Why is my external drive nt backing up my computer???

why is my external drive nt backing up my computer??? i tried endless time to set up time machine in order to automatically back up my files. it starts backing up a few MB's of files and then i get a message that an error occurred while backing up files thus making the backing up a failure. what gives? i tried formatting the external drive. checked utility disk for restoring permissions, etc....

hi there, i'm afraid i dont know what u mean. i can copy files manually and open them in another mac, but to copy all the files will take me forever. i want to erase everything on my mac so that i can re-install the software...

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Should i get a flash drive or external drive to back up my computer?

i want to back up my 2 year old macbook. i have 1gb memory. capacity 119.69gb and 98.31 available with 21.38 gb on disk. i want to not lose everything now on my computer--bookmarks, downloads ,documents etc. i have snow leopard. should i buy a flash drive or an external drive? i don't really know the difference except in the price.

Hello...
Good information here for backup and recovery.
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/backuprecovery.html
You need an external drive for back up.
Carolyn

Why is my external drive not backing up in Time Machine?

I am running Snow Leopard on a Macbook Pro. I have my photo library on an external drive. I have a 2nd external drive which I use for my Time Machine backups. I keep the photo drive connected when I backup to Time Machine. The photo drive is NOT excluded in Time Machine preferences.
While I have the photo drive connected, it appears in all of the Time Machine backups.
However....when I disconnect the photo drive (as would happen if it was lost, stolen, damaged, etc) and then I enter Time Machine, the photo drive does not appear and neither does my iPhoto library that I keep on the photo drive. Does this mean it is not backing up? What would I do if I lost the photo drive?

Does this mean it is not backing up?
No.
What would I do if I lost the photo drive?
This.

Using an external drive with shared files (iPhoto, iTunes), attached to a Time Capsule, can the contents of the external drive be backed-up to the internal Time Capsule drive? Perhaps a RAID1 mirror to a partition?

Using an external drive with shared files (iPhoto, iTunes), attached to a Time Capsule, can the contents of the external drive be backed-up to the internal Time Capsule drive? Perhaps a RAID1 mirror to a partitioned Time Capsule? I understand that the Time Machine (software) cannot backup a networked drive (the external) and that Time Capsule (the router/wireless hard drive) does not have its own backup software... so it won't backup the connected drive. What I would like is an alternate solution for having an automated backup of a networked drive. A 2TB Time Capsule has more than enough space for Time Machine backups of my family of Macbooks, so I had hoped to mirror a 500GB external drive (with shared media files) to a portion of the Time Capsule internal hard drive. I assume this would require a partition of the Time Capsule drive. If not, would the sparse file from the various computers being backed up need to be copied to the external drive as part of the RAID1 setup? This seems like overkill for the Time Machine backup, but it would cover the media files.

The complexity with this idea is the software has to run from a Mac computer on your network.. so you need a Mac turned on, probably most of the day.
It isn't possible to partition the TC although you can create a image area.
The software would have to copy the material, that means all files to be copied, go from USB drive, back to the Mac, then back to the TC, and written to the drive. In other words you have just added Network congestion, although a proper incremental backup type software will not actually use a lot of capacity.
Finally it will be slow.. network drives are slower than internal drives. Well USB connected drive is much slower than the same drive connected directly to the computer.. and if the drive is connected directly to a computer it can be shared with the network.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/airport-extreme-5th-gen-and-time-capsule-4th- gen-review-faster-wifi-/4
Read carefully the speed of the USB drive plugged into the TC.

HT201250 I've just used an external drive to back up my Mac with Time Machine. I have Lion, but didn't click and check the "Encrypt Backup Disc". What should I do? Can I delete the external drive and start again, or can I encrypt later?

I've just used an external drive to back up my Mac with Time Machine. I have Lion, but didn't click and check the "Encrypt Backup Disc". What should I do? Can I delete the external drive and start again, or can I encrypt later?

I guess if stolen or lost it would protect my "stuff", and if I'm travelling would protect my privacy.
You must understand the purpose and implications of encryption before deciding whether to use it.
Encryption locks your data with a password. If you forget that password, the data is lost beyond any chance of recovery. Neither Apple nor anyone else will be able to help you recover that data if you don't know the password.
By the same token, the password must be strong enough to provide the security you want. For example, if you're the potential target of industrial espionage by a government or large corporation, you need the strongest possible password. To create and manage such a password safely is a task in itself, not to be undertaken lightly.
If you're only concerned about casual snooping by someone with no special skill, a weak, easily-remembered password is appropriate.
But regardless of the strength of the password, if you lose it, the data is gone forever.
Another point to remember is that if you encrypt your data on one storage device, you must also encrypt it on all other storage devices that would be accessible to the same attacker. Otherwise the data isn't protected. For example, if you keep your computer and your backup drive in the same room, and the internal drive of the computer is not encrypted, then there's no point in encrypting the backup drive.

