Time machine to external USB vs. indexing of that USB

Time machine to external USB vs. indexing of that USB
To all who plans to use external USB as Time Machine destination.
Problem was found with 10.9.5. Other versions possibly affected as well.
No idea if external storage connected through cable of other kind affected as well.
Mavericks on iMac 2013 late. Addressed external USB is used as second Time Machine target.
It worked pretty well few months long after had declared that external usb as TM target.
Suddenly the backup gets stuck. It can keep to stuck for-ever.
However users here do not accept to be confronted with this state for-ever.
Longest attempts were approx 10 minutes long, in our environment and circumstances long enough to be called "for-ever".
Stuck in the stage of size calculation.
Part. Repair by Disk Utility did not help.
Unmount, disconnect USB, reconnect did not help.
Verify the part by Disk Utility did not help.
New Spotlight exclusion rule for all partitions on that external was the only measure which helped.
Before encountering the problem one could observe that partition verification by Disk Utility
always failed. Partition repair prior to Verify was always necessary for Verify to succeed - it is not normal!!!

Start with D1 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Similar Messages

Time Machine corrupting external USB hard drives

In February I installed two Mac Minis running 10.8 Server. Each machine had an external hard drive connected to it.
Sometime over the Labor Day weekend, both drives stopped working. When I came in Tuesday, each machine had a message on the screen that the Time Machine drive had been improperly ejected. I powered down both drives and then powered them back up. Here's what is going on with each machine:
MACHINE #1:
Has a Western Digital 1TB drive formatted as OS X Extended Journaled.
Disk Utility is able to see the external drive; however, whenever I try to back up, I get the message "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup... Files can't be copied onto the backup disk because it appears to be read-only."
In Disk Utility, if I select the partition and Verify Disk, I get the message "Disk Utility stopped verifying Backup. Couldn't unmount disk."
When I try to reformat the drive, I get the message "Disk Erase failed. Disk Erase failed with the error: Couldn't unmount disk."
The Time Machine System Preference pane shows "None" for both oldest and latest backup times; however, I am able to enter Time Machine and see files going back to April.
MACHINE #2
Has a Segate 2TB drive formatted as OX X Extended Journaled.
Initially Disk Utility would recognize this drive about 50% of the time. I would power it down and back up. Sometimes it would appear in Disk Utility, sometimes it wouldn't. Whenever I would try to verify or repair this disk, it would immediately unmount and I would get the message that the disk was not ejected properly. When I try to backup using Time Machine, TM acts like it is preparing to back up and then the disk disappears from Disk Utility and from the Desktop and I get the message that The disk was not ejected properly.
This machine showed it was last backed up on September 1.
After fiddling with it, I was able to format the drive. After formatting the drive, I started a Time Machine backup and the drive unmounted again.
It seems that some event over the weekend caused both drives to corrupt. There was no sign of a power-outtage. Can anyone suggest how I can track down what caused this? Would there have been a maintenance script that would have run on Sept 1 that could have messed both drives up? Some other system event? Losing the data isn't a big deal. I just want to make sure I prevent whatever caused this in the future. Any tips would be much appreciated.

Yeah, I don't know much about the logs. I flipped through some using Console but didn't really know what I was looking for. I was hopeing to see an event that was followed by a notice that the USB drives had been improperly ejected since that was a message I received on both machines.
Since both machines were affected at the same time it seems logical it would be a scheduled event or, as you suggested, some power issue.

Using Time Machine and external USB drive for multiple Macs

I just bought a 1.5TB external portable drive. I have 4 macs in the household that might have about 400 - 500 GB of total HD capacity for the four of them. I am very confused on whether to create a separate partition for each mac, or let Time Machine manage the entire, single-partition drive.
The reason I ask is because I have run into issues with a smaller external HD where it didnt seem to know to remove old backups to make room for new ones. But, its' possible the 750 GB drive was too small to do what it needed to do.
So, I am looking for some definitive information on the best way to do this. Obviously, i'd rather leave the 1.5TB as a single partition, and hope (and expect) Time Machine to manage the backups of the four macs in such a way that it can properly make room as backups are added to the drive.
THoughts?

