take a look at the attached picture. Time machine only lets me go to the desktop and nowhere else. This hasn't always been that way and has started to do that recently. Is there a solution for this?
When I enter time machine all I see is the desktop of the date of installation and the current date, with nothing in between, and yet when I switch on my hard drive, time machine activates.
I do not leave on my external hard drive [iomega] as it tends to get very warm.
What if anything am I doing wrong.
I am using a new imac only a month old running Leopard.
Time Machine can not find a file that I deleted just a few days ago, which is very annoying, because I can find the file just fine when I open my external hard drive (my Time Machine backup drive) with the Finder and navigate to the exact date and location where the file was located when I deleted it.
Why is Time machine not working like it is supposed to?
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
I've searched the web and the forums but I do not find anything that matches my problem, here it is. I'm using 1 Time machine drive (WD My Passport Studio 500 GB FW 800 for Mac) for my two machines, MacBook Pro (June 09, upgraded from Leopard with Snow Leopard Up to date disc) and my MacBook white (Late 2007, upgraded from Leopard with Snow Leopard retail disc). On my MacBook white, when I plug in the TM drive via USB, and when I click on the TM icon in the menubar, it says "Calculating changes (or similar)... (1, 2, 3, and so on %) until 100 % and the backup works just fine. But when I plug my TM drive onto my MacBook Pro (via FW), it says "Calculating changes... 1%" and it remains stuck on those 1%, but then after a while starts the backup properly.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI recently had my HDD replaced after a failure, and reinstalled 10.6.8 using Carbon Copy Cloner. The new drive came from Apple, and had 10.5.8 pre-installed (the OS that my late 2008 MBP came with), but CCC did what seemed to me to be an excellent job restoring. The clone was right at about two weeks prior to the old HDD failure, so once I cloned over, I only had to sync up with Dropbox, and manually move a handful of files (really from just a couple of folders for work) for things to be just as they were leading up to the failure. Here's what's happened (roughly) over the past week with TM:
1. Slow backups. Slow as in 1-2 KB/minute. This all starts with TM "calculating changes" which means about 20 minutes of crawling through and re-indexing(?) directories to look for changes. This happens each time.
2. Backups come in successive pairs. Time Machine Buddy shows this. One backup ends, having copied ~277,000 files (not a typo), then a second one begins immediately after, copies ~255,000 files (also not a typo), then either thins and/or deletes expired files.
3. #2 happens over the course of 2 1/2 hours, reliably.
4. After #2, the next backup comes about 2 hours later, starting all over again. Mere KB take the full 2 1/2 hours.
5. After each of the last backups, I have MORE space reported as available on the external drive. It seems to randomly delete backups from roughly 1 month ago.
Here's what I have tried:
1. Delete the TM prefs file in my user folder (not /)
2. Repaired the disk - things were very screwed up, with links needing repair all over the place. Thought this would solve things, but it didn't.
3. Hid the external from Spotlight's indexing
4. Deleted backups (via the TM interface -> "delete backups" option, NOT manually) after disk repair, in the event/hopes that initial backups following the new HDD replacement were bad.
5. Repaired permissions, etc.
6. Console doesn't throw what appear to be any errors. Just shows the successive backups mentioned above, the hundreds of thousands of files copied, and that TM deleted something each time.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Time machine won't back up immediately when I plug in my drive, even if it's been a few days since it backed up last. It starts on its own eventually, but sometimes (like today) it waits almost a half-hour, even though it hasn't been backed up since December 3rd.
View 2 Replies View RelatedDuring the last month the following has happened:
1. TM started a backup but was still not finished after 40 minutes, when I put the computer to sleep and went to bed. (I can't now remember what the state was the next day). Why so much longer than before? I had not created or amended huge files (like video).
2. Yesterday: rotating arrow icon on main menu bar continuously rotating for about 25 minutes. No movement of the progress bar nor any TM disk (external firewire) activity. I restarted the machine and TM did not resume backing up. I did a manual backup which lasted a few minutes only. OK. I went to bed.
3. Then today, on waking, it did its first auto backup of the day (either immediately or a few minutes later), taking about 10 minutes which seems a long time since there was virtually no computer activity since the last backup.
G5 2004, OS 10.5.8, 2 GB RAM, Time Machine 1.0
Last night I accidently deleted some files off my desktop. I went into Time Machine to restore them and thought I had made the correct selection but instead it appears that I changed ALL the backups to the current state of my desktop. I've checked other folders on my hard drive and they all seem to be identical throughout the dates in Time Machine instead of each being unique as well. Is my Time Machine stuck and not saving properly or was it something I possibly did? Is there a way to undo that or am I now stuck?
