Intel Mac :: Time Machine Error Message - Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Created
Jun 7, 2012
Error message "The backup disk image could not be created." I have tried everything I have found online in the community from TM full reset to changing my computers name. Anything else I can try? I am using a Seagate external HD with a connection through my router. I spent an hour on the phone with seagate and everything is ok on the HD end. TM sees it and it is mounted but cannot go any further
I was a PC user who recently moved to mac. I have a macbook (intel 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD). When I was using PC, I backed up all my data to a network storage device (Buffalo LinkStation 250 GB connected to a 802.11g netgear router which is supplied by Sky) using a program called SmartSync Pro, which worked very well. Although I can connect to and mount the Share folder on this drive when the macbook is connected to the network, Time Machine will not back up to it. It wouldnt even recognise the disk on the network.
So I went onto the trusty internet, and found that you can get time machine to recognise the Share folder. (This was obtained from: http://blog.imulus.com/george/software/using-leopard-time-machine-to-backup-of-a-network/)See my comment on their page at the bottom, number 66.
It recommended entering the following in to the Terminal: defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
Before attempting backup I have to go into "Network" and select the Share folder by double clicking on it. This seems to mount the volume. After this, it can be seen in Time Machine as a potential backup destination.
However, this method does not work for me. Time Machine "prepares" for a while, then gives the following message: Time Machine error. The backup disk image could not be created.
More internet searching took me to macosxhints which suggests creating something called a sparsebundle image on my local system. (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080420211034137) Have not tried this yet as I thought it would be prudent to seek some help first.
Apple have deliberately disabled the ability for Time Machine to back up to network attached storage, (except of course to their proprietory Time Capsule):
Is this because time machine requires a network faster than 802.11g?
Is this because a time machine backup to a network attached storage device is unreliable and the data is corrupted?
I dont want to shell out more cash for a time capsule. I would prefer not to have to hardwire to an external drive (which I will also have to go out and buy). Any thoughts?
I'm running Snow Leopard on an Intel iMac, everything up to date, and Disk Utility finds no error on any of the drives. I have a 1 TB external drive connected to USB (bus powered, with a power USB connection to a powered hub, so it has more than enough power). Time Machine fails with a totally unhelpful message that the backup could not be created because a folder could not be created. The external drive has 318 GB used, 481 GB available, so it's not disk space. Yesterday I repartitioned the external drive using the GUID partition scheme, creating a 750 GB Mac extended journaled partition "Time 1GB Tosh" just for Time Machine. I've been through the Time Machine Troubleshooting FAQs
iMAC with OSX10.9.4 ; 8GB ram ; two partitions external disk formatted MAC jurnaled ; connected via Fire Wire or USB2 .
During Backup the sistem get stack and display into the "details window" Time machine was unable to complete the backup because unable to complete the backup folder.
This problem happens with USB and Fire Wire. The file backups.backupdb is excluded from virus scanning.
Also happens time to time that (without doing things) both the partitions of the external disk disappaire from the desk-top and a message "the disk must be ejected properly" is displayed.
This two problems are independent une to the other. I have change the backup disk but both the problems persist.
Info: iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), 8GB ram ; external backup HD
Time Machine will not back up, with following error message.
Starting standard backup Backing up to: /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db| Error: Flushing index to disk returned an error: 0 Backup canceled. iMac running 10.6.8 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
What if a Time Machine backup was created on a Mac with a large hard disk, e.g. 500GB iMac - and I buy a new MacBook Air with a small SSD hard disk e.g 128GB. What happens when I need to use the larger Time Machine file to set up the new MacBook Air? What happens to all those files that can't fit on the smaller SSD drive?
I want to use Time Machine, but I don't want to have all my data sitting in the open on an external drive that someone can just carry away. Can I make an encrypted disk image, and have Time Machine use that as the backup volume?
I've been without use of Time Machine for sometime (months) now. I've been getting the following error:
My backup drive (Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex - 320GB) was a attached to my Airport Extreme, but in desperation I moved it to being directly attached to my MBP. I've also excluded large number of files from the back up (reduced the full backup size to half the size of the backup disk). Also, I've erased and reformatted the back up disk - twice. No errors on it either.
