OS X :: Unable To Backup With Time Machine / External Volume Cannot Be Mounted
Mar 14, 2009
I'm having trouble backing up with Time Machine. Here's the setup:
1. Three, 1TB external hard drives in a concatenated software RAID. This means that they are treated as one large drive. There is no mirroring, no increased data rate, blah blah blah. It's just three hard drives in the place of one. I am aware that this means my backup is three times as likely to fail with the hardware, but that's OK.
2. These three are connected to a USB hub.
3. This hub is connected to a G5 tower. The G5 tower can back up to the concatenated drives (I'll call them just a RAID from here on), and also all additional external hard drives that I connect to the G5 tower have been backing up to the RAID no problem. This is great.
Here's the problem:
I'm trying to get two more computers to back up to the RAID wirelessly. I read a lot online about how this didn't used to be a supported feature (backing up to an external hard drive over a network with time machine), but that Apple has recently upgraded Time Machine to support this functionality.
The first computer I started with to try to backup over the network was a Macbook Pro, trying to get it to backup to this RAID. It can see the RAID over the network, mount it, copy files to it/read it, but CANNOT time machine backup to it. I select the network RAID as the backup device, hit "back up now," then get this message:
"The external volume cannot be mounted."
This is really bizzare, considering that it is mounted, and that I can copy to it. Just for your information, I have an airport extreme wireless network that has been working beautifully, no Keychain access issues, no 3rd party firewall, nothing. I've run through Applecare on this issue: the MacBook Pro has never done ANY time machine backup on the RAID, not even a partial one, so there's no dangling sparse bundle or backup folder or anything like that. All network permissions check out, etc. I've tried repairing the RAID with disk utility, as well as repairing permissions (although I have not done either of these things to the MacBookPro).
The latest thing I tried was plugging the RAID directly into the Macbook Pro. Here's where I got the first clue (at least I think so)...Plugged DIRECTLY into the MacBook Pro, the RAID will mount, but the MacBook Pro WILL NOT backup to the RAID. It gives me the same message: the selected volume cannot be mounted. Again, this is strange considering that, just like when I am viewing the RAID over the network, plugged directly into the MacBook Pro the RAID will mount, I can read it, copy files to it, etc.
I have considered plugging the RAID into the Airport extreme directly, but first of all this would mean much slower transfer speeds with the G5 tower, which is a big issue considering the files I am backing up every day, and two, since it seems that the RAID won't be recognized by the MacBook Pro even when plugged in directly, I'm thinking that this is a more fundamental issue.
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Jan 1, 2009
I've spent a good deal of time over three days trying to do something that I think is both doable and shouldn't be all that hard. I have a 750gb external HD attached to a Mini, and I'd like to use that drive to do TM backups for the Mini, as well as three MacBooks.
But I can't seem to get access to the backup drive from the laptops to either get going in the first place, or to remain available for TM. I get "volume can't be mounted" errors, "image can't be mounted errors", etc. I find that I can't ever eject the backup drive from the Mini (always told an application is using it...even if I've just booted up the Mini). And with one of the MacBooks, even a direct FW connection to the drive doesn't result in the drive showing up in Finder.
Isn't this a pretty straightforward thing to do? Is there a step by step somewhere that might help me figure out what I'm doing wrong, or what I need to fix? Should I reformat the drive again and start over (there are no important backups on it yet)? By the way, the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
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Oct 26, 2008
I am getting the following error from Time Machine when doing my first backup. The startup disk being backed up, and the TM disk are both the same size.
Macintosh HD: 465.44 (total); 393.99 (free); 71.45 (free)
Time Machine: 465.44 (total); 465.29 (free)
The Time Machine error is: Quote:
"This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 472.7 GB but only 465.3 GB are available." why would this be? Other disks are excluded from the backup, and Time Machine is telling me that it needs more space than it actually needs. What should I do?
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Nov 23, 2008
Any clues to this error... I've been getting it fairly frequently as of late. Probably every few days.
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume.
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Jun 13, 2012
For sharing my iPhoto Library among multiple users on a MacBook Pro running, currently 10.6.8, I have by a Apple Support guide created a disk image file, and mounted it for storing my pictures without permission issues.However, to account for future expansion, the disk image is made to be 100 GB, while current photo library size is approx 50 GB. Is there any way of getting Time Machine to backup the files within the mounted disk, rather than backing up the disk image file itself? So that the size of the backup at present would be the actual size of contents of the disk, rather than the whole disk image file itself? And furthermore, by copying a disk image file, will the actual files within also be backuped?
