Time machine partition not mountable anymore

hello,
the tm partition on my wd my book studio II is not mountable. the partition contains a sparsebundle with the backup.
a new created partition does work.
i tried the repair disk option in the disk utility and force mount, still no luck.
how can i fix this?
i need files from the backup. i would really like to install snow leopard soon
regards

sorry, then I don't know what could be going on or how to fix it without reformatting the whole drive or at least that partition.

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Time machine does not backup anymore

Hello all,
I've been using my time machine for a month now, I kept it turned off and only connected the disk when I wanted to make a backup. Then I just hit Back Up Now from the menu and it always backed up everything (I used to check it afterwards). FYI, I've got a 500GB drive and for backups I use a 500GB partition on an external disk, where about 100GB is still free. All of a sudden, my time machine does not backup anymore. It does its run, whether a scheduled hourly one when turned on, or an on-demand one, but it only lasts a split second as though there is nothing to backup and when I enter the time machine, the files are really missing. I can't make it backup anything anymore. What is going on?
thanks everyone

cukerko wrote:
Hello all,
I've been using my time machine for a month now, I kept it turned off and only connected the disk when I wanted to make a backup. Then I just hit Back Up Now from the menu and it always backed up everything (I used to check it afterwards). FYI, I've got a 500GB drive and for backups I use a 500GB partition on an external disk, where about 100GB is still free.
It's not related to this problem, but that may not be large enough. What's important is not the size of your internal HD, but how much is on it (or is expected to be on it in the next year or so). It varies widely, of course, depending on how you use your Mac, but Time Machine usually needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up.
. . . it only lasts a split second as though there is nothing to backup and when I enter the time machine, the files are really missing.
That sounds like the year-old unfixed bug detailed in red in #D5 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Update 10.5.6: external HD used for Time Machine does not MOUNT anymore

I've used this LaCie external Little Big Disk since November 2007 with Time Machine, without problems. Recently, after updating to OS 10.5.6, the disk does not mount anymore when connected by FireWire800. Same result when using FW400 and USB.
The disk shows up in the System Profiler under FireWire. When I run analysis with a program 'Data Rescue II', it also sees the disk.
Main issue: disk does not mount anymore. So no more TM backups possible.
Although the disk also shows up in Disk Utilities, I can't partition or reformat it. I ran the LaCie Update Tool 2.0.1 and it says firmware is up-to-date.
I also reinstalled the Combo Update 10.5.6 without result. Also did all the forum recommendations such as resetting PRAM and using Terminal to 'mount /dev/xxx'. Does not help.
I feel this is an Apple issue.

Yes, did it three times. Also already hooked up in daisy chain, and yes, also connected to another Mac (also 10.5.6). Same result. I think it's an OS 10.5.6 issue, because it happened after the update and I had never problems in the last year using this disk with TM (it's not full either). I hope it's not, however, but I am afraid it is. Also I've posted the issue at LaCie support and see what they answer.
Thank you for your reply.

External HD Time Machine partition shows in Desktop but not in Finder

I have a External HardDisk with two partitions, one for Time Machine and other for Data.
Until now when I power on the disk two icons appear on my MacBook, one Orange with a USB logo for the Data partition and other Green with Time MAchine logo for the Time MAchine partition.
Suddenly when I power on in FInder I can see only the Data Partition. while in Desktop I can see both, but now the Time Machine Partition is orange with the USB logo (just like the Data partition).
On the other hand everytinhg seems to be workning, I can acces both partitions and Time Machine apparently works Ok, but don't know if something is happening in the background, and I have all my data in that Disk!!!!!

David Casillas wrote:
I can see and use both partitions, but in Finder under DEVICES only DATA partiton shows.
If a navigate in Finder to MacBook for example I can now see both partitions.
Excuse me if my explanation of the subject is not clear. Here is a screenshoot of what happens. In the left you can see the Finder window with just Data Partition, on the right Desktop with both.
If you haven't yet, from a Finder window's menubar, select +Finder > Preferences > Sidebar.+ Un-check the +External Disks+ checkbox, wait a moment, then check it again.
Try going to TM Preferences, de-selecting the drive (select "none"), waiting a moment, then re-selecting it.
Try deleting the file <your home folder>/Library/com.apple.Finder.plist and either relaunch the Finder (from the +Force Quit+ menu) or Restart.

