Time Machine Not Backing Up to an External Hard Drive - Error 11

Hi!
I am unable to backup my MacBook with my external Hard Drive. My Mac is a fairly new machine (September 2009) and I have backed up since upgrading to Snow Leopard previously but I cannot backup at all at the moment.
I have run disk utility and repair completed without any issues, in fact it told me that the drive was running ok. I have also reformatted my drive (mac os extended (journaled) ) and made sure the partition is GUID. The following is the message that appears when the backup fails:
"The backup was not performed because an error occured while copying the files to the backup disk. The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use disk utility to repair your backup disk."
I have had a look at the log using the Time Machine Widget and the following is what has been generated:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/MAC/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
Backup content size: 100.2 GB excluded items size: 85.9 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 17.11 GB requested (including padding), 148.45 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/crox3tbo.pcf.gz, /Volumes/MAC/Backups.backupdb/Eric O'Mahony’s MacBook/2010-05-02-210743.inProgress/E450C379-52F6-48A3-99D7-F45043074122/Macin tosh HD/usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/crox3tbo.pcf.gz
Aborting backup because indexing of file failed.
Stopping backup.
Copied 158300 files (12.5 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11
The problems seems to be with indexing a file....a font?? Can anyone help me? It is driving me crazy and I need to backup my files.
Thank you for your help!

ericomahony wrote:
Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/crox3tbo.pcf.gz,
The problems seems to be with indexing a file....a font??
Yes, indeed. Start by just excluding it, per the blue box in #C3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
If the backup then runs ok, you'll need to figure out what's wrong with that file.
If you get another error, see the rest of #C3.

Similar Messages

I am trying to use Time Machine to back-up to an external hard drive and I get the following message.Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder. Does anyone know what I should do?

I am trying to use Time Machine to back-up to an external hard drive and I get the following message.Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder. Does anyone know what I should do?

Hello Drake, I suspect one or more of the Drives needs repairing, but...
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imaging something not being covered there.

Can I use Time Machine to back files on an External Hard Drive

My MacBook Pro hard drive filled up with movies, pictures, and music, so I bought a 2TB Time Capsule. I have a external hard drive that is about the same capacity as my MacBook hard drive. Sine the Time Capsule is by far the largest drive I have, I moved all my movies, music, and pictures to the Time Capsule and am using it as an external hard drive. I attached a 500GB external hard drive to the Time Capsule and I use that as the backup drive for Time Machine. However, the problem I am encountering is that I can't seem to direct Time Machine to include all of my files on my Time Capsule in the back up on to the other external hard drive.
Can I use Time Machine to backup data that I store on my Time Capsule to a external hard drive? If not, what is hte best method for backing up my files that are on my Time Capsule?
Thanks,
David

You need to use a different utility .. eg CCC or Chronosync to backup from the TC to yet another drive.. the problem is, that drive should be connected to the computer.. if you use a USB drive on the TC.. the file copying will be slow as slow as you will not believe.. all files are copied to the computer, then back to the TC.. it cannot copy directly to the TC..
As Neil said.. one way or another you need to use an external drive on the computer, even if you don't use it all the time.. the danger of course is not doing regular backups.. and forgetting their importance.
A true NAS will have automated backup incrementally of the files stored.. The TC is not a NAS in that sense.. it is a backup target for TM above and beyond anything else.

Why is Time Machine not recognizing my same old external hard drive?

Have been using an Iomega eGo portable external hard drive for a couple years now and am recently getting a pop-up that says it's not formatted, but I've used it regularly in the past and it does in fact hold all previous back ups, so not sure what has changed. The attachment shows TM turned off but I'm getting the same message with it turned on as well as after unplugging it all and restarting. Still in Mavericks 10.9.5 as not ready to switch to Yosemite til this is done. Thank you for all help!

