Time Machine no longer recognizes my WD portable drive for storage

The portable drive use to work fine for storage for my time machine. Now the drive does not show in desktop when plugged in. Time machine is directing me to set up but does not recognize any device. Thank you for any help.
J.

Same exact thing happened to me... Time Machine ceased to recognize external drive - stopped backing up (obviously) then drive would no longer appear on desktop. After multiple reboots, plug/unplug, and cable jiggling - the drive returned to the desktop... Time Machine STILL does not see it. Using Disk Utilities to verify - hopefully repair. Many errors appearing in log! Isn't it a little odd that so many external drives of different models are all failing while using the same program... ?

Similar Messages

HT1998 Time machine no longer backs up. It prepares for back up OK but then fails to complete. The archive is still available. Any ideas? Thanks

Time machine no longer backs up. It prepares for back up OK but then fails to complete. The archive is still available. Any ideas? Thanks

Unfortunately, not much to go on here. There are any of twenty different reasons why backups are not occurring, and no shortcuts that I know of to find out why.
Work your way through Backup Failures in Pondini's excellent support document Time Machine --- Troubleshooting.
See C1 through C19.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Machine no longer working with External Hard drive

Hello
I have an iMac 24 and an Iomega 500Gb drive. TimeMachine was working fine when I first set it up over Firewire. I then bought a MacBook and tried to use a the same drive to run separate Time Machine backups. I aborted it when I ran out of time as I was going away.
The iMac and the MacBook no longer recognise the Iomega drive as valid. I get an error about the drive being read only.
How can I resolve or reset this to get the iMac backups working? I'll probably buy a portable drive for the MacBook backups.
Thanks

mosey,
Unfortunately, your going to have to reformat the drive. There is no fix for the "Read Only" issue at this time.
*_How Should a Time Machine Hard Disk be Prepared?_*
For Time Machine to work properly, the hard disk must be formatted “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and its’ Partition Scheme should be either GUID or Apple Partition Map.
Time Machine is incompatible with disks partitioned as Master Boot Record (MBR). Unfortunately, this describes nearly every hard drive you can buy because MBR is a Windows partition scheme. (Naturally, this DOES NOT apply to Apples’ Time Capsule.)
For some, Time Machine begins to perform as expected with a new external hard disk. But then the initial full backup or subsequent incremental backups fail. The user only later discovers the hard disk was still partitioned as Master Boot Record (MBR).
One article on Time Machine made this observation: “Virtually everybody will have to open Disk Utility and repartition the disk as APM or GUID. It doesn't really matter which one because the Time Machine disk will not be bootable anyway. APM allows a disk to boot a PowerPC, GUID allows the disk to boot an Intel processor but both are easily digestible by Time Machine on either kind of processor.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]
It’s been recommended by many here that your reserve at least double the size of your primary hard disk, that way Time Machine backups have room to grow as the size of your data grows. Additionally, the more space you give Time Machine the more history it can preserve. The less space you reserve for Time Machine the sooner older backups & deleted items will disappear.
Procedure
Connect the hard disk you wish to use for Time Machine backups.
Launch Disk Utility.
It will appear twice in the pane on the left. (Make sure you recognize that it is different from the 2 icons that represent your Macs' internal drive.) The upper entry represent the device as a whole, including the controller inside. The lower entry represents the hard disk contained within the device.
Click on the upper icon of the external hard disk.
Select the "Partition" tab.
For "Volume Scheme" choose "1 partition". (Chose 2 partitions if you intend on storing other data on the disk besides your Time Machine backups.)
Name the disk.
Format should be "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
Click "Options".
Select either GUID or Apple Partition Map. (See above for significance)
Click "OK".
Click "Apply".
Now chose the level of secure erase you desire. (More passes means more time)
Once the external hard disk is repartitioned, select it again in Time Machine preferences and use it for your backups.
Let us know if this was helpful.
Cheers!

