Unable to configure Time Machine backups to shared volume on network

I've been unable to coax Time Machine (TM) into using a networked shared volume that SuperDuper! accesses without a hitch.
My wife and I have laptops (TiBook and MacBook Pro, respectively), and we have a G4 Mac Mini with an external 300 GB HD. The Mini is connected to a wired Ethernet port on a GigE Airport base station (I've long ago given up on connecting that HD to the Airport). Our laptops connect wirelessly. All three machines are now running 10.5, and I've checked that the Mini is sharing the external HD via System Preferences. My wife and I both have accounts on the Mini, and those accounts provide read/write access on the external HD. Mounting that volume from our laptops works perfectly, as does backing up to it using SuperDuper! TM, however, doesn't recognize that volume as a backup location.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Andreas

Adapting the instruction in this post worked for us. I connected to the Mini via ssh and entered the commands to enable the external HD. It then showed up as a TM backup location on both of our computers, and the progress meters for the initial backup are ticking away.
Cheers,
Andreas

Similar Messages

Unable to access time machine backup. The folder "Documents" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents.

My MacBook Pro with 750GB storage refuses to startup due to a problem with logic board (unfortunately I'm in Singapore and there is no Apple store here and zero customer support). I'm trying to access some of the files from the time machine back-up using my MacBook Air with 120GB storage, but I'm unable to open the backup. I receive an error message "you don't have permission to see its contents". Unable to access time machine backup. The folder “Documents” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.
I don't really want to migrate the data from the time machine to the MacBook Air as I simply don't have sufficient storage space on the MacBook Air. The iPhoto library which I'm trying to access is 200GB, which is more than the size of the MacBookAir.
Is there any way I can view the photos and documents stored on the time machine backup.
Thank you very much.

When you setup the Mac, you created a Admin user account with say name X
You ran Migration Assistant and it migrated user Y from the Windows machine.
User Y has different permissions than User X.
User X can't normally access User Y's account.
So what you do is log out of User X via the Apple menu and into User Y, this way you have permission to access the files.
If you want to transfer files from User Y to User X account
Transfer files between user accounts on the same machine instructions
Finder > Go menu > Computer
A window appears with your boot drive, double click on it to open
Inside is Users folder, double click to open it
Inside is your User accounts, double click on the one you want to send files too
Double click on the Public folder drop the files into the DropBox folder,
The permissions will change and can be used in the other user account when you log into it and moved to the appropriate folders.
Applications are typically installed and kept in the Applications folder which is a global access folder all users can access to run them from, but not all users can modify unless they are a Admin user.
Windows programs won't run on a Mac, but they can be instaled into a virtual machine program that is running Windows.
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?

Unable to access time machine backups after creating new user profile

Hi,
I had visited the Genius Bar with some problems with iTunes not opening. The Genius had indicated that I likely had some corrupt files and that the easiest fix would be to create a new user profile... So we did...
After transferring all my data over to the new profile and setting everything back up as I like I deleted the old (presumably corrupt) user profile. To my dismay I no longer have access to any of my time machine backups that were created prior to setting up my new user profile... They appear to still all be there. However, I am unable to select any of the dates prior to the new user profile's creation and the deletion of the old profile...
Please help...
Thank in advance,
Des

desbiss wrote:
After transferring all my data over to the new profile and setting everything back up as I like I deleted the old (presumably corrupt) user profile. To my dismay I no longer have access to any of my time machine backups that were created prior to setting up my new user profile... They appear to still all be there. However, I am unable to select any of the dates prior to the new user profile's creation and the deletion of the old profile...
That's correct. What you see in Time Machine's "Star Wars" display depends on what you have the Finder window set to. While looking at the new profile, you can't see any backups that were done before it existed.
You're right, they're still there, for now, but are grayed-out in the timeline at the right, because what's in the Finder window wasn't backed-up then.
If you select your internal HD or Computer Name in the sidebar, you'll be able to see those backups.
But since they're for a different user, you won't be able to view inside that home folder or restore from it -- one user, even an Admin user, doesn't normally have access to a different user's data.
It's doubtful, but you might be able to create a new user with exactly the same name as the one you deleted, log on to it, and see if the old backups appear.

