Wireless Backup Disk

I was wondering if you could do wireless backups with not only Apple routers, but other ones too.

this is not supported by apple. there are hacks but they are just that. No guarantees and no support from apple. If you still wish to try check out this [link|http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080420211034137&query=Time %2Bmachine%2BNAS]. read all the comments. also [this much simpler method|http://vowe.net/archives/008940.html] is claimed to work.

Similar Messages

Password protect Airport Extreme wireless backup disk?

Hi all,
First of all, the details of my computer below are not correct in this case--I'm asking about my girlfriend's computer.
I have a hard drive connected with USB 2.0 to my AirPort extreme that I am using to wirelessly back up with Time Machine. In order to get Time Machine to recognize this disk, you have to mount it as a shared drive. My concern is that anybody on our network (which is password protected) will be able to browse through the backup hard drive and see my girlfriend's files. Is there a way to password-protect the hard drive that's connected to the airport extreme using a password OTHER THAN our network password?
Ideally, we'd like a situation in which someone can connect to our network using the network password but NOT be able to access the drive that's connected to the airport extreme.
Thank you.

Hello Ecualung,
The best protection for your data is to maintain the data as a encrypted disk image. Creating a "sparse image" will require a password to open:
I would follow the instructions provided by the Apple Support document below on how to make this happen.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1578
Hope this helps.
B-rock

My Time Capsule has stopped backing up. I have an Apple Time Capsule which backs up by wireless. For the last 3 days it has not backed up. I get this message: "The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk.

My Time Capsule has stopped backing up.
I have an Apple Time Capsule which backs up by wireless. For the last 3 days it has not backed up. I get this message:
"The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk."
I have gone into Mac Help and followed this down to stage 4:
under shared it lists my time capsule and my husband's iMac - both use the time machine but we have switched his off temporarily. Clicking on my Time capsule I get "Connected" and "Sharepoint" - I didn't have to enter connect or password
I don't understand stage 5: how and where do I select the disk or volume that contains Time Machine backups ? How do I know which it is? My disk utility lists 160.04 TOSHIBA MK... with sub-heading Macintosh HD. It also lists (with a "CD" icon) HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS22N
Under stage 6, how and where do I Locate your backup ? I try dragging my Time capsule from Finder to the Disk Utility side panel but it won't go. What is my computer's name?
Please someone help! I'm completely stumped.
Thanks,
Maggie
Mac Help says:
If you back up to a Time Capsule or network disk:
Open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and slide the switch to Off.
Open Time Machine preferences
Open Disk Utility, which is in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
Open Disk Utility
Make sure the Time Capsule or network disk is turned on and available.
Open a Finder window, select your Time Capsule or network disk in the Shared section of the sidebar, and click Connect. If necessary, enter your user name and password.
On the Time Capsule or network disk, select the disk or volume that contains Time Machine backups. Depending on how your Time Capsule is set up, there may be one or more disks or volumes.
Locate your backup, and drag it to the Disk Utility sidebar.You can identify your backup by looking for your computer’s name in the backup’s filename.

Hello,
Thanks to the great Pondini...
http://pondini.org/TM/C3.html

I set up time capsule using a wireless 4g modem. it's been five hours and it still is saying making backup disk available (4.97 GB of 18.52 GB). Can I stop the whole thing, get a ethernet cable and start over to increase the speed of the backup?

I set up a new time capsule on a wireless 4g modem. I started the initial backup. It's been five hours and it still says "making backup disk available (4.97 GB of 18.52 GB)." Can I stop the whole thing, connect my computer to the time machine using an ethernet cable and start over to increase the speed of the backup?
Thanks,
David

Bunce wrote:
oh i already did that. Im working on my imac and looking into this on my macbook. Was able to reproduce the issue again by trying to open TM. Locked out the finder again and had to restart. I checked the serial number and it was an early 2009 purchase with no coverage.
If you bought a Mac and got AppleCare with it, within 2 years of buying the TC, the TC is covered, too.
I have to admit that this $500 unit was the first to apparently junk out. The western digital that had my main data on that is my daily external that I store about 2TB of data on is still perfect and the new technology TM appears to already be cashed. Love the computers, not to big of a fan on the externals of the apple TV's. No life expectancy. Neither here nor there.
suggestions before I either get this looked at or scrap the HD on it and move forward.?
Reset the TC. See [Resetting an AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule FAQ|http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3728].
Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
If all else fails, take it to your local Apple Store or Authorized Repair location, they may be able to determine whether the disk is dead.
If it is, they might replace the TC for you. If not, they won't repair it, but if the electronics are ok, you can replace the HD yourself, if you want to. See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2542983

"Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not availab

I have a Seagate 750 MB external disk connected to the USB port of my Airport Extreme Base Station. It worked fine with Time Machine under Leopard but it's not working the way it was under OS X 10.6.2. I'm hopeful someone can help me solve the problem.
Let's say the name of my Airport Extreme Base Station is "Airport." If I remember correctly, under Leopard time machine would start a wireless backup not long after I turned on the Seagate drive. That no longer happens.
I've erased and re-formatted the Seagate drive with 2 GUID partitions, one for my 24" iMac and one for my 17" MacBook Pro. Both computers are about 3 years old. In order to do the re-partitioning, I had to unplug the Seagate drive from the base station and plug it into one of the iMac's USB ports. If I didn't do this, nothing other than the iMac's drive appears in the left pane of Disk Utility, although the name of my base station, i.e, "Airport" does appear in the Finder and PathFinder (a replacement for Finder that I use).
In fact, Time Machine works under 10.6.2. as long as the Seagate drive is plugged into the iMac's USB port. As soon as I plug the Seagate drive into the USB port of the base station, Time Machine no longer works. The backup is "delayed." When I click on "Back Up Now" a few seconds go by and I get the following dialog box: "Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not available."
In my Airport Extreme Base Station setup (Airport Utility version 5.4.2), the "Disks" pane sees both partitions on the Seagate drive. File sharing is enabled on the "File sharing" pane and "Secure Shared Disks:" is set to "With a disk password." "Airport Disks Guest Access:" is not allowed, nor is "Share disks over WAN."
When the Seagate drive is plugged into the base station and I click on "Airport" in the Finder or PathFinder, I'm prompted for the password I mentioned above because the shared disks are secured with a password. Once the password is typed, both partitions on the Seagate drive appear in Finder and PathFinder. When I try a Time Machine backup at this point, I get the same error I described above, i.e., "Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not available."
One last thing, I did an "Archive and Install" when I upgraded to Snow Leopard since I thought the changes were relatively minor as compared with past OS X upgrades. Normally, I do a clean install but didn't feel like it this time. I also tried deleting the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist to no avail and restarted my iMac to no avail.
At this point I'm completely stumped. As I said, Time Machine works as long as the Seagate drive is plugged directly into one of the iMac's USB ports as opposed to the base station's USB port. But doesn't this defeat the purpose of having wireless backup? Once again, the wireless backup worked fine under 10.5.8.
I hope my message is clear and a solution would be most welcome.
Thank you,
Richard

I'm having the same problem. If my TimeMachine drive is not connected, I'll get the "Time machine could not complete the backup" "The backup disk is not available" warning a couple times a day. This is extremely problematic if I'm giving a presentation. I have tried changing my TimeMachine drive, removing that drive, repairing permissions, and have not been able to solve the problem.
Please help!

Cannot Connect to Time Capsule: "the backup disk is not available"

I am having a problem that I can't diagnose with my 500 GB Time Capsule (my HD is 128GB). The firmware is current. I first did a search for 'the backup disk is not available' since that is the message displayed in the Time Machine window (with the red checkmark).The Time Machine widget says this:
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/xxx%20xxx's%20Time%20Capsu
NetAuthConnectToServerSync failed with error: 89 for url: afp://[email protected]/xxx%20xxx's%20Time%20Capsu
I installed the widget after I went to the Time Machine - Troubleshooting user tip, here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2057525. Also went to Using TIME MACHINE with a TIME CAPSULE, here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2296894
I also renewed the DHCP lease, tried to do 'connect as' from the Sidebar window, also via go-> connect to server ("there was an error connecting to the server Timecapsule; Check the server name or IP address & try again"), go to Time Machine under System Preferences, select "None" for hard drive, turned off Time Machine, then turned it back on and reselect Time Capsule as the hard drive to backup (timed out), tried re-setting up the Time Capsule both automatic & manual (times out when reading TC configuration)., and finally, writing this post.
I am connected to the internet with the Time Capsule, and I am concerned about making too many changes, because I don't want to risk losing my internet connection, since that seems to be working fine. I was able to make regular backups until yesterday. Tracing my steps from when it used to work to when it 'broke':
1)I attempted (unsuccessfully) to mount the Time Capsule so that I could do a search on it. (I didn't realize at the time that I couldn't mount a wireless device.)
2)The only other thing I did was drag some music folders that I wanted backed up next to my sparsebundle backup (which I can no longer see, because the Time Capsule is no longer accessible via the finder) only to get the spinning ball with the copying window, which I couldn't force quit unless I quit the Finder. So, I force quit, rebooted, and repaired the disk/permissions with disk utility.
Did I do something wrong by dragging & dropping my files over trying to use it as a backup AND a an external HD? Or trying to mount the drive? Or maybe since adding several gigs of music, I took up too much space & now don't have room for a backup? (In which case, I need to access the drive & erase the music, and start over: if only I could SEE it I could do that.)
I am still doing searches trying to see what I need to do; I haven't yet re-set it, due to my concern about my internet connection, which could potentially prevent me from getting any information to fix it. At this time, I am not sure if this is a Time Capsule, Time Machine, or Airport issue. During the time that I have been writing this, the red check changed to 'connecting' but then the 'delayed - Time Machine is not available' message came back up
TIA

