Time Machine makes my new external HD not readable on my PC?

ok, so today i just bought a new Western Digital external HD, and i 1st plugged it in on my PC, and it works fine as any other brand new HD, and i was just making sure the HD works before i plugged it on my MBP, so later i used it on my MBP and as i plugged it in, Time Machine asked me if i want to make the new HD as a back up drive for Time Machine but need to erase anything on the HD
and since it's new and none was on the HD, i click yes and erase, and it's done, my HD was named Time Machine bla2, ok so i have some installer that i need to be transferred from my PC to my MBP, so later i removed the HD again and tried to plug it on my PC again, but boom,, not readable ( 1st my pc detected a new hardware, but that's it, the HD icon wont show up on "my computer" )
and i did various things, like roll back the driver and stuffs, and even trying to reformat the HD back, but it's no use, my PC wont detect any presence of the HD
so my question is
does making a HD back up for Time Machine means the Time Machine reformats the HD into something that WIndows cant read?
i gotta go and buy another one again =(

If you just need to transfer installers or other files occasionally, then a USB flash drive works great and you just leave it formatted in FAT32 which will work on both Mac and PC. 4GB flash drives have gotten VERY cheap lately, so you can transfer quite a lot with one of these. Of course, you can also burn CDs and DVDs (if you have a burner on your PC) which are even cheaper than using a flash drive, but a little less convenient.
(Time Machine doesn't work with the FAT32 PC format, so a Time Machine drive can't be used to transfer files from a PC).

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Restore from time machine to a new external drive

Hi,
My iMac is configures as follows :
- the internal hd contains the apps/etc
- my home path is pointed to my external usb hard drive (/volumes/hd300gb/users/danygeller)
Is working perfectly and time machine backs it up correctly...
NOW, I need to replace this hard drive with a larger one 750gb.
So, how can i restore Time machine to this new drive ? What's the procedure ?
Thanks/Dany

This web site might answer all of your Time machine questions:
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Ciao.

External hd that I used for data died... it is backed up on time machine... how do I restore all my data from time machine to a new external hd?

I installed the Lion OS this weekend. After Spotlight tried to index my external hard drive (that I use to store all my data), the external hard drive died. I expected that to happen at some point. The hard drive was an old FireWire 400 LaCie that I had working with my 2009 iMac (FireWire 800) by using an adaptor cable.
My Time Machine backs up both my Macintosh (internal) HD and my external data HD. I know I need to buy a new external drive to use to store my data.
But, then what? How do I get all the content from the backups of the old external (data) HD to the new one?

Another one that Apple doesn't make obvious.
See #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Time machine backup to new external hard drive

I owned a external harddrive that crashed recently. I used this harddrive to keep Time Machine backups from 3 different computers.
Fortunately a friend was able to retrive the files that where on the harddrive
Now I have a folder called Backups.backupdb. containing all the backups Time Machine made over 3 years on one off my computers.
I bought a new external harddrive with the idea to put this folder onto the new harddrive and continue using Time Machine.
When I try to copy the folder Backups.backupdb to the new external harddrive I get an error there is not enough space on the new disk.
The original folder has a size of 210 GB, when I use OmniDiskSweeper to check the size of the folder it indicates the folder has a size over 700 GB.
(I understand Time Machine uses aliases to refer to files.)
How can I solve this problem? And will I ever be able to view my old Time Machine files as I was used to in Time Machine?
Thanks in advance.

Rather than do that, which means starting over from scratch, losing all your edits, organisation and so on, why not simply use iPhoto Library Manager to revert the Library to the older version? Easier, less destructive.
The instructions on that are here
If you really want to start over: you can access the Originals folder simply by going to your Pictures Folder and finding the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

Time Machine automatically formats new external drive CASE-SENSITIVE?

I noticed a strange thing when I set up Time Machine. I'd bought an external drive that was presumably pre-formatted as FAT32 or NTFS, so when I connected it and told Time Machine to use that drive, it told me it needed to format the drive, so I told it to go ahead.
It happened so fast that I wanted to make sure it had worked, so I checked the stats on the drive, and I noticed that it was formatted "Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Case-sensitive)". I thought it was a bit odd that it was formatted case-sensitive. When I google for this, the only thing I find is people saying that the external drive should NOT be case-sensitive.
So what's going on here? Should it be case-sensitive? Is this a glitch? Should I be concerned? Should those who don't use case-sensitive be concerned?
Thanks!

