Time Machine won't erase a Hitachi 1T Drive (can't format it in DiskUtility

Just got my copy of Leopard and attempted to use Time Machine. The external drive I have is 1T brand new and my MacPro does see the drive; DiskUtility won't let me format it as Mac Extended or Journaled despite the box the drive coming saying it would allow OS X compatibility. Time Machine launches, attempts to erase the drive and then gives an error. Dead stop. Suggestions?
External Drive is Hitachi easy device 1T in size from BestBuy.

If you attach a drive which is greater than 512GB in size and comes pre-formatted using the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition scheme then you will need to re-partition the drive using either the Apple Partition Map or GUID Partition Table partition scheme before it will be usable by Time Machine.
To re-partition the drive, open Disk Utility, select the entire drive, select the Partition tab, select "1 partition", select the "Options" button, and then select either "Apple Partition Map" or "GUID Partition Table", click OK to dismiss the sheet, click "Apply" to repartition the drive. All existing data on the drive will be erased!

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PROBLEM SOLVED.
Recap: Time Machine would not back up an external data drive despite being correctly formatted and settings correctly applied.
Problem was either: a) the Mac, b) the external data drive, c) the Time Machine drive, or d) the data.
I replaced both the external data drive (cloned) and the Time Machine drive, but Time Machine would back up that external drive either.
Finally, instead of CLONING (SuperDuper) the external data drive, I COPIED the data to a new HD -- root folder-by-folder. Now Time Machine again backs up my external hard drive.
SOLUTION: Problem was not hard drives or Mac, but within the data itself. Cloning the data simply passed on the problem to the new hard drive. For this problem, the solution was copying the data rather than cloning.
Thanks all.

Time Machine won't recognize new external hard drive

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Disable Time Machine from System Preferences.
Choose Select disk button, remove the old TM backup disk and add the new one.

Time Machine won't backup to ext hard drive?

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Time Machine won't backup second external hard drive

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Howdy Kgkgkg12,
It sounds like this drive you are wanting to use with Time Machine is not in the same format that Time Machine needs to operate. According to this article:
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
Your Time Machine drive needs to be formatted as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). If you select an NTFS or FAT-formatted drive, Time Machine prompts you to reformat the drive. Important: Reformatting erases any files on the destination drive. If you're not sure if you want to erase the drive you connected, choose a different drive.
You can check the format of the drive with these steps:
OS X Yosemite: View file, folder, and disk information
Get individual item info: Select the item(s), then choose File > Get Info, or press Command (⌘)-I.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

Time machine won't back up my music drive

When I use time machine to back up my music my external drive with my music on it called "music" won't back up. When I attempt to re add it to the items to be backed up, from the "Exclude these items from backups", in the time machine preferences, it at first moves over to the items to be backed up, but when I exit the preferences and reopen it the music external drive shows up again as an excluded item. I've even named two drives music and neither will time machine allow me to back up. In the past I've successfully backed it up but can't now.

See C10 in the first linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Time machine won't back up external hard drive

Hello,
Due to my internal memory becoming full, I have connected an external hard drive to store my iPhoto Library.
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Are you using that same drive as the backup destination? If so, you can't back it up. Otherwise see below.
In the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-C, or select
Go ▹ Computer
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Hi All!
Heres my Problem.
I have a Mac Pro system with 4 Hard Drives installed inside the internal Bays. I wish to use one for Time Machine for the Clients.
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We are going to need more information from you in order to help.
What kind of hard drive is this?
How is it formatted?
Where is it connected? Directly to your Mac?
How is it connected? USB? Firewire?
What have you tried so far?
What error messages have you received?

Time Machine won't backup my external hard drive.

I am trying to get Time Machine to backup my external hard drive. I have the external drive formated as Mac OS Extended (journaled) and I have also removed the drive from the Excluded list. I put some 'test' files on the external drive and told TM to do a backup and when it is finished the only way I can see my external hard drive in TM is if it is connected to the computer. It doesn't seem to be backed up anywhere in TM that I can see. Please Help
Thanks.

Chihuahua Rancher wrote:
My thinking is that if my external hard drive craps out it would be ok because it would be backed up on the TM (what I'm trying to get it to do) How would I open the external drive if it was damaged and then invoke time machine?
#E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting shows how to do that.

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Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window.
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I have a recently bought FreeCom external USB drive for backups to Time-Machine.
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Now, it shows up in Disk Utility sometimes... but the actual volume of the disk is invisible.
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I hear it starts up and shuts down, it semi-shows up in disk utility... what can I do to acces it again???
There are some important files on there (besides the backup) that I need.
(This disk has never travelled or fallen/bumped.. it always sits stationairy under my desk.)
Message was edited by: Inofaith