Reboot the network in correct order.. modem.. router/TC.. clients.. 2min gap.
This is just standard windows.. woops, Mac OS networking now.

Time Machine Full Recovery From Wireless Backup

I am reporting this as a learning experience for all.
I just had a hard drive fail on my MacBook. Apple Care was golden and now I have a clean install with Leopard.
Here is my situation. MacBook backed up via time machine on a wireless network. Windows on boot camp partition. Dedicated disk (1TB Buffalo) connected to wife's iMac via firewire.
I want to do a full recovery. I start up leopard and it gives me the option to do a full recovery during setup. I have no time machine backup list provided. I continue with setup. When I go to the recover option of time machine I am asked to select a file. This is when I call tech support.
Tech Support says I should have had the backup disk connected directly via firewire for setup to see it. Time machine stores the backup under these conditions as a Sparse bundle. Now that I am past setup I have to do a migration rather than a recovery. I start up the migration assistant and I still cannot access the sparse bundle as it is grayed out. The leap here is you have to mount the sparse bundle, double click, then it shows up as a disk you can migrate from.
Windows Partition, as TS puts it is "on its own".
The confusion for me was that I could not recover exactly as I had backed up.
I hope this helps someone. Cheers!

coma53 wrote:
It seems to be. All music, photos, applications, etc. are present. I have not had time to do a complete review of my migration, I will track this post for a while and report any problems. There were significant OS updates which were required. I thought that they would be included as part of the migrate, not so. Perhaps they are on a true "full recovery" from setup, any one know?
Migration has no option for any part of the OS. It assumes you already have it.
If you recover your entire system from a TM backup (assuming nothing significant was excluded), you get your entire system back exactly the way it was: the OS, Apps, settings, preferences, user data, etc.
You don't load a new OS from the Leopard Install disc -- you only use it for it's copy of Disk Utility and the installer -- everything else comes from your TM backup.

Even after resets get "The backup disk image "/Volumes/FreeAgent GoFlex Drive/MacBeth (2) 1.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 22)."

