Trying to back up with time machine for first time. It keeps ejecting the disk a few minutes in. Any ideas?

I am using a WD My Passport to try and do a time machine backup for the first time, on my iMac desktop.
the first couopleo of times I did it, it was really slow and then crashed after a few mins. I started again as if it was a new external harddrive and some home it tarted a bit faster, getitng to aboyt 6GB of the 280GB within 10 mins and then crashed again. All I see is that it is no longer working and a message pops up saying 'Disk was not ejected properly', even though I havent touched it.
Am I doing soemthing wrong or have I got a dodgy external disk?
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Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

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Backing up macbook with time machine for first time

I tried backing up my macbook for the first time, using time machine, to a new portable external hard drive formatted for p.c. The screen said do you want to erase the disc and i did. It said nothing about formatting for mac, but began to appear to be backing up my computer, and was running for 3-4 hours doing that. I walked away from the computer and came back an hour or two later, and there was a message on the screen saying error, could not create directory. I don't know if this was related to the initial backup, or if an hour later it tried updating the backup and it referred to that. How do I know if my computer is backed up properly. What do I do about the message about the directory. If I don't need this program to update the backup every hour, how do I change that. Also, I have a 1 terrabyte external hard drive on which I store all my raw photography files, can I plug that in and plug in another new external hard drive and back up the external hard drive to the other external hard drive using time machine as well? thanks for any suggestions, this is a little confusing the first time, Virginia

The backup frequency can be changed using e.g. TimeMachineScheduler and I think you can set Time Machine to backup external drives. (System Preferences --> Time Machine --> Options)

Setting up Time Machine for first time

...tried to help friend with new iMac use Time Machine with her even newer external 500G Ultramax drive, as she was struggling with the bundled Retrospect Express (I struggled too!).
When I launched TM, a box asked me if I wanted to set up TM. Clicked OK, Adobe Reader launched, and then the error message 'there was an error opening this document. There was a Macintosh System error (-1409)."
So, I can't past this to set up TM. Anyone know what could be wrong?

Hi John, it sounds like there may still be an element of RE on either the target drive, the destination?
TM should not definitely be launching Acrobat Reader. I can't even find an error -1409 in the error codes. So something is whacked.
Try starting in "Safe Mode" and setting up TM again If that works go to System Preferences >> Accounts >> Login Items and remove them. Boot normally and test. If not go to ~(yourHome)/Library/Contextual Menu Items and move whatever is there to the desktop. Then do the same with /Library/Contextual Menu Items.
It will take a bit more time to startup because it runs a directory check.
Log out/in or restart, if that sorts it start putting items back one at a time until you find the culprit.
-mj

I am unable to burn any info-photo ect on to a disk. I have a 27" I mac mid 2010 version. I put in a disk, hit burn, it runs for about 3 mins and ejects the disk sayiny there was an error with the drive and will not restart.

am unable to burn any info-photo ect on to a disk. I have a 27" I mac mid 2010 version. I put in a disk, hit burn, it runs for about 3 mins and ejects the disk sayiny there was an error with the drive and will not restart.

The optical drive has probably failed. It's a fairly common thing with these slim SuperDrives. Does it read any discs you put into it? You can try resetting the SMC and pram but I'll be surprised if it helps.
To reset the SMC
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on
Resetting PRAM and NVRAM
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

HT1349 I'm on pages and for some reason this time, on a blank page, I cannot get the curser to show up. Any ideas?

I'm on pages and for some reason this time, on a blank page, I cannot get the curser to show up. Any ideas?

I'll guess that you've opened a page layout template which does not have a text layer, therefore no cursor. You'll need to add text boxes or shapes to type in. If you just want to write a letter or similar, close the current document & then choose a blank document from the word processing section of the template chooser.

New MBP and Time Machine won't let me search out my NAS to save too. Any ideas?