Time Machine partition doesn't mount

Hi,
I partitioned from windows (BOOTCAMP) a hard drive that have a Time Machine partition along with a NTFS partition, so I could have three partitions on the disk. The surprise was that when I tried to back up the data from TIme Machine to my Mac, it doesn't appear anymore. I've installed Mavericks on another drive to see if OS X recognized the TIme Machine back up, but it doesn't, it only shows the NTFS partition. The other one (I supose is the time machine one, because the third partition is empty) appears unmounted on Disk Utilities. In windows I can see the Time Machine partition, so I think that partitioning on windows have caused some kind of damage to the partition table or something
I've googled a lot and this problem is quite similar to mine: http://superuser.com/questions/342876/adding-ntfs-partition-to-disk-in-windows-m akes-hfs-partition-on-same-disk-invis
When I run gdisk it says:
and disk util list:
I think the partition scheme shoudn't be fdisk.
Well, I don't know what to do from here, the drive where I have my personal data broke and this Time Machine backup could save me from losing my photos from the last two years.
Thank you, ask if you want more information, I think my explanation has not been very accurate but I'm not a native English speaker, sorry.
PS: Mac Mini mid 2011

And this is what I see on Windows:
It says HFS, although in OSX says ExFAT, and as you can see the size is different.
This is what I have...
Explaining a little more, the hard drive at the beggining (when everything works) had three partitions, I did four. Then I wanted to make another one and did a logic one accidentally (didn't know the maximum was four primary partitions). After realising that, I erased the logic one and the other two and kept "TimeMachine" and "2TB".

"Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not availab

I have a Seagate 750 MB external disk connected to the USB port of my Airport Extreme Base Station. It worked fine with Time Machine under Leopard but it's not working the way it was under OS X 10.6.2. I'm hopeful someone can help me solve the problem.
Let's say the name of my Airport Extreme Base Station is "Airport." If I remember correctly, under Leopard time machine would start a wireless backup not long after I turned on the Seagate drive. That no longer happens.
I've erased and re-formatted the Seagate drive with 2 GUID partitions, one for my 24" iMac and one for my 17" MacBook Pro. Both computers are about 3 years old. In order to do the re-partitioning, I had to unplug the Seagate drive from the base station and plug it into one of the iMac's USB ports. If I didn't do this, nothing other than the iMac's drive appears in the left pane of Disk Utility, although the name of my base station, i.e, "Airport" does appear in the Finder and PathFinder (a replacement for Finder that I use).
In fact, Time Machine works under 10.6.2. as long as the Seagate drive is plugged into the iMac's USB port. As soon as I plug the Seagate drive into the USB port of the base station, Time Machine no longer works. The backup is "delayed." When I click on "Back Up Now" a few seconds go by and I get the following dialog box: "Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not available."
In my Airport Extreme Base Station setup (Airport Utility version 5.4.2), the "Disks" pane sees both partitions on the Seagate drive. File sharing is enabled on the "File sharing" pane and "Secure Shared Disks:" is set to "With a disk password." "Airport Disks Guest Access:" is not allowed, nor is "Share disks over WAN."
When the Seagate drive is plugged into the base station and I click on "Airport" in the Finder or PathFinder, I'm prompted for the password I mentioned above because the shared disks are secured with a password. Once the password is typed, both partitions on the Seagate drive appear in Finder and PathFinder. When I try a Time Machine backup at this point, I get the same error I described above, i.e., "Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not available."
One last thing, I did an "Archive and Install" when I upgraded to Snow Leopard since I thought the changes were relatively minor as compared with past OS X upgrades. Normally, I do a clean install but didn't feel like it this time. I also tried deleting the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist to no avail and restarted my iMac to no avail.
At this point I'm completely stumped. As I said, Time Machine works as long as the Seagate drive is plugged directly into one of the iMac's USB ports as opposed to the base station's USB port. But doesn't this defeat the purpose of having wireless backup? Once again, the wireless backup worked fine under 10.5.8.
I hope my message is clear and a solution would be most welcome.
Thank you,
Richard

I'm having the same problem. If my TimeMachine drive is not connected, I'll get the "Time machine could not complete the backup" "The backup disk is not available" warning a couple times a day. This is extremely problematic if I'm giving a presentation. I have tried changing my TimeMachine drive, removing that drive, repairing permissions, and have not been able to solve the problem.
Please help!

