Time machine help

When I try to set up time machine it's not recognizing my external HD. I do not have time capsule and would like to use what I already have for back up purposes. I know how important it is to back up after losing a lot of data when my old PC died so any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Gsrsol95 wrote:
When I try to set up time machine it's not recognizing my external HD. I do not have time capsule and would like to use what I already have for back up purposes. I know how important it is to back up after losing a lot of data when my old PC died so any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Not all drives are supported by Leopard, and not all work with Intel.
Is the computer recognizing the drive, but just not TM? That's usually easy to fix.
Does the drive show up on the desktop?
But if the computer itself does not recognize the drive, it may be an old one.

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    That's a very good question (although probably better directed at Apple than us). Because Time Machine is new and Apple's in house programs handle data in different ways, there are a range of different means of recovering data for different applications. Not very user friendly and iCal is one of the least user friendly ones.
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    HI
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    lol, it didn't say goodmorning.
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  • ITunes 11.4 update not good for Mac os 10.6.8?  Can time machine help?

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    EDIT: For whatever reason I tried three times to edit out one of the redundent adjectives... either different or another which preceeds the word forum, but the advanced editor would (apparently NOT allow me to do so). I hope that it doesn't render without any adjective before the word forum.

  • Had to reinstall os ,and cannot access itunes although backed on time machine help

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    kenfromlo wrote:
    I get the Time Machine back up error.  I recently purchased a Seagate GoFlex Desk external drive.  Time Machine seemed to recognize it right away.  The following morning I found the dreaded "Time Machine could not complete the backup.  Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
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  • Can't find the last three weeks of back-ups on my Time Machine -- HELP!

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    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    Just how did you do the restore?
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  • Lost In The Time Machine - Help!

    Hello,
    I sincerely apologize, in advance, if I am repeating old history here and for all the questions.
    Time Machine has got me confused… I’ve read the FAQ’s/Threads but still not sure about how to proceed. I’m a ex Microsoft Windows guy and Mac newbie. And I am completely in love with this MacBook. I’m never going back to Microsoft land.
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    2. Then, I am assuming, the only way to properly set this up is to connect the ext. HD to the Airport Extreme? That way the hourly backups can be done for both machines over the wireless network. Personally, I would prefer to directly connect the drive to each machine, at the end of the day, and do a daily backup. But, I guess that would not be the best way to proceed and probably a bit painful to do.
    3.  The Airport Extreme has one USB port which is being using for sharing a printer. So, again I am assuming I would need a USB hub to connect the printer and the ext. HD?
    4.   If backup's have to be done hourly, how does that work when the computer is in Sleep mode? How does it work if I am working on something when it tries to backup?  For instance, I read that iPhoto needs to be closed when doing backups.  And I use iPhoto a lot. Do, I have to stop everything, every hour, for it to do its incremental hourly backup?
    5. Is the “Time Machine Editor” SW a safe way to change the time of backups?
    I really don’t get the hourly backup thing. I know these HD’s are mechanical hardware and can fail. But I’ve got to believe they are more reliable than needing to be backed-up every hour.
    I would greatly appreciate any help in getting this setup correctly. Thanks, in advance, for the help!
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    Hello, TeenTitan, Csound1 and Pondini:
    Thanks all for taking the time to provide excellent and thorough replies!
    Ok, so I think I'm getting it straight now but just a couple more questions to completely cement this in my head.
    TeenTitan wrote:
    When you setup timemachine, one of the things your telling time machine is how to get to the hard drive. If it's directly connected, then it's going to continue to look for the drive being directly connected.
    If you want to have time machine work over the network; then you should configure the drive to be on the network, and then do you first backup over the network. It's a good idea to connect the computer to the network by ethernet, with wireless off, so the first backup happens over 1000 mb/s ethernet instead of 5-50 mb/s wireless.
    Having the drive on the network would make it easier and more convenient to do backups. It would take less work out of making backups. You wouldn't have to remember to 'plug-in.' If some thing stops working there is more to trouble shoot.
    Direct connecting the drive is more stable, there is less to troubleshoot if some thing breaks. this also give you a very easy way to control when backups will happen. if you only want to backup ones a day, then only plug-in the drive ones a day.
    *Excellent! And also straight inline with what Pondini wrote below. Plus, I was missing the fact that, if I chose the Airport Extreme method I would need to first configure the wireless network with the ext. HD and then do the initial backup via the ethernet port on the Extreme.*
    *Also, please see my summary below/final questions to check if I am going on the right path now.*
    Csound1 wrote:
    Please ignore any advice about connecting TM drive to the USB port on an Apple Extreme, that method is neither reliable or supported by Apple!
    *I appreciate your comment but it seems contradictory to what Pondini and TeenTitan have said. Plus, if memory serves when I first bought the MacBook's and Extreme, I seem to remember the Apple store dude telling me I could connect a ext. HD to the USB port and do backups (though he didn't provide details on how to do that). So, I don't want to dismiss your comment but it was a fairly strong statement. Do you have a document link that expressly says that or is it from personal experience?*
    DMerz wrote:
    Personally, I would prefer to directly connect the drive to each machine, at the end of the day, and do a daily backup.
    Pondini wrote:
    Yes, you can do that. It's faster and more reliable than any wireless backup, and much better than via an Airport Extreme. Time Machine won't object to it, either. Just be sure to eject the drive before disconnecting it. Then Time Machine will just wait patiently until you connect it again to do a backup (using no CPU).
    *Ok, so Time Machine will sense that the ext. backup drive (used for initial backup) is not connected and wait until it "sees" it is connected again. This is a major point I was hoping was the case. This, in essence, let's you avoid the hourly backup time constraint.*
    *So, when I properly eject the ext. drive, do I need to adjust any settings in Time Machine? I noticed there was this big "On/Off" button. Or do I just leave it alone and let it look for the ext. HD? If it can't find the ext. HD (when it goes for the hourly backup), will it hang up the system? I think you answered that by saying it will "wait patiently" until I hookup the ext drive again. When I hookup the ext. drive, will I need to start Time Machine or will it do it on its own?*
    I'm not crazy about the wireless Extreme method (though it sounds like it would work), so I think I will go the direct connect route.
    *Here is my summary of what I propose to do based on the excellent responses you all provided (please correct me if I'm going in the wrong direction):*
    a. Do direct ext. HD connects for initial backups to both MacBooks.
    b. Leave the ext. HD connected to my MacBook pro, at all times, when I am on it. Which it will do the hourly backups. And this is even more appropriate since I use my MacBook Pro more hours in the day.
    c. The second MacBook, which my 87 yr. old Mom uses (LOL), is most definitely not needed to be backed up hourly. She just uses the internet (Facebook, online bridge) and iPhoto once in awhile. So, I can backup her's once a day after I am done using mine and it is shut down.
    Does, that sound like a good plan?
    Please let me know if a., b., and c. are ok to do and any comments to the other questions I had.
    *You all have been FANTASTIC and I immensely appreciate the help!*
    DMerz

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    smithrj wrote:
    Thank you for correcting me, I think it's time for bed.
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