Time Machine no longer sees my External Hard Drive

I am running an Apple iMac 27" Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz with MAC OS X v.10.6.4
I have been using a LaCie 500GB External Hard Drive exclusively assigned to my Time Machine Backups. This has been working fine for the past 6 months. Now, this USB externally powered hard drive no longer shows up on my desktop. It no longer shows up in the Finder either.
Where it does show up is in the Apple Menu: About This Mac | More Info... | Hardware | USB | USB High-Speed BUS as "LaCie Hard Drive USB" with all of its specifications:
LaCie Hard Drive USB:
Product ID: 0x0951
Vendor ID: 0x059f (LaCie)
Version: 0.00
Serial Number: 152D203380B6
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: LaCie
Location ID: 0x24300000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 2
HD appears to be spinning and emits a steady vibration that I observed before when it was working fine. One single soft click is heard on startup. Yellow solid light indicates drive is operational. I never see a blinking light when this HD starts up, it shows a solid yellow light right away.
From a "Time Machine Widget", I see that my Time Machine backup is failing with message:
Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
Backup failed with error: 19
When I go to Apple Menu / System Preferences / Time Machine, I see that the Time Machine is turned ON with this information:
Name: Time Machine Backups
Available: <empty>
Oldest Backup: <empty>
Latest Backup: Delayed <--- this is in red
Next Backup: when disk is connected
To resolve my problem:
I tried shutting down & restarting the MAC while the Ext. HD was turned ON but it refuses to appear.
I tried unplugging & replugging at the USB connection but MAC does not respond either way. No nasty message for having improperly disconnected a drive and no message to acknowledge a newly connected drive. The drive is totally ignored.
I can't use the Disk Utility tool to verify or repair the HD because the drive does not appear on the left pane.
Before I declare 6 months of Time Machine backups as forever lost and buy a new backup drive is there anything else I can do?

W e e e e l l l l l or should I say wheeeeeieeeee! Solved - Thank You
I could not use "Disk Utility" because as I already stated, it did not show the HD on the left pane to allow me to do anything about the invisible drive.
So I followed through with your suggestion to switch the USB cable. This was an easy thing to do as I happen to have another of these LaCie Drives that I use on another of my computers. I turned the faulty drive OFF, switched the cable (the power cable fell off in the process & I plugged that back in), turned the HD back ON, waited about 30 seconds and the MAC recognized the drive and popped it back on my desktop & Finder, then Time Machine started the Backup.
I did not have to restart the MAC.
I was skeptical that the USB cable could be the culprit but indeed it was!
Time Machine completed its backup while I was writing this.
Problem Solved and Thank you k.panic

Since installing Lion, I have not been able to utilize Time Machine (does not recognize the back-up drive); my wireless mouse does not function properly; I have experienced unreasonable delays in the system. Is there a fix or upgrade coming?

Is there a fix or upgrade to deal with the many problems I am experiencing since I installed Lion? I can no longer utilize Time Machine (Does not see the back-up drive); my wireless mouse does not work properly; my iMac has slowed down considerably. I am reminded of having a PC machine again. Bummer!

Either downgrade to Snow Leopard or try reinstalling Lion.
Reinstalling Lion Without the Installer
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alterhatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard 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 Utilities menu.
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. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

Time Machine won't recognize new external hard drive

I recently had a problem with My Passport and had to buy a new one. I have plugged it in and reformatted it and now Time Machine won't recognize it even though it shows on my desktop and the disk utility doesn't see any problem. Any ideas?

Disable Time Machine from System Preferences.
Choose Select disk button, remove the old TM backup disk and add the new one.

Time Machine no longer recognizes backup

I have been using Time Machine to backup to a Time Capsule for a few years with no problem. Yesterday, I realized that the Time Machine menu in the menubar had an alert icon in it. I clicked on the menu and was told the last update was three days previous. When I open the Time Machine pane in the System Preferences, it tells me that I have no backups on the Time Capsule. When I mount the sparse bundle that is still on the Time Capsule, it mounts fine and I see all my backups (this current set goes back to June of this year when I did a complete reinstall of the system). The only thing that seems to be amiss is that, among the folders containing all the dated backups is a file titled "2011-09-06-181446.inProgress". Any help as to how I can get Time Machine to recognize all these backups as belonging to my system? I don't want to erase them and lose them all. Also, I have verified that the backup is using the correct machine ID, so that's not the issue (I haven't had a motherboard replaced or anything--literally, one day it worked and the next it didn't.

