My TimeMachine external backup disk stop work.

Matsaki

Matsaki

Registered
Something strange for me. I get:


Mac OS X can’t repair the disk “TimeMachine.”

You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can’t save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can.
Click to expand...

What can I do?
 
You could start by following the advice in the message and do a backup and reformat.
After which you should be able to select and use the disk for Time Machine once again.
 
What application would be the best to use for backing up and then restoring the TimeMacine drive?
 
CCC can't clone. It can't mount the device fast enough. Diskwarrior can't fix (Memory full something). Kinda stuck there :(
 
Matsaki said:
CCC ... can't mount the device fast enough. Diskwarrior can't fix (Memory full something)...
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "can't mount the device fast enough"?
Is that the message in Disk Warrior "Memory full something"?
That doesn't make any sense at all.
 
Well, CCC uses a special mode to clone TomeMachine. Block mode. And it seems like it first has to unmount the TomeMachine unit. And my TimeMachine takes about 2-3 minutes to mount again, and thats why the error Can't mount the device.

Running Diskwarrior gives Memory full after a while. Has something to do with RAM.
 
Matsaki said:
Well, CCC uses a special mode to clone TomeMachine. Block mode. And it seems like it first has to unmount the TomeMachine unit. And my TimeMachine takes about 2-3 minutes to mount again, and thats why the error Can't mount the device.

Running Diskwarrior gives Memory full after a while. Has something to do with RAM.
Click to expand...

You will need to use a good data recovery cloning tool like Data Rescue III to save whats on that drive and then possibly use Diskwarrior to work on the cloned drive. Don't keep trying to use something like Diskwarrior on what might be a failing drive if you hope to recover something from it.
 
No, the TimeMachine disk is working. I just takes a long time to mount as Disk utils are trying to repair it each time it's connected.

When it can't be repaird, it still mounts, but with the warning:

Mac OS X can’t repair the disk “TimeMachine.”

You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can’t save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can.
Click to expand...

So I can use the disk copying stuff from it.
 
I am really lost. My TM disk is mounted and the TM software is ON, although it's not backing up right now. I launched DU, there is the TM disk, and it offers "Repair Disk" as an immediate option, no waiting.

Why is your disk not mounted? Are you un-mounting it? Is your TM software ON? If so, have you tried turning it OFF before trying to repair the disk?
 
Matsaki said:
No, the TimeMachine disk is working. I just takes a long time to mount as Disk utils are trying to repair it each time it's connected.

When it can't be repaird, it still mounts, but with the warning:
...
Click to expand...

I would disagree with your conclusion that the Time Machine disk is working.
You may still be able to access the backups, but it's not working properly, and it's only a matter of time (maybe the next time :D ) before the disk really goes south.
djackmac has your good idea:
Backup the TM files.
Reformat the TM disk. (Try to determine if the drive is failing, or just replace the drive.)
Restore the TM files.
 
DeltaMac said:
I would disagree with your conclusion that the Time Machine disk is working.
You may still be able to access the backups, but it's not working properly, and it's only a matter of time (maybe the next time :D ) before the disk really goes south.
djackmac has your good idea:
Backup the TM files.
Reformat the TM disk. (Try to determine if the drive is failing, or just replace the drive.)
Restore the TM files.
Click to expand...

You don't have to disagree. I did not make my self clear. What you say is right. I was only commenting that I was not able to repair or clone the disk.
 
Trying to use the Terminal to copy data from TimeMachine to new disk. Using sudo -s and then:

cp -R /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb /Volumes/Untitled
Click to expand...

But I still get i.e.
Pro/2011-12-21-184848/Mac OS X/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/lib/python2.5/site.py: Operation not permitted
Click to expand...

And nothing gets copied. Whats going wrong?
 
Het Satcomer,
Why didn't you tell me from the beginning? ;) Seems like it's working and problem will be solved.

Many thanks!
 
Well,, it worked in a way. It copied / cloned the disk. But it also cloned the bad block that can't be repaired. So the "new" disk have the same problem :(
 
It sounds as if something in the backup is messing with it.

Does the backup have something with NTFS or FAT32 in it (BootCamp image) in it?

I might be time to just erase that that backup, run something like Disk Warrior on it and start a new backup. I know that sounds harsh but for the life of me I can't figure what's going on with your backup, sorry. I am really scratching my head on the problem you describe.
 
The disk I used for backup was reformatted and fresh. But because I get exactly the same problem on the new disk after cloning. It must be something messing with the catalog system that also gets copied to the new disk.
Copying / cloning a TM disk is a bitt special as also all the blocks gets copied / cloned. Also I don't think Diskwarrior is able to handle a TM disk very good.
 
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