formatted Mac OS X Extended.
Now, you can partition the drive so that one partition is formatted for OS X and the other for Windows, but to do that you must partition the drive using GUID instead of APM. The former is not compatible with Tiger or non-Intel Macs.
Note that to use Time Machine you must upgrade to Leopard. TM is an incremental archiving backup program so your backup drive will need to be at least twice the capacity of the drive you will backup.

Time Machine, last backup = none?!?

Hi,
Suddenly Time Machine wont recognize my backups anymore.... Yesterday I renamed the TM USB disk from "unknown" to "Time Machine".
When I wanted to make a new backup, Time Machine told me the latest backup was "None" so I quickly renamed the disk back to "unknown".
But no TM still wont display my last backup and now TM is making a full backup of ALL my files?!? (about 400GB)...
How can I fix this please?
Thank you!

Unfortunately you discovered that you cannot just simply "rename" your Time Machine volume without it "reformatting" the hard drive itself and erasing all the previous files. Which is what is has done. I am afraid at this point you must start from scratch acquring backup files to save for the future. The old backups are gone.
Hope this helps

Time Machine backups broken in 10.8

I have a Mac Mini with a USB hard drive attached that serves as a network-attached Time Machine drive for my main Mac client computer. Today I have upgraded my rock-solid 10.6 home server to 10.8, hopeing they have finally ironed out the bugs in the SMB stack (that replaced Samba).
I immediately notice that Time Machine performance is very poor from the client machine (over gigabit ethernet). I googled around and apparently Apple has decided to gate Time Machine backup performance unless you purchase OS X Server via the App Store. So I purchased OS X Server via the App Store, and the performance issue is fixed.
Next I decide I want to start fresh with Time Machine backups, so I reformat the drive, and since then it won't show up in the drive list on the Time Machine preference pane (on the client machine looking to initate the backup). From what I can tell OS X Server just flat out prohibits backing up to network shares on an OS X Server. It appears you must designate a drive on the server for Time Machine backups. The server then creates a new share point 'Backups'. While this isn't as easy or as flexible as it used to be, bygones. After designating my hard drive via the Time Machine pane, I am able to choose the 'Backups' share on the client, but every time it tries to initate a backup it errors out with: The backup disk is not available.
At this point I am very frustrated. Apple has taken something that was very straightforward and twisted it into something that is more complex, more expensive, less flexible, and apparently non-functional. This seems very un-apple-like. Am I doing something wrong there? There seems very little actual information floating around about the mechanics and requirements of Time Machine on the server or client side (outside of developer reference docs about what specific AFP features are necessary for network Time Machine backups).

I have a Mac Mini with a USB hard drive attached that serves as a network-attached Time Machine drive for my main Mac client computer. Today I have upgraded my rock-solid 10.6 home server to 10.8, hopeing they have finally ironed out the bugs in the SMB stack (that replaced Samba).
I immediately notice that Time Machine performance is very poor from the client machine (over gigabit ethernet). I googled around and apparently Apple has decided to gate Time Machine backup performance unless you purchase OS X Server via the App Store. So I purchased OS X Server via the App Store, and the performance issue is fixed.
Next I decide I want to start fresh with Time Machine backups, so I reformat the drive, and since then it won't show up in the drive list on the Time Machine preference pane (on the client machine looking to initate the backup). From what I can tell OS X Server just flat out prohibits backing up to network shares on an OS X Server. It appears you must designate a drive on the server for Time Machine backups. The server then creates a new share point 'Backups'. While this isn't as easy or as flexible as it used to be, bygones. After designating my hard drive via the Time Machine pane, I am able to choose the 'Backups' share on the client, but every time it tries to initate a backup it errors out with: The backup disk is not available.
At this point I am very frustrated. Apple has taken something that was very straightforward and twisted it into something that is more complex, more expensive, less flexible, and apparently non-functional. This seems very un-apple-like. Am I doing something wrong there? There seems very little actual information floating around about the mechanics and requirements of Time Machine on the server or client side (outside of developer reference docs about what specific AFP features are necessary for network Time Machine backups).

