Time Machine on non-startup disk?

Does anyone know if Time Machine can be used on non-startup disks? I have a Dual-Mirrored Door G4 running as a file server with two separate internal hard drives, a boot volume with the operating system on it and a second drive with all the data that is shared. I can run Time Machine to backup the boot volume, but what I really want is to run it for backups on the data volume but I can't quite figure out how. Thanks for any help.

Oops, I figured this out, nevermind.

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  • Both time machine drive and startup disk can't be repaired by disk utilities and needs to be formatted!!??

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    help me i feel vulnerable

    As you have indicated, you don’t want to touch the partitions on your existing external drive because it has live files in the FAT32 partition for which there are no copies anywhere else.  That leaves you with two sets of data that are currently not backed up: your FAT32 partition and your system drive.  I suggest you need at least one more external HD for backups.
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    You can use Mac cloning software such as Carbon Copy Cloner to maintain the cloned backup copy of your FAT32 data.
    http://help.bombich.com/kb/usage-scenarios/backing-up-tofrom-network-volumes-and -other-non-hfs-volumes

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    Copy off everything you want, restart from the iMac's original disk, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu, wipe drives as desired, and then install the OS.
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    I have just upgraded to Mavericks and have been using Time Machine on an external disk with Snow Leopard.  Can I continue to backup with Time Machine on the same external disk or do I need a new disk since the operating system has changed?

    Hi there,
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  • HT3275 Time Machine Error: The backup disk image "Volumes/Data/My Macbook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. (How do I correct this issue?)

    Time Machine did not back up:
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    You need to be careful Bob.. people might take this literally.
    Bob Timmons wrote:
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    Call the exterminator to get rid of the bugs in Lion and Mountain Lion.
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  • How do I remove Time Machine from an external disk

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    TM data is just that, data.
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  • My MacBook pro won't recognize hard drive I put in it. It boots only to a white screen unless I boot to my recovery USB. If I do that then I can select my USB and my external time machine drive in the disk utility, so no problems there. But what do you

    My MacBook pro won't recognize hard drive I put in it. It boots only to a white screen unless I boot to my recovery USB. If I do that then I can select my USB and my external time machine drive in the disk utility, so no problems there. But what do you think it is? It won't recognize any hard drive I put in the machine, so might it be the sata cable?

    Boot the Recvoery USB, use Disk Utility to select the internal drive makers namea and size on the left.
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    Quit and you should be able to install OS X now with your Apple ID and password.
    see
    http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/08/lion-recovery-disk-assistant-tool-makes-external- lion-boot-recovery-drives/

  • I keep getting this error when trying to backup time capsule with time machine. The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data-1/Dan's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use.

    I keep getting this error when trying to backup time capsule with time machine. The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data-1/Dan’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use.

    Make sure that no other Macs are backing up at the time.
    Pull the power cable from the back of the Time Capsule
    Count to ten
    Plug the power cable back into the back of the Tme Capsule
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  • Time Machine says "The Backup Disk is Not Available"

    Line 0:  I have a 400 GB external Western Digital drive that I leave plugged into an Airport Extreme.  Previously, this worked mostly without a problem.  It took some massaging to get it to work at first (I had to create the backup with the drive directly connected to the computer, and then I moved the drive over to the Airport Extreme and it was fine after that), but after that, it worked forever.  This was in the previous version of the OS that I was running (snow leopard?).  I very recently upgraded to Lion and it seemed to be OK, but then suddenly it gave me an error that said it had not been able to do a backup for 10 days.  I thought "wow, that means it hasn't backed up since I upgraded to Lion." 
    So I told it to do a backup right away.  It failed with the error "The backup disk is not available."
    I unplugged the drive and plugged it back in.  No go.
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    Go back to Time Machine preferences and the disk still doesn't show up.  Force a reboot on the router, it still doesn't show up.
    I brought the drive over to the computer and plugged it in directly, and everything was fine.  It did a backup on the spot, it read the backup that was there, the drive showed up, etc.  I formatted it just for the heck of it and started over completely and it was happy.  I did a disk check and everything was fine.  After leaving it on all night to complete a new backup, I unmounted the disk, brought it over to the Airport Extreme, plugged it back in, and now we go back to line 0 and rinse repeat.
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    It should not have worked in the first place.. when you moved it from the PC to the airport extreme.. that is not correct.. I don't know how SL managed to work around it.. but Lion obviously cannot.
    You will need to start all over again..
    Also note.. the flakey nature of this setup.. according to well respected people here AEBS with USB drive does not give reliable TM backups.. I would pay close attention to what they are saying. Time Capsule is more than a AEBS with a hard drive inside.. although exactly the difference I don't know.
    But you can expect the current setup to not work, because it never should have.