D/FW wrote:
Use a 1TB Time Capsule to backup wirelessly and a FW800 external drive for speed in case I need to reinstall. Therefore having 2 backups?
You can do that, but not simultaneously. TM only has one destination a a time; you can back up to the TC, then select the external HD via TM Preferences, then switch back.
I've been down the road of using SD (cloning) and am ready to move on to another backup strategy. Cloning works fine but it dedicates a drive 100% of the time where TM doesn't.
I don't know what you mean by that. I use CarbonCopyCloner (similar to SD) in addition to full TM backups, so I have two separate, independent backups, on two separate drives, and get the advantages of both. You can partition an external drive (but not a Time Capsule), so you could have your clone on one partition, and other things in one or more additional partitions (I do that as well). As long as the "clone" partition is the same size as your internal HD (or at a minimum, at least 15% larger than the amount of data on it), you can use the rest of the space for anything else.
See #5 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum for detailed instructions on setting-up a drive for Time Machine. The same procedure works for setting one up for a clone and other partition(s), too.

Is a WD My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive bootable with my Powerbook G4 12" PPC 10.5.8?

Sirs or madams,
Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
Thank you very much.

Mr. BGreg,
Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components.
My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer. Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
So, anyway, thanks very much for your information.

Time machine backup from USB stick doesn't work

Hi all,
I've got an MacBook Air (1st gen) with Lion, with a 80GB internal HD. This HD is quite full now, so I decided to move my rather large iPhoto library (c. 30GB) to an external 64GB USB stick. Up to that point, everything worked well.
I'd like to include the USB stick to my Time Machine Backup. The USB Stick is formatted as HFS+. It appears in the list of excluded drives in the Time Machine setup. If I click the 'minus' button to remove it from that list, it goes away, but comes back as soon as I leave the TM setup and reopen it. Accordingly, Time Machine does not generate any backups of the USB stick. The external Backup has enough free space to make a backup, so this should not be the problem.
Any ideas how I could fix that problem?
A workaround could be to use a 3rd party tool to backup the library. I tried Carbon Copy Cloner, but CC can not do incremental backups of bundles. Any recommendations?

I am having the same issue on my macbook air (end 2010)
I bought a 32gb usb stick and Time Machine always excludes it.
I assume that Time Machine should be able to backup it.
Could it be because it is a USB stick and not a USB hard drive ?
Also as a workaround could be make that a usb stick is reconnized as a hard drive ?
Any recommendations?
thanks

Does Time Machine back up USB Flash Drive?

I have a 128GB USB Flash Drive. The contents of this flash drive was restored from a previous external SSD (used as storage and has died on me).
Now I would like my Time Machine to backup both my MacAir and my USB Flash Drive.
My First Concern is
So when I plug in my USB Flash Drive, it appears in the Exclude List.
However, after I remove the USB Flash Drive from the exclude list and click on Save.
I start to Back Up using Time Machine.
Does it mean that time machine will back up my USB Flash Drive for this One Time?
Because when I open up the Time Machine preference, the USB Flash Drive re-appears in the Exclude List again.
Second Concern
When I open the HDD I use for Time Machine, I noticed that the latest backup consist of both my MacAir
and the name of my Previous External SSD (instead of my current USB Flash Drive).
I am wondering if Time Machine recognise my current USB Flash Drive as my previous external SSD
since I restored my contents from there.
So is my USB Flash Drive really backed up (just that Time Machine recognise it as my previous external SSD)?
Hope someone can share their experience and advice on this.
(Please do not recommend other app like Carbon Copy Cloner, as I already plan to use the CCC Trial.)
Thank you to all.

What is the format of the volume on the flash drive? It's shown in the Finder Info window.

Time Machine never gets out of Indexing backup...

I had a problem with my iMac earlier today. My first instinct was to create a complete backup. But since then I've not been able to create a backup. Time Machine never gets out of Indexing backup...
Each time I try to backup the message log contains:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Backup content size: 253.8 GB excluded items size: 613.1 MB for volume Macintosh HD
303.83 GB required (including padding), 1.82 TB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
The tiny numbers in Activity Monitor suggest that Time Machine isn't really doing anything.
So far I have:
1. Verified my main hard disk and my original backup disk.
2. Bought a new external hard disk and set it up as a new backup disk.
3. Deleted the Spotlight files on my main hard disk and both the backup disks.
4. Reset Time Machine by deleting its .plist file and choosing the new backup disc again.
Given the failure earlier today I am really keen to get a full back up done.
Any ideas?
John