See the Excellent Troubleshooting Information here by Pondini
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Index.html

Time Machine no longer recognizes backup file

Hi:
My Time Capsule was malfunctioning, and I lost my internet connection. I rebooted the Time Capsule, and had to reset the internet connection via the Time Capsule software that's part of System Preferences. When I got my internet connection back up and running, Time Machine can no longer connect to Time Capsule. When it tries to back up, I get this error message...
"The backup disk image “/Volumes/Aquaria-2/JHitch’s Computer_0017f2ce01da.sparsebundle” is already in use.
It's like Time Machine thinks that my backup file on my Time Capsule belongs to somebody else. How can I get Time Machine to go back to using my old backup file on my Time Machine?

I have had this exact problem occur when I logged off while Mail was in TM restore state. I guess the backup is locked somehow because it was cut off while in use. I wish I could help, but I am in the same boat and I will watch this post for help.

Time machine no longer recognizes back up disk

OK TM experts, like many here, the OS stopped seeing the TM disk, with the error that it could not mount the disk. I then went and reselected the disk in TM preferences. Now, it tries to start a new back up and of course gives the message that there is not enough room. I followed many of the suggestions on this forum, including ensuring that the computer name matches the one in the backup disk, turning sharing off and on etc.
Here is the console output:
Dec 4 22:38:54 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: Backup requested by user
Dec 4 22:38:54 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: Starting standard backup
Dec 4 22:38:55 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Backups.backupdb
Dec 4 22:38:57 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Dec 4 22:38:57 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: Backup content size: 124.8 GB excluded items size: 46.7 MB for volume Macintosh HD
Dec 4 22:38:57 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 150.06 GB requested (including padding), 7.15 GB available
Dec 4 22:38:57 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
Dec 4 22:38:57 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
Dec 4 22:38:57 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: Backup Failed: unable to free 150.06 GB needed space
Dec 4 22:39:03 MBs-Macbook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1052]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.

I have had this exact problem occur when I logged off while Mail was in TM restore state. I guess the backup is locked somehow because it was cut off while in use. I wish I could help, but I am in the same boat and I will watch this post for help.

Time Machine doesn't recognize my external hard drive

My external hard drive is no longer recognized by my iMac. I have had this problem before and had to repartition the drive. There is not a drive that is available when I go into Time Machine preferences. Any ideas?

If you completely repartitioned the external hard drive, you may need to Erase & Reformat each Partition on the drive now in order for them to be recognized. You can do that in Disk Utility.

Time Machine no longer working after reinstalling OSX 10.5 w/TM backup

About a week ago Disc Utility told me I had serious problems with my HD structure and a reinstall was necessary. Fortunately, restoring everything using Time Machine was flawless, however Time Machine has not done a single backup since. The Backup.backupdb file is still there on the external drive, along with 6 other folders created at the time I did the reinstall (same names as the 6 inside the subfolder, system, library, users...). If I try to manually do a TM backup it tells me I don't have enough HD space as though it wants to start from scratch, when the folders are all still there from before the reinstall.
Any ideas why Time Machine no longer recognizes the files it created 2 weeks ago?

I had to reinstall Leopard and restore using TM. It also worked flawless for me. When I checked to see if it was backing up again, there was nothing. I also tried to manually back and that didn't work either. I went into System Preferences, Time Machine and had to choose my TM backup drive again. Once I did that it worked perfect.

