Time Machine question

A

Alinaelf

Registered
Hi!

There have been some threads about this before, but I couldn't find the answer to my problem. I have an external hardisk on a shared network. I am trying to get time machine to back up onto it, but it just fails. I was able to make Time Machine see it and choose it for backup; but when I try to back up it fails. Any ideas?
 
Connect the drive to the Mac and mount it. Then before starting any Time Machine action use /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and use it to repair the disk & Repair Permissions. After that then try to use Time Machine and see it this helps.
 
Satcomer: trying to do it now.

I'm not entirely sure if I'm mounting the disk correctly. But it shows up in time machine, which means it is mounted right?
 
Didn't work.. :(

Here's a step-by-step of what I'm doing:

• (apple-K) connect to server - smb://ip-addy of my shared disk
• Select the volume to mount, where i have read&write access.
• open time machine, switch it on
• select the volume i mounted, press use for backup
• type in username and password
• hit backup now, it says "preparing", while the disk shows a lot of activity
• after two minutes or so, the following error pops up: "The back up disk image could not be created".

Any suggestions?
 
How are you connecting to the drive -- via a wired or wireless network?

It's best (and recommended by Apple) to do your very first, initial backup over a wire, since the first backup will take up a ton of space... using a wireless network can introduce problems in this first backup phase, not to mention take for-freaking-ever. Initial backup times over wireless of 20 hours or more is not unheard of.
 
As per right now, wireless connection is not an option. Ask my IT support why. I don't know.

I don't think my first backup will take too long seeing that the computer is a few weeks old. Im hoping it can transfer over night.

Anyway, is it really nessesary to have a wired connection in order for the disk to work? I have no wire, and in a few hours' time I will be miles away from the disk itself as well.
 
Wait... you have no wireless network connection, and you also have no wired network connection? How, exactly, are the computers networked, then?
 
Did I say i have no wirless connection? I do have wireless connection. I am able to mount the disk on my computer and read / write files from desktop.
 
Hehe... yeah, you said it:
As per right now, wireless connection is not an option...

Anyway, is it really nessesary to have a wired connection in order for the disk to work? I have no wire...
Click to expand...
For a minute I thought you had no network connection at all!

Yes, it is basically mandatory that you use a wired connection for the initial Time Machine backup. Over wireless, the initial backup will take more than a few hours -- which it seems like you don't have. While it can be done over wireless, I think you're going to run into problems exactly as you have so far: failed backups, unable to backup, etc.

Another option would be to pick up a cheap external drive and use that for the initial backup.
 
Haha, no, I meant I have no wire to plug into that shared disk thingy. The IT guy said that the point of shared disk was so that we can take back up from home. But it seems I will have to get some cables and try to take the initial back up through wires.. I hope it works. That shared beast of a disk is quite far away from my office, I don't really want to go running with my computer every time Time Machine does a backup...
 
Sometimes Time Machine needs to be pointed in the right direction. Go to Time Machine preferences, then click Select disk. Then highlight your desired backup drive then choose use for backup.
 
djackmac, I have done that several times, but it just wouldn't go past "preparing".

So it really wont work without a cable? :(
 
Alinaelf said:
djackmac, I have done that several times, but it just wouldn't go past "preparing".

So it really wont work without a cable? :(
Click to expand...

Run /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility on the Time Machine drive to see if that helps Time Machine.
 
When I run disk utility, only my own disk pops up there. But I don't know if mounted disks are supposed to be there at all. At any rate, I have repaired permissions; but that doesn't help..
 
Any disk that is directly connected and mounted should show up. So if you connect to the Time Machine directly and mount it will show up and Disk Utility will be able to Repair it.
 
Now I have tried to connect to disk through an USB. And it changes nothing.. I cannot see my external disk on my desktop, nor I can see it in Disk utility.

Any suggestions?
 
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