Comments on: Handy guide for Time Machine tricks and troubleshooting tips

By: marianna

marianna — Wed, 26 May 2010 02:20:04 +0000

I have a time capsule and was backing up daily and it even restored a failed hard drive a few months ago. I moved and let it be idle for a few months (5). I tried connecting it again and I am getting the message that “the storage location for time machine back ups cant be found.” What does this mean?? How can I fix the problem? Thanks!

By: Ana Schafer

Ana Schafer — Sun, 23 May 2010 02:50:04 +0000

I had trouble backing up today because there were too many GB of files. I weeded out several items and this seem to help, but my screen went blank as it was backing up for the 5th time today. I made a mistake by unplugging the time machine from my computer and now I am not able to access time machine and my iphoto.
What can I do to access my files.

By: Jordan Ten

Jordan Ten — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:52:54 +0000

I have deleted the .inprogress file which fixed the problem but now I can’t empty the trash! HELP!

Please e-mail jordan@megabay.com

By: Robert Lutman

Robert Lutman — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:02:28 +0000

I had been backing up my 500GB startup internal drive with Time Machine on my Leopard, 10.5.8, G5 PowerPC desktop Mac, but the 500 GB drive was getting full. I bought a 1TB Hitachi internal drive for $68 on sale, installed it, did the Init and format, then did a disk utility restore, copying the 500GB drive files to the 1 TB drive. I set the 1 TB drive as the new startup and did a Restart. Everything fine, but how do I smoothly (i.e. without losing the long train of existing backups of the 500GB on an external LaCie 1TB drive) switch over to “Time Machining” the new 1 TB drive? Thanks.

By: Ant

Ant — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:25:09 +0000

Jennifer,
If I understand correctly, you’re trying to take a Time Machine backup drive from another Mac and continue using it with your new iMac? If that’s the case, this is not possible. You have to transfer your files from the Time Machine drive to the iMac or start over from scratch. Time Machine can’t keep backing up to another machine’s backup drive.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:56:40 +0000

Hi. Have new Imac and external. When I select Time Machine in my dock, and it asks me to select the backup disc, it does not see my external hard drive. I called the hard drive manufacturer which is Western Digital. They said all is working and it is a time machine issue. Any ideas why this is happening?

By: Ant

Ant — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:56:33 +0000

Charlie,
While you certainly can delete files from your Mac once Time Machine has backed them up, it is not recommended. The purpose of TM is to have a 2nd copy of your files in case your drive fails. This can happen to your external drive too, which would destroy the only copy of your files. In addition, TM automatically deletes some of your old backups when the external drive gets full, so you run the risk of inadvertently losing your files this way.

By: Charlie KROMBACH

Charlie KROMBACH — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:26:05 +0000

I was wondering if once something was backed up on an external harddrive using time machine, is it ok to delete it from my macbook so my Mac will run smoother?

By: Ant

Ant — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:07:28 +0000

Sahil,
You should be able to access your old 10.5 Time Machine backups on your new 10.6 machine. However, you will not be able to continue backing up to the same drive. You’ll have to erase everything and start over or get another hard drive to start fresh.

Paul,
Sorry, I have Seagate drives so I don’t know of anything to remedy your WD situation.

Jordan,
The only way I know to prevent Time Machine from removing older backups is to upgrade to a larger drive with more room to breathe. You won’t be able to split Time Machine backups between multiple drives. Check out this article for info about how to copy your backups to a new larger drive: http://www.macyourself.com/2008/12/10/how-to-copy-your-time-machine-backups-to-a-new-larger-drive/

By: Jordan Melick

Jordan Melick — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:12:07 +0000

I just realized Time Machine has been deleting older backups to make room for more current activities. For example, I am backing up to a 1TB External Hard Drive, and have been doing so for a year now. However, the oldest backup shown is August 2009! Is there a way to offload older backups, i.e., December 2008 through July 2009?

Thanks!

Jordan

By: Paul Higginbotham

Paul Higginbotham — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:46:21 +0000

Can anyone tell me how to keep my WD Time Machine drive from going to sleep all the time? I thought I saw an app for that a while ago.

Thanks.

Paul

By: Sahil

Sahil — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:51:00 +0000

I’ve purchase a new mbpro 13 with 10.6, and i had a mb with 10.5. I have a time machine backup for the macbook and 10.5. My new mbpro is up and running fine. Was wondering incase i need to, will i be able to access my macbook 10.5 backups from my new mbpro 10.6 via time machine, do i need to use the same drive for backups for my mbpro to access them?
Thanks

By: Ant

Ant — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:36:20 +0000

Julie,

The best thing to do is just wait for as long as it takes to get past the “preparing” stage. The more you cancel it, the longer subsequent attempts will take. One thing you could try is turning Time Machine off and then back on in System Preferences. That might jump start it.

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:28:16 +0000

My backups get stuck at “Preparing” as described above and for the reasons described above. Meaning, “unwanted behavior” by the user.
What’s the fix?

By: Michael Logue

Michael Logue — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:56:23 +0000

I understand that if you change the name of your Mac in the Sharing Preference Pane, Time Machine will do a complete backup, but does anyone know if the same thing happens if you just change the name of your startup volume?

By: Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:35:49 +0000

I have a time capsule 500 and a WD 500 external harddrive. I have the WD connected to the Time Capsule via a USB hub (also has a printer connected).

The WD Harddrive does not show up anywhere when I plug it in. If I plug it directly to my Macbook Pro, it sees it fine. The printer is working fine from the hub.

I’ve restarted the time capsule, HDD, everything but the HDD doesn’t show up.

Any thoughts?

By: Ant

Ant — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:14:33 +0000

Steve,

Does your wife’s MacBook have a computer name with any characters other than letters and numbers? If it does, that might be contributing to the problem. Changing the name to remove those characters and trashing any files created on the Time Capsule by the first failed attempt could solve your issue.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:50:59 +0000

I purchased a new Time Capsule 500. I’ve successfully backed up my MacBook Pro (Intel) with Time Machine. However, when I try to backup my wife’s MacBook (Intel) Time Machine Fails with the following error message: “Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup directory.”