Time Machine keeps backing up to wrong external hard drive

I had TM working fine for several months with my LaCie external HD named "LaCie" via Firewire 800. I bought a larger LaCie HD, daisy chained to the open FW800 port on "LaCie", named it "LaCie 1TB" and moved the "Backups.backupdb" folder to it using the Disk Utility restore function per several posts found here. I changed TM preferences to point now to "LaCie 1TB" and everything worked.
Then I deleted the "Backups.backupdb" folder from "LaCie" and renamed the HD "LaCie 500". I moved my video files there and changed TM preferences to delete "LaCie 500" from the "do not backup" list. I reran TM and it again worked including backing up "LaCie 500".
Now the problem. Whenever I first turn on the external HD's, TM immediately begins making a new backup on "LaCie 500". I stop it. If I then select "Back Up Now" in TM, it correctly backups to "LaCie 1TB". I always delete the "Backups.backupdb" created on "LaCie 500". And it always repeats this at the next HD restart but always works correctly if the drives are already turned on when the next backup time is reached.
Is this a bug in TM or is there something I can do to stop it other than hooking up "LaCie 1TB" to a FW400 or USB port and making sure I turn it on first? I don't want to do that. Seems it should only backup to a drive named the same as the name selected in TM preferences. I have other drives to hook up too so it could get worse. Thanks.

Pondini wrote:
Just how did you do that? Did you erase the volume with Disk Utility, or use the Finder?
I just erased it with the finder.
So tonight I turned off TM and deleted the two preferences files. I turned TM back on and set it up again. It said the next backup was in a few minutes so I shut down the drives and waited a few minutes. I restarted them and nothing happened. I checked TM and it now said the next backup was in about an hour. I turned them off and on again and nothing happened. I also restarted the computer and the lock on the TM prefpane was unlocked again so that isn't fixed.
I then used some other tools I had and found a hidden file named ".001ff35b9356" on both drives. The file contents were:
V∞=„:ïA
Ç ıE…· ‰
I deleted this one on the first drive, "LaCie 500". I also noticed they both had a file called ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" on them but I left that alone.
I shut down and restarted both drives. Neither one mounted. So I shut them down again and this time they both mounted. TM did nothing. I had previously noticed that the icon for each of these drives changes to a time machine icon instead of the standard hard drive icon. For comparison I attached another old external drive I had and its icon stayed the standard hard drive icon. It also had the ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" file on it but not the ".001ff35b9356" file on it.
I shut both drives down and waited for the next scheduled backup time to pass. I started them both up and again nothing happened and TM said the next backup was another hour out. I told it to back up now and it worked. So I'm not sure now what is happening. It isn't automatically backing up at all when I first turn on the drives. It seems just to push the next backup out an hour if they aren't attached when the times comes. I don't know how it's supposed to work. I thought it would start a backup immediately if it was overdue. When the drives are off TM says the next backup is "When disk is connected" but that isn't what it does now. I guess I'll use it for a while and see what happens next.
This shouldn't be this hard. Thanks for your help.

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

If I deleted a file on my Mac would Time Machine delete its copy on my external hard drive when backing up?

I just finished backing everything up onto my new 2T WD My Book Essential because my Macbook Pro is absolutely full of Photoshop files. I want to delete them from my Mac (since they're backed up) but I'm too scared Time Machine will delete them from my external hard drive.
Thanks in advance.

Move the images over to an external drive that is connected to your Mac by USB or FireWire.
Then....Time Machine will backup both your Mac..and..the hard drive automatically.
Can you elaborate on this?
I have a 128GB McAir (mid 2011 model) with a 2GB TC for backup. I need another external hard drive to save pictures and home HD videos. I wanted to partition the TC but learned that is not recommended. So now I’m looking to get two external hard drives to store priceless files and back it up.
Your comment makes me think I only need one external hard drive and use the 2GB TC as backup. A good option since 2GB is an overkill for a 128GB notebook.
Can you please share the steps? Plug in a HDD to McAir and run Time Machine? Is that it?
Thanks.