When trying to set up time machine and using a NAS drive in my wireless network Time Machine won't let me search and select the storage device. I can access the storage and save/retrieve files so I can see and use it. Anyone got any ideas please?
Brand New MBP running Mavericks.

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.
Additionally, with Mavericks Time Machine won't see your backup properly. It may only see the most recent backup. Though in my case it wouldn't load either one (I had two on different drives). To recover some files I had to use a machine running Mountain Lion to mount a backup file then I was able to extract the files to a USB drive, which I then moved to the Mavericks machine.
I've tried using terminal to run tmutil commands without luck. I have mounted the volume I want to use - it shows when I do "ls -l /Volumes". Then when I do sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/VOLUMENAME the system seems to go into an infinite loop. I have to ^c to get back to terminal.
Clearly with Time Machine on Mavericke Apple has really screwed the pooch.
MacBook Pro 2.3GHz i7 with DVD drive and standard resolution display.

Problems and Questions using Time capsule for first time...

I recently purchased a new MBP 13" and time capsule. I hooked up time capsule to my router and made a backed up (slow) . I turned off Time Machine. Then, I hooked up my old mac via ethernet (faster, I learned), and mounted the sparsebundle via Shared in the Finder. I manually dragged and dropped the contents of my external harddrives(s) [connected to my old mac] to the sparsebundle. Thus;
[Mounted sparsebundle]
- Backups.backupdb
    - Mac Book Pro 13" <<< new mac time machine backups
          - 2012-11-25-5543
          - 2012-11-23-3453
          - 2012-11-19-6654
          - 2012-11-17-3422
- My Media Backup           <<< Created new folder, Then dragged and dropped files from external disk
- My Business Harddrive    <<< Created new folder, Then dragged and dropped files from external disk
- My Personal Harddrive    <<< Created new folder, Then dragged and dropped files from external disk
Questions 1; Are external files manually moved to Time capsule "safe?"
ie. Will time capsule erase my files once it starts to run out of space? I read something about having to limit time machin'se sparsebundle size? Do I have to worry about this?
Question 2: Or, Is my setup wrong? Is the following workflow sound for Time Capsule?
I really want to consolidate all my data [external drives] to Time Capsule as my MBPro has limited space. As a avid amateur photographer, my drive fills up fast. Thus, I thought to use this as my workflow;
WORKFLOW;
- I take photos and transfer to my macbook pro. As the drive fills up, I edit and delete as necessary.
- Old media projects [photos / films] are moved to "My Media Backup" folder on Time Capsule and deleted on my macbook pro.
This way, the media files are still accessible through Time Machine, AND still accessible via shared folder on "My Media Backup". I am afraid that once the Time Capsule drive starts to fill up, files that are no longer on my computer will be overwritten in Time Machine, eventually.
- I also will from time to time backup "My Media Backup" folder on Time Capsule to an External Harddrive and move offsite for added security.
Problem 1; "resource temporarily unavailable"
My old mac, connected via ethernet sees the sparsebundle and mounts no problem. But after manually dropping files, my new mac doesn't connect and I get the dreaded "resource temporarily unavailable"; though it's not temporary as I can never connect. So, I cannot access the backup [manually dropped] files on Time Capsule from my new mac via wireless. Note: My new MacBook Pro 13" retina does not have ethernet port [I did not think to purchase adapters], Nor does it have firewire port for my old external firelite drives. Thus I have a new mac, but I haven't used it hardly at all as I cannot access any of my old data (without emailing everything).
Kind regards,