Well, I've been reading through some other discussions in this forum, and some people have attributed problems with Time Machine to the disk being formatted case-sensitive. So the issue is still up in the air. So far, I've only done an initial backup, and that worked fine. I've also read about people having trouble with subsequent backups. Also, some people report that Apple's tech support instructions specify that you format the drive explicitly without case-sensitivity. There are inconsistencies here, and Apple is mum about the details. So this kinda leaves this up in the air.
BTW, you say the drive will only be used for TM. Is that necessarily the case? I mean, can't I use it to store other files? I got a 500GB disk because it was on sale (a My Book for $125), and I figure it'll take a while to fill up, so why not use the disk for other things?

HT201250 How can I restore files using Time Machine to a new external drive?

I need to restore all the files on a failed hard drive—upwards of a terabyte of data. How can I instruct Time Machine to copy the files to a new external hard drive? Thanks!

Hold down the option key and select
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. The menu icon looks like a clock running backwards. If you don't have that menu, open the Time Machine preference pane and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Time machine makes no backups - External HD is no longer recognized

My external HD is only used for backups with time machine.
About 30 days ago I took the usb out of my Mac, so the time machine did not work.
Now I put the usb back in my Mac and the external HD is not recognized any more. I did do nothing else with the HD.. I did a software update, thought that that would solve the problem, read a lot of suggestions on this forum, but i cannot solve it. Maybe you have a suggestion?

cobruijn wrote:
I took the usb out of my Mac
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
Did you dismount that drive first?
Now I put the usb back in my Mac and the external HD is not recognized any more.
Can you see that drive in Disk Utility? Have you tried a different USB port? Does the drive show any signs of working, such as noise or lights?

Moving time machine backups to new external

I want to move my time machine backups from my lacie 600g to my new 1T Seagate. I tried to use disk utility/restore and dragged the image(la cie) from the left to the source pane and dragged the image (Seagate) to the destination and clicked "restore". After 5 minutes of calculating it said 'operation not possible' or some such. What am I doing wrong?
GH

GH wrote:
How do you do that as I am still waiting for the computer to finish preparing to erase.
Do you mean preparing to delete or empty the trash via the Finder? If so, just cancel it (there should be a cancel button or small "X" in a circle icon at the right of the progress bar). That may take a while. If it takes more than a few minutes, you can relaunch the Finder by clicking the Apple icon at the left of your Menubar, selecting +Force Quit+ then Finder and click Relaunch.

HT4413 When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, only some files and applications and setting are transferred, not all of them. In my latest back up I have them all. How can I fix that?

When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.

sohs wrote:
When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.
If you want to use Time Machine to recover the contents of one of its a backups to a new drive, follow the instructions in Mac OS X 10.6: Recovering your entire system. Note that you must select the "Restore System From Backup" option from the Utilities menu of the Installer disc to do this.
Also note that if you are transferring files to a hard drive to be used with a different computer, you should use Migration Assistant instead. This intentionally will not copy everything because some settings, applications, etc. are not compatible computer-to-computer. Migration Assistant will copy everything that is.

I am trying to move my old external hard drive (time machine ) to a new one

I have tried to move my old external drive time machine to a new external drive:
1. have formated the new time external hard drive
2. I have unlocked and ignored the drives ownership
3. I have turn of the new hard drive and them tried dragging the file (backups.backupdp) to my new external hard drive
when I do that a message come up that says "this volume has that wrong case sensitivity for a backup"
What does this mean and how do I fix it?
Thanks
Denise

Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. All existing data on the destination volume will be erased. That shouldn't be a problem, because you don't want to mix backup and non-backup data on the same drive anyway. Turn Time Machine OFF in its preference pane while copying the volume.

Time machine doesn't recognize old time machine backups after new drive

After getting my original hard drive replaced on apple care. Time machine refuses to recognize time machine backups dating back to October when I first installed Leopard. The Records are there on an "off-board" Lacie drive. Any fixes for this? I have had so many problems with Time Machine I am afraid to turn it back on. Last time it took over 40 hours to do an initial back-up.