Info:
Mac Pro 2008, Mac OS X (10.6.7)
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.
Info:
MacBook Pro 15, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
Heya, I am new to time machine and just bought my first external to use it. Time machine has backed up my computer but when I go into my external and open the backup folder I only see the HD folder and everything within, which dosent include my desktop.
If I transfer this backup to a new computer will it copy over whatever is saved to my desktop as well?
After having my 1TB G-Tech G-Drive Q desktop external h.d. crap out on me for a second or third time, this time for good, I give up on G-Tech. (I also had a faulty 500GB G-Tech portable which had to be replaced.)For many reasons, my iMac's Time Machine backups have to be stored on an external hard drive rather than on our Time Capsule. Two or three times in the past year or so, the external h.d. has become corrupted or something and has had to be reformatted, losing all the previous backups and starting all over again. This time, since the external h.d. is toast, I have no backups at all.
View 15 Replies View RelatedI recently switched from Windows 7 to a new iMac. I connected my FreeAgent external drive and let iMac's Time Machine re-format it from windows to mac language. The backup completed, and all went well...but now there's a "Time Machine Backups" drive icon on my desktop. Does that have to be there? At first I deleted it, and the Seagate drive could no longer be recognized...so I unplugged the external drive and then plugged it back in. That did the trick, and it went back to working order. I also tried moving the backup drive icon to "Home" under "Go", and the same thing happened as when I put it in the trash. My question is, is it possible to move that drive icon from the Desktop to another place or do I just have to live with it on the Desktop?
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have a Mac Mini and two mac notebooks that run Snow Leopard. I've been backing these machines up to a 300 GB drive that is now full. Today I brought home a 2TB drive so that I can use Time Machine to backup the desktop Mac Mini. Can I use the same hard drive to use Time Machine for the two notebooks, as well? What about storing other backups on that drive as well? I'm just trying to map the most logical approach to having safe backups.
View 2 Replies View RelatedMy last enquiry was with regards backing up Time Machine to an AirDisk connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station, but this is not a recommended solution. Now that I have been able to afford a new HDD that works with my iMac, this is my current setup, which I established using the excellent website by Pondini:
- HDD connected via USB to iMac
- iMac backs up to its OWN PARTITION on the USB HDD
- Several Portable Macs back up to the other partition on the USB HDD using sparse bundles via WiFi (drive shared by iMac)
Now on my iMac, I have both partitions appearing on my desktop. However these partitions are SOLELY for TM backups and I don't want them to appear on the desktop (mainly due to other users perhaps fiddling around with them).
I know that I can use Finder to hide all connected drives from the Desktop, but I DO want USB drives that I connect to actually appear on the desktop. How can I hide ONLY the TM partitions (specifically) from the Desktop??
I have found something which suggests that I can use the chflags command in order to hide specific HDDs/partitions, but will this have any effect on Time Machine backing up LOCALLY and also via NETWORK? I was reluctant to "hide" these drives without checking first whether it would cause any problems for Time Machine backups.
Info:
Time Machine, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
I can't seem to get a working Time Machine backup going on my Mac Pro, late 2009 model. It's been problem after problem with everything I've tried. Very frustrating as I definitely need a reliable backup for an extensive payload of work files.
First I tried Western Digital MyBooks that I carried over from a PC. Formatted, set up Time Machine, worked great for about a month. Then Time Machine started to fail and stop backing up. Numerous formats later and the same problem persisted. I swapped MyBooks for another identical 1TB external and had roughly the same problem -- worked fine at first then Time Machine failures after a few weeks of use.
Next up, I tried a Seagate external drive 2TB. Virtually same problems.
Finally, I tried connecting Time Machine with my 2TB Airport Extreme. Not even one backup successfully completed.
It's been a couple months and I have gone for way too long without a reliable backup. I'm looking for alternate hardware and software suggestions, please.
I've looked at Drobos but I'm seeing a ton of complaints and failures cited. What are some other good options?
whilst copying files off my usb drive the drive lead was removed that every time the machiene boots the files are recreated on the desktop I have tryed deleating them and restarting but the system recreates the files .Once the system has recreated the files ( 10 or so miniutes I am able to navagate the system .
View 1 Replies View RelatedSo I use an external USB harddrive with my airport to backup my computer. The harddrive is 250gb and the computer is 250gb (with about 40gb free space) - previously this worked for backing up just fine...then one day it stopped and started telling me it required "251.46gb" but the drive only has "249.05"...why if I'm at only about 210gb of actual space being used?