Unable to access time machine backups after upgrade

I have an airport extreme with an USB disk that I've been using with my 10.8 system.
I've decided to format and do a clean install of mavericks. After that even tough I can access the timemachine and see scroll with the mouse I can't use the arrows or select anything.
Any ideas?
Regards.

desbiss wrote:
After transferring all my data over to the new profile and setting everything back up as I like I deleted the old (presumably corrupt) user profile. To my dismay I no longer have access to any of my time machine backups that were created prior to setting up my new user profile... They appear to still all be there. However, I am unable to select any of the dates prior to the new user profile's creation and the deletion of the old profile...
That's correct. What you see in Time Machine's "Star Wars" display depends on what you have the Finder window set to. While looking at the new profile, you can't see any backups that were done before it existed.
You're right, they're still there, for now, but are grayed-out in the timeline at the right, because what's in the Finder window wasn't backed-up then.
If you select your internal HD or Computer Name in the sidebar, you'll be able to see those backups.
But since they're for a different user, you won't be able to view inside that home folder or restore from it -- one user, even an Admin user, doesn't normally have access to a different user's data.
It's doubtful, but you might be able to create a new user with exactly the same name as the one you deleted, log on to it, and see if the old backups appear.

Unable to restore time machine backup onto a new hard drive

I recently bought a new hard drive for my mid-2010 white Macbook. I have kept this computer regularly backed up with time machine, but just to be sure I made sure I hooked up my external hard drive prior to changing the hard drive and made sure it was fully backed up. I checked my exceptions and saw that my system files and applications were listed, so I removed them from the exceptions list and let it back up again (it only backed up a further 60MB though, so that made me a little uneasy).
I successfully switched over the hard drive and then plugged in my external hard drive so I could do a restore from Time Machine. My external hard drive has 3 partitions: 2 time machine backups for each of my computers, and one partition for storing files that also has an old copy of 10.6 on it.
When I booted the computer, I held option, then selected Macbook TM. When it came to the window with 4 options, including disk utility and restore from time machine backup, I selected restore from Time Machine backup. When I did so it said "No OS X Backups Were Found." Why wouldn't it have backups listed if I have been consistently backing it up? How else do I do a full system backup?
Also, how can I be sure that I'm restoring this backup onto the new hard drive? It didn't prompt me to select that drive at any point, and I want to make sure I'm not overwriting the middle partition on the backup drive (or anything else).

Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
You will find that Mountain Lion stores an invisible copy of the Recovery HD. You can boot from your Time Machine backup drive by restarting with OPTION boot:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon for your Time Machine backup drive.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Your computer should boot into the Recovery HD. You will be presented with a main window of options. Select the option to restore from a Time Machine backup then click on the Continue button.

Unable to complete Time Machine backup to Iomega 1TB external drive

I've read through all the posted topics related to Time Machine failing. I've run Disk Utility without errors; ensured that the external drive is formatted correctly GUID; 1 partition; Mac OS Extended (Journaled); downloaded TimeMachineBuddy; and still cannot get my new Iomega 1TB hard drive to complete a backup. My prior external drive, a LaCie, had no such difficulties but is now full.
Here is the TimeMachineBuddy error report. I am hoping one of you can help me understand what my next steps should be and thank you, in advance:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega-BU-02/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
Backup content size: 82.2 GB excluded items size: 1.2 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 97.28 GB requested (including padding), 930.58 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/AIK1.1/runtimes/air/mac/Adobe AIR.framework/Versions/Current/Adobe AIR to /Volumes/Iomega-BU-02/Backups.backupdb/Lydia Mann’s iMac/2010-04-06-211444.inProgress/A0522F91-AE77-4536-BE6F-654DA7F2F4B5/Macintos h HD/Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/AIK1.1/runtimes/air/mac/Adobe AIR.framework/Versions/Current
Stopping backup.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/AIK1.1/runtimes/air/mac/Adobe AIR.framework/Versions/Current/Adobe AIR to /Volumes/Iomega-BU-02/Backups.backupdb/Lydia Mann’s iMac/2010-04-06-211444.inProgress/A0522F91-AE77-4536-BE6F-654DA7F2F4B5/Macintos h HD/Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/AIK1.1/runtimes/air/mac/Adobe AIR.framework/Versions/Current
Copied 23.5 GB of 81.1 GB, 36103 of 932234 items