Time Machine Doesn't Recognize Drive

My Macbook Pro died the other night -- it wouldn't wake from sleep and couldn't be restarted -- and it now has a new logic board. Everything seems okay, but Time Machine no longer recognizes my time machine backups. The files are all there, on the same drive they were always on. But TM doesn't see them and won't back up, giving me an error that the time machine drive can't be found.
So I re-specified the drive in Time Machine preferences. And now TM now says that it doesn't have enough room for the backup on that drive -- presumably because it wants to start over and back up the whole drive again.
I've checked both the internal drive and the TM drive with Disk Utility. No problems found.
Does anybody have any ideas?
Thanks very much,
Steve

Thanks for responding. Yes, I see. New logic board, new computer.
If I have to start over, I'd like to hold on to those old backups -- and put the new backup on the partition where the old one was. So I tried copying the whole TM backup to another partition, where I could keep it for protection.
But apparently you're not supposed to do this. The finder asks for your password twice in order to do it and it took about a half hour just to prepare to copy -- and it counted about 2 million files. Is there any way to back up the back up, or do I just blow it away?
In that FAQ they refer you to an article that allows you to use the terminal to point the Mac back at the original backup. But it seems pretty fragile and easy to make a mistake. (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101)
I also called Apple support and after escalating the call I got a guy who was willing to do much the same console thing. We started and immediately got an error from the console. If the Apple guy can screw this up, maybe I should stay away.
Suggestions? Do I just give up and start over?
Thanks again,
Steve

Why does my iMac (with Mountain Lion) no longer recognize my external hard drive I have used as a back up via Time Machine after the hard drive was accidentally unplugged?

Why does my iMac (with Mountain Lion) no longer recognize my external hard drive I have used as a back up via Time Machine after the hard drive was accidentally unplugged?

Do you mean the external hard drive is not mounted on the iMac desktop?
Check if Disk Utility sees the drive. Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility. If the external shows up in the left column, select it and click on Mount.
If it does show up this way, I recommend using DU to Repair Disk.

HT3275 I need to use a Western Digital external drive on both my Mac and a PC. To do this I need to format the drive in FAT 32. However, Time Machine won't recognize this format. Is there a work-around?

I need to use my external drive on my Mac and a PC, so I formatted it in FAT 32. I found that Time Machine doesn't recognize this format and cannot back up to it. So, if I want to use Time Machine I need to go back to a Mac format. Is there any way to get Time Machine to save onto a FAT 32 formatted drive?

It's usually not a good idea to use a Time Machine drive for anything else. It's too easy to make mistakes, or not do regular backups, or run out of space. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions #1 and 3.
But you can create a second partition on the drive, for use with Windoze.
See #5 in the FAQ for formatting instructions. You'll need to select 2 partitions. It's usually best to put the Time Machine partition first, and it should have the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Format. Make the second one MS-DOS (FAT), although you might prefer ExFAT.
Be sure to specify the GUID Partition table.

Time Machine No Longer Finds Mounted Sparseimages after upgrade to 10.6

Wondering if anyone has a solution or workaround for the following. In Leopard I had no problem having Time Machine backup my mounted sparseimage drives and would exclude the physical hard drives these were mounted on. However, since upgrading to Snow Leopard the other day, Time Machine no longer includes the content of the sparseimage drives in the backup (it is not seeing them even when they are mounted). Presents a problem as I only want Time Machine to backup the files within the sparseimage drives that have changed, rather than backing up the whole sparseimage each time. Any suggestions?
Thanks!

Marco1975 wrote:
Hi,
Since I have updated to 10.6.1 (over 10.5.8), my time machine only returns error messages. I am backing up 3 computers on 2 disks via airport extreme and it worked perfectly under 10.5.8. Since I upgraded to 10.6.1, I cant mount the disk or if it does, stops after 5 gig.
With no clue as to what error messages, all we can do is tell you to Start with the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it.
If that doesn't help, please start a NEW THREAD in the SNOW LEOPARD - TIME MACHINE forum, with details, including all the messages, what you've done, and the results.

Time Machine no longer recognizes my WD portable drive for storage

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