WD External Drive Won't work with Time Machine or anything else
I am really hoping someone can help me. I have been using Time Machine to backup my hard drive on my Macbook and using a WD drive. Everything worked until right before Christmas. Something happened and I don't know what and I am not sure the last backup worked. I can no longer see the external drive in the finder, but I can see it in Disk Utility and it shows up in About this Mac. When I've had the drive connected today, the disk is turning and the status light is flashing. I can see data being written in the activity monitor which makes me think something is happening with the drive. In Disk Utility, I can eject the drive, but can't select it to do any first aid or other activities. Anyone have any suggestions?
You might want to try resetting your MacBook's FireWire Bus to see if that cures the issue: http://tinyurl.com/7p6jfx.
Similar Messages
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Drive won't work with Time Machine
Hey- I am new to the forum, I am sure this was probably asked somewhere else- but
I have a 500G drive that I was using to backup data on my WIN PC. I have about 250G of free space and wanted to activate Time Machine for the iMac backup. But- it tells me I need to reformat my drive. It is Fat32 and I want to share it with the WIN PC. Is there anyway around this- or am I being told I need to buy a new drive? Thanks.Markcw98a wrote:
BTW- I want to do the backup before I upgrade to Snow Leopard. After reading all the issues with upgrading in the forum I am having 2nd thoughts messing with the iMac. Thanks.
For most folks, the upgrade has gone without a hitch. Only those with problems post here. And many do, after every major or minor upgrade. An upgrade is, basically, brain surgery on your Mac, performed by the patient! Many of the problems folks have were already there, hiding, until the surgery discovered them.
Still, you should be doing regular backups, not just before an upgrade. All disk drives fail, sooner or later, and other bad stuff happens, too. You risk losing everything. You can now get large external drives for about $100. Well worth the money. -
HT201250 Is there a size limit for an external drive to be used with time machine?
I have an iMac with a 2TB drive. I have a 2TB WD drive used for Time Machine that is full. I would like to go to the bigest WD (type) external drive that will work with Time Machine. Is there a TB limit for TM in OS X Lion?
Welcome . I have also used a 2TB WD My Book ext HDD for Time Machine backups for the past year and have had no problems. They seem to get a very bad wrap. Perhaps we are a few of the lucky ones. The two brands recommended by macjack are very, very good brands.
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My La Cie Porsche Design External Hard Drive USB 3.0 is no longer working with Time Machine. Is Yosemite the cause? How do I fix?
Can you see the drive in Disk Utility? If so, try selecting it and using the Mount button in the top menu. You can also run repair disk and repair permissions.
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I have upgraded to Lion OS only to find that my NAS (Iomega Home Media Network hard drive) does not work. It tells me that it is not configured. Are there any solutions . Have Iomega sorted out the problem?
Same issue here. Based on what I can tell, iomega still has not developed a solution to the problem. See below:
https://iomega-na-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/28327/kw/Mac%20OS%20X% 20Lion -
On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..
Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it. -
Recently upgraded Mac 24" to Lion (clean install) and now no external hard disks work with Time Machine.
installed new internal disk first with fresh 10.7.3 Lion software. Also upgrade ram to 4GB. Work great, super fast.
BUT.... my WD 1TB firewire400 external disks no longer work with the Lion enabled machine now.
FURTHER... I read somewhere that WD is problematic with Lion but Seagate was not... so I went and bought a new 3TB Seagate GoFlex.
When it didnt work properly either, I patiently searched and found a software/firward upgrade and applied.
I re-partitioned disk to extened/journaled standard, etc.
Then assigned the particition to Time Machine. Drive turned the blue/grey color, so I thought it would work.
But, it has now been in "preparing" mode in Time Machine for HOURS....
What is up Apple? So dissappointed. Ive read these type of problems are notorious with Lion and I wish I never upgraded.
Are you trying to make issues with External disks, to drive people to iCloud? That trick ont work in me. I will not reward bad behaviour Apple.
Please provide a fix... I wasted hours/days screwing around with this, instead of using the Mac for what its intended!Solved by Pondini, on another thread I opened...
Answer:
Sounds like either:
A directory problem on your internal HD. Verify your internal HD, and Repair any other volumes being backed-up per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Something in OSX may be damaged. You've tried the "combo," so a fresh copy of OSX (that won't disturb anything else) would be worth a try (and you don't need a tech for that). See Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX. -
working in adobe illustrator - computer crashed - will not soft boot or reset PRAM - should i reinstall from CD snow leopard 10.6.3? I have an extra hard drive in my MAC with time machine on it set to do auto back ups. How do i recover ?