Thanks, Pondini.
I attached a new drive last night. Time Machine prompted me that it needed reformatting, which it did internally, without going to Disk Utility. It then started a backup but hung on "cleaning up" where I found it this morning.
Again, the finder was taken out with the TM hang and I had to hard reboot (on/off button - restart doesn't work nor does force quitting finder).
Here is the sad log from last night's attempt. Since it mentions an entirely new set of failures I am now ready to point to my computer as the faulty party. $180 worth of external drives into this, I am reticent about sinking anymore money into this until I rule out the computer itself. This line "NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error"
seems to be the essential problem.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
Backup content size: 176.6 GB excluded items size: 90.1 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 103.69 GB requested (including padding), 930.58 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying / WORK/clientname/pdfs.zip to /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/myname’s iMac/2010-06-29-220723.inProgress/EFF47981-66BF-4C86-BA7F-7F802EC954F2/Macintos h HD/ WORK/KeriGans
Stopping backup.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying / WORK/clientname/pdfs.zip to /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/myname's iMac/2010-06-29-220723.inProgress/EFF47981-66BF-4C86-BA7F-7F802EC954F2/Macintos h HD/ WORK/KeriGans
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Copied 12301 files (7.4 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Copy stage failed with error:11
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error: (-36) Creating directory myname’s iMac 2
Error: (-36) Creating directory myname’s iMac 3
Error: (-36) Creating directory myname’s iMac 4
Error: (-36) Creating directory myname’s iMac 5
Error: (-36) Creating directory myname’s iMac 6
Error: (-36) Creating directory myname’s iMac 7
Error: (-36) Creating directory myname’s iMac 8
Message was edited by: lkmweb

Unable to copy time machine backup

I need to move my Time Machine backup to a new and larger disk.
I have followed the instructions for doing a copy at the finder level - correct disk formatting, unchecked the "ignore ownership" setting. Got a message - can't copy file - need a new version of iWork (why is that relevant in a copy, I don't know). Clicked OK and copy continued. Soon after, copy fails at 490GB of the 650GB copy with a message that don't have permission to copy certain files. - Clicked OK, but copy would not continue - disk activity light flashing but no progress after 3 hrs so I killed the copy. Happened twice at same spot. Getting to that spot took 24 hrs! I am logged in as Administrator.
Tried the disk image copy suggestion using "Restore" from Disk Utilities. That quit after some unknown amount of time with "cannot copy" error that I didn't save as it didn't seem to have any relevant information in the message.
All told been trying to do this copy for 5 days - no luck.
Used Disk Utilities ot examine the current backup disk - no problems evident
I could bite the bullet and start a new Time Machine backup on my new disk, but that throws away a year or so of backups. Really negates the purpose of backing-up, doesn't it?! Don't really want to do that.
Any suggestions?
Thansk
Peter

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CSeq "I/O error" | tail | open -f -a TextEdit
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal 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 Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the window will be empty. If you get output like this:
kernel[0] <Debug>: disk1s2: I/O error
a drive is failing, or there's some other hardware fault in the storage subsystem.

Unable to Transfer Time Machine Backups?

Hello community!
I'm having trouble copying 1TB of Time Machine backups to a fresh 4TB drive.
The 1TB drive is formatted AMP, Mac OSX Extended (Journaled), 1 partition, and has 11GB free. It has 2 machines backed up on it. One is a pre-Intel Dual G5 PowerMac and the other is an i7 MacBook Pro with 2 profiles/accounts.
The 1TB backup drive is working perfect to date and I needed extra space to ensure my backs are safe. Plus I am adding a new machine to the backups.
The new 4TB drive is formatted with GUID, Mac OSX Extended (Journaled), 1 partition. I have ignored ownership permissions. When I drag the backup folder from the old drive to the new it asks me for a password. I enter it. It then begins "preparing to copy to <new 4TB drive>." After about 1.5hr and 2,200,000 items prepared, I get this prompt...
"You may need to enter the name and password for an administrator on this computer to change the item named "Backups.backup".
My options are Skip, Stop, or Continnue. I hit continue. It begins to copy the data.
Error 1 @ 750GB: "Blank" cannot be converted. Please install a newer version of iWork.
Error 2: The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items.
Error 3: The operation can't be completed becasue an unexpected error occured (error code -8062).
Error 4: The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items.
Error 5: The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items.
At this point it just hangs at 750GB of 915GB.
Both are external. Both attached using USB to the i7 MacBook Pro.
What's the hiccup? AMP vs GUID? Pre-Intel & Intel back ups? 2 Accounts on one machine? It seems to be a permissions issue, but not sure how to troubleshoot this without messing up my backups.

Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. Turn Time Machine OFF in its preference pane while copying the volume.

How to setting up new (June 2011) TC to do wireless time machine backup but not connected to network?

Hello. Just got new (refurbished June 2011, 2TB) Time Capsule. My building has a shared wifi network, and I'm assuming it's hard to join the network with Time Capsule and still be satisfied with security/privacy/performance. (Of course, if I'm assuming wrong, please let me know!)
My understanding is that I can use Time Capsule wirelessly to do Time Machine backups by switching out of my wireless network to - I assume - a new Time Capsule generated network(?). It's an extra step, but that beats connecting cables to the computer everytime I need to do backup. Basically it's like an external wireless hard drive that I have to join everytime the backup is updated, right? (Again, if there is a better way to go about doing this, please let me know.)
So how do I go about doing this? The setup manual isn't helpful (not at all).
Here's more detail if necessary. I have 10.8 Macbook Air (which I plan to upgrade to 10.9 soon) and my spouse is running 10.9 Macbook Pro. I am also assuming I don't have to partition Time Capsule, and when the Time Machine backs up, it'll figure who's who.
Thanks in advance.

Hello. Just got new (refurbished June 2011, 2TB) Time Capsule. My building has a shared wifi network, and I'm assuming it's hard to join the network with Time Capsule and still be satisfied with security/privacy/performance. (Of course, if I'm assuming wrong, please let me know!)
Security is ok.. but performance is abominable.
The TC unfortunately has some design limitations that Apple imposed that makes it rather poor for anything but ethernet.
There is a couple of ways around the problem of sequential internet or backups.
1. Get a wireless bridge that is suited to your in-building system.. and plug that into the TC so it can take normal router settings .. This will give you double NAT but I doubt your in building system will be handing out public IP anyway. An airport extreme can do this. Although it is pricey for the same results as a $35 standard wireless bridge. All devices in your place will then get both internet and backup direct to the TC.
One flaw here could be the download limits.. if you have two connections do you get double the downloads.. ??
ie how many IP are allocated to you?? And is it divided between all of them or the more IP clients the more download bandwidth?
2. Use a USB wireless stick in the Mac.. these can be tiny little things now.. just buy Mac compatible ones.. use that for internet and use the internal (faster) wireless for local connections. there are some manual setup tricks needed here but nothing hard.

Time machine backups to remote volumes

Hi all,
Been having trouble with backing up a Lion system onto a remote (network) volume. The idea is basically to back up a (client) Mac onto a disk hosted by another Mac (the backup server).
I can get the initial backup to work:
1. share the disk to back up to on the backup server via File Sharing, and ensure to use an administrator account at the client Mac to log onto in order for it to see the backup disk.
2. mount the backup disk over the network onto the client Mac.
3. get Time Machine to select that network disk as a backup disk.
4. start the backup.
All this works, and I am left with a good initial backup. However, subsequent backups fail with the following message after the client Mac is next rebooted:
The syslog shows some rather perculiar difficulty in managing its backup disks:
15/12/11 11:44:31.309 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
15/12/11 11:44:31.436 PM com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Tony%20Kavadias@L%C3%B3rien._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Rivendell
15/12/11 11:44:31.792 PM com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/Rivendell-1 using URL: afp://Tony%20Kavadias@L%C3%B3rien._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Rivendell
15/12/11 11:45:10.045 PM com.apple.backupd: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Rivendell-1 (FSVolumeRefNum: -104; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
15/12/11 11:45:10.046 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
15/12/11 11:46:10.108 PM com.apple.backupd: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Rivendell-1
15/12/11 11:46:46.912 PM com.apple.backupd: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Rivendell-1 (FSVolumeRefNum: -104; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
15/12/11 11:46:46.913 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
15/12/11 11:47:46.967 PM com.apple.backupd: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Rivendell-1
15/12/11 11:48:23.618 PM com.apple.backupd: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Rivendell-1 (FSVolumeRefNum: -104; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
15/12/11 11:48:23.618 PM com.apple.backupd: Giving up after 3 retries.
15/12/11 11:48:33.630 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup failed with error: 21
More digging around leads to the observation that /Volumes/Rivendell-1 (the filesystem that Time Machine mounts from the backup server) is now stuck and cannot be unmounted—to get rid of it, I have to reboot the client Mac. And that the sparse disk image file Annuminas.sparsebundle is mounted read-only when Time Machine attempts to mount it for writing subsequent backups to!
The only way I can recover is to erase the backup and start another initial one, but that defeats the purpose of having a continuously running Time Machine backup.
The client Mac is running Mac OS X 10.7.2 Lion, while the backup server is running Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. The latter is really just using AFP services to export a disk to the network, whereas Lion is using Time Machine to make backups on the network disk.
Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks,
—tonza