Oddly enough, I attempted to post an answer to your question earlier, but it seems to have not been posted.
Have you tried a different cable or a different USB port?
Have you tried the drive on a different Mac?
Does the drive get its power from the USB port, or does it have an independent power supply?
Does the drive have any security features?
Since I am not familiar with this particular drive, I looked it up, and see that there are several models, and I don't know exactly which one you have. So I will be guessing as to what could be wrong.
If the drive gets its power through the USB port and draws too much power, it could be overloading the USB port and the USB port will shut down rather than allow too much power to be drawn. If you shut down the computer, it can "reset" the USB hub so that it will work again. If this is a possibility, you could try a powered USB hub or powering the drive with a independent power supply. Mac USB ports are very picky about anything drawing too much voltage.
It's possible that you have a faulty USB cable, so it would be worth trying a different cable.
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If there is a security feature, it may need to be reactivated in order to connect with the drive.
Hopefully the drive and its data are intact. It sounds to me more like a problem connecting with the drive than a problem with the drive itself. The intermittent nature of the problem lead me to suspect a problem with the cable or the USB port, as the connection itself is what seems to be flakey.
Good luck!

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I just restored my system after a failure, and now Time Machine won't back up my hard drive. It gets about 40 out of 90 Gigabytes done, and then gives me an error message that just says that there was an error while backing up, and doesn't give any other information. I ran a Verify Disk with Disk Utility, and there is nothing wrong with the backup drive, and there is more than 200 Gigabytes of space left on that drive.
Thank You.

zhoffmanster wrote:
Ok, so here's the thing: I tried backing up again today, and it worked just fine. Before, what would happen is a message would pop saying "an error has occurred during backup" (or something close to that). The point is, the message didn't give any detail.
No, the point is, you seem to have ignored this:
See the Time Machine - Troubleshooting post at the top of this forum.

Time Machine won't back up external drive to Time Capsule

I recently got a Time Capsule, and successfully set it up to back up my iMac's primary drive, but for some reason Time Machine won't back up my external drive to the Time Capsule.
I removed the external drive from the exclusion list in System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and from what I've read this should be sufficient to make Time Machine back up the drive.
The external drive is connected to my iMac via Thunderbolt > Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adaptor > Firewire 800 input, and the Time Capsule is connected via Ethernet to my LAN.
Since I'm using Ethernet, I've disabled Wi-Fi on the Time Capusule by going to AirPort Utility > My Time Capsule > Edit > Wireless > Network Mode > Off.
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Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I don't see anything you have done wrong.. perhaps it does backup in a different way.
Load the widget.. A1 here... http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
That will allow you to track the log of TM to see what it is doing.
I would also try rebooting the computer.. exclude the drive again.. reboot.. and remove the exclusion.
You should be able to check the actual settings of TM in plist file.
And you can do a full reset of TM as well.. See A4. Check what is in the file. Pondini lists the location for you.
Nothing surprises me with Mountain Lion ...!!

Time Machine won't backup up to external firewire drive

MacBook Pro - Time Machine won't backup to firewire external drive. Has worked well in past few weeks..........any ideas?

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Select "system.log" from the file list. Enter "backupd" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. Post the messages from the last backup, beginning with "Starting standard backup."
Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Do not post many repetitions of the same message.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

Time Machine not backing up other external hard drive

Hi,
I recently upgraded to Leopard and am trying to use Time Machine. I have one external hard drive that is used specifically for the Time Machine Backup, it's called "Backup Drive". The other hard drive is called "Captured Memories" and is used to store my graphic design files. Time Machine seems to backup my iMac because there is a folder called iMac and it contains the files, but the folder for Captured Memories is blank. I was getting errors saying that the backup failed but when I clicked the "Back Up Now" option on Time Machine, it doesn't list the error - but the Captured Memories folder is still blank so it didn't back up that external drive. I also changed the Spotlight preferences so that it does not search the Backup Drive.
Both the Backup Drive and the Captured Memories drives are the same, they're both Seagate Free Agent Pro drives, 1TB each.
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I was using a Memeo backup software that came with the Free Agent Pro drives but the problem I was having is it would make copies of files rather than move them. For example, I have a folder on the Captured Memories drive that is called, In Progress and one that is called In Proofing. So once a project is complete, I move the file to the In Proofing folder. The Memeo software would copy the file to the In Proofing folder rather than move it. So I'd end up with 2 copies of the file, one in the In Progress folder and one in the In Proofing folder.
Does anyone know how I can simply have the drive backed up like that?
What do I do?
Please help! I really need to make sure that the Captured Memories external drive is being backed up!

I am having a similar problem. I initially set it up 3 days ago and had it back up just the iMac to Time Capsule (about 120 GB) which it did no problem (I initially had my LaCie drive excluded). I then un-excluded my other drive, where all my photos and music reside (about 130 GB). Since then, it keeps trying to back up about 102 GB each time. Looking at the list of backups it does not appear that it has ever successfully backed up the LaCie. I am not aware of any error messages, but I have not been home much. I normally shut down the computer at night but I have been leaving it on trying to let Time Machine do its thing. All I can say is that every time I am at the computer TM is running and it always looks like it is in the middle of backing up 102 GB (usually seems to be near the beginning, never seem to see it more than halfway done). Looking at the TM panel it says the latest backup was 2 days ago. I'd appreciate any advice!

Time Machine won't erase a Hitachi 1T Drive (can't format it in DiskUtility

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