JWaterworth wrote:
I had a problem with my iMac earlier today. My first instinct was to create a complete backup. But since then I've not been able to create a backup. Time Machine never gets out of Indexing backup...
Indexing the backup and actually performing the backup are two different things. Sometimes Lion Time Machine has trouble maintaining the index when used over a wireless network. That doesn't affect the creation of new backups. You can always enter Time Machine and see just how many backups you have.
The tiny numbers in Activity Monitor suggest that Time Machine isn't really doing anything.
After the initial backup, Time Machine doesn't take much CPU time.
So far I have:
3. Deleted the Spotlight files on my main hard disk and both the backup disks.
4. Reset Time Machine by deleting its .plist file and choosing the new backup disc again.
Please don't do things like this. What you need to do now is:
1) Boot from your recovery volume.
2) Repair your disk and permissions
3) Wait for Spotlight to finish reindexing your hard drive.
4) Erase your Time Machine drive and start Time Machine over again.
Come back if you are still having trouble. If you muck around with low-level files that shouldn't be mucked with, all bets are off.

PowerNap Time Machine backup? USB Data shuts off in sleep mode!

So how is PowerNap supposed to do a Time Machine backup when USB is turned off in sleep mode? Everything else seems to work, but when I wake my computer back up, I am greeted with a message that the external hard drive was removed improperly, and no backups were completed overnight.
I'm using a MacBook Air Mid-2012 and a 2TB WD External HDD that uses it's own power supply.

A USB drive should be fine.
Right before going to bed, I duplicated a bunch of large files and then went to sleep with my USB hard drive plugged in. When I woke up I realized that Time Machine did back up about one hour after the computer was asleep.
Using a mid-2011 MBA.

HT4859 How do I back up my documents from my Macbook on iCloud? or can I only use time machine or external HD?

How do I back up my documents from my Macbook on iCloud? or can I only use time machine or external HD?
I think I have missed something in trying to read all of the pages on apple site about icloud.

Welcome to the Apple Community.
You can't back up a computer to iCloud.
You can use any back up software, you should always back up to a different drive.

How do I access my iphoto library on time machine backup external drive using Lion, originally saved from old computer and system

how do I access my iphoto library on time machine backup external drive using Lion, originally saved off old computer and system. It's not letting me open the folder???

Once again here's how to restore an iPhoto Library from Time Machine:

HT3275 Since updating OS to Mountain Lion from leopard, I get the following error message when trying to backup with time machine on external drive. Could not complete backup to media share. The network backup disk does not support the required AFP feat

Since updating OS to Mountain Lion from leopard, I get the following error message when trying to backup with time machine on external drive. "Could not complete backup to media share. The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features." What are AFP features and how do I get Time Machine to backup to my current external backup?

This means that your NAS does not support the required encryption. Update your NAS to the latest firmware or ditch it and buy a Time Capsule (they are the most reliable when using TM).

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it?

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it

http://pondini.org/TM/21.html

My newish MacBook Air was just lost to a coffee spill, and I need to migrate back to my MacBook Pro using a recent back-up (Time Machine to external disk). Can I do this?

My newish MacBook Air was just lost to a coffee spill, and I need to migrate back to my MacBook Pro using a recent back-up (Time Machine to external disk) for a few weeks. This same disk was used to back-up the Pro earlier, and to migrate from the Pro to the Air. Can I do this "back-migration" from the Air to the Pro? Is it maybe better just to migrate the specific folders (Outlook email, Office docs) I am sure I need?