Well first you have to figure out what is wrong with the machine and solve that problem first.
Your post is very vague on what occured, and there are many types of "crashes" it really depends upon what see on the screen and what the hardware does, we can't see it to tell you, so you have to tell us.
I suggest you run through these user tips and provide more information about your hardware.
Disconnect the TimeMachine drive for now
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Help us to help you on these forums
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
If this is going way over your head, there are local PC/Mac techs that will assist you for a fee, Apple only does hardware repairs and is advised to use them if you discover it is, especially if under warranty/AppleCare.
Hard drive and RAM upgrades can be handled yourself or by a outside tech in many older models of Mac, but don't expect Apple to cover the new parts.
Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's -
How can you configure a WD external to work with Time Machine??
I have an 1TB external WD MyBook drive that is connected to my network through my Linksys wireless router and am trying to figure out how to format the drive to use with Time Machine.
I currently use the drive to store files from both my PC and my MacBook but can't seem to select the drive to use with Time Machine. I figured that I could just format the drive through the Disk Utility program, but the drive doesn't show up in Disk Utility. This may be because it is a drive connected through my router and not directly to my MacBook?!
Here are a few questions...
Any ideas on how to format the drive so it will work with Time Machine?
Once formatted to use with TM, can I still use the drive to store other files from both my Mac and PC? or do I need to partition for this??
Is it possible to set up an automatic backup schedule that will happen via my home wireless connection?
Thanks in advance,
Todd.You cannot use the drive with TM as you have it set up. TM will not work with a networked drive except a Time Capsule or a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme Base Station (current version.)
If you wish to use this drive for TM backups it must be connected directly to the computer. Other computers on the network can access the drive for TM backups if you turn on file sharing for the drive (select drive, press COMMAND-I, check the box labeled "Shared Folder," click on the Enable button.) The shared drive will have to be mounted on the other computers in order for them to use it as a TM backup drive. -
Looking for a back up drive for photos and videos that works with time machine, prefer wireless. Time capsule has poor reviews and already have BT hub that serves as a good router. 3gb or 4gb capacity preferred but 2 would suffice.
Plug a NAS into the BT Hub that does TM. Look at Synology.
You just use the wireless of the hub.
But the cheapest solution is still the TC. -
Is it possible to configure Time Capsule to work with Time Machine (MBP) and Genie Timeline (PC)
I have an Apple Time Capsule (2TB) and I need to configure it to work with my MBP and Time Machine and also back up my a PC with Genie Timeline Pro 2013 (or any other suggested PC back up software).
Setting it up to work with Time Machine is simple enough but the PC access is proving to be difficult.
http://www.genie9.com/support/KB/KnowledgeArticle.aspx?KBID=198
I followed the above steps but still can't connect to the network drive. I have reformatted the TC and will be walking through the steps again. My concern is that the two different operating systems (Win8 and Mavericks) can't share the same destination drive.
I have created two user accounts with drive sharing activated. One in my name for my MBP and the other in the name of my partner for her Dell laptop.
Should the Time Capsule be partitioned? Can it even be partitioned? When I use Drive Utility it can't see the TC. The only way to connect to it seems to be via Airport Utility.
On a seperate note the TC Router Mode is set to OFF (Bridge Mode). I have connected it to the ADSL modem/router (WiFi Off) via the WAN port. All seems to be well. Am I loosing any useful functionality by doing this?
The internet settings are set Connect Using DHCP. I have no issues but I am not really sure what it means and if I should be using other settings. The ADSL modem/router seems to have all the PPP0E settings.
The WiFi on the TC has been set up with a 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz network as well as a Guest Network. I then plan to introduce 2 Airport Express (MB321LL/A). One will be an access point for AirPlay and the other a wireless extender with AirPlay.
There is also a Canon WiFi printer that accesses the 2.4Ghz network. It has an Ethanet port so I am wondering if I should disable the wifi connection and cable it and if so to the TC or the DSL modem/router.Lion, 7.6.1 firmware and iCloud offers remote access.
http://www.apple.com/au/support/icloud/back-to-my-mac/
To do it without the iCloud service your issue is static public IP address.. if you have one this is simple to the point of trivial. If not it is very hard, as Apple did not put in a standard dynamic DNS service.. (ensuring you were roped into their cloud accounts). Static IP from your ISP is the best solution.. if it is possible go for it.
Then the actual protocol for access is AFP, so the only device you can do this on is a Mac.