What would be really helpful, was if there was some indication as to WHAT the problem actually is. This is a rather ambiguous error message, which does little to help a person to troubleshooot. It seems like the backup is being hung up on a file or files...but I'm just guessing.
Has anybody out there run into this? If so, what was your solution?
My files were backing up for about a day, had 75gb of 100gb done and then my power went out. It cancelled out, and then when it came back on I tried to resume it. It started to backup 25gb, which I'm assuming is just the last 25gb that it had to do. Anyway, it did that for a while then stopped, and now when I try to backup, it says: "Time Machine Error: The backup disk image could not be mounted."
How do I backup the rest of my stuff? Do I have to start over? And is there a way to make it transfer faster? I mean, there's no way to directly connect it to your computer, is there? Also, in the Time Machine settings thing, it says "Available: 839.8GB of 929.5GB. Does that mean it has 839gb of my 929gb backed up? What happened to the other 71gb? I just want my stuff to be backed up, why is this so complicated?
Since upgrading to Lion, I have been having problems backing up to Time Machine using a LaCie external disk. Time Machine worked fine before the upgrade to Lion. The backup usually starts correctly, but after backing up around 1GB, I get the following error message: "The disk was not ejected properly. If possible, always eject a disk before unplugging or turning it off". The disk has over 80GB of space available.
I need to deploy multi iMac for my company with exact same setup.I am able to do this with the Time Machine without problem.But I would like to know is there a way to backup the "Time Machine" USB HDD I have created, just incase my USB HDD is corrupted or I need to distribut the Time Machines to other office for deployment? Can I create a dmg file with my existing Time Machine USB HDD. so that I can make multi copy of USB HDD with the same dmg by restoring the dmg?
I have a Time Machine Backup that I created in Lion 10.7 and I need to know if this will allow me to install it from 10.6.My HD is on its way out and I need a replacement. I will first install 10.6 onto the new drive (as this is the disk that came with my Mac) and from there, I want to install my Time Machine backup.
Info: Mac Mini (Early 2009)/MacBook (Late 2008)Mac Mini (2010), Mac OS X (10.6.7), LED Cinema Display
I just did and automatic update that consisted of about 6 items, now my external hard drive is not even recognized! Long story short, Time Machine can not find my external to do a backup. I have already done all the unplugging and restarting and searching for the disk... Nothing! my external is Lit and seemingly functioning.
I have a file I alter once about a week, each time I alter it I save it as a new one, with a date included in the name.So I have a series of files something like
xxxxx march 13.numbers xxxxx march 07.numbers xxxxx march 01.numbers etc.
This morning when I updated and saved the march13 file I accidentally saved it as xxxxxx march 13, not xxxxxx march 20 which it should have been. No problem, go into time machine and retrieve the march 13 file I thought.Its not there. Its not there from just before the save to any time it should be there !
Luckily I was able to retrieve it as I also have a once a week online backup so I went into the last one of those and retrieved "xxxxxx march13" which proves it did exist, it has a creation date of march 17 but if I look at TM for march 18 its not there - why isn't it in my time machine backup?
All the other files in that folder are as expected so the only thing that makes any sense to me is that TM hasn't been backing up over the past week or so but TM error logger shows no errors.
I get the following message when attempting backup - the backup disk image"/volumes/data/rod Henderer's computer (5).sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error - 1)
Recently I haven't been able to backup. Why this is? Not too sure. I don't remember changing any settings or anything recently but within the last 2 weeks or so I haven't been able to backup at all. When I start backing up it says "preparing backup" then an error message pops up that says "The backup disk image could not be mounted".
I want to load XP via Bootcamp OR virtual on my personal macbook pro. However I need my XP image for work and want to do my own backup instead of waiting for my slow desktop support to fix my image. So, if I run Time Machine, will it notice all of my changes every night (backup) that I make on my bootcamp image XP.