HELP! "The backup disk image “/Volumes/FreeAgent GoFlex Drive/MacBeth (2) 1.sparsebundle” could not be created (error 22)."
TC estimates over 750GB for full backup.
Late 2010 MBA is connected wirelessly to
802.11n (1st gen) TC that is connected via ethernet hub built into house to motorola router using charter.com for internet.
I have had same problem for over 150 days and multiple reboots, restarts in proper order, firmware updates, unplugs with 5min plus gaps, bypassing the tc and using external 500gb WD mybook via usb to time capsule, replacement of the WD mybook to new 2TB Free Agent GoFlex drive, etc, etc, etc! Note: I originally named my MBA hard drive MacBeth, but at some point months ago, it said backup already existed and system automatically created MacBeth (2), worked for a while, then stopped again, despite trying nearly daily.
I gave up and started using Carbon Copy Clone daily for just the 128gb on internal SSD of my late 2011 11" MacBook Air, but need to get past these time capsule errors to back up the external disk! Due to lack of space in MBA, I had long ago transferred both itunes and iphoto and all imovie/fcpx files to a 1tb external disk (WD Passport) that I keep in my bag with MBA. It is partitioned with 150gb for cloning the MBA, and over 750gb for media/itunes/iphoto/etc.
Also, I have endured months of "your hard drive is full" messages and system lockups, applying the solution given to me by genious bar (deleting all aol.com outboxes/recovered messages/spam/trash under library/mail/V2/Mailboxes folders, empty trash, restart....watch recovered hard drive space mysteriously shrink next couple days to zero.....repeat)
Due to lack of space, I had not been able to do javascript and other system updates. Yesterday, I noticed even safari bookmark bar had mysteriously emptied (not disappeared, I can hide and show the space where the bar used to be - it is just blank area with no data except for eyelass-book-topsites icons), so I transferred a few large quicktime movie files recorded with isight camera to the external disk, and freed up 20 gbs for the first time!
This got my hopes up yesterday because after I completed all system/software updates, suddenly the bookmark bar showed up and I was able to start the time capsule backup! It took overnight preparing for backup, but finally started and progressed to 12gb of the 100gb+ needed (i guess the update where it left off months ago for the estimated 750gb for the full backup?), then I put system to sleep and took it with me (thus leaving the wireless time capsule network as I do daily fully expecting it to continue when I returned home in the evening.) But alas, upon return, back to the "Time Machine could not complete backup, The backup disk image ".....sparsebundle" could not be created (error 22)" Ugh! More reboots, unplugs, 5min gaps....still Ugh!
So the problem continues...please help! Here are my settings:
About this mac:
Mac OS X V. 10.7.5
processor 1.6 ghz intel core 2 duo, memory 4 4g 1067 MHz DDR3
software up to date!
Airport Utility:
V 6.2 (620.33)
both internet globe and TC show green dots in graphic, however internet occasionally shows yellow then goes to green, but still gets error 22. Suddenly TC showed explanation mark and says lost connection and asked if I wanted to 'forget', gave same errors, then mysteriously went back to green, but still got error 22!.
Internet:
connection: connected, displays router address, 2 dns server, and domain name: charter.com
Time Capsule:
shows network, ip address, serial number, version 7.6.3, status: (green dot) Setup over WAN,
wireless clients: phones, macbooks (including this MBA), printers, wii
If you need other settings to help me, just ask! I have read a few of the other solutions in forums, but trying not to erase disks, especially since it worked for a minute yesterday!

To step sideways.. why not just use CCC to backup the 750GB of the hard disk to the TC.
You need to understand this is going to be a super slow process and each time you stop it.. it is going to give issues. CCC will at least do a more reliable job of it than TM.
I would also say.. this is going to be tough without ethernet. You need to understand the backup speed over wireless can be 10GB per hour.. that makes 75hrs to backup the disk. The air needs to run non-stop doing that.. without you touching it.
I would get another external drive.. plug that into the MBA and if you really want to use TM.. make a backup one to the other.. but CCC will again do a better job and work faster. It will be much faster than over wireless.
I am trying to think of ways around the issue of just speed.. but plainly you have lots of other issues.. being the simple unreliablity of the TM to identify the TC.
If you want to make this work.. give yourself a weekend.
Load 5.6 utility into the MBA..
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Take the TC back to 7.5.2 firmware. It is a really old version and latest firmware does it no good at all.
Wipe its hard disk using erase and start over.. give it new names for everything.
So call it TC
Set the wireless to 5ghz and name it TC5ghz
Use WPA2 Personal security. Use a 10 character passkey non dictionary.
At 5ghz you should get 2x the speed as at 2.4ghz but the air will need to be right next to the TC..
(alternatively buy the USB to ethernet cord apple have available.. it is $30 in the apple store and do it over pseudoethernet. http://store.apple.com/au/product/MC704ZM/A/apple-usb-ethernet-adapter That is the wrong store but you get the idea. )
WIth a fully clean system.. now do a full reset of TM.
See A4 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Direct the TM to back to the TC.. and make sure the external hard disk is not excluded.
Of course the TC has to be 1TB version to fit that much data.. goes without saying right.
Even over pseudo - ethernet this will take many hours.. and you basically have to leave it to work.. do not touch it.. make sure the MBA cannot sleep though.. turn off sleep.. beforehand.

Time Machine / Time Capsule Error: Backup disk image could not be mounted

So I'm trying to back up to time machine, which used to be working fine, but I have this problem happening on two computers now (which probably means the error is in my Time Capsule.)
The Time Capsule shows up on my "shared" list in my finder windows.
I can connect to it, and open the folder inside, and SEE my two disk image files in there.
But Time Machine gives me a "The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" error. No other information.
If I double-click on the disk image file directly, I get an error "The Following disk images failed to mount" and then it lists the file and says "Resource temporarily unavailable."
Help, please.