Oh... discovered something odd... the Time Machine Backups volume (that is the volume that is mounted from the Annuminas.sparseimage file on the fileserver) is being mounted read-only!
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
afp_000000004oMw0oYHtK1bbUQr-1.2d000004 on /Volumes/Rivendell (afpfs, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s2 on /Volumes/Time Machine Backups (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, read-only)
How is Time Machine going to write to a read-only volume?! This is not making any sense!
If there is one thing I do know about the BSD kernel is that filesystems are mounted read-only if it has been detected by the filesystem driver that a volume is marked dirty or corrupt. Another thing I'll do is check via Disk Utility that Time Machine Backups needs to be fixed. If Time Machine is indeed making faulty sparse images, it may be due to Snow Leopard's AFP server after all.
—tonza

Can I move old Time Machine backups that were USB to Network backups?

I recently bought a new Airport Extreme and attached my 1TB WD HD to it for network file sharing and Time Machine backups. I had originally backed up my MacBook Pro with that external HD via USB directly connected to the laptop. I know (thanks to these foruns), that, since I'm now using Time Machine backups via wifi, the location of the backups is different and my wifi Time Machine can't access the backups on the HD that were made when it was directly connected.
My question is: is there a way to move the old TM backups so that they can be recognized via wifi? If not no big deal, but then I would need to delete those backups, since they are taking up a big chunk of the external HD space. I saw a few forum posts about deleting TM backups and it seems that I would have to do it via TM itself...does that mean I have to reconnect the HD via USB to run TM so I can access those backups to delete them?
Finally, once I do get to delete the old backups (or move them, if possible), is it safe to repartition the external HD so there is one partition for TM and one for storing files via my network? I've read about using Disk Utility to do this, but I haven't tried it yet.
Thanks for any input.

No, what you're doing is splitting the TM partition in half, so this will only work if you have more that 50% free space.
See: Disk Utility - Add, Delete, and Resize Existing Volumes With Disk Utility
My only concern about that would be that my other files would be on the same partition as the 'old' TM and thus I wouldn't want to delete it, which brings me back to my original issue of space being taken up on the drive.
You should consider putting those files on their own partition, so think about spliiting the disk into 3 or more partitons, and 1st move all of your other files to the 3rd (last) partition. You just need to decide how much space to allocate.
With some limitations, you can do a lot with Partitoning without losing data, see: Disk Utility - What You Need to Know About Modifying Existing Volumes

Time Machine backup fails because "volume could not be found".

I just had my logic board replaced in my Macbook Pro and went to do a backup (yeah, I didn't do this right before it crashed) and now Time Machine backup fails with the message "volume could not be found" Under Time Machine/Choose Disk, it appears that the drive is the one selected. The computer "sees" the drive and I can read files on it. The only other thing that has happened in the meantime is that a friend helped pull a file off the hard drive that I needed for a project. No apparent issues there. Any suggestions?

You might try going to /Library/Preferences, then drag the file com.apple.TimeMachine.plist to the Desktop. Reboot your Mac, then try declaring the backup disk for Time Machine. It might help if you mount the backup disk first.
Are you using Time Machine to write its backups to the disk of a Time Capsule? If not, since this discussion section is for Apple's Time Capsule AirPort base station, a discussion involving Time Machine should be held on the discussion section for whatever version of OSX that you're using.

