I have two Macs both of which are running snow Leopard. To back these up I use time machine connected to a single external USB hard drive. I simply connect the drive to the machine I want to backup once a week or so and it will back up. For a while, everything worked just fine, I even needed to recover files from it and did so successfully. Occasionally one or other of the Macs would take a while to recognise the drive but normally it would be OK. Gradually the problem got worse until neither machine would recognise the backup drive. I mean nothing - not only would it not mount on either machine but wasn't recognised in disk utility either. As the disk was about 3 years old I figured it was probably the drive on the way out so bought a new Seagate drive to replace it.
Again, it worked fine to start with, but now after only about two months exactly the same problem has occurred and now the new drive is not recognised at all either. Now it could be that I'm just unlucky and have two dead hard drives but I don't think so, especially as the new drive has had very little use. I'm guessing that somehow using the backup drive with more than one machine has caused the problem but I don't know how to fix it. I have tried everything my (limited) knowledge will allow.
- Repairing disk permissions
- Allow OSX time to find the drive (I've left it for hours but to no avail)
- Booting the machine up with the usb drive already plugged in
As the drives are not recognised by either machine at all, I don't know what else to do. If I could see the drives I'd be happy to format them both and use one on each machine if this would fix the problem but I can't even do that.
Time Machine was doing its normal hourly backup when all of a sudden I got the multi-language gray shade of death. I restarted and tried to backup again, which resulted in another kernel panic. This time I tried entering Time Machine, and in the middle of "Connecting to Backup Volume," I get another kernel panic. This has never happened before I updated to 10.5.3, but I've had several backups since updating and this hasn't happened before just now, so I'm not sure it's a 10.5.3 issue.
[Log] ...
I have Time Machine pointed at a Time Capsule and I'm on the MacBook listed in my signature. I turned off Time Machine until I can figure this out.
I've read so many threads on various ext HD's to use with Time Machine & to think I can't name one good recommendation & that's what all the questions are in the threads. So, my conclusion is to go the expensive route and stick with Apple & Time Capsule. At least it's suppose to work together and if there are problems I can deal with it through the warranty & support. Plus, I'll easily figure(read) how to wire it up & I know it's all compatible. So, my question is 1TB or 2TB model? I have started shooting all my images in RAW files which will be the standard from now on, & have about 2000 already. I also have aprox. 2000 ~3MB jpg's now and a few short 15sec videos. I have about 7 CD's full of jpgs and ~500 slides I want to scan/digitize and download to the system. I will be drastically increasing the RAW photo's. I build web sites & have hundreds of thumbnails & smaller web based images associated with those sites which I keep.
I would like to set up Time Machine with an external HD. Is it worth it? Isn't it supposed to be a seamless backup over a network storage? But if I have to keep plugging my external HD in everytime I would like to backup, will that be good enough? Say, I plug in my external HD every 2 weeks, that would give me a good sufficient Time Machine backup? How long does it take?
I am currently considering purchasing a MacBook Pro (just about to press 'buy'). But there's just one question I would like to know the answer to first:
If I use Time Machine with a regular external USB harddrive, how will Time Machine handle it if I plug the harddrive in and out a couple or serveral times a day? You see, I need to move my (future) MacBook around a lot, but I also want to have its data backed up automatically.
I was trying to set up my Time Machine to an external hard drive. I didn't continue because it asked to "initialize" the hard drive which I had a lot of important things on.
I have another external hard drive I'd like to use but, my Time Machine has this error code of -43. What is this and how can I use my Time Machine on another external hard drive?
I am using Time Machine with my external drive. And since my external hard disk does not have too much capacity, from the time machine options I excluded some folders like movies, music etc. So in time machine preferences it seems it needs 42gb for backup. And it was working like this, backing up 42gb and everyday just backing up changes like 100mb. So in hard drive more or less 50gb was used..70gb free. Until last week.
Suddenly it appeared an error like this "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 128 GB but only 97 GB are available". I do not have any idea how this can happen since my backup size seems like 42gb still in options. How it can require 128GB suddenly? Also how can I have 97GB available? I had 70GB last week? I tried to include everything in backup options and exclude again but it does not work. Still I see there 42gb needed for backup but when I connect the drive I am still getting the same error!
I am currently trying to back up my macbook on my Maxtor external hard drive. I already have lots of movies and other files on there which I want to keep. I put these files onto it from my previous windows computer and also formatted my hard drive to fit windows.