Info:
MacBook
Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Aug 2, 2009
Time machine is having problems backing up to my La Cie drive. It will start and then show the progress, but it stalls at a very low #(256 kb, for example).
Left it to do its stuff overnight and it never budged. Pulled this off of the console (after reading some other posts). Not sure if this is associated w/the problem, though.
8/2/09 10:28:45 AM mds[34] (Error) Import: importer:0x872000 Importer start failed for 89 (kr:268435459 (ipc/send) invalid destination port)
This error was reported pretty much every 4 seconds.
I erased and reformatted (mac os extended, journaled) the La Cie but that did not seem to work.
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May 23, 2009
Well TM is acting up. I get an error that reads: "This backup is too large for the backup volume."
Both the internal boot disk and the external baclup drive are 1TB. The internal one has a two partitions, the OSX one that is 900GBs and a 32GB NTFS one for Boot Camp. The external drive is a single OSX Extended part. that is 932GBs.
Both the Time Machine disk, and the Boot Camp disk are excluded from the backup along with a "Crap" folder for temporary large files.
Time Machine says it needs 938GBs to backup only the OSX disk, which has 806GBs in use with the rest free. WTFFF?
This happened after moving a large folder (128GB in total) from the root of the OSX disk over to my Home Folder.
I have reformated the Time Machine drive and have no backups at all of my data and it refuses to backup!!
Why would it need 938GBs of space to backup if the disk has "only" 806 GBs in use??? Is there anyway to reset Time Machine completely???
Some quick screenshots:
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Nov 15, 2007
Time Machine has been running fine for a week now. Suddenly, today, I get this error message:
The Machine Error
The backup volume is read only.
To select a different volume, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine.
I didn't change anything to make it read-only, and it's far from full.
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Feb 20, 2009
I just got my Mac back from a repair at the Apple Store. I was very excited to have everything back. However, Time Machine cannot back up! The error given is that the backup volume "cannot be found."
I've tried rebooting, remounting the drive and doing checks on it. Everything checks out. I can even write and read to and from the backup volume just fine via Finder. The only issue is that Time Machine can't. What's the problem? How do I fix it?
Attached is a screenshot of my Finder window next to the Time Machine Sys Prefs window.
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Mar 4, 2009
I have been backing up my computers to an external HD with Time Machine for some time, but I just bought a 1Tb Time Capsule today. Is there a way to move/copy my existing TM backups to the new drive (in the Time Capsule), rather than starting a whole new backup, so that I can preserve my existing TM 'history'? I could just start a new backup, but it would only back up the 'current state', and I would lose all the prior data.
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Jun 19, 2012
if i am running my new lion OS on drive #1 and i have a Raid1 array on drive #3 and #4 with all my DATA - can i back this up using Time Machine? i would like to place my OS's on a single drive and have my DATA in a raid array but if this means that i lose the ability to retain a Time Machine backup of my data i will simply upgrade to Lion and keep the data on this drive so it can continue to get backed up in time.
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Jan 27, 2009
Well TM is acting up. I get an error that reads: "This backup is too large for the backup volume." Both the internal boot disk and the external baclup drive are 1TB. The internal one has a two partitions, the OSX one that is 900GBs and a 32GB NTFS one for Boot Camp. The external drive is a single OSX Extended part. that is 932GBs. Both the Time Machine disk, and the Boot Camp disk are excluded from the backup along with a "Crap" folder for temporary large files.
Time Machine says it needs 938GBs to backup only the OSX disk, which has 806GBs in use with the rest free. WTFFF? This happened after moving a large folder (128GB in total) from the root of the OSX disk over to my Home Folder. I have reformated the Time Machine drive and have no backups at all of my data and it refuses to backup!! Why would it need 938GBs of space to backup if the disk has "only" 806 GBs in use??? Is there anyway to reset Time Machine completely?
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May 1, 2008
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?
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May 3, 2009
I have a 1tb external for time machine back up and have about 750 gb of stuff to back up. I was under the impression that when time machine backs up my stuff it will automatically delete the oldest backup to create room for the newer backup.
My problem is that i did a back up a couple weeks ago and then today i go to back up and it tells me back up failed only 718gb available for 740gb of stuff to back up
anyone have this problem? how can i fix it?
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Apr 30, 2012
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?