Do not attempt to copy files/folders from a Time Machine backup. Only use the Time Machine application to restore from the backup.
Click on a Finder window and select Help from the Finder's Help menu. Search for "restore" and select "restore items backed up with time machine" from the hints list. You will find these two articles:
Recover items using Time Machine and Spotlight
If you use Time Machine to back up your Mac, you can use Time Machine with Spotlight to recover lost or deleted items.
Note: You can retrieve earlier versions of TextEdit documents from within TextEdit. For more information, see:
View and restore past versions of documents
Open a Finder window and type a search word or phrase in the search field in the upper-right corner.
Select a location to search in the location bar.
Refine the results by specifying search criteria. Narrow down Spotlight search results
Open the Time Machine menu in the menu bar, then choose Enter Time Machine.
Use the arrows and timeline to browse the Time Machine backups. Your search is performed in every window.
When you find the item you want to restore, select it, then click Restore.
The restored item is returned to its original location. For example, if the item was found in the Documents folder, it’s returned to the Documents folder.
Restore items backed up with Time Machine
If you use Time Machine to back up your Mac, you can easily bring back lost items or recover older versions of files.
You can use Time Machine within many apps. If the iCloud Documents & Data feature is turned on, you can recover older versions of iCloud documents as well as regular documents.
Open a window for the item you want to restore.For example, if you accidentally deleted a file from your Documents folder, open the Documents folder. To recover an email message, open your inbox in Mail. To recover an iCloud document, open the document’s app, choose File > Open, then click iCloud to view the iCloud documents for that app.If you’re missing an item from the desktop, you don’t need to open a window.
From the Time Machine menu in the menu bar, choose Enter Time Machine. A message may appear while your Mac connects to the backup disk.
Use the arrows and timeline to browse the snapshots and backups.White tick marks represent snapshots stored on your internal drive (portable computers only). Pink tick marks represent backups stored on your backup disk. If a tick mark appears dimmed or grayed, there’s no backup available or the backup disk is not connected.
For more information about an item, double-click it.The windows in Time Machine behave just like Finder windows, so you can open folders, click items in the sidebar, and use the search field in the upper-right corner of the window.
When you find the item you want to restore, select it, then click Restore. You can restore individual items, multiple items, folders, or your entire hard disk.The restored item is returned to its original location. For example, if the item was found in the Documents folder, it is returned to the Documents folder.

Time Machine with external HD

Guys, I have a problem in my Time Machine.The external HD is not found, but the mac recognizes the HD, only the Time Machine is not.What is very strange is that until a few days ago before the backup was working properly at this Time Machine HD.
I checked the disk using Disk Utility but not solved the problem. Can anyone help me?

Try this Time Machine troubleshooting page http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Restoring files from Time Machine to external drive

I keep my iPhoto library -- aning may other files -- on an external drive (iomega 1 TB). I use Time Machine (Time Capsule) for my back-ups of iphoto - and all my files on this drive. The external drive is failing. I have bought an new external drive and wish to restore my iPhoto library to this new drive. The steps for restoring from Time Machine require me to click on the iPhoto library and then enter time machine. I cannot do this as the folder is now unreadable on the drive and I do not wish to restore it to this old drive in any event.
I have accessed the time machine drive and can see the iphoto back up is there.
What is my next step?
Robert

You are correct Linc. I am probably not being clear enough. The dead drive is disconnected and I am only using the new external drive, the iMac and the Time Machine backup drive which is connected to the iMac via ethernet.
I am trying to what you have suggested and appears all over the internet as the correct method. Unfortuntely, it is just not working. I will take snapshots of the screens to illustrate. (not sure how to take sceenshots in Time Machine.)
While in finder I have the sidebar. I choose my iMac and choose enter Time Machine (Home Drive is the new external drive):
Just before I enter -- a window opens that says "connecting to back-up volume":
Then another window opens -- on it's own -- that is the Time Machine Back-up and it does not have the sidebar:
As I slide into Time Machine another window opens -- on its own -- that contains the elements of my sidebar:
As show below in another screen grab:
And now I am in Time Machine with that window -- i have even tried to click on the sidebar window which lies in the background just prior to sliding into Time Machine but I still get this window):
No side bar. But, I can choose any back-up window behind it it -- going back in time -- and get windows that looks like this:
Via the bottom status bar I can manuever to the correct back-up date and time i want and get this window:
The Iomega HDD contains the back-up of iPhoto Library (and other files) thart I wish to restore. I should be able to open this folder. Choose the files to restore and voila. But when I choose the foloder. Nothing. It freezes -- except i can still manuever the mouse. No spinning wheel. Nothing. I cannot exit Time Machine etc. I end up shutting down using the power button.
BTW. Here is the wiondow I get when I click on the Time Machine drive in the sidebar:
I can choose the iPhoto Library and I dragged and dropped to the new drive. There was an error the first try (after 4 hours...) but the second try worked. I have duplicated/backed-up the library getting ready to experiment with an new iPhoto upgrade.
Is this the same library?
But any thoughts on what happened during the Time Machine process is appreciated.
Robert

Time machine to external USB vs. indexing of that USB

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