HT201250 I run time machine on my iMac using an external hard drive. I just bought a MacBook Pro and want to know if i can run time machine on it using my wireless network on to the iMac external hard drive

I run time machine on my iMac using an external hard drive. I just bought a MacBook Pro and want to know if i can run time machine on it using my wireless network on to the iMac external hard drive

How do I set up Time Machine to a shared drive on another Mac?

HT3275 When I press "select backup location" in the Time Machine section of System Preferences, my external hard drive doesn't appear as an option. How do I change this?

When I press "select backup location" in the Time Machine section of System Preferences, my external hard drive doesn't appear as an option. How do I change this? My external hard drive is a FreeAgent GoFlex Drive.

Hi, what Format is the external Drive?
They usually come PC Formatted for Fat32/MSdos, or NTFS... is there anything on it now?
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

Time machine with 10.5 Server (+thrashing external hard drive)

I run MacOS server to provide support for a small group of collaborators -- mainly via SVN and Wikis, as well as a static website that is publicly accessible, all running off a Mac Mini.
I want to use Time Machine to keep a backup, so I can quickly get up and running if anything goes wrong.
However, when Time Machine is switched on, it seems to spend an inordinate amount of time thrashing the external hard drive (a 1GB in a separate enclosure, connected via Firewire). Looking at top shows du using ~70% of one of the cores on the Mini, and the thrashing lasts for 20 or 30 minutes at a time, even though very little has changed on the server (the wikis get updated at most once a day, and the website gets visit a 10s of times in 24 hours).
Turning off time machine silences du (and the somewhat noisy hard drive)
Any suggestions (or tips for using Time Machine to back up a server in general -- once I get this sorted I plan to test that I can actually recover the server from the backup and install on a new machine)

Turns out that the thrashing was due to Sharepoint; but it was only an issue when time machine was running (so far as I can see). Am still checking that the problem does not come back, but will mark this as solved.

HT1338 I was backing up my MacBook with Time Machine on my new (correctly formatted) external hard drive. It was going fine when my 2 yo knocked the hard drive. Now TM said "failed" and the Mac refuses to recognize the external hard drive. Help please?

I was backing up my MacBook with Time Machine and using my new (correctly formatted) external hard drive. All was going well when my 2 yo knocked the disk leading to a "failure" by time machine (Latest Backup: Failed). Now the MacBook will not even recognize the hard drive. I have rebooted, tried all I can think of, but no acknowledgement of the drive. The drive itself makes noise and vibrates as if working, but nothing from the Mac. Please help or $100 down the drain... Thank you.

You may have already done these resets in the "tried all I can think of " portion of your post.....if not then here they are.....
PRAM
support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
SMC
support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
.....hopefully that is all that is required.....

My Time Machine stalls during initial backup on external hard drive even after several hours.

We have been using Time Machine and an external hard drive to back up our MacBook for almost a year now. Recently, the hard drive (using a USB) was removed without ejecting it properly. After that, the auto backups began stalling. We tried setting up Time Machine all over again but the initial back up stalls at different places (like 6MB of 87GB) even if it's left for several hours overnight. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? If not, can anyone suggest another inexpensive way of backing up our files from our MacBook?
Thanks!
Shane

It might have created a new user and loaded under that.. new user being the old user. But if you have issues do it again, only this time pick where the backup will go.
http://pondini.org/TM/16.html
The other questions might also be relevant as a new hard disk will make the Mac appear to the TM backup as a new computer.
See 14-18 for restore info.

Time Machine seems to wake up my external hard drive for no reason?

I'm not sure why it does this. It doesn't sync all the time as far as I know, it's really annoying and it's wearing the hard drive for no reason. Is there some way to stop it and only wake up when I need something off of it, or when Time Machine is backing up? It randomly goes to sleep and then wakes up again.
I have already set "put hard drives to sleep" in the System Preferences.
Also, since I believe it is Time Machine causing this issue, could I simply eject the partition that I use for backups / Time Machine? It's still plugged in then and if TM needs it, it will maybe scan the computer again and eventually find it?