Is there any way I can use this disk for time machine but keep all of my existing files? I have heard things about partitions, could this be the solution and how do I create them?
i'm about 9gb into my 200gb backup, and its been going 3.5 hours. i always knew this first one would take forever, i should have bought the firewire version i knew it.
anyway, does anyone know if i can still access my shiny new Western Digital drive as a regular external hard drive now i've set it for time machine?
i'll only be able to find out around wednesday next week at this rate.
this is obviously how i roll at work over three different servers/drives. i'm just wondering if time machine kills its ability to be a plug and play storage facility.
I just purchased a 500gb External Hard Drive. I was wondering what is the best way to format and partition it so that I can use 300gb dedicated to Time Machine and then use the ~180gb for external storage. The key part of my situation is that I want to be able to access the ~180 gb from both my Mac and my windows based machines. I know I could go into disk utility and partition it, but what format should I use if I want to do both.
The other part is the hard drive is already setup to use time machine since yesterday, however I am willing to format it completely to partition it to use on windows machines (XP and Vista.)
I'm currently backing up my MB (2007) to an external USB drive using Time Machine.
I also have a 250gb external drive full of everything I need for work and my music collection. Basically I've realised that if this drive goes down I will probably not be able to do my job, and won't have anything fun to do the rest of the time either because all my stuff will be gone!
This data drive is used daily on Windows XP, 2000 and Vista machines so it's formatted in FAT or NTFS (can't remember which) that Time Machine won't back up from. So TM isn't an option.
Do any of you backup experts know if there's a piece of Mac software or a particular model of external drive that I can get to basically synchronise TWO external drives? I need to be able to back up my external data onto another external drive on a daily basis so I can sleep at night.
can't open the program time machine located in the folder /applications/time machine anymore, message says program ain't working for unknown reaason, but I still can open time machine in the menu bar. any clues what the trouble might be? and/or is there any way to reinstall time machine only on os x 10.7.3?
btw., on the system backup hd which is a mirror of the imac system, the programm still works
I have an external 500gb drive plugged into my brand new Time Capsule. The 500gb drive basically stores my entire library of music and my iTunes points to this external drive.
Is it possible to have time machine backup all information on the 500gb drive to the time capsule, so encase the external drive takes a dump, I don't loose my entire music library? Maybe time machine is already doing this, I am not sure.
As my 160N series Linksys router neither has gigabit ports, usb connector or dual band networking, I am looking for a replacement.
When it comes to Apple routers I am looking at 2 options - either the base station with an external USB drive or get a 1TB capsule with the buildt in drive and worries regarding reliability.
What I like about the Time Capsule is that it is neat to have all in one, takes up less space and only has 1 plug to attach, while Iike the idea that I can just connect a bigger drive later on the base station solution.
1. Will the connected USB drive function just like the internal drive in the Time Capsule for Time Machine use?
2. Will everything be transparent to Snow Leopard?
3. In case of both units with an attached USB drive - can I control who actually can see the drive and access it?
4. Do they support this DNLA thing so that e.g . PS3 can access an attached drive??
Just wondering what experiences other people have had using time machine on a Mac Pro OS 10.5.2 with an external FW400/800 HD.
I am looking at a Lacie D2 Quadra 500GB to back up the standard 320GB internal drive. Never used time machine before, is it any good or is it better to use retrospect or similar. I never use more than 100GB of my main drive as most is backed up to DVD for extra safety. Is it worth getting a SATA card.
I sent my mbp for repairs, and the logical board was replaced. To my surprise when I connencted my external HD TM started to make a fresh backup (my computer's name 2). Of course I wasn't aware of the MAC addresses and TM problems. Searching the forums I've found a partial solution: I can browse my old TM backup from the app interface, but can't resume the backups where they were left...still tries to make a new backup. Also the entire backup HD is now locked and it's impossible to move/rename/delete any file inside it even when the 'Get Info" menu says I have read/write access
Has anyone any tip or idea on how to unlock my drive?
I've attached the info that terminal shows on the permissions (I guess the problem lies there...)
I have an external hard drive with files from my pc. I want to partition it so that I can use Time Machine on my mac. I tried disk utility but it told me it would erase the drive if it makes the partition. Is there a free application I can use to make a partition without erasing all my files?? I dont care if its for mac or pc
Im looking to get an external hard drive for the use of time machine when i get my MBP (after wwdc). Ill be getting the one with the 320gb hard drive.
My question is would a 500gb external HDD be ok or would 1TB be better?
I ask this as i dont know how time machine works as to how it stores data, does it store everything you ever have on your computer, so if i filled the HDD 3 times it would be about 1TB.