I want to upgrade from OS X 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard. When trying to back-up to a WD 1 TB external drive, the back-up process stalls at about 4 GB. Grateful for any clues to assist with the backup issue please.

I want to upgrade from OS X 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard, then to Lion. When trying to back-up to a WD 1 TB external drive, the back-up process stalls at about 4 GB download. I would be very grateful for any clues to assist with the back-up process please.

That disk is very probably formated as FAT 32, the normal format for PCs. FAT 32 cannot support files larger than 4 GB; also, it corrupts some types of Mac OS files. If you want to securely backup your mac files, you must have a disk prepared for Mac OS.
Therefore, open Disk Utility, choose again 1 partition for your external disk and, under Options, GUID partition map (it may also be a boot disk for an intel mac), then format it as Mac OS Extended Journaled. Y0u are done.
If you want to exchange data with PCs, you should chose Master Boot REcord and NTFS format, for this you must use a additional utility like NTFS-3G. But note that mac files may also get corrupt in NTFS format.

My Macbook won't start, and I must reinstall the disk. I haven't used time machine to back up, and I want to use an external drive to back up now. How can i do this from the utilities page?

I am currently in Zambia on missions work and my computer is constantly exposed to heat. I have just been trying to avoid using it during the hottest part of the day. Today though, I started it up and it was stuck on the grey page with the rotating circle for over an hour, then once the circle left, it remained frozen on the gray page. I used command + r at startup to go to the utilities page to analyze the disk. It found that there were problems with the disk, but then it could not fix those problems and told me to backup as much information as I could and reinstall or redo it all. I haven't ever used time machine to back up any of my information, but i have an external drive that I can use right now to backup my files. I can't get into my computer though to backup the files. How can I use this external drive to backup my files while the computer is currently messed up? Please help.

Emergency Backups (Data Recovery)
A)          Format an external disk:
          (This will erase all data on the external disk.)
          Boot in recovery mode (power then Command-R).
                    Alternative: Network recovery boot (power then Command-Option-R keys)
          To format (and erase) the destination recovery disk:
          Plug in the drive you are about to erase.
          Select the volume that is NOT your system disk.
          Click on Partition.
          Pull down under Partition Layout to 1 Partition.
          Click on Options…
          Select GUID Partition Table.
          Name: Emergency Backup (or whatever you prefer)
          Format: Select Mac OS Extended (journaled)
          Click Apply.
          Click Partition.
B)          Try to boot in Safe Mode (power then Shift key).
          (This will be a slow boot. Be patient.)
          If it won’t boot in Safe Mode, jump to C.
          If it boots in Safe Mode, try to boot in normal mode.
                    If that fixed your problem then start a Time Machine backup.
                    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
                    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4055
          If not, boot in Safe Mode again.
          Go > Computer.
          Double click on the system disk.
          Drag the Users folder to the recovery disk.
C)          To clone the disk:
          Boot in recovery mode.
          Select Disk Utility.
          Try to repair the system disk twice.
          Whether or not the repair succeeds:
          Drag and drop the system disk to Source:
          Drag an drop Emergency Backup to Destination:
          (Take care not to reverse this order.)
          Click Restore (the lower Restore button).
Once your system is healthy, maintain two reasonably current backups. (Time machine restores can fail.)
Create either two Time Machine backups (good) or one or more Time Machine backup(s) and one or more bootable-clone backup(s) (better).
          Use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to create bootable-clone recovery disks.
          See https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
          and https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031

Why are my external drives un-mounting themselves?

Since installing OS Lion, my external G-tech drives have un-mounted themselves at least twice. Anybody got any ideas as to why?
Also, other than powering the external drives down, then re-powering them up again, so iMac can detect them, is there a wat to refresh and detect the drives without power down and up?
Thanks, Schooner

Doing a SMC reset can sometimes fix mount and dismount issues.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

Why does my external drive disappear from my desktop?

I am switching from PC to Mac. I have 2 externaldrives. Both have been formatted in FAT 32 by the MAC. When I plug them in the desktop and finder see them, then with both of them they have disappeared from the desktop and from finder. Still can be seen in disk utility and system profiler. How can I find them and why does this happen?