Info:
MacProQuad2.6 4gbRam, Mac OS X (10.4.8)
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Feb 29, 2012
I am no longer able to Enter Time Machine. Therte are no changes in the software (or hardware). It continues to backup with no apparent problems.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.1)
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Aug 10, 2008
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".
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Mar 11, 2009
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.
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May 17, 2012
I need to change my backup volume for Time Machine. But I don't see [Preferences] or [Change Disk] when I click on Time Machine from the System Preferences.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Feb 15, 2012
I saw that this issue has been addressed and there seems to be a few solutions for it but I had a hard time understanding some of the steps described in previous posts. I am running OS Leopard 10.5.8 and I am using a FreeAgent 500GB hard drive for Time Machine. Today I tried to back up and all of a sudden I'm getting the "Backup Volume Could Not be found" error. I tried deselecting it and reselecting it, and now its saying it doesn't have enough space to back it up.
I really don't want to completely erase the hard drive if that isn't going to fix it. Before now it would just overwrite a few old backups and make enough room for a new one, while leaving 2 old ones on there. I want it to do that.
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Dec 30, 2008
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?
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Mar 2, 2009
I'm trying to restore my files from time machine and I chose only to transfer my files and it seemed to do that but how do I access them now and put my pictures in iphoto and music in itunes?
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Nov 30, 2008
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.
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Mar 10, 2009
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.
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Mar 15, 2009
So I've run into a Mac issue I'm not sure how to handle. I've got a Mac Pro running Leopard. I've got 3 internal Harddrives: 1.) 250 GB (runs my OS and applications), 2.) 500 GB (where I store all my source files for my business), 3.) 750 GB (serves as the backup for Time Machine for all the files on Harddrives 1 and 2.). So I began thinking the other day. What would happen if somehow all 3 harddrives were destroyed (theft, fire, power surge, flood damage, etc.)? I would lose years worth of source files from my business (graphic and web design files mostly).
So I went and bought a 1 TB external drive today. Ideally I would like to put the external drive in another location and bring it out maybe once a week to backup the 3rd harddrive from above (the one being used for Time Machine). Does anyone have any suggestions on how to backup this harddrive...some type of program that essentially acts like Time Machine? I just basically need it to mirror my Time Machine Harddrive. I found a program named Super Duper (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13803/superduper) not sure if anyone has had experience with it or not. I'm open to any suggestions on how to use the external harddrive to back up my Time Machine harddrive.
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Aug 4, 2009
How can TM take backups of external drives that are connected?
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May 28, 2010
I have a seagate 320 gb external hard drive(with usb). Currently I am using a hackintosh and I will switch to Mac in a month. In my external HDD I have 200gb of pictures-movies-tv shows-documents. It is formatted with NTFS so I use it with Macfuse and NTFS 3G. When I get a macbook pro 15" i5 with 320gb hdd I will transfer all 200gb to my MBP, format the HDD to Mac os journaled instead of ntfs and use the hard drive for time machine.
After that I will still have some space. I want to use that space for carrying around documents for example to carry my presentation with me to the school. Can I use it like that? Also computers at school uses Windows, can windows read and write Mac OS Journaled format? Additional quick question: In windows if HDD is full pc gets slower, do macs get slower when hard drive is near full?
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Jun 2, 2010
We just came back from vacation 2 days ago; I checked time machine. It says latest backup is delayed; then latest backup failed; next backup when disk is connected. I have a WD external hard drive. I check to see that it is connected to my IMac and is plugged in for electricity. Restarted my imac - same problem. There is no lite on the WD; does it mean it died? Or what can I try? It is less than 2 yrs old.
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Sep 11, 2010
I recently used time machine for the first time in a long time. I use my external HD USB for the backup. After the back up was complete, I unplugged the USB cable. I got an error that I needed to put the HD away first (I wasn't thinking). And I didn't pay attention to the error either.
I thought the data was gone, when I didnt see the data in the back up file. I do see the back up file with that date on it. In the file is the .InProgress file. In that file, on right clicking, I see the contents of one folder. This folder has a very long name of numbers and letters. It shows no contents in the finder. THough I know the files must be here. The HD has capacity of 100 Gig. There is only about 20 gigs showing on it. Though there is only 20 gigs available. So, my back up data is there on the HD, and I assume it's in this "empty" file.
* How do I extract the saved files ?
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Nov 20, 2008
I have 10.4.11 installed and have some time machine backups from a leopard system on one of my externals. When I try to navigate to one of the backups and get into any of the user folders like documents, pictures, etc it says I don't have permission to access them? Yet I check the permissions and they are read/write.
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