OS X :: The External Drive Requires Over 500gb To Complete The Backup?
Apr 25, 2009
I've been using the same 500gb external drive since last September for my iMac, also with 500gb. A couple weeks ago I was getting an error saying that there was not enough room on the external drive to backup my computer. I posted here, and I was told to erase old backups. So I did that.
Now, I'm getting another strange error saying that the external drive requires over 500gb to complete the backup. I don't see how this is possible since the my computer doesn't even hold that much.
I've got a WD 500 GB external hard drive that has worked perfectly for about a year. I don't use time machine or any other backup software. I prefer to organize it myself and backup files individually.
Suddenly, today, it's freaking out at me. I've got several folders in it that I copy things too. One of them being Music. I was copying a few gigs of new music into that folder, but when it finished copying I couldn't access any of the other files.
It's like I'm stuck in the sub menu where I can just see the music I have on the drive and nothing else. The rest of the files are there somewhere because I only have about 50gbs of music and it says that 300gbs of space are being used, but I can't see them and i've tried a bunch of different things to get them to show up.
I need to complete forms on a website that requires adobe reader, when I go to the website it prompts me to download adobe reader & then click here to complete forms. I have downloaded adobe reader 3 times & restarted my computer twice & the website still keeps telling me I need to download adobe reader!Â
when I went into the "get info" window for the G-Drive and switched the ownership/permissions dropdown from "read/write" to "no access". When I tried to switch it back to read/write, it would say read/write in the dropdown, but then I'd try to access the g-drive and I'd only get to the first set of folders--when I'd click on a folder, there would appear to be nothing in it. (Not sure if this is really related to my current problem.) I then tried ejecting and remounting the drive, but it didn't show up on my desktop. Stupidly, I assumed my computer didn't recognize it at all and unplugged the firewire without ejecting thru disk utility. When I did this I got the device removal error. I then plugged the firewire back in and tried repairing the disk in disk utility, but it said it didn't need repair. When I click on the G-Drive in disk utility the info at the bottom says:
Mount Point :/Volumes/G-DRIVECapacity :465.6 GB (499,973,603,328 Bytes) Format :Mac OS ExtendedAvailable : Owners Enabled :NoUsed : Number of Folders :0Number of Files :0
0 Files! I'm worried about losing all my stuff! I then tried DiskWarrior (v4.0). When I first opened it I think the info at the bottom said "This disk is a Mac OS Extended disk. This disk does NOT appear on the desktop." I'm not quite sure about that "not" b/c after rebuilding the directory of the G-DRIVE I know it now says "This disk does appear on the desktop." Anyway, it's definitely not appearing on my desktop. After building the directory it said "All file and folder data was easily located. Comparison of the original and replacement directories indicate that there will be changes to the number, the contents and/or the attributes of the files and folders." And later: "19 files (and 2 folders) had a directory entry w/ an incorrect text encoding value that was repaired." And:
I then clicked "Replace" whereupon it said it was successfully replace. But still it did not appear on the desktop even after ejecting, remounting, rebooting computer, etc.
If anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it. I'm pretty desperate here! Thanks!
(FYI I already tried going into the Finder permissions and unclicking and reclicking the box for showing disks on the desktop. Also, I plan on getting DataRescueII in case that's necessary, but i hope it isn't)
I want to share one external drive with both my PC and Mac. I do not want to share the data. I want to use the PC partition to backup my Vista OS and want to use the Mac partition to backup my Mac OS. what is the best way to configure this?
I had created an NTFS partition using my Vista machine, but when I plugged in the external drive into my Mac and tried to create a Mac OS Extended partition, I lost my NTFS partion.
so I am in search of a new 500GB-1TB External Drive for Time Machine, and it has to have FW800 as well as USB 2.
I was thinking of getting an external chassis and buying my own hard drive, has anyone purchased a good external chassis with both ports, or a all in one drive that is worth the money?
I have had a Lacie 500gb external hardrive formatted and used with time machine on my macbook pro for about two years now. I haven't had any problems until recently. When I plugged it in, it wouldn't mount. I opened disk utility and it was visible but showed as unmounted and I wasn't able to mount them manually from there.
I'm trying to back up my new iMac to an older time capsule. But it just won't do it. The error reads: "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder".
My internal 1TB hard drive on my iMac is dead and I don't have the money to replace it at the moment. I have everything backed up on an external 1TB drive using Time Machine. As a workaround for the time being,Is there any way I can install the system on the external drive and use that as the boot drive without erasing the Time Machine Backups? It seems to me I would have to have two partitions for the external drive, one for the system, and one for Time Machine. But is there any way to add a partition without erasing the existing one with Time Machine only on it? Â
I would like to use FileVault to encrypt both my hard drive and time machine back up external drive. Does encryption noticeable slow down the computer.
