Time Machine won't see disk

I had my iMac packed up and stored away when I was away for 3 weeks, bringing only my MacBook Pro with me. I also packed down the two external hard drives I have, one of which is for Time Machine.
Now, after I came back and set it all up again, Time Machine hasn't been able to back up. It says it searched for the disk but never finds it. I have tried to deselect the disk and select it again and I have turned TM off and on, several times and all other tips I have come across, but nothing helps. I have cheked the disk with Disk Utility and it appears to be fine - and it shows up like normal.
I had ti connected through a USB-hub and I thought I might have forgotten which port it was, so now I connected it directly to the iMac, but that didn't help, either.
Any ideas, anyone?

I'm surprised that no one replied to this. But I learned a few things that may be helpful to some of you with this same question.
When you restore data from an external disk drive with Time Machine files on it. As you move through the dialog (in either System Startup or in the Migration Assistant) it will ask if you want to restore from an external disk with Time Machine files. If you select this option, it will show you only one Icon. You will expect to see your external disk drive listed as the source of the restore. The icon that is shown will look like your ilnternal drive and will be labeled something like Macintosh HD. That is not your internal drive, but is your backup drive. It is labeled the same as your internal disk drive and it is telling you that you have found the backup for your internal disk drive.
Would be nice if Apple would put a note of explanation about this as part of that dialog. I wasted several hours trying to make it work Finally I took a chance and selected the drive shown and it did restore my system. I ended up with two users since I did it from Migration Assistant. Had I done it from the System Startup, there would only be the one user.

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Mcdonsco,
Have you reviewed the logs on the computer you are trying to backup? What does it say in the console?

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hi,
for some reason, TM has continually told me there isn't enough space to make a backup to my external usb hd.
it's been backing up to this hd for about 9 months. disk utility checked it out and it seemed okay.
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cheers,
sean

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I have a similar problem, with a slight twist.
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The Apple store installed 10.5.6. November 2008.
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In console or terminal mode there are some directories and files are there on the backup HD. Although I have not found the original baseline backup yet from the console mode.
Apple support call in reported that a product specialist said the only thing to do was erase the backup HD and start over, that the 10.5.6 install had been a "new" install and the backups were no longer going to be accessible. One way to cut down on support calls is to to limit the support delivered.
Found several December 2008 references to changing permissions on "Mac address" based on ethernet card 16 byte file.
"Note the name of the file that begins with a period and has 12 characters in the name, such as ".001b6397c156" mentioned in the quote above"
This permission was r-------- to begin with. I did a chmod a+r and a+w.
A number of ways on the web to do that.
But this has not changed the behavior, but I have not rebooted yet.

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Time Machine has been working well backing up the MacBook Pro over WIFI to an external Firewire drive hardwired to the iMac. The iMac is backed up to a separate partition on the same external HD. After rashley changing MacBook passwords for Keychain and login (separately, then making them the same when I saw what a mess I made) the TM backups started failing on the MacBook, but were fine on the iMac.
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Anybody got more things to try? I may try moving the external HD from the iMac to the Airport Extreme, but would rather not.

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i can't use my lacie hard dirve that is hooked up to my airport extreme base station with the time machine.
looking around the forums i understood that time machine only works with the drives that are mounted on the desktop. some apparently do that manually by clicking to it in finder, others use an automator app to automatically mount.
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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.
Navigate to the first of the backup attempt that failed, copy and post the messages here. A clue should be lurking in there.
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I had changed the name of the TC, then i changed it back. so i don't think that's the problem?
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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.
Navigate to the first of the backup attempt that failed, copy and post the messages here. A clue should be lurking in there.
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That's a curious comment. Have you been deleting things from your internal HD, relying on TM to keep it's copies archived?

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That should say "Now none of the laptops (a MacBook and an iBook) will see either external drive..." I hate typos.
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I'm having the same issue with Mavericks - and it appears to be Mavericks specific. I don't have this problem with Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion can see both of my NAS drives.
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Clearly with Time Machine on Mavericke Apple has really screwed the pooch.
MacBook Pro 2.3GHz i7 with DVD drive and standard resolution display.

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.
Now select erase and select the midde option and click erase, it will take a bit to complete but it's best for the drive.
Now select Partiton tab, click the big box and Options: GUID and then Format: OS X Extended journaled and click apply.
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/

My Time machine won't back up. Recently updated to OS x 10.7.5. Error message is as follows: "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Scott's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use." What is wrong and how do I fix it? Thanks.

My Time machine won't back up. Recently updated to OS x 10.7.5. Error message is as follows: "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Scott’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use." What is wrong and how do I fix it? Thanks.

Have you tried restarting the computer? Also, see Time Machine Error from this pages sidebar under More Like This.

Hi there. just bought a TC, installation was succesfull, but time machine won't work. can't select Backup disk. get transferred to TC install again. Called Apple, 25 min. later no succes, have to call on monday again!!!! Can anyone help me? Thanks a lot.

Hi there. just bought a TC, installation was succesfull, but time machine won't work. can't select Backup disk. get transferred to TC install again. Called Apple, 25 min. later no succes, have to call on monday again!!!! Can anyone help me? Thanks a lot.

See #Q1 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.
If you have a problem, please tell us exactly what, and on which step there.

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Is this Mountain Lion??
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If you are on Lion or Mountain Lion even you can install the v5 utility.
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1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
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http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
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Hi,
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Thanks!

Sorry but your picture is not presenting.. it is not your fault.. it will present on your computer but not on other computers.
If I try and download the picture it is 209bytes.. clearly too small. This is trying to open your picture.
This picture showing the failure is normal screenshot.. does it show for you??
I have suggested reducing the file name.. pic1.png as I think the long names with spaces could be an issue.
Here is the same picture with the name changed.
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Time Machine won't see disk

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