I'm caught in the same loop, with no end in sight. I've only been using Time Machine and Time Capsule for 2 months. This week it stopped working. First error message:
"Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume."
Checking the Time Machine preferences, "Last backup" would read "backup failed"
When I got this error, all the wireless functions went offline, even thought the TC light was still green.
I would shut down, shut down the Time Capsule, shut off my modem reboot everything in order.
Next error message:
"Disk repair. The disk 'Backup of [my computer]' was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must backup your data and reformat the drive."
Then: "Time Machine Error: The backup volume is read only. To select a different volume ... Time Machine preferences ... "
I spoke to someone at Apple, who sent me the Time Machine Troubleshooting page:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275?viewlocale=en_US
I went through:
1. updated my system software
2. updated the TC firmware to 7.4.1
3. dragged the sparsebundle to DiskUtility. It took a while (more than an hour?) but said the disk could not be repaired. When I tried again, the repair function wouldn't run.
4. tried to delete the sparsebundle, but it would choke at almost the end, sometimes it would just crash the finder, sometimes say "Sorry, an unexpected error occurred," sometimes "Operation cannot be completed because the item 'bands' is in use." I even tried to Stuff the bundle with 'delete original' checked, but the stuffing, after about 15 hours, jammed near the end (stuffed 20 gigs of 35 gigs).
5. tried to reselect the TC, and run backup anyways ... now it can't find the volume, back to the error messages and crashing Finder
6. checked password in Keychain, all ok.
Now what??
Do I use Airport Utility to erase it? At least TC is still showing up there. Or press the rest button on the back of the Time Capsule to reset to factory defaults?
I've resigned myself to losing my backups. Now I would just like to get it up and running again.
In hopes,
Linda

Backup disk cannot be found

I have four Mac Laptops set up to back up to a time capsule.
Three laptops back up fine but my rMBP gives the "the backup disk cannot be found" error when it attempts to backup to the Time Capsule. It backups fine to a mini server and local disk. I can mount the timecapsule disk as well as the rMBP sparse image.
Its a current generation time capsule and my rMBP is OS10.9.5 (so are the other Macs). The disk is near full.
Before I start digging and blow away the TC backup I wanted to check in here. I don't see anything similar in the online guides.
The TC and rMBP have been restarted.

It seems that when waking from sleep TimeMachine is sometimes ready to backup before the wireless is connected (see complaints about wireless problems after latest OS updates). When this happens, TM seems to mark the drive not available and refuses to backup to it. Dunno, just a theory.
As you suggested, I verified the backup sparse bundle, and not an issue was found or repaired. The image was in great shape.
Anyway, I delete the problem drive from the TM preferences window and then added it back in. TM seems to find the sparse bundle just fine and presses on without issue. I hear that deleting the TM preference file also may help, but I did not try that. I think thats what you meant by full TM reset. Perhaps by deleting and adding the drive I dis a partial TM reset, just reset the problem drive.
I've been backing up four laptops to the same internal TC drive for maybe five-six years. It hasn't been a problem. There have been an occasional burp backing up to USB drives attached to a AEBS and the synology NAS has been a disaster. I just stopped doing that

Time Capsule Backup Disk Cannot Be Found

Hello,
I have a fairly new iMac (about 3 months old) running Lion OSX 10.7.4. This is my first Mac Computer. I have it setup wirelessly to a time capsule and had time machine backup. All was running fine until today when I noticed my last successful backup was June 18th. Ive spent several hour reading in apple support communities and other websites and I can't figure out what happened. I have kept all my software up to date.
All my other Apple devices are working fine on the same network: 2 Airport Expresses for Airplay, iPad, iPhone, iMac. . . I just can't get time machine to backup.
My error message is "Backup Disk Cannot be Found"
HELP!