So I reformatted the drive and tried again - same error...anyway to make this work again...seems so odd that it was always fine and then just quit one day.
i have got an Apple minimac 80gb 10.5.7 with leopard and i bought a small drive of i think it is 116gb and time machine seemed to work ok,but i kept getting msg saying full,i did an erase on small drive and in finder i can see a drive called untitled,but if i click on time machine there are no backup dates?
View 6 Replies View RelatedTime Machine has always been working correctly but I no longer can make it work. I noticed no backup was available, only "Now" is in the time axis. So, I erased the entire disk and tried to set it up again, but still it doesn't work. 30GBs has been stored, but nothing is in the time axis except "Now". Any idea why it is not backing up?
View 2 Replies View RelatedWould a USB bus-powered portable external hard drive (Like the WD Passport) be slower at backing up than an AC powered desktop external hard drive? I've got a desktop external hard drive that I'm using for Time Machine backups over WiFi connected to an airport extreme, but it's dieing and I'd like to replace it. Preferably I'd like to get a 1gb portable drive so I can use it for both backing up and travelling - however if it will result in slower speeds in transferring data then I'll just get a desktop drive.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI've recently starting having problems with my external HD that I use for my Time Machine backups. I'm not able to repair the drive using Disk Elements, so I want to copy some of my backups stored therein onto my Mac HD before I try reformatting the external HD. However, I get the error message "The volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup" when I try dragging the backup folders onto my desktop. Is there any way to salvage the backups before I try reformatting?
Info:
iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), External HD: WD Elements 2TB
All files and folders on the desktop disappeared, I checked time machine and even there are no longer present, even going back months.
Info:
iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)
Ok, I'm new to the Time Machine thing and so I backed up my iMac using Time Machine...when I go into Time Machine I only see duplicates of my desktop folder. Where are the other folders?
View 4 Replies View RelatedMy time machine backups to an external drive stopped with a message that the backup could not be done because the drive could not be repaired and needed to be reformatted. Prior to reformatting I copied the TM backup file of 250GB to my desktop. My internal drive is 500GB and this only leaves me with 33GB of available space. I then reformatted the drive with the proper OS extended journaled and GUID partition. The external drive is 500GB. When I try to copy the backup file from the desktop to the reformatted drive the process begins normally with the message "preparing to copy files" but as the preparation process reaches 13,000,000 files it stops with the message "there is not enough sufficient space to copy files" even though it never even got to the actual file transfer. I have tried copying the backups in small batches to the new drive but I get an error message that backup files cannot be modified.
MacBook Pro Retina 500GB SSD, Mavericks 10.9.5
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)
I'm running 10.6.4 on an Intel 2.4Ghz MacBook with 2G RAM.
Time Machine & Spotlight have both stopped working. I back-up to an external HD which is fine, (checked with Disk utility and dragging and dropping stuff onto it).
I have tried to rebuild the Spotlight data by putting my HD in the 'privacy' and then removing it, but this hasn't worked. It just hangs on 'estimating time......'.
Time machine seems to go through the checking process ok but then can't write the data across to the external.I have reinstalled the system but it's just the same.
I am trying to set up my external HD with my Airport extreme and make it as my time machine so it will back up without me having to connect the HD every time. I tried this and the HD does not appear so i can select it and choose it for the Time machine Drive of choice. What do i do. I have seen others can do this but i do not know why i am unable.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI am running a Mac mini without any displays attached. I am using Screen Sharing on a MBP to control the mini over wifi.
Everything works fine except for one single issue:
The moment I enter Time Machine (to restore files) Screen Sharing's VNC connection doesn't seem to be updated.
How do I access Time Machine correctly with Screen Sharing?
My new hard disk has used up some of it's capacity on unsuccesful back up attempts.
Info:
MacBook Pro
I'm in the midst of moving from a 2011 imac to a 2014 - I have/had 3 TM backups 1) before the 2011 crashed and was repaired - 2) from the interim 2014 imac that I restored and updated for the new computer and 3) a "carbon copy clone" of my current drive because the apple tech made me wipe the drive and start over and it failed.
My computer will be here next week and I wanted to prepare. However since the restore of the repaired 2011 NO TIME MACHINE will back up on ALL 3 drives the same error happened. It would start fine and say it needed 17-22 hours to "create new" or "inherit" and would start fine and then freeze somewhere around 15-20GB????? I left it more than 6-7 hours and the freeze remained.
Need a TM expert...... this HAS to be a Mavericks OSX issue and I do not want to wipe another drive.
Info:
iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), iOS 7.1.2
I had my time machine backed up to a NAS.
I used the hack of unsupported drives to make the NAS avalable.
The NAS is formatted as FAT32 (It came like that, and i use it with windows PCs, i dont know if i reformat it if it will stop working).