I have a external HD which has always worked fine under snow leopard. Since upgrading to lion I keep getting the following message The identity of the backup disk has changed since the previous backup.The disk may have been replaced or erased, or someone may be trying to trick your computer into backing up to the wrong disk. And after this the drive disappears from the desktop appearing agian only after restart. What can I do do rectify this? Delete and re-intialise the drive?
my TM wil not back up! It states that this backup is too large for the backup disk. The back up disk requires 573.50 GB but only 225.23 GB are available. The TM needs work space on the backup disk, in addition to the space required to store backups. Upen TM perferences to select a LARGER backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding file.
Okay I;m sorry but obvioulsy I dont get this. I've never called Apple for help! I have every product they sell practically including Protection Plans I never used and no one will help me with this. My MAC is starting to have black or white screens and i can hear it running but it will not do anything so i have to reboot it, it screws up Enturage and then I have to rebuild that ( 5 times this year) anyway... I would like to back everything up- can I delete everything on the Time Capsule or Time Machine; god I dont even know what it is called Im so MAD... help if you can please. I'm going to have to take this to the genius people at the store and probably buy another computer but like before they will not save my files.
Two days ago my computer died and I haven't been able to get past the Apple screen since. I've tried starting in Safe mode, etc. that did not work. I just started up using my installation disk and got into Disk Utility. It says it cannot repair the disk and that I should back up as many files as possible and reformat the disk. How am I supposed to back up if I can't start up? I am currently creating a new image of the HD to an external drive but my question is if Disk Utility couldn't repair the disk, with the external drive copy also be problematic? How can I tell before I reformat the whole thing and start over?
On restarting my iMac I get this message "Your Mac OS X startup disk has no more space available for application memory. To avoid problems with your computer, quit any applications you are not using, Closing windows and removing files from your startup disk will also help."
I have a 1 tb drive with over 400 gigs of space and 4 gigs of ram I have no apps running the computer seems stuck This started after my mac crashed while trying to print a 17 page document
I've deleted 6 backups already and am left with three but the size of the file hasn't changed at all. I don't want to delete the whole thing and start over.
The file size now is 330gb which is ridiculous to me that it hasn't changed one bit since i deleted 6 backups.
So I bought a brand new WD 1TB Elements (USB) to use with Time Machine. I've never used a Time Machine before. I have a MBP13 with a 250GB disk, using the latest Snow Leopard, all updates installed. Formatted the drive to Mac OS Journaled (extended) and set it to use with Time Machine. Works until about 15-17GBs is copied over, than it fails:
1. If I start over it fails very soon after, no matter how many times I retry 2. No matter how many times I reformat it, it always fails 3. I tried one trick I googled - deleting the "inprogress" file - does NOT help 4. SMART status is verified 5. There are no problems if I verify/repair the disk.
Does anyone know what this means? I have just bought a Seagate Expansion 1TB and formatted it for a mac. However, when I try to back up time machine, this box pops up error code -43.
My Time Machine now failing to backup. The machine can see the external drive (tells me that 1.8T of 2TB available) but every time over past 14 days has failed to function and pops up error window.
Info: MacBook Air (11-inch Late 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.3), Time
After updating to Lion server, I moved my Drobo over and setup Time Machine
Many users are prompeted to reuse or create a new backup.
The problem is I log in with credentials of 'USER A', and on the dialog it lists another 'USER B', userb.sparsebundle as the file to reuse.
I recently had a iMac hard drive die, and i tired to use the time machine on the server, with 'USER A' credentials, i got 4 listings and none of them were 'USER A'
I check the drobo and 'USER A''s sparsebundle is there. I have tried changeing permissions to read the sparsebudle, but the bundle is a 250k file, not a diskimage of the files even.
How do i resolve this problem of the wrong users coming up on "reuse or create new backup"?
How do i access the lost sparsebundle that i cannot log into to get the files for the user that needs them?
I'm interested in replacing my 250GB HDD for a 80GB SSD. I want to use the old drive as a USB backup disk for Time Machine, but is 5400 RPM fast enough for this?