You have basically destroyed the sparsebundle. This is just wrong. The sparsebundle is created by TM for its exclusive use.. what it will do to the files inside it is a mystery.. but you cannot now delete them.. you have permission to create and copy the files to the sparse bundle but not to delete them.
M*rde. I was afraid of that. Makes sense that if you modify the sparsebundle file exterior of Time Machine; how could it know what changes were made? So, I've got to start over. (groan).
*** NOTE TO APPLE: Make it clear what NOT to do to the sparsebundle in the setup instructions.
It's too easy to simply mount the sparsebundle and drag and drop files I also wanted backed up. Apparently, this is a false method and can apparently ruin your sparsebundle and your valuable data.
If you wanted to copy files to the TC you should have created a new disk image..
http://pondini.org/TM/TCQ3.html
Thanks! This, I think, does exactly what I was trying to do manually. I'll mark problem solved.
Apple needs to address the gaping hole in the; functionality, ease of use, reliability, transparency of potential data loss if used incorrectly.
*** APPLE: Add to Time Machine.app a management tool to better manage shared space of manual backups and time capsule sparsebundles. In any case, in the installation if a time capsule, give the TC drive a special id/permissions or something that does not allow drag and drop to a sparsebundle (if this does indeed corrupt the integrity of the sparsebundle).
Since this could result in data loss, special attention needs to paid to;
   - Notifify the user of the potental of data loss
   - Prevent the casual and intermediate user of through special permissions or special disk id in the installation process (I've really no idea how it might work - I'll leave that up to Apple)
   - Create an interface to allow the user to do the tasks that everybody buys a the time machine for - back up data. No matter what the source; USB key, portable drive, temp space to organize large files. etc. An interface that won't let you screw up the sparsebundle like any idiot can do (me!)
Kind regards,

TS1967 Every time that I try to open a video the program is forced close. Any ideas?

Every time that I try to open a video in iTunes, the program is forced close. Any ideas on how to rectify the situation?

Try the following user tip:
iTunes for Windows 10.7.0.21: "iTunes has stopped working" error messages when playing videos, video podcasts, movies and TV shows

I have the new macbook pro with retina and I am trying to back up with wd passport for mac and is telling me it is going to take 7days

I have the new macbook pro with retina and I am trying to back it up, with wd passport for mac and is telling me it is going to take 7days. Any Ideas? Im afraid that means there is something wrong with my hard drive. I have verified the disk and it says everthing is ok.

It seems to be a common problem that those drives don't perform well, at least not with Time Machine.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
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.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Post the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear.
Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into a message.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

Backing up macbook pro to time capsule for first time via ethernet

I set up a new 2T Time Capsule / Airport, let it run overnight, only about half way backed up. I deleted first backup file, and want to do the backup via ethernet. How do I do this?

....and want to do the backup via ethernet. How do I do this?
This will depend on how you have the Time Capsule connected to your network.
If you have it connected from your modem or modem/router using an Ethernet cable at the present time, you are already set. Just connect another spare Ethernet cable from one of the LAN <-> ports on the Time Capsule to your Mac....and be sure to turn off the wireless on the Mac before you start the backup.
Normally, about 25-30 GB of data will transfer per hour this way, so if your Mac has say, 60 GB of data loaded, the backup should take approximately 2-3 hours. Once the backup is complete, disconnect the Ethernet cable and turn the wireless back on at the Mac.
However, if you have the TIme Capsule configured to connect to your network using wireless only, then the Ethernet ports are not enabled on the Time Capsule in this type of setup. It is not possible to backup using an Ethernet connection unless you are willing to reconfigure the Time Capsule for the backup...and then reconfigure it again to get it back to its current setup.

Since I upgrade to Mavericks, I am unable to back to Time Machine. I receive this error message -The disk image "computer name.sparsebundle" is in use. Try ejecting the disk image

anyone have any suggestions how to fix this. I have looked around but do not see this specific error message on any of the discussions. Also, very little information regarding mavericks

I am using Time Machine, but it an external drive that is connected to Airport Express with a USB through a hub

Can I use time machine for backup but also keep my itunes library on my external and not on my MacBook Pro?

I have two 1TB external drives that I planned on using for backup of my MacBook Pro (Not actually sure how to use them both as duplicate backups but I'l have to figure that out later). What I'm wanting to do is use the external as a backup but I'd also like to keep the majority of my music on the external drive so I can keep the space free on my MacBook. Is this possible?