  • I am running 10.7.5 and getting Time Machine error The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Kathy P's MacBook.sparsebundle" is already in use. what do i do now?

    i am running 10.7.5 on an older MacBook and getting Time Machine error The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Kathy P’s MacBook.sparsebundle” is already in use. what do i do now?

    See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

  • Time machine error: The backup disk image could not be mounted

    Time Machine worked OK for several months. Now I get this error every 10 minutes or so.
    I unplugged Time Machine capsule and "Change Disk" in Time Machine options.
    Nothing helps, I continue to get this error.
    I cannot Enter Time Machine either. "Connecting to Server, Connecting to backup" does not work.
    Help please because I will probably have to archive and reinstall Leopard. I need the backups,
    Christine

    Christ1ne,
    Before you reformat the disk, consider these causes of this error.
    *_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”)_*
    First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be mounted”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
    Consider each topic below separately. When one option does not resolve your issue, then move on the next one.
    *Unmount the Backup Disk Image* (TC)
    If, for some reason, you have manually mounted the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle), or Time Machine failed to eject it after the previous backup, subsequent backups may fail. (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”… “Backup failed with error: 21”)
    Eject the backup disk image (white drive icon) by either clicking the little Eject icon to the right of the disk image in the Finders’ Sidebar, or Ctrl-Click the drive icon on the desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu. Now try backing up again or launching Time Machine to view previous backups.
    *“Disconnect All Users…”:*
    If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
    Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
    Click “Manual Setup”.
    Select “Disks” at top of window.
    Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
    Close the Airport Utility.
    Now try Backing up again.
    One poster reported: “I got it resolved. Apparently it had to do with one of the files being open on the disk from the drive. I had browsed the disk with one of my windows boxes here and it must have left one of the folders "open". Anyway, I rebooted the TC and we are good to go now.”
    *Proper Computer Name* #
    Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
    According to this article, [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
    (0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
    Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
    # Try removing the apostrophe from the disk images name (sparsebundle).
    *A Stalled .inProgress Files:* #
    It may be that the previous backup attempt was ungracefully interrupted leaving remains that Time Machine can’t deal with.
    Stop any current backup attempt. Choose “Stop Backing Up” from the Time Machine menu.
    Open the Time Machine Preferences and turn “OFF” Time Machine.
    Open your Time Machine drive.
    Open the folder labeled “Backups,backupdb”.
    Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
    Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them by dragging the file to the Trash. Or Ctrl-Click the file and select "Move to Trash" from the contextual menu. (Give this time as deleting a large file on an external disk can take a while.)
    Turn Time Machine back “ON”. Now try backing up again.
    NOTE: If the above procedure becomes impossible to perform, try accessing the disk image from another Mac. Some have discovered that attempting a repair from another computer succeeds where the original computer failed.
    Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped to resolve your issue.
    Cheers!

  • Time Machine Error:  "The backup disk image could not be created."  Help.

    I have two Macbook Pro's. One is able to backup to the Time Capsule with no problems. The other connects just fine to Airport Utility, but I get the following error after I attempt to backup: Time Machine Error: "The backup disk image could not be created."
    I have reset the Time Capsule several times, so that is not the fix.
    The first thing I see when attempting to open Time Machine is the following message: :The storage location for Time Machine Backups can't be found." It gives me the option to setup the Time Capsule, which I select. The next thing I select is to Change Disk. The window that opens has the Icon with Three people on it. The name of that Icon is The Moreman Time Capsule. I select it, and enter the password I created. I then choose to Backup. Then I choose to backup now. That is when I get the error: Time Machine Error: "The backup disk image could not be created."
    Any ideas? Has anyone encountered this problem?

    You have to delete the .dmg file and start over. This happened to me 3 times already, I finally switched to Déjà Vu, works perfect and only once a day instead of 24 times a day.
    http://propagandaprod.com/

  • HT3275 TIME MACHINE ERROR: The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Sean McGuire's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 1).

    I can select a disk (Time Capsule) and initiate the backup.  It only "waits to back up" then "making backup disk available" and remains frozen there.  I tried to update the software a while back and was unsuccessful, I think that may be the issue.
    Any insight would be greatly appreciated.  This is the error message I receive.
    TIME MACHINE ERROR: The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Sean McGuire’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” could not be created (error 1).
    Thanks

    See #C17 in Pondini's excellent support document Time Machine - Troubleshooting
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • What can I do when I get this message from my Time Machine?  The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Jeanne's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use.

    What do I do when I get this message on my Time Machine?  "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Jeanne’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use."

    See C12.
    Time Machine Troubleshooting

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