Time Machine will not find any hard drives

I originally posted plugged in an external drive and use TM and back up on there but then i unplugged the external Mass storage device (it was a WD drive). Then I tried to use TM and it didn't work. I want to have TM run on my computer with out having an external drive attached. How can I do this? Also if at all possible could I run time machine on my computers internal drives and also have it on a back up external drive just incase of a computer failure.

Hi! You can designate any internal or external drive for Time Machine to use for backup. You can also use the external as a bootable clone if it is a firewire device and is bootable itself. You do this by cloning the drive which can be done using the disk utility, SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner. Tom

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    You might want to take a look at the macosxhints.com article "10.5: Set up Time Machine on a NAS in three easy steps ".
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  • Time Machine will not see ANY drives.

    Hi All.
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    benfromminneapolis wrote:
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    Time Machine will not let me restore from backups after June, 2013.  I can see the files on the external hard drive but Time Machine skips all of them and goes back to June, 2013. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?

    rtilghman wrote:
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    And why not? Apple is selling these things like BigMacs. They can't make enough of them. You've been suffering since May because you refuse to get a decent router.
    Can you imagine if a company that makes a refrigerator told me that I needed to upgrade my electrical system to rectify a problem with their device? What kind of response IS that?!?!
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  • I upgraded to Maverick and now Time Machine will not connect to the external hard drive to back up files.  The external hard drive is a Western Digital "My Book Live" 2 TB.  How do I solve problem?

    I upgraded to Maverick and now Time Machine will not connect to the external hard drive to back up files.  The external hard drive is a Western Digital "My Book Live" 2 TB.  How do I solve problem?

    I also had problem accessing my WD MyBookLive after upgrading to Maverick.
    To resolve the problem, I used  Connect To Server (Cmd K) to specify the IP address.
    Then I enter a user id and password I created in the MyBookLive.
    You can also verify that you have admin access to the MyBookLive using Safari or Chrome.
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  • Time Machine will not let me restore from recent backups.  I can see them on the external drive but will not restore sooner that June of 2013!  Any suggestions?

    Time Machine will not let me restore from recent backups.  I can see them on the external drive but will not restore sooner that June of 2013!  Any suggestions?

    All I can suggest is that you open that file on the MBA and save it as a new file, then see if you can open the new one on the iMac.

  • Re Time Machine I have an external  hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory. I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything.   will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous bac

    Re Time Machine
    I have an external  hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory.
    I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything.
    will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous back ups?
    can I split it the drive in two partitions?
    Also
    as I have two separate Macbook Pro's- one older than the other.
    OSX 10.68
    the other is
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    You CAN use a drive with files already on it to store Time Machine backups. But long term, that is not recommended. You do not need to reformat or re-partition the drive to do this. Once Time Machine Backups are established, you could remove the old files.
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  • I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

    I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

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  • Is there any way to create a time machine backup to an external hard drive with content already on it?  I have a hard drive that i have used for pictures but when i try to run a backup it says i need to start from a blank drive. Can i get around it?

    Is there any way to create a time machine backup to an external hard drive with content already on it?  I have a hard drive that i have used for pictures but when i try to run a backup it says i need to start from a blank drive. Can i get around it?

    It would be much better if you had separate drives for the pictures and Time Machine backups.....but, if you want to use the same drive for both purposes, temporarily move the folder with the pictures to another location for safe storage.
    Run the Time Machine backup on the hard drive and verify that everything is working correctly. Time Machine will format the disk for you in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as part of the backup process.
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    Again....it would be much better to keep Time Machine backups on a drive just for that purpose, and other data on another drive for that purpose. This is clearly one of those times when the fact that you can do something does not mean to imply that you should do it.

  • Time Machine will not see USB drive attaced to AEBS

    I am having some difficulty getting Time Machine to see a USB attached Lacie drive. I can get it to mount through the finder, but Time Machine will not see it. It also works fine through a direct firewire connection. I have all of the current updates. Any help is appreciated.

    have you tried formatting the drive, by selecting the disk or volume and using extended (journal). If the drive use to be a PC drive, you need to also give it a new index table. To give it a new table, you got to go to the partition section and use the option button. There will be 3 types, the GUID table is for intel macs, the 2nd selection is for PPC macs, and the third is for Window/Dos. You want to use to GUID table. After the table is set, format the disk using extended (journal).

  • Hallo ,why is it that when I delete a photo ,which is backed up by time machine and western digital external hard drive , that I am able to restore the photo okay but not the titles and descriptions . I have  a Macbook 4.1, mac osx 10.5.8 . Iphoto 7.1.5 ,

    QUESTION.
    Hallo , my question is ;whenever I delete a photo and restore it through Time machine and Western digital external hard drive , I am able to restore the photo but not the titles and descriptions . Western Digital inform me that it isn't their external hard drive problem and suggest that it is an Apple software problem ?
    I am using  a Macbook 4.1 , with Mac OSX 10.5.8 . I photo 7.1.5 , last modifie4d 01/05/2010 -universal . Should I be upgrading  Iphoto ?
    I hope that someone is able to help in this matter , as i have to restore 12000 photos !
    Thanking you in anticipation.
    Alan from Wigton

    Hallo  Kieth ,
    I am not quite ready to restore the full iphoto library , as I have days of work re - imputting titles,descriptions and enhancement . I hope that your suggestion works , as I use my Macbook basically to work with digital photography. Through time , I will need to delete my library to recover more disc space and I would hate to have to spend more time re - imputting titles and descriptions all over again .
    Thanks for your interest and advice.
    regards  - Alan

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