Time machine - NAS and router type

I am sorry if this has been covered somewhere but I am new to mac's. I have three machines, 2 XP PRO and one imac snow leopard imac. I have a d-link 655 router with d-link 321 mirror 1 raid NAS on it that i currently use to shared data. Can I use part of this NAS with time machine? I could reformat with a second volume for the BUs and leave a small volume for shared data. I see other discussions of NAS and time machine but nobody mentions the router. Some of the reading I have done indicates that the airport extreem is also a server of some type that is needed for time machine.

caritj wrote:
My understanding is that TM requires that whatever disk you use it's server must support AFP file services.
Yup.
I am not sure if there is any NAS that supports AFP.
Yes, there are. I haven't used them myself, but some folks have. Search this forum for NAS and you should find them.
I'd have two cautions:
Look at the setup instructions. If you have to "fool" OSX/Time Machine, such as with a special Terminal command about "show unsupported devices," be careful. That may work, for a time, under some circumstances, but it may prevent doing a full restore to a new or repaired internal HD. To do a full system restore via Time Machine, you must boot from your OSX Install disc to use the installer on it; there's no way to use that command to fool the the installer.
Some NAS devices that worked on Leopard didn't work on Snow Leopard, at least not at first, because of some enhancements Apple put on SL that not all the NAS makers had ready. It will likely be a while before the next "big cat" comes out, but it's possible to have a similar situation then.

2 iMacs upgraded to Mavericks, neither one is completing Time Machine backups. Never had this problem in previous OS versions. Reformated disc. Reinstalled as TM destination. Backup begins and then stops early in process.

I have two iMacs that I've upgraded to Mavericks 10.9.1.
Both started out OK but no longer allow Time Machine to complete backups.
The one I'm on now, older 24", has a fresh 500GB external HD for TM, reformated correctly.
Says backup size 147GB.
Get about 120 plus Mb into backup and stops.
No error messages, just stops and stays at the place where it stops.
Says calculating time remaining.
Left it on all day while away from my desk and returned home 10 hours later and still frozen at that state.
Newer iMac 27" fully loaded, 2TB HD as TM disc, same problem.
Backed up OK for the first few days, now frozen, with over 3/4 of the HD still available.
Reformat, reselect the TM disc, still will not complete a full backup.
Should I reinstall Mountain Lion until they get Mavericks working properly?
Are others experiencing the same problem?
Whassup?

Yes Eric. That is where the info came from. Since 9.2TB is impossible it must be due to how Time Machine handles the files in backups.backupdb. I have since done new Time Machine backups to the reformatted drive and I was hoping to copy at least few of the old backup files to the drive in the same file with the new ones but when I do that I get an error message that says backup files cannot be modified. It's very frustrating because I saved the old backups.backupdb to the desktop but it doesn't seem like I can do anything with it.

Time machine allows only time capsule

I try to use a drive of another machine for backup. Time Machine has only one option, this is a time capsule. Since I don´t have it, I cannot backup my data. The option for Time Machine is being switched of everytime I try to select another drive.

Time Machine needs AFP file sharing, networked Mac running 10.5.6 or later and the Time Machine drive to be formatted with some flavor of Mac OS Extended with GUID partitioning.
Mac 101: Time Machine
Note: Every available disk that can be used to store backups is listed. If you’ve partitioned a disk, the available partitions are listed. Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk that's connected to an AirPort Extreme, or to an iPod, iDisk, or a disk formatted for Microsoft Windows (NTFS or FAT format). If you select an NTFS or FAT-formatted disk, Time Machine prompts you to reformat the disk. Choose a different disk or reformat the disk in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Because reformatting erases any files on the disk, only do this if you no longer need the files or if you have copies of them on a different disk.
If your backup disk is on a network, the network server must use Apple File Protocol (AFP) file sharing and both your computer and the networked backup disk should have Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later installed.
The most common format for a Time Machine backup disk is Mac OS Extended format, but Time Machine also supports Mac OS Extended (Case sensitive, Journaled) and XSan formats.
If the disk is partitioned using the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition type, some partitions may not be available for use with Time Machine. The GUID Partition Table (GPT) or Apple Partition Map (APM) partition types are recommended.

Time Machine is causing my external hard drive not to be recognized or read

I have been using Time Machine on my MAC. I don't like it. I now have gone into preferences and stopped it from further backups. Now, I want to restore my Toshiba External Hard Drive and have it backup. When I look into my Macintosh HD, it does not "see" the drive. It doesn't appear in Finder. I am assuming that Time Machine configured it or reformatted it? So, how do I get it "back" from Time Machine? One person commented that this is an issue of formatting my hard drive, but the problem started with Time Machine. Where should I post this question, if not here?
Thank you!

I'm guessing that Time Machine hides it from Finder as most users aren't going to want to be mucking around in it. Try opening up Disk Utility and see if you can see it. You can reformat it from there as well.

Time machine hd must be reformatted

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