External hard drive time machine backups not mounting

I have used Seagate 500.11 external hard drive as a backup location for the time machine for over two years. I just got a message that it had not updated in over thirty days. It is not listed on FInder, but it is listed on the disc utility. The Time machine backups are grayed out on the disc utility screen and cannot be mounted, even after the repair and verification tests said that their volumes were ok. What should I do?

Time Machine does not create bootable clones. It does not even create a bootable backup. If that's what you prefer then do not use Time Machine.
If you use Time Machine then you must allocate at least twice as much space for the backups than the capacity of the drive you are backing up. A 2 TB backup drive would be suitable for a 1 TB main drive or smaller.
If you plan to create a bootable backup, then partition the backup drive with one partition the size required for the clone. Then use the other partition for you additional storage neeeds.

Time Machine disk not mounting

I have an external HD with Time Machine running. My computer is going to the shop later today. All of a sudden, my little external HD didn't want to mount (and it's only 8 months old). I used Disk Utility and got it to mount, but it said it couldn't repair it. It said I should backup what I could and erase the drive. However, since Disk Utility hung while trying to finish, I decided to try it again on another Mac. This time it ran through the repair and said the disk is fine. It finished off with this statement: "Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required."
So here's my dilemma:
I'd rather NOT erase this drive, since it's got my Time Machine backup on it. On the other hand, if it is failing, I'd like to know why and take action before it causes a problem (i.e. warranty and the ability to get back up quickly when my Mac comes back). I do have other backups, but none as handy as this one.
If you have experienced this, I'd like to hear from you. And, if there is already a thread about this, I couldn't find it.
Thanks very much!

I have a 2TB WD Western Digital portable external hard drive partitioned into two drives, one for storage and the other for Time Machine. For some reason my Time Machine drive wasn't mounting. I could not verify, repair, or even eject the HD at all for that matter. The Storage partition was working fine so I know that this is a software issue. I did what Linc Davis recommended and booted up into Recovery Mode and tried to verify and repair using the Disk Utility there with no luck. However I was able to mount the drive using the blue "Mount" button in Disk Utility and then I restarted the computer. Then my Time Machine partition was there and I was able to verify it and it has no problems. I then even performed a back up with no issues.
So this is in fact a software problem. The only thing that has changed for me is that I have just cloned my start up drive and put in a new SSD. Also I had to unplug my MacBook Pro battery to reset the SMC (even the keyboard was not working) due to the bug where your computer turns off and dies because of Lightning strike (plugging in a Lightning cable). Which would also be a software bug. That post is here... My Mac randomly just turned off and now it wont turn back on, the charger light is faintly flashing green and amber?!?!

Time Machine does not see my external HD

I would like to setup TM but it does not see my external HD, but I can see it on desktop in and finder. I can browse it. But time machine does not see it and forces me to use airport time capsule but I don't have it. Help please.

What format is the external drive in?
If it's formatted for Windows (either using the MBR partition table or using FAT/NTFS volumes) then Time Machine cannot back up to this disk.
The disk needs to be formatted as Mac OS X Extended using either the APM or GPT partition tables.
Life is complicated somewhat by the fact that the OS, in general, can read MBR/FAT drives, but they're not suitable for Time Machine (limitations in the disk formats prevent some of Time Machine's features from working).
You can check the current partition map/disk format in Disk Utility.app - just select the disk on the left and the information will be displayed below. If the disk is using MBR and/or FAT then you'd need to reformat the drive in order to use it with Time Machine.

The first time I connected my new My Passport portable hard drive to my Mac, the message asking if I want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine did not appear. What is the next step?

The first time I connected my new My Passport portable hard drive to my MacBook Pro, the message asking if I want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine did not appear. I would like to set it up to do this. What would my next step be?

Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Open Time Machine preferences to select this drive for use as the backup drive. Turn on Time Machine.

Time Machine Partition Corrupted on External Hard drive

I have a external hard drive partitioned into 2 sections, one for storage and the other for time machine back up of my macbook original hard drive. One day the time machine partition stopped being recognized so I tried verifying and it told me it needed to be repaired. Now it says the disk cannot be repaired and to reformat my disk. I do not want to do this because I don't want to lose whats on the other partition and I have no where else to put the data. It won't allow me to just remove the time machine partition, when I try it comes back with "disk cannot be opened". I'm lost here, is there anything that I can do without reformating the whole external hard drive?
Oh and I'm fine with losing whatevers on my time machine back up

Erasing one partition should not affect another one; however, the drive has had at least one major malfunction already, and should be expected to have more. You should immediately back up all data to another drive, including the data on the non-backup partition of the problem drive. Then, and only then, you can try fixing the unmountable partition. If the drive ever malfunctions again, replace it.

How to remove a encrypted Time Machine partition from external hard drive?

I encrypted my Time Machine partition and i want to delete it and make a whole new Time Machine partition that isn't encrypted, please help.

Launch disk utility
Click on the name of the disk (not the partition) in the left hand pane
Click on the partition tab (top center)
Click on the partition to delete
Click the - sign under the partition layout pane

Time machine password not working

Turned on my Mac this AM and the encrypted time machine partition asked for a password and the usual one does not work- it is correct on keychain.

A Mac stores all the passwords in KeyChain Access. I do not know whether a PC has this type of application. Perhaps a PC user will see this and offer assistance.
You may likely need to perform a "Soft Reset" to reset the disk password.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3728?viewlocale=en_US

Mavericks refuses to mount Time Machine partition

Hi there,
Two days ago, my MBP crashed, kernel panicked. Since then, it has not been able to mount my external Time Machine partition. Notice that the external drive has two partitions in it, MBP is happy to mount the other partition, but not the TM one.
I ran Verify Disk and Repair Disk with Disk Utilities First Aid, and everything came back fine "The volume Work Time Machine appears to be OK." But then if I try to mount, I get "The disk "Work Time Machine" could not be mounted.
What can/should I do to mount/recover this?
Thanks!

Launch/Utilities/Terminal and copy & paste this command at the prompt:
diskutil list
Press return.
If it sees the disk, note the number of the disk (far left column) you want to mount.
Then, enter copy & paste this command:
mount /dev/(number of disk)
Put in the number no parenthesis.
Press Return.
Also might try
mount force /dev/(number of disk)
And see...
http://pondini.org/TM/C14.html

Disk Utility and Time machine partition

Ran a Disk Utility check on my Time Machine volume (internal drive - and yes I stopped Time Machine first).
It Came back with error messages something like this:
Verifying volume “Leopard_2”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Incorrect number of file hard links
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking multi-linked directories.
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998962)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998964)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998966)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998970)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998972)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998974)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998976)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998978)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998980)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998982)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998986)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 998988)
(It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
{ Edited for Brevity }
Stopped by user
Well, the first time I Used repair mode and it wrecked my backup. I had to reformat the partition. Even disk warrior couldn't undo the directory damage Leopard's disk utility reeked on my partition. The irony of it is, I doubt very seriously that anything was wrong with the backup partition before Disk Utility assaulted it.
I ran time machine again and checked (verified this time) the partition after it completed and Leopard's DU reported the same errors as before.
Then I checked the backup partition with Tiger's DU:
Verifying volume “Leopard_2”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Leopard_2 appears to be OK.
Mounting Disk
1 HFS volume checked
Volume passed verification
Tiger found no problems.
I also checked the partition with Disk Warrior and got a good report.
If I'm not the only one that has this problem then it looks like Leopards DU is an accident waiting to happen when someone uses it to "repair" their Time Machine partition.
Has anyone else experienced this?

FYI, I have a TM partition sharing an internal HD with a FAT32 formatted partition. Here's my Verify output. I did not stop TM while running Verify
Verifying volume “MacTimeMachine”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking multi-linked directories.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume MacTimeMachine appears to be OK.

Time machine partition not mountable anymore

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