If you daisy chained then try without. May not be enough power to handle both at sme time. Other than that read some info:
1. Shut-down your Mac, and unplug the power cord
2. Turn the power off on your external FireWire devices
3. Unplug the FireWire devices from the Mac
4. Wait for 5 min.
5. Plug the power cord to your Mac only
6. For PPC Macs: Restart the Mac while holding the Option-Apple-O-F, and keep holding until you get the ">" prompt, then release the keys
7. At the ">" prompt type:
      reset-nvram and hit the Return key
      set-defaults and hit the Return key
      reset-all and hit the Return key
the last command will restart your mac
8. Shut down your Mac
9. Connect all your FireWire devices to the Mac and turn them on
10. Restart your Mac.
All your FireWire devices should reapear, if not repeat the procedure
How to avoid the issue :
The only really proven way to avoid burning up a FireWire port is to connect all devices and to turn them on PRIOR turning on the Mac. Likely, one must unplug them and turn them off AFTER the Mac has been turned off. If you need to connect another device, then you're on for a shutdown of your machine...  It's a tad annoying but it guarantees that the FW ports won't be damaged.  Be careful when using self powered devices such as webcams, iPods, hard drives or hubs, as they can destroy the port pretty easily. Another thing is to avoid daisy-chaining hard drives.
When the FW port doesn't respond anymore :
In this case, peripherals won't be mounted upon plugging, and won't be displayed in Apple's System Profiler. The self powered devices will still be fed by the port, but won't respond either.  It happens that the PHY just hangs after a surge or a random problem. Once hung, the port will not respond any longer, it is possible to reset the component by going through the following steps :
1° boot the PPC mac in Open Firmware by holding [ Apple key - Option - O - F ] after the startup chime.  2° you'll get to a command prompt. the keyboard mapping will be QWERTY, so pay attention when you type the following :  RESET-NVRAM (enter)  RESET-ALL (enter)  3° Now the mac should restart itself and the port should function properly again.  If it still doesn't work, then it means that the PHY is damaged.
http://www.hardmac.com/articles/16/
From Kappy post:
922 is only used in dual drive cases to provide a "build-in firmware RAID support"
912 or 912+ is FW800, the "+" means USB2
911 is FW400
924 adds eSATA support along with FW400/800
MacSales, OWC Tech Support library is where I would go first, as they do tend to have or links to, firmware updates for Oxford.
From Wiebetech:
I just upgraded my Mac OS, and now I'm having trouble with my FireWire device. What can I do?
A: With nearly every OS update Apple releases, some external drives are not recognized after the update. The typical symptom is that the device will not mount but the volume is visible and grayed out in Disk Utility. This means that the device is working properly, but the OS does not recognize the volume as mountable. Sometimes the drive does not show up at all.
The first thing to do is to see if repairing Permissions with Apple's Disk Utility First Aid feature solves the problem. If not, try repairing the disk with First Aid. Another possible solution is to zap the PRAM. This is done with a keyboard command while rebooting. Restart your computer and hold down the Command, Option, P and R keys. Consult the Apple web site for details.
If this does not work, then try pushing the PMMU reset button on the logic board. Consult the Apple web site for locations of the button for your Mac. If the drive still does not show up, shut down, disconnect all peripheral devices, and boot from the Mac OS Installation CD. The later the OS version, the better. Do not reinstall the OS, but when the Installer is loaded up and ready to begin, go to the File menu and use the Disk Utility program. Connect the drive that is having problems, then start the Disk Utility application. If you see the external drive and it is not grayed out, you know the drive is okay. Run Disk First Aid on it anyway. Then run it on your internal boot drive while you are at it. When done, unmount the external drive and UNPLUG it! Then restart the Mac.
When the Mac has restarted and is running on the internal boot drive, reconnect the external drive.

HP SimpleSave used as external drive - suddenly back to unformatted unusable drive - LOST ALL DATA

I was in the process of moving photos from my laptop to my external 1TB SimpleSave drive and all of a sudden the drive lost it's format and appears as the HP Launcher and an unusable 'Local Drive' (my drive name is gone, all my data is gone including the photos I just copied over an hour ago).
Are these drives unstable? I've hardly used the thing and am now wary of using it. Is there a way for me to recover the lost formated drive? I have a second copy of most of the data, but I just lost 500 photos.

Ok, i have found a solution...
What has happened is Windows has changed the hard drive from its original form, a NTFS format to a RAW format.
According to other forums, this happens when Windows detects a partially incomplete re-format attempt. I do remember formatting the external a week after i got it, but it seemed fine???? moving on....
From what i have come across, RAW is an obsolete format that XP, Vista and Windows 7 dont recognize anymore... short of having an old pc that runs Win 95, Win 98 which WILL recognise it, i tried several different ways, heaps of different recovery tools etc etc...
i "found" a program called Power Data Recovery! It rules so much!
anyway, i installed it, and done the following -
from the program front screen -
- Advanced Recovery
- click on the drive (in my case its displaying as Physical Drive, 930.86Gb)
- click on full scan
Initially it said it was going to take 600hours but bare with it... it will speed up...
i was too curious to wait for the full scan so i stopped it at like 7%, then previewed the files it had recovered, checked the tick box on a couple of mp3 i wanted to preview, and clicked save...
-saved them to my desktop
-tested the files (mp3s) through winamp and they played fine!
I am just re-starting the recovery process from scratch and will leave overnight.. once completed, I will transfer the recovered files to another external, then re-format the affected external drive again, then transfer the files back to its FIXED home... DONE!
Hope this helps ya'll...

