Time Machine Won't Work - Using a BOOT DISK and separate DATA DISK Drives

Ok, so I'm up and running the my new MacPro.
I did a boot drive and then I did a 3 drive "Data Volume" RAID for increased performance and am getting about 235mb speeds on the "data" drive.
Everything is great... except... TIME MACHINE doesn't work. I'm a backup fanatic, so I have TIME MACHINE to save "versions" of my files, plus I use SUPER DUPER, DROBO's etc.
So, I've tried deleting the network preferences file in the library folder and restarting, but to no avail.
Basically, if I open TIME MACHINE PREFS, it says backup failed and I cannot "change" the drive. It's like the MAC doesn't see if through the TIME MACHINE PREFERENCES, but the Time Capsule Disk is "mounted" in the finder and I can copy files directly.
Anyone have any advice?
Thanks!

Open Airport Utility and check that you have the TC properly configured with the drive shared and file sharing enabled. The TC drive must mount on the Desktop. It should also be partitioned using GUID partition map and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. You might consider using Airport Utility to erase the TC disk.
I believe the TC user manual should provide information on how to set up the TC to use with TM.

Similar Messages

  • 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.

  • HT201250 My 10.7.3 Time Machine won't work with external disks. Worked fine with Snow Leopard, and even Lion 10.7.1

    My 10.7.3 Time Machine won't work with external disks. Worked fine with Snow Leopard, and even Lion 10.7.1
    I have tried everything, even buy new external disk from different manufacture.
    If I cant get a fix soon, I am downgrading back to SnowL.

    Still no luck. I tried all the tricks, reconfiguring TM (remove selected disk option, and re-setting it, and trying different disks). Tried new combo updater, and the newer TM update after that. Tired two different disks too (one is my older firewire WD MyBook 1TB, and my brand new 3tb Seagate GoFlex USB... either one plugged into back of computer - no intermediary devices). I did get the TM buddy wiget and it produced the following log, from the last attempt, where I setup lots of exclusions so that backup quantity was small (under 10gb). Still it failed to complete. Here is that log, for what it is worth:
    Starting standard backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/TM-Disk/Backups.backupdb
    9.56 GB required (including padding), 911.15 GB available
    Waiting for index to be ready (101)
    Copied 0 files (0 bytes) from volume Mac HD.
    Backup canceled.
    To prove a point, I will take these disks are run them on my other Tiger and Snow Leopard laptops to prove TM works fine on those with these disks. But I fear the only options are to either have my tech re-install LION... or just have him reinstall SL instead. Im at wits end.

  • Started using my Time Capsule as a base station; now Time Machine won't work

    Dear community,
    I had been using my Time Capsule just for Time Machine backups, but I recently switched to using it as an internet base station as well. Now I can connect to internet via Wi-Fi, but Time Machine no longer works (it throws a "backup disk cannot be found" error). I assume this is related to the fact that the name of my Wi-Fi network differs from the name that my Time Machine used to have back when it was only my backup disk. Does anyone have any ideas for how to get Time Machine working again, hopefully without losing all my backup history? Thanks for your help.
    I am using a Time Capsule (circa 2012) and a late-2011 MacBook Pro with OS X 10.9.3.

    This is just typical Mavericks behaviour.
    You must find the hard disk for it. Poor Mavericks cannot find its own tail let alone a network device as complex as a hard disk.
    Does anyone have any ideas for how to get Time Machine working again, hopefully without losing all my backup history?
    Let me say, that killing your backups is harder than simple resets or changing functions. In fact the only way to wreck the backups is erase them deliberately from airport utility, or have TM working over a faulty link and corrupt them.
    The issue is simply that the hard disk is lost. And Bo Peep doesn't know where to find it.
    Step in and mount the hard disk manually.
    In Finder.. use Go, Connect to server.
    Type in AFP://TCname.local
    Where TCname is the actual network name of the TC. (Hopefully you are now using short names with no spaces and pure alphanumeric.. in which case network name = name. If not then you need to translate the name to the network name.
    So Fred Blog's Airport Time Capsule which you name it in the utility comes out.
    fred_blogs_airport_time_capsule as network name. Spaces and apostrophe are illegal.
    Let me encourage you to go back to the airport utility and rename the TC something sensible like TCgen4 (it is a gen4) and use TCwifi for the wireless name. Then the network name is at least something like the actual name.
    So in my case I would type in AFP://TCgen4.local
    Local is the default domain and using it can also help.
    The caps are irrelevant.
    The other and better way of doing it in Mavericks is use IP address of the TC if it is static. ie if the TC is main router it will have IP 10.0.1.1 by default.
    Then you type AFP://10.0.1.1
    You will be asked for the password.. type that in and keep it in your keychain.
    (BTW you can discover the actual names of everything via the netstat scan from network utilities. In Mavericks Network Utilities has gone walkabout, so you will need to search for it in finder). You should see the actual network names of everything listed here. Along with MAC address and other info.
    Now you can reset TM and point it at the TC disk which is already open in finder.
    See info on TM reset here.
    A4 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Please note when TM starts up it will show it is going to do a full backup.. this will not happen. It will discover the existing backup and then simply do incremental. (I hope!!) Nowadays with Mavericks nothing can be certain.
    Good Luck.. !
    Sorry I have made it over complicated.. Early morning here and not suitably caffeinated yet.
    If you run into trouble post back.