Info: MacBook Air (13-INCH, MID 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
Basically I have a 750GB hard drive in my Macbook Pro and over 300GB is taken up with 'BackUp' data. This is more than the total of everything I have on the drive other than that. Time Machine has always been setup on an external drive and when searching all files on the Macbook there is nothing for backup files so don't know where it is coming from.
When I eventually upgrade to Snow Leopard, I'd ideally like to do a fresh install (I did Tiger>Leopard as an upgrade install), but I really don't want to have to go through the hassle of reinstalling all my apps afterwards. So, would the following work as a best-of-both-worlds alternative?
1. Update my backup bootable system drive image on my external FW drive 2. Wipe the drive in my MBP and do a fresh install of SL 3. Use the Migration Assistant to automagically copy all my data and apps over from the backup drive as if I was upgrading from an old Mac to a new one
On paper at least, it looks like it ought to "just work"... but I'm wondering whether or not Migration Assistant will work between a Mac and an external drive, or does it have to be between two actual Macs?
I have been the proud owner of a Macbook Pro 2.5Ghz with 4GB RAM, running Leopard 10.5.6 for just under a year and I have never been able to get Time Machine to backup my files properly. Instead I have been backing up my really important files manually to an external NAS drive.
However, I would like to back up all files to an external USB drive using Time Machine. I have a Freecom USB2 drive which I purposely bought, but when I try to perform the initial back up I get a message telling me there isn't enough space.
My MacBook has a 250Gb HDD and my USB drive is 500Gb (465Gb available), so I have no idea why I am getting this message. I have ensured that no other devices are connected in case it was also trying to back up those (USB & NAS drive), but still get the same message. It says I need 698Gb of space to perform the full backup - where is it getting this from?!
Within the options it shows me a panel containing an entry 'Time Machine Backups' with a size of 154.4Mb, which I'm guessing is the directory that I am trying to save the backups to.
I'm probably doing something obviously stupid but would appreciate it if somebody could point it out for me.
How can I get a mac pro that after I am finished using it for the day once I start the shut down process I can get it to do a complete backup of the system drive after I walk away for the night and it will shut down once completed
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.
I got this several times on my Time machine error messages in the past 2 weeks. Bought a new 1TB drive, initialized it and it worked successuflly for 2 days now back to the same problem.
My 1st Gen Time Capsule cannot complete a backup using Time Machine. TM says that the disk is not available, yet, it is mounted and I did a Disk Verify on it and it was "OK." Is this a sign of issues with the TC, itself? There hasn't been a backup done in 2 weeks AND internet speeds have been up and down during that time as well. I thought it might be my old "modem" or my ISP, but now I am thinking it might be the TC. If it dies, I think I might just get an AE and get a USB HDD for TM backups in addition to my weekly clones. It is too bad that Apple doesn't support TM backups on the AE and a USB HDD.
I have an Imac 24" and a Mybook external HDD. ever since Leopard came out Ive been doing backups with time machine, then one day I start time machine for my weekly backup and this message comes up: "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume." Now I notice that my external HDD was almost not spinning while time machine was trying to backup the status bar of time machine saying how much files need to be copied and the total amount of space needed was super slow and stoped at something like maybe 10 mb I started time machine again same message. I though maybe Mac OSX needed some permission repaires. So I did just that and after that did time machine again same problem. then I said to myself maybe my External HDD has problems so I even formated the HDD, then stated Time machine again this time it was running smoothly just like before I had the problem but the problem came back after 6 gig being copied out of the 25 gig needed to complete the backup process. Now hope I dont need a clean install of my Mac OSX or maybe its my external HDD. maybe my USB having problems?
Files can’t be copied onto the backup disk because it appears to be read-only. You may need to repair or reformat the disk using Disk Utility. If the disk can’t be repaired, you must use a different disk for backups. Open Time Machine preferences to select a different backup disk. Why is Time Machine insisting my drive is Read-only, when in fact it isn't? This is becoming a routine occurrence. What's troubling is the problem is easy enough to resolve by simply unmounting/mounting the Time Machine drive and selecting Back Up Now from the menu and it purrs like a kitten.Â
After performing the step outlined above, my latest Time Machine backup is tucked neatly away and everything is fine once more.
Info: 24-inch iMac 2.8GHz (early 2007), Mac OS X (10.7.2)
Backup to Time Capsule will not complete. This just started happening about a month ago. It used to work fine. I have tried deleting prior backups and reformatting the Time Capsule.Â
Info: MacBook Air (13-inch Late 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
I want to buy an external backup drive for my '09 24" iMac with a 1.0TB internal drive running OS 10.5.8. I've been looking at this one from OWC - [URL]
I have a Western Digital My Book World Edition as a NAS. I also got an external drive (a Western Digital Elements Desktop) to which I want to backup everything from the NAS, and then store it at a different location. My problem is that I can't find any software that does this, everything I find seems to work the other way around (using the NAS as a backup). It would be sweet to have the backup working as automatically and simple as possible, so when I wan't to backup my files the next time, it should only copy the files that have changed or are new. Is there a solution to this problem? I'm using a Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard.