Backed up music on external drive doesnt show on new computer

k, I backed up my music onto an external drive. I go into another computer of mine and tell it that the library is on this external drive. It knows this and for what i'm concerned it puts music to it. But it doesnt show my existing music that i downloaded on the first computer or the purchases that i have made on on the other computer? Should it show these? do i just start over [which is not what i want to do]? Do I update?

decided to backup my iTunes library to an external hard drive incase of a crash so I dont loose my precious music. So I went into my preferences, Advanced, and changed the iTunes folder location to my external, and consolidated the library which backed up my files to the drive
This is not a backup. This copies everything in iTunes to the new location and iTunes will use that location from now on.
The music located in /Music/iTunesiTunes music/ folder is no longer needed or used by iTunes.
However whenever I would click a song to play it said it could not find the file
iTunes was looking for it on the external (which you probably unplugged/umnounted).
I am wondering since I backed up the library to the external drive
You did not back up the library to the external.
You consolidated everything in iTunes to the external and iTunes will use that.
As Jim noted, if you want to to backup, copy the entire iTunes folder.
Jim'
If you somehow lost it, look for it in the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder in your music folder.
The itl file gets copied into the *Previous iTunes Libraries* folder only when you update iTunes.

Need 10.6.8 External Drive for Back Up

My external hard drive died just this week, right before I need to upgrade my OS from 10.6.8 to something newer that's fully compatible with Adobe's new version of Connect (9.3). So I can't use my old backup drive to back up my iMac before I upgrade from 10.6.8. I was looking at new external hard drives, and I noticed that one of them specifies that it's compatible with 10.7. I don't know if that means it's NOT compatible with 10.6.8, but does anyone know of an external hard drive that IS compatible with 10.6.8 so that I can backup my iMac before upgrading? Thanks.

You don't need to worry about whether an external drive is compatible with your operating system. Given that you have 10.6 right now your computer can use a USB 2 or USB 3 external drive. (If you buy a USB 3 external it will operate at the slower USB 2 speeds but it will be compatible.) Windows and Mac computers don't use the same drive format so unless the drive specifically says it is formatted for the Mac you'll need to format it. See this Apple support document for instructions on formatting the drive.

Transfer itune library to external drive then back to PC

In preparation for the re-install of Windows on my machine I would like to save my itune library on an external drive then to reimport it. I have more music than my current iPod can store so can't use it for the transfer and my Pc can only burn CDs the external drive option looks the best...if only I'd know how to!

Be careful you don't make the mistake I did, if your operating system is changing (e.g. XP to Vista) this will only partially work as the paths will be different, you will end up losing your playlists at the very least.
I don't really know any way around this, a couple of people did give me some tips in a previous post that I wrote but Apple deleted it because it was critical, so they are now lost too.

Why does the external drive not show up on the desktop.

My wife has a G5 (iSight). When we turn on the external drive it does not mount. We have tried restarting the iMac with the external drive on and it still does not show up. What is the problem and what is the fix?
Thanks

Is it by chance a WD MyBook? They are known for problems like that. Could be the cable -- try a different one. Or it could be the Firewire port on the computer. Try a different port on the computer or on the external, if it has one. Have a look at this Apple article with other troubleshooting steps.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151
Message was edited by: WZZZ

How do I transfer photos from an external drive, taken from a defunct computer with Snow Leopard, to one operating with Mountain Lion?

My late 2007 MacBook Pro, with a replacement 500 GB drive and updated to Snow Leopard, died. The extracted drive works in an external drive case, so all the files are there. Most of the files were transferred from a time machine backup to a new MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion. However, about a week's worth of files were missing from the Time Machine backup, due to traveling. I would like to copy just those files, mostly pictures, from the original drive to the new system. However, when I try to use iPhoto to get to the image files on the external drive, the system says the iPhoto information must be updated to the new system and, once done, they cannot be accessed with an old one. One concern is that updating the iPhoto information on the external drive might go wrong and make the files inaccessible. If there were some way to just have the underlying image files identified and copied, that would be most comfortable for me. .Any advice?

1 - updating your iPhoto library does not make photos inaccessible - it does update the iPhoto database so that you have to have the current version of iPhoto to open the library - however the photos are in the database and can be accessed via the finder anytime
2 - you do not memtion what version of iPhoto you had - the original photos are in the masters (or original) folder which can be accessed by right clicking on the iPhoto library and showing package contents - Be sure NOT to make any changes to the library)
LN

Why is my external drive nt backing up my computer???

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