Anon M wrote:
Well, I don't save anything to the hard drive. So it's kind of weird that it starts spinning.
I think it happens even if you bring up a save dialog.
Can I disconnect it from Time Machine from time to time? Like, does it matter if I connect the drive only once a day or so to the Mac, or does it have to be permanently connected to be able to work with TM?
Sure. Time Machine will even remind you after 10 days of not backing up.
Some people have installed scripts to ping external drives to keep them spinning. It doesn't hurt the drive any.

Using Time Machine to backup and restore multiple external hard drives

I currently use Time Machine to back up my primary HD on my MBP as well as two other external hard drives that I use to store video editing and other large files.
Unfortunately, one of the external drives (500GB LaCie) recently died. I have purchased a replacement drive (1T LaCie) and I would like to restore my most recent time machine backup of the 500GB drive to the new 1T drive.
As I am new to time machine and have never actually tried to restore anything, can someone walk me through the process? I have already noticed that when I open time machine, the finder window shows only those drives that are currently mounted. Since the drive I want to restore is dead, I obviously cannot mount it...so I 'm not exactly sure how this is supposed to work.
Thanks!

This is a frustrating issue compounded by Apple’s penchant toward hopelessly poor documentation.
My problem concerns an old G4 (AGP) with an OEM Adaptec SCSI board and internal SCSI drives. That probably doesn’t matter but one of the drives (one of three) recently died. I had a back up with Time Machine to a firewire drive. But, when I put in a new SCSI drive and tried to restore - the fun began! At first I tried to select the old drive in the TM - from the “my computer” folder and copy it to the new differently named drive. That resulted in a “Preparing Copy” hang. 18 hr later I gave up! I then tried to open the TM drive directly and move the old disc (as a full folder) to the new drive - same result happened. Finally, I found this discussion. It worked for me!!! I renamed the new drive the same as the old one and starting from that newly named folder went into the Time Machine, found the latest copy and after a “select all” of all the files and folders there, accomplished a successful restore! Now, what I suspect really happened is the “select all” step. Using this this technique you have to actually go to the backed-up folder within TM and select all the files in it, then restore. Perhaps if I had done that with one of the other attempts it would have worked - who knows - I didn’t do the experiment? Thanks to Scott (a lot!) on this one.

Time machine won't let me include external hard drive in backup

My memory was full on our computer so I got an external hard drive to move over our iphoto library to (I have a large iphoto library ~22,000 pictures that continues to grow). For discussion purposes I'll call this - IPhoto HD.
I also have another external hard drive that we've had for quite some time that I use as our time machine backups. (Time Machine HD).
I copied over my iphoto library to the new external HD (IPhoto HD).
I then went into my time machine under settings and wanted to make sure that the IPhoto HD was being backed up on the Time Machine HD. (after I got verification of this I was going to delete the iphoto library from our computer to free up some space).
When I go into time machine under options - the Iphoto HD is greyed out - and it won't allow me to delete it from the "do not back up" list. (however the Time Machine HD is not greyed out - I could delete it if I wanted to).
I tried searching for the answer in the forums and couldn't figure it out. I did verify that the format of the IPhoto HD is Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I should note that both external Hard drives are WD My Book for Mac 2TB. Not sure if that makes a difference.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Sorry, but Time Machine does not back up reliably, if at all, to most network drives, except Time Capsules or a shared drive on another Mac running Leopard or Snow Leopard on the same local network.
Here's the criteria they must meet: Disks that can be used with Time Machine. And be careful here: just because some 3rd-party hardware claims to support Time Machine doesn't necessarily mean that Apple supports it, or that it will work in all circumstances.
The messages indicate that Time Machine found the volume, but couldn't write to it. That may be some sort of sharing or permissions error, or it may be that the device doesn't support all the things Time Machine requires, per the link above.
Are you sure that it's compatible with Snow Leopard? Some NAS devices that worked with Leopard didn't seem to work with Snow Leopard, at least when it first came out.
You may need to check with LaCie or the place you got it.

Time Machine Not Backing Up to an External Hard Drive - Error 11

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for