Unable to de-select my data drive in time machine exclusions

I have installed a new 1 TB drive for data storage on my Imac G5. I have a 1 TB drive used for time machine. I can't deselect the new drive from the drives to be excluded from backup when I open time machine options. Anybody got a clue what I am doing wrong? Both drives are Western Digital My Book external drives.

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
In TM Prefs, Options, does the new drive appear in shaded-out type, the same as your TM drive (it can be hard to see the difference)?
If so, it's likely because it's not formatted in a way that your Mac can read, so TM forces it to be excluded.
Did you erase and format the new drive yourself? If not, follow the instructions in item 5 of the +Frequently Asked Questions+ post at the top of this forum.
While that's for a drive to be used with TM, it works for a drive to be used for other data as well.

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Unable to back up external hard drive via Time Machine. Says no room but has back ups from two previous Mac notebooks on it. Tried deleting them and now can't do anything. Any ideas?

Unable to back up external hard drive via Time Machine. Says no room but has back ups from two previous Mac notebooks on it. Tried deleting them and now can't do anything. Any ideas?

As john noted, eventually that external is probably not going to be big enough, but it certainly is for now. The HD just needs enough capacity to cover the amount of data on your internal HD, not the internal HD's total capacity.
Format/partition the external as follows and you should be set to go:
1. Connect the external HD to the MBP.
2. Open Disk Utility on the MBP.
3. Select the external HD in the left pane.
4. Click on the Erase tab.
5. Choose the Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
NOTE: if you want to zero the HD (which I always think is a good idea, but does take time), click on Security Options, click the button for Zero Out Data, click OK. The larger the HD, the longer this will take, in some cases several hours.
6. Click on Erase and wait for the entire process to finish.
7. Click the Partition tab.
8. Click on Volume Scheme: and choose the number of partitions (just one in this situation).
9. Click on the Options button (located underneath the Volume Scheme pane) and select GUID.
10. Click Apply.
11. Quit Disk Utility.
Backup your internal to the external. What application are you using to backup with? I highly recommend both SuperDuper! and CarbonCopyCloner.

Need help removing hard drive from Time Machine exclusion list

I have a 1TB Western Digital Essential hard drive with about 500Gb of music, movies and other assorted data tethered directly to my iMac. I also have a 1TB Time Capsule that serves as my wireless router and connects to my iMac over the wireless network. I'm trying to use the Time Capsule as the ultimate backup device, to backup the data on my iMac and the tethered 1TB Western Digital hard drive via Time Machine. It already backs up all the data on my iMac, but unfortunately, Time Machine places the 1TB Western Digital hard drive in the exclusion list (which I understand is normal), but will not let me click the minus sign to remove the drive from the exclusion list (which is where I'm at a loss). Someone please help me find a way around this as I've been unable to find a way to remove the Western Digital drive from the exclusion list and have Time Capsule access its data. Many thanks in advance for any help with this.

gotham,
Forgive me, but are you highlighting the drive in the list before you click the "-" button?
Also, were is the external drive? Connected to your Mac or the TC. If the TC, then Time Machine won't backup the external drive. It needs to be connected to the Mac directly.
Otherwise, you can delete the TM .plist.
*Delete The Time Machine Preference .plist*
Go to --> Macintosh HD / Library / Preferences (Note: NOT Home / Library / Preferences).
Drag the .plist file labeled,
com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
to the root level of your Macs’ hard drive.
Reboot your computer.
This .plist file is automatically recreated at startup if it is missing.
You will need to reselect your Time Capsule in the TM Prefs for backup.
Now try 'removing' the other drive form the exclusion list.
Let us know if this helped resolve your issue.
Cheers!

Can i switch another hard drive for time machine

can i replace my time machine usb HD with a new larger one I have bought?

Sure you can. The real question is, can you transfer your old TM database to the new drive. This I would not attempt to do. I would add the new drive and point time machine to it in system preferences. This will cause you to do a full backup for the first time but you will know all the links are good this way. Before you remove the old TM drive, think if there is anything you want to restore.
My steps would be:
1) look through time machine to find anything you may want to keep, restore it if you want it
2) turn off time machine
3) power down and swap drives
4) power up and and format the new drive if needed, then open time machine preferences
5) select the new drive for time machine
6) sit back and let it do a full backup
How big is your internal drive? How full is it? How big is the new TM drive?

Unable to select two drives for time machine backup?

I had a notification from Time Machine saying "This backup is too large for the disk..." and that I needed to omit items or select another drive. I've read online that it's possible to select multiple drives for Time Machine backups (so it switches between the available drives). When I go into Time Machine preferences and click "Select Disk" the drive I want to use in addition to my current Time Machine is there, but when I choose the additional drive I do not get the option to replace or "Use Both" (like pictured). Instead the additional drive is selected as the sole Time Machine and the current Time Machine drive is replaced.
In short, Time Machine is not giving me the option to "Use Both" - why would this be and how do I remedy this?
Thanks.

The reason is that that feature is Only offered in "Mountain Lion" OS X 10.8; and you are using "Lion" 10.7.
Hope this helps

I recently updated to Mountain lion 10.8 . I backuped using external hard drive using time machine . I used Lacie drive. I had to format it MAC OSX " extended journaled" before I could back up my dat and after that I backed it up.