  • Time Machine won't work on external hd

    I have a seagate external hard drive that I have been using for time machine backups for several years now. I have it partitioned and have pictures saved on here also. For the last 2 days Time Machine has  not been able to backup to it. Yesterday, the external hd woudn't show up in the finder window but did show up in disk utilities. I shut down computer, unplugged it, restarted computer and then plugged it back in. Finally, it showed in finder window also and it seemed to be working again. Today, it was running a back up and then said it couldn't complete because something (I think it said hd) was read only? I do I tell if it is the external hard drive, cords or what is causing the difficulties? The imac also seems to be slow and when I tried to open up Photoshop Elements today it would not do that so I had to restart the computer to get it to open. Is there possibly something bigger going on with the iMac?
    I have an iMac intel, OSX10.6.8, 4GB Ram, 2.16 GHz, 249.72GB HD with 113.45GB available.
    Thanks for any help/insight you can give me.

    Please read Pondini's Time Machien Trouble Shooting Guide, it's the best tool for troubleshooting TM.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • Time Machine Won't Work after Maverick Upgrade

    Hi,
    I updated my operating system to Maverick the other day.
    Today I tried to restore a file from Time Machine, but when I "Enter Time Machine" none of the functions seems to work.
    I tried to press pretty much every date, and every button, but nothing works.
    Any suggestions on what to do short of restoring to the old ios?
    Thanks.

    Others here wouldnt recommend it, but on a new OS install, since I have a giant pile of HD, ...i just grab another HD and create a new fresh Time Machine backup
    after its complete, I take the original HD with the OLD backup and format/erase it.
    Im a tad too lazy to wait, as you yourself mentioned,  1 hour for TM just to PREPARE to backup. Nope, no,...not gonna do it.
    I updated 4 Macs to Mavericks and id rather make a wholly NEW Time Machine backup on another HD and erase the original.
    Since I keep about 12+ redundant archives of my important data, I have no worry on earth of ever losing data.
    Time machine is a backup, NOT an archive for vital data.
    Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection

  • Time Machine won't work with mountain lion

    Since upgrading my MacBook to Mountain Lion the Time Machine back up does not work
    The MacBook sees the TM and if I ask it to back up it "prepares the backup" but then after a while nothing happens.  The last recorded back up is before the update.
    We have an Apple Time Machine on our network and it's network cable enabbled and still works with our MacMini which has also been upgraded.
    I have tried to create a new back up and that hasn't worked either.
    My MacBook has been rebooted etc but still no success.
    How can I get this to work again?

    @Brian:
    I think I have the same issue
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/19083821#19083821
    What's your MBP version?
    Could you check if you still have a drop in your transmission speed? (as I shown in my thread)
    thx

  • Time machine won't work with LaCie blade runner

    I have a 2009 iMac and I just received my LaCie Blade Runner hard drive. I tried using it for time machine but it got to 2.46GB and then I just stop. I waited for an hour but nothing happened so I stopped it and tried again this time it got to 789.9MB and stopped. At this point I thought it might have been the formatting so I used disk utility to format it to journaled, encrypted and tried again, this time it only got to 11 bytes and within half an hour it said the estimated time of finishing was in 300,000 days, so I left it over night and by morning it got to 542.3MB.
    I don't understand is there something wrong with the hard drive or the formatting or is it just a glitch in the program? Help me apple community, your my only hope.

    Select the icon of the drive in Disk Utility (not the volume icon nested below it.) What is the partition type shown at the bottom of the window?

  • Time Machine won't work with Time Capsule

    HI all
    I have been using TM to backup to an Iomega portable drive but because the drive is relatively small and because I thought that having less wires around the place would be a good thing, I bought Time Capsule. However when I try to backup to TC I get one and/or two error messages. The first is that backup failed because TM couldn't create a directory. The second is that backup failed because TM couldn't write the files. When the first message occurs it's during the 'preparing backup' phase. The second happens with about 200mb copied.
    Does anyone know why I would get this message using TC but not using the Iomega drive. I changed the disk in TM and it is backing up to the Iomega drive. However....there is an issue here too. When I go into TM and look for user files I can only see a 'shared' user file and not my own user file. This is making me believe that I'm not really backing up anything at all!
    I called Apple and they suggest an archive and reinstall. As I don't have enough free space to do this I have to delete files (either iphoto or itunes). Until I checked the Iomega drive to ensure that all my files were on it I was happily prepared to do this. Now I'm not sure I can restore my files from the Iomega drive if I delete them from my Mac. I can, of course, just copy the itunes and iphoto folders to TC independently of the backup but I am very confused about the potential problems with TC and what the Iomega drive holds as a backup too.
    So before I do anything I'd appreciate if people had any thoughts.
    thanks
    WG

    You have made no mention of how Time Capsule is connected. For the initial backup, you should be connected using an ethernet connection. It would be a fresh, new backup. Did your setup of TC go smoothly? I assume the network is all setup and that the TC disk sharing is enabled.