Do you have the TC as the main router?
If you want any other kind of access, or to avoid icloud use vpn.. which teamviewer is a kind of.. but buy a real vpn router, and bridge the TC.. you can then vpn into your network with full security and get windows access via smb.. -
The first time I connected my new My Passport portable hard drive to my MacBook Pro, the message asking if I want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine did not appear. I would like to set it up to do this. What would my next step be?
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Open Time Machine preferences to select this drive for use as the backup drive. Turn on Time Machine. -
How can I make readyNAS duo 4.1.12 work with time machine?
ReadyNas support don´t seem to have a clue. I have tried to desable cifs and afp and put it back as I read on other forum but with no effect.
Time machine can´t access the backup disk ReadyNas and display OS status error 2.
I appreciate any help.
Thank you.Is the NAS designed to work with Time Machine, because Time Machine isn't designed to work with a NAS.
See this post (Major Dude) that is in the More Like This section:
Time Machine and ReadyNAS Duo -
I photo don't work with Time Machine
I just have 2 weeks using this macbook, and i made a Time Machine just before sell my other macbook. Both have Lions because both are same 2.4 Ghz
Intel core i5 (the only difference is HD Disk). So i made all the time Time Machine, so i bring on all my information from my Time Machine disk... and everithing works fine BUT not my pictures.
I lose all the pictures that i put in that Iphoto from day 1 that i use the other computer (6 months ago).
Its like Iphoto doesn't work with Time Machine.
To me is very important to someone from apple to explains me since, if that don't work as it suppose to be, then i have to look for a better bacjup program than this garbage.1 - TimeMachine does work with iPhoto - except if iPhoto is running then the iPhoto database is not backup up until a backup cycle runs while iPhoto is not running
2 - Never "assume" that a backup is good - you must test it
3 - teh simple solution is to Connect the two Macs together (network, firewire target mode, etc) and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity from the old Mac to the pictures folder of the new Mac - launch iPhoto on the new mac and it will open the library and convert it as needed and you will be ready move forward.
4 - no one from Apple will explain anything to you here since this is strictlhy a user to user forum
5 - as to which backup program you use - totally your choice - no one here cares at all - we are willing to help you with iPhoto issues but could care less about if you use Apple software or not - since you obvviously have not bothered to learn how to use Time Machine you will have the same or similer problems with any software that you use incorrectly
LN -
External hard drive not working with Time Machine
I have an Iomega network hard drive attached via ethernet cable to my Airport Extreme router.
I plugged the hard drive in. Everything works like it should. I can see the drive in Finder and I can read and write to the drive. I do share the network drive in a mixed WIN and OS X environment. I never had to reformat the drive and I can read/write to the drive with no problems from all of my computers.
I turned on Time Machine on my iMac and walked through the simple setup screens there. I never set anything up on the hard drive through the drive interface software. And Time Machine worked fine for about 4 months. Then all of a sudden, Time Machine just stopped backing up and I got all kinds of error messages saying that the TIme Machine backup failed.
So I went into Time Machine, turned it off, turned it back on. No luck. Same error messages.
So I started fresh. I deleted the prior Time Machine backups and I am back at the TIme Machine set up screen. OS X can see the TIme Machine share on my external hard drive and I tell the setup wizard that's the drive I want to use.
Then I get a window that says it's trying to connect to the external hard drive which I call "Cloud_Drive". After about 30 seconds, I get an error window that says
"There was a problem connecting to the server "Cloud_Drive-TimeMachine"
The server may not exist or it is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again.
At this point the external drive is still visible in FInder and I can read/write to it from my iMac. I just cannot understand why Time Machine was working and then all of a sudden it stopped.
I did go into the software management of the drive and found an area in which to turn Time Machine on on the drive's side. Which I never did before so I turned it on and then I'm prompted to enter the name of the computer and the ethernet ID. I entered the name of the iMac and I have tried using the WiFI MAC address - no luck getting TIme Machine to work and I've also entered Terminal, found a MAC address under the line titled "ether" and still the same result.
I have also changed the destination of the Time Machine files on the external hard drive and the Time Machine wizard does write a sparcebundle file to that new location but still get the same error message above.Is it a firewire ext. HD?
Yes, many are reporting same, there is a firewire fault and TB HD on external HD from LaCie (Seagate) and from WD especially.
Technicians are looking into it.
Until there is resolution, consider setting up a USB ext. Time machine HD.
Until then consider confining Mavericks use with USB HD.
Ive tested a long line of USB HD on Mavericks, all seem fine.
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