After shopping for external hard drives to accompany my 320gb in my imac, I noticed for $10 more, I can get 3x the storage. (320 for $90 or 1tb for $100), so how does time machine work, if I hook up an external, is anything beyond 320 wasted? do I need to partition that much off to use the rest of the drive?
So I'm currently running Mac OS 10.6.1 on my MacBook, however my External HDD which was originally working with Snow Leopard is no longer working. It is not recognized by the computer as even being there. I have never dropped it or anything, and I don't know why this is happening. since having a back up is important to me.
I was told today by an Apple retail employee that Time Machine will not back up from anything other than an internal drive and I wanted to confirm whether this was the case. For example I have an iMac with a 750GB internal and I also have a 750GB external drive. I want to keep my iTunes Music and iPhoto libraries on the internal but keep all my movies on the external drive for space reasons. I want to then use a 2TB external drive to work with Time Machine. I was told that if I want to back up the 750 "Movies" drive that I will need to manually copy it because Time Machine will only back up the path of those files and that drive can't be included in the backup. To me this seems to go against what TM is about, since I then have to manually manage that part of the backup, adding new items, rather than getting the benefits of TM's incremental backup. Can anyone confirm or deny this. Second question is regarding TM for multiple machines. Can a 2TB drive be used as the TM drive for both an iMac and a MacBook or will the drive need to be partitioned?
I purchased a Seagate 500GB external drive for my father to use for Time Machine backups. I can't find anything conclusive on whether I need to monkey around with the partitions in disk utility, or just send him home with it and let him say "yes" when he plugs it in and OS X asks if he wants to use it with Time Machine.
Apple's knowledge base has an article that makes a passing statement that "GUID Partition Table (GPT) or Apple Partition Map (APM)" is recommended- but it pretty much stops there. Should I do something to this drive before giving it to him to take home, or shouldn't I? I mean, either it is compatible as-is, or it isn't, right?
I have a 320GB internal drive and 1TB (MyBook) external drive. I recently bought a second 1TB external drive (MyVault)to use with Time Machine. I have removed the exclusion of MyBook so that Time Machine backs it up but so far it has refused to do so. It is happily backing up the internal drive. I have looked in the Mac OSX Leopard Missing Manual but still have no clue as to what I am missing. The initial setup (and backup) did not include MyBook until I discovered that I would have to remove it from the exclusions.
I have a 500 gb external that I've been backing up Time Machine onto--I also use the drive to store my movies (about 100 gb and increasing) but I'm getting to the point where time machine is taking over. Apple suggested partitioning my drive--does anyone else think that this will work or is there some other option that I have? I've thought about manually deleting certain Time Machine back ups but hate to have to do that constantly.
I'm looking to get a new drive to use with my MacBook for Time Machine. My current one (something from iomega) clicks like crazy whenever the backup runs, and drives me nuts.
I probably only need 250-320 GB, though I might get a larger one and partition it, using the other half for media, as I'm doing with the Iomega. My top priorities are a) quiet, b) off switch. Any recs?
Say my macbook pro crashes and I lose everything. However, I have been saving everything to an external drive using the Time Machine app. Can I use my external drive to get my computer to exactly the same state it was in before it crashed? By this I mean.
1) Desktop icons in the same places 2) System preferences all the same 3) Sticky notes all still exist and are laid out on the desktop just like previously before my hard drive crashed and I lost everything 4) My dock layout is exactly the same, same apps, same locations in the dock
I have been wondering this for quite some time. Because I know you can restore the essentials (i.e. Word documents, many different saved files) but what about little things like the above mentioned items?
So right now I have 2 external hard drives, a 2TB MyBook Mirror edition, set at RAID 0 so its a full 2TB, and a 1TB MyBook Home Edition. I also have three LaCie 1TB drives to back up the MyBook drives.
How I back up is basically copy the contents over to the backups once a month. The problem is, using USB (my only option) takes about 24 hours per TB. Backing up 3 days a month? Not fun.
Can Time Machine do this better? I still have Tiger, so can't test it yet but it seems tedious to do things my way. I would rather be able to plug them in and sync every few weeks and not have to replace every file, just the ones that changed or were added. Can this be done?
I don't keep the drives connected 24/7 so it would have to be manual, and also can Time Machine back up a 2TB drive to 2 1TB drives? The are stuck in enclosures so i have to connect the 2 separately through USB, can't use RAID.
If Time Machine is not the answer, is there some third party program the would not require me to re-copy every file? It would be great if I could save some time doing this.