  • Time machine won't work after mavericks upgrade

    Is there a way to fix it?  Time machine is stuck saying it's preparing for backup.

    Others here wouldnt recommend it, but on a new OS install, since I have a giant pile of HD, ...i just grab another HD and create a new fresh Time Machine backup
    after its complete, I take the original HD with the OLD backup and format/erase it.
    Im a tad too lazy to wait, as you yourself mentioned,  1 hour for TM just to PREPARE to backup. Nope, no,...not gonna do it.
    I updated 4 Macs to Mavericks and id rather make a wholly NEW Time Machine backup on another HD and erase the original.
    Since I keep about 12+ redundant archives of my important data, I have no worry on earth of ever losing data.
    Time machine is a backup, NOT an archive for vital data.
    Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection

  • Move Folder to new drive an now Time Machine won't work

    I moved my iMovie event folder and my itunes music folder to a new internal drive on my Mac Pro. When I back up my data, time machine says that I don't have enough space on the drive. I want Time machine to recognize the new folder locations with out backing them up as two separate folders. How can I fix this? I don't want to erase time machine and start from scratch.

    What kind of external drive do you have and do you have software installed that came with it?
    Pete

  • Time Machine won't work after installing Mountain Lion

    After installing Mountain Lion, I am unable to restore a file from time machine. I click on the time machine icon. It shows the bakups, I click on a previous backup but the screen doesn't roll back to the date. It only shows the current files. Example: I am trying to restore an email that was lost. I try to do a restore and it shows emails up to today even though I am asking for a back-up from a month ago.
    Bob

    Sorry, but I'm still not sure what you're seeing.
    Are you starting from Mail, per the blue box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15?
    Are you trying to restore emails from a mailbox in the "On My Mac" section?
    Do the older backups not appear in the TimeLine at all, or do they appear but are faded-out?
    Posting a screenshot might help.

  • Can I use my older airport express with an ext drive to backup time machine wireless, Can I use my older airport express with an ext drive to backup time machine wireless

    Can I use an older (flat) Airport Express to attach an ext hard drive and backup time machine wirelessly? and how?

    can I then connect a HD with itunes music and photos?
    Now we are drifting from the original question.
    Im alreadty using the HD attached to my Mac Pro...can I just connect it to the Extreme and access it wirelessly with any device on the wifi net?
    You may get another opinion on this from another user, but I do not recommend this either, based on a number of experimens over the years with this.
    Access to your data on the drive will be much slower. iTunes will tend to "lose" the library this way and you will have to re-point the iTunes application at the library on a regular basis.
    Things are even worse with the iPhoto library. The experts over in the iPhoto support area strongly advise that you do not do this, since any break in communication between the iPhoto application and iPhoto library can easily corrupt the entire library.  A wireless connection makes things even more dicey.
    My advice......Use a drive connected to the Extreme for storage or other backup copies of data.....not for "working" files or libraries.
    But, you may get some other opinions from users here.

  • Time Machine backup with MacBook Pro 10.7.5 and Seagate Backup Plus Drive?

    Anyone have any suggestions for a successful backup using Seagate Time Machine Backup Plus 1TB hard drive and 10.7.5 MacBook Pro?

    Is it something like this? If so, then it's likely already formatted for use with OS X - "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Just connect the drive, make sure that it mounts, and turn on and setup Time Machine in System Preferences.
    The first backup may take awhile, but hourly backups should be quick. Don't worry about keeping the drive plugged into your Mac all of the time - when your on battery Time Machine will make local snapshots on your internal. Just plug it up when you're ready.
    For a good introduction to Time Machine, see http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html.
    Good luck,
    Clinton

  • Mavericks Clean Install now Time Machine won't work

    Was having probs with Mavericks upgrade so decided to do clean install. Did TM backup and wiped main HD and check it then installed Maverics.
    Performed migration to get Applications & Data back all seemed fine. TM showd all back up from before install.
    TM reported fail on next day backup so I open TM to see what was there. I was shocked to discover all backups gone except one following migration and in progress backup that failed.  Never asked if old back ups to be deleted just disappeared.
    As all apps & data on main HD I reformatted and Checked TM disk all fine. TM starts backup of HD around 750GB to TM 2TB disk. After many hours it reports an error occured, no details what so ever what error was. Have reformatted again and tried again same. Is this Apple saying my 4yo IMac needs replacing, do they need more money or am I missing something, have read TM support files that dont help.
    Any advice would be great. Thank you.

    What kind of external drive do you have and do you have software installed that came with it?
    Pete

Maybe you are looking for