Possible, but not advisable.
You would be using the same drive for backup & normal (live) uses at the same time. That pretty much negates the whole purpose of backup, at least as far as that single drive would be concerned.
Better to devote 1 drive to backup (TM or otherwise) and a 2nd drive for online (live) usage.
One more thing ... you don't really have effective backup until you have at least 2 separate backups on 2 separate drives, neither of which is connected to your Mac except for backup & restore operations. Three is even better.

Time Machine Buddy says: Stopping Backupd to eject destination disk!

I have a new external hard drive to replace one that failed for Time Machine BAck up. I formatted it and two nights ago, did a successful initial backup which consisted of about 600 or 700 GB (on a 2TB drive) .
Last night, I checked on Time Machine and saw it was "preparing to backup " for 1 1/2 hours. I knew that was not normal so opened up Disk Utility to verify disk. However, Disk Utility just hanged.
The color wheel just started spinning and everything on my screen was frozen, so I powered it down. After two attempts to power back up, the computer finally came back up, but now my new external hard drive is not recognized by either Time Machine nor Disk Utility. I tried powering down the drive, disconnected it from the computer, then restarted the computer twice, and the drive was then recognized
I was then able to do a successful backup last night.
However, this morning, on reviewing Time Machine Buddy, the last line after BAck up completed successfully is :” Stopping backupd to allow ejection of destination disk!”
How did this come about and what am I doing wrong, and how can I fix it?
I am also using Time Machine Editor and have only scheduled backups twice a day. Could this be the problem? Although I have used these two programs before with my other USB external hard drive (™ Editor and ™ Buddy ) without any problems.
I am posting a copy of Time Machine Buddy’s status.
I would appreciate any help , thank you!
P.S. It looks like my external hard drive is ejected? but Time Machine and Disk Utility still have it listed. I tried verify disk again this morning, but it just hanged like the other night.
October 11, 2013
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Back Up/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 944.7 MB requested (including padding), 1.56 TB available
Copied 25123 files (120.1 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 834.0 MB requested (including padding), 1.56 TB available
Copied 1131 files (1.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Back Up/Backups.backupdb/marietta banogon’s iMac/2013-10-10-192025: 1.56 TB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Back Up/Backups.backupdb/marietta banogon’s iMac/2013-10-10-191220: 1.56 TB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Back Up/Backups.backupdb/marietta banogon’s iMac/2013-10-10-181222: 1.56 TB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 3 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Stopping backupd to allow ejection of destination disk!
Message was edited by: mariettafrum

THANK you, Klaus. Did you send me the link to pondini? Somehow I do not see it here, but got it in my email notification?
Did you say "late" Pondini? So sorry to hear that!
I have searched his website but did not see anything relevant to why my destination disk is getting ejected?
I wonder if I should just disable TM Editor? Same thing that happened originally, again happened this am with my computer freezing, having to power down, etc.
Anyway, thank you for your interest.

Time Machine Backups external drive developed problem which the disk repair utility cannot fix, so suggested reformat. I can't reformat because the "Resource Busy". How can I reformat this drive?

My Western Digital external hard drive which I use as a Time Machine Backup stopped working. I tried repairing the disk using the Disk Utility program,but got the message that the utility can't repair the disk and to erase and reformat the disk. When I try that, I get the message the operation can't be completed because "Resource Busy", even though Time Machine is turned off. Any suggestions for repairing the drive/disk?
Thank you.

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

Time Machine pops up a dialog window that the disk ran out of space unexpectedly.

This happens hourly, it seems. Should not be a problem if TM deletes the oldest backup (which it says it will do), so I don't care! VERY ANNOYING. How do I stop that message from popping up?
OS 10.8.4
TM drive is connected via USB.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
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.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the search box.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Trying to back up with time machine for first time. It keeps ejecting the disk a few minutes in. Any ideas?

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