Yes I had been having multiple problems and once saved the entire system in archive and install and also time machine had been active since October when I first installed it. all of this was saved to an off-board Lacie drive I can find the old time machine files easily enough but time machine since the new drive, does not recognize them. Since I got the drive back with tiger installed, I first had to re-install Leopard so I don't know if that caused Time machine to start over . I did do an archive and install at that time but there was nothing really to archive since they had not recovered my old files. If this wasn't bad enough The Technician replaced my administrator password with his own and the was off for a few days and I couldn't do anything for awhile. You have been very helpful thank you for your time on my behalf.
Respectfully,
Thomas Carlisle

Using Time Machine to Restore Failed External Drive to New Drive

I have Time Machine backing up my Mini's HDD as well as an external drive I use for DATA (I've removed this disk from the "exclude" list in the Time Machine "Options" menu).
Both of these drives are being backed up to a third external drive dedicated for BACKUP.
(I'll refer to them by the capital names now...)
If the DATA drive fails, and I replace it with a new external drive (NEW_DATA), how do I restore the data from DATA onto NEW_DATA from BACKUP? I can't invoke time machine on the new drive.
I've read older articles with differing conclusions that I need to make sure NEW_DATA has the same mounted name as DATA, but this doesn't appear to work.
I've also read Carbon Copy is the only way to do this, is this true?
My drives have not failed, so I being proactive, but I just wanted to plan for this (Carbon Copy or Time Machine)

You can have TM place a menu item on the menubar - if you do this you'll see the icon animate as TM works and looking under that item will show you the last time TM backed up successfully. Unless you change the settings with a third party utility or by manually editing the plist, TM backs up every hour and it will back up every folder/drive you selected.

HT201250 How can I migrate a Time Machine backup from an external hard drive to a new TimeCapsuls?

I just got a 2TB Time Capsule. I want to migrate my time machine backups on an external hard drive to the new Time Capsule. I have about 430Gb of files to back up; I don't want to wait 7-8 days for the backup, unless I have to. I am using OS 10.7.5 (forget which cat that is). I have mounted the TC drive as 10.0.1.1; I tried to drag and drop from old to "data" on TC, but I get the error "The volume is the wrong format for a backup." Any ideas how I can move my old files to the new, and bypass creating a brand new backup file?
Thanks.

Rather than do that, which means starting over from scratch, losing all your edits, organisation and so on, why not simply use iPhoto Library Manager to revert the Library to the older version? Easier, less destructive.
The instructions on that are here
If you really want to start over: you can access the Originals folder simply by going to your Pictures Folder and finding the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

I'm currently backing up using Time Machine and a Seagate external hard drive, how to do I restore on a new computer?

I hate to say it.. But I have never backed up!! I have thousands of pics of my son on this mac book, it got wet and NOW I'm backing up (as i type) to a Seagate external hard drive- I plugged it in, and then Time MAchine launched automatically. It looks like it's backing up my whole computer, is it backing up everything? photos, address book, documents etc? If my computer crashes tomorrow, how would I restore all of this information on a new computer?
Help, I'm computer iliterate- hence the reason I got a Mac (so easy to use). I need reasurance that it will back up! How do I continue to back up? Leave the external hard drive plugged in? I'm telling you I'm below the knowledge of "Backing Up a Mac for Dummies"

Time Machine makes a backup of the whole OS.X volume automatically, so you will have an exact copy of your hard disk in your Time Machine external disk. Also, Time Machine will make backups every hour, always that your Time Machine disk is connected. If you want more information, visit this site > http://pondini.org
To restore this in a new Mac, you have to use Migration Assistant. Just connect the Time Machine drive into the new computer, open Migration Assistant (it's in /Applications/Utilities) and follow the steps. You will be able to select what you want to transfer.
Also, if you have a brand-new Mac, you can do this during the initial setup. Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the Time Machine disk and follow the steps

HT3275 Time machine at home and it will not allow me to remove the listing of my external hard drive from the excluded files list.

Please help guys, I have a Time machine at home and it will not allow me to remove the listing of my external hard drive from the excluded files list.
I am trying to use time machine to back up the hard drive. For backing up from Macbooik pro and Imac, there is no problem. It seems to not want to allow the external drive to be removed from the Excluded list and as such will not back up from it.
Is there a way to be able to transfer files (music, movies etc) to time machine, format the external drive then put the files back to hard drive?
Sorry it is a long winded question but it is driving me nuts that I cant sort this out.
The <Macbook and Imac are both running mountain lion.
Thanks Guys

As for the hard drive to which you have never been able to write, is it by any chance in NTFS format? OS X can read NTFS for importing files, but it does not contain code for writing on an NTFS volume. That's a choice, not a bug.
There is third-party software available to install NTFS-writing capability into OS X. An example is Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X. Another alternative would be to use a disk format that both Macs and Windows systems can use for both reading and writing; this would require either a new drive or erase the existing data.
If by "the new system software" you mean OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you may want to repost that portion of your query in the Mavericks forum at https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mavericks . I haven't made the leap yet.
I don't know what other problems you have been having, so I cannot comment on them. You don't seem to have any other recent postings on these forums.

Time Machine makes my new external HD not readable on my PC?

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