1) I cant seem to restore my data back from Time machine as many files seem Locked. I cant use the Migration app since it doesnt show me my external hard drive when I try to use it. Plus Ive heard that Migration app copies whole drives rather than selecting and copying some folders/data.
2) Even if i use the time machine to restore the data , It does copy on to my mac but that locked symbol is still there .
3) I have read that my drive wont show on migration application cuz the OS should be same before and after the backup and there shouldnt be any difference , otherwise the migration app wont show the drive. This is absurd cuz mostly ppl back up because they want to upgrade their computers . It will never be the same , I mean the OSX , cuz after i have done the back there would have been an upgrade .
Can anyone help Linc Davis .

If you mean you're getting the same message:
see #C3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup (especially the destination for the backups), what you've done, and the results.
If that's not the message you're getting, please clarify.

Transferring data to new (replacement) hard drive using time machine

My MacPro has crashed and after replacing the motherboard with no improvement, Apple thinks I will likely need a new hard drive. The cost of new drive and labor to install it is covered by Apple Care, but not for the technician to transfer to the new hard drive all the software data installed subsequent to purchase.
I have Time Machine on a second hard drive. Assuming that this drive is OK, can I transfer the data myself from Time Machine opened at a point before computer crashed?

Hi V.K., was just reading your instructions for jumper25 about transferring all info to a new HD and had a question. I am in the same situation where i have bought a new 320Gb to replace the OEM 120Gb in my MBP. Everything is very straight forward from what you have posted but i only have the original Tiger 10.4.9 install DVD and I am running Leopard 10.5.5. Will I be able to use my Tiger install disk and then use my TM back up even though it Leopard? Or will I need a Leopard install disk to complete? Also is there another way around this problem if i can not use the Tiger disk such as mirroring the 120Gb disk on to my 320Gb?
Thanks in advance for your time and expertise.
P.

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Sorry I am new to this. Am I in the right area? I am using my iPhone to make contact. I am worried.

Hi everyone, after updating to 10.6.8, i've been unable to backup to my external hard-drive on Time Machine. anyone having same issues?

I did a software update to 10.6.8. and I've been unable to back up my files to my external hard-drive on Time Machine. The error message it gives says "he backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk."
It recommends using Disk Utility to repair the backup disk and i've tried that but it finds nothing wrong with the disk!
I even tried copying files off it so i could re-format the drive but it apparently can't do that and the error message is that there's a wrong case sensitive file. Please help, I really need a solution.
Thanks,
Regards,
Chi.

If you mean you're getting the same message:
see #C3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup (especially the destination for the backups), what you've done, and the results.
If that's not the message you're getting, please clarify.

I back up with an external hard drive using time machine. I am trying to reload my iphoto library from an earlier date then it will let me. How do I get to an earlier date in time machine?

I back up with an external hard drive using time machine. I am trying to reload my iphoto library but it won't let me get back to a date that I need to. How do I do this?

Try Pondini's articles;
http://pondini.org/TM/15.html - scroll down to the pink box for iPhoto restoation.
Also http://pondini.org/TM/15A.html to clarify how to use the timeline.

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So basically I recently backed up my things on an external 1TB Seagate hard drive via Time Machine on my Mac. I then restored my Mac to its factory settings. However when I plugged in my hard drive it didn't show up in my finder. I opened Disk Utility and it shows up there but when I tried to restore my data it wasn't able to find it. This is so weird and I'm so scared can someone please help me

vanessayu wrote:
And another thing, my mac is randomly turning off and then displaying a gray screen saying your mac shut down because of a problem. does this have someting to do with the disk
Sounds like the TimeMachine drive is defective.
Uplug it and reboot and see if your problems go away.
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TimeMachine uses a lot of placeholder files, basically the same name but minus the content of the files for each saved state.
It's a lot of work going through all the folders to find your original files but as long as the drive works the files should be able to be recovered.
Sorry about your problems, TimeMachine hasn't quite lived up to it's expectations and I try to warn everyone NOT to completely trust it.

HT3275 When I press "select backup location" in the Time Machine section of System Preferences, my external hard drive doesn't appear as an option. How do I change this?

When I press "select backup location" in the Time Machine section of System Preferences, my external hard drive doesn't appear as an option. How do I change this? My external hard drive is a FreeAgent GoFlex Drive.

Hi, what Format is the external Drive?
They usually come PC Formatted for Fat32/MSdos, or NTFS... is there anything on it now?
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http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

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I want to restore 300 Gigs of data, saved to Time Machine, on my new iMac 27". I want my OS on the 256G SSD, but I want all the other data (which can be separated) on the 2TB internal hard drive. How do I do that?

The Apple article will transfer everything from one volume to another. Doing what you want is not simple, unfortunately.
See Transferring Home Folders not on a Startup volume, especially scenario #1 in the gray box there.
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You need to boot to the recovery HD and then select Restore from a Time Machine backup.
You can't do that when you are bootiing to the real OS. It has to be done from the recovery hd.

Unable to de-select my data drive in time machine exclusions

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