Time Machine Backup to Shared Firewire Drive Not Working

Hello
I know this may have been posted before, but I am looking for a simple troubleshooting / diagnostic process I can follow to resolve my issue:
I have a Imac running Lepoard with all possible software updates. A WD Studio 500GB drive is attached via Firewire 800. The drive has the latest firmware etc. I also have a 15" powerbook G4 (last model) running leopard. All Macs are connected to the a Netgear DG834N router, via ethernet cables.
The Imac and Firewire connected external drive works normally with time machine.
I have shared the external drive on the Imac and given all 'built in' groups read/write permissions.
I can mount the external drive on the powerbook and see the files that are backed up by the Imac, I can traverse the folder tree within the folders contrained in the backup. Double clicking on these folders invokes the 'star trek' style time machine window.
When trying to backup the powerbook, I could see the external drive as a time machine target disk.
The backup failed twice. Having checked the disk a sparse image was created. I tried again a number of times without success - I deleted the sparse image and tried to start again.
This time I could not find the disk in the selection in time machine, a reboot of everything revealed the disk, but when selecting the 'use for backup' button in time machine on the powerbook nothing happens.
Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

You have a pretty simple problem: time machine does not allow you to backup two computers to the same hard drive or partitioin. the way to fix this is to repartition you WD drive into two partitions, one for each computer. if you already have other data (not from time machine), make three partitons: one for iMac, one for PowerBook, and one for Other. do not put any data other than time machine data on the iMac and PowerBook partitons, always put it in other. you can partiton a disk easily with disk utility, but wait:
_CAUTION: THIS WILL CAUSE YOU TO LOOSE ALL THE DATA ALREADY ON THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!_
to avoid this, first use disk utility to make a disk image of the external hard drive, and save it on your internal drive. if the image won't fit (your internal drive doesn't have enough capacity, then you can either erase all the data on already on the hard drive with the reformat, or buy another disk to use for the PowerBook) then, when the disk is partitioned correctly, mount the disk image and copy all the files on it back to the correct* partition of the external hard drive. *if the files on the external hard drive came from the iMac, then put them on the iMac partiton of the drive. if they came from the powerbook, put them in that partition, and if it is not from time machine, put it in othe
Hope you followed all that!
nate

Unable to access time machine backup

Due to a crashed disk I am unable to restore from my backup and have lost everything. I can look at the data but I can't restore. I believe it has to do with the user account.
in the account section I am logged in as Administrator with the name Daniel McCarter which appears to have a space between the first and last name.
Underneath that is my correct email address.
when I look at the Backup the name of it is Daniel's iMac
Any help with straightening the out would be appreciated
Dan

The right thing to do would have been to use Setup Assistant to restore the data: Move your data to a new Mac - Apple Support
If you have some reason not to want to do that, see below.
While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.
If you need to restore from a backup of the hidden user Library folder, first select a snapshot, then press shift-command-G. A Go to Folder dialog will open. In it, you'll enter the path to the folder. The dialog will help you by automatically completing the parts of the path when you start to type them.
The path begins with slash character ("/"). Enter that. The rest of the parts will be separated by slashes.
The next part is the date and time of the current snapshot. Enter a "2", and the rest of the date should be filled in automatically. Press the right-arrow key to jump to the end of the path. Enter a slash to start the next part.
Next is the name of the volume (usually "Macintosh HD" unless you gave it a different name.) Start to type that, then jump to the end and enter a slash.
The next part is "Users", followed by a slash.
Next is your (short) user name, which is also the name of your home folder.
Finally, enter "Library", then press return. You should now be in the Library folder. From there you can get around as in the Finder.

Upgraded my 2010 macbook pro to mountain lion, unable to complete time machine backup using time capsule. Getting error 112

Upgraded macbook pro to mountain lion, get the following message
"the backup disk image "......." could not be accessed (error 112)
I've tried many of the suggestions from other discussion threads, still unable to get anything to work. Have 4 other computers backing up to the same time capsule, all of them are functioning normally, however they are not upgraded to mountain lion.
Suggestions?

This simple procedure will clear your Time Machine settings, including your exclusion list. If you have a long exclusion list that can't be recreated easily, you may prefer a more complicated procedure that preserves the exclusion list. In that case, ask for instructions. Otherwise, do as follows.
Triple-click the line below to select it:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with a file selected. Copy it to the Desktop. Then move it (the original, not the copy) to the Trash. You'll be prompted for your administrator password. Reboot, recreate your settings in the Time Machine preference pane, and run a backup to test. If TM now performs as expected, delete the file you copied to the Desktop.

Unable to configure Time Machine backups to shared volume on network

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