Mac with Lion is about vista standard as far as networking goes.. did you turn it off and on again??
Turn off the whole network.. off not sleep.. reboot in the right order.. modem.. router.. TC if different to router.. then clients.. I think the TC should reappear.. if not connect to it by ethernet.. do not use extended wireless.. it is too flakey.
If it still doesn't appear press reset and do the setup again.
For lion make sure you download, install and use the tool utility.. not the toy utilty built into windows lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Tell me if the hard disk appears.. if so you know the procedure the next time.. in a few days when it happens again. It will happen again btw.. it is windows.. lion

My time machine keeps saying the backup disk cannot be mounted. how do I fix it?

my time machine keeps saying that the backup disk cannot be mounted. we cannot figure out why this is happening. We have a 500GB time capsule /wireless router and using a Macbook . any ideas?

Try deleting your iPod Photo Cache folder. See:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1314

"The backup disk image 'Volumes...sparsebundle' is already in use" error message

Since upgrading to Lion, I seem to be able to back up my MacBook over Wi-fi to an external hard drive attached to my Airport Extreme just fine. However, if Time Machine is in the middle of a backup and I interrupt it by closing my MacBook hence putting it to sleep, next time my MacBook attempts a backup I get the message "This backup disk image "/Volumes....Macbook.sparsebundle" is already in use. I've tried disconnecting all users from the hard drive in the Airport Utility, and then unplugging the hard drive and plugging it back in, and then it seems to backup fine, until I interrupt another backup, then the problem starts all over again.
I never had this problem before upgrading to Lion. Suggestions?

NateCook, I'm experiencing the exact same issue. I'd previously been enjoying how seamless Time Machine worked, wirelessly and automatically, to backup my MacBook Pro to a 2 TB drive attached to my Airport Extreme. I also liked that I had the flexibility to plug that drive directly to my Mac, via FW800 or USB 2.0, if I needed to. It would always work too, regardless of whether or not I interrupted a backup in progress. Now, with Lion, I'm constantly getting the same "This backup disk image "/Volumes....Macintosh.sparsebundle is already in use" error. I fix it by restarting the Airport Extreme but that's a pain in the butt to have to do all the time.
Can you verify whether or not the recent OS X 1.0.7.1 update helps fix this in any way? Or is the situation the same for you?
I'm loathe to "give in" and buy a Time Capsule to replace this setup, but I will if I have to... I want everything to work like it did before and I'm not willing to downgrade fom Lion back to Snow Leopard over this. I was hoping Apple would fix it properly, but since this isn't a "supported configuration" (even though we know full well it works just fine) I was afraid Apple wouldn't focus on this as a priority.
I'm also a bit fearful that the same issue will occur with a Time Capsule.. hmm... my hunch is I'll be finding out soon enough.

"backup disk not available" since moving to 5GHz

Dear Community,
I am getting "Backup Disk Not Available" since switching to the 5GHz band.
I've have to leave the 2.4GHz because it's simply too congested round here. All the neighbours have wireless and I kept getting dropout and slow streaming of video and audio.
My Time Machine is extended by an Airport Extreme and both have 2.4 and 5 GHz bands enabled.
I looked on Airport Utility - but that is giving me a nonsense result - my Time Machine is not turned off. The Airport Extreme close to the room where I am - is only there to extend the network, but Airport Utility tells me that that is connected straight to the internet.
What can I do?
Thanks for your time.
Yours,
Amro

A second restart seemed to fix it!

HT3275 "Unable to find backup disk" issue

I use an external USB device for Time Machine backups, and, until now, it has always worked perfectly. However, today when I tried to backup my files, Time Machine sent me the message "Unable to find backup disk."
I went to the "Help" section of Time Machine and was advised to open "Time Machine Preferences," then open "Select Disk" and choose my external device from the list of "back-up disks" that would be shown. This apparently would "re-set" my external back-up device and allow backing up to resume.
However, when I went to the "Select Disk" section of "Time Machine Preferences," my external device was not even listed as a choice (i.e., I can't select the device as the place for backing-up, because it's not listed).
NOTE: My external device is (a) connected to my laptop (via USB port), (b) turned on & (c) not defective. My wireless network is working just fine.
Also, when I tested Apple's back-up drive "re-set" advice by connecting a tiny thumb-drive to my laptop (via the same USB port I had used with my external device), the "Select Disk" section of "Time Machine Preferences" listed the thumb-drive as a potential back-up disk that could be selected.
So, why can't my external USB device be "found" by Time Machine (while my thumb-drive can)? What can I do to fix this problem?
Thanks!
lisbeth617

Sounds like either the backups are corrupted, or there's a problem with the drive, port, or cable.
Try to repair the backups, per #6 in Using Disk Utility.

Wireless Backup Disk

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