TM does not find my external HD

Question

Level 1

5 points

TM does not find my external HD

I have an Olivision external HD that has been connected to my G5 since the first day I had it. I always did a drag n drop to the external to backup important stuff. I was excited to start downloading to my external HD after loading Leopard on to my G5. But, although my Drive 2, as I call my external HD, shows up on my desktop, it does not show up as a selection in my TM setup. Nothing shows up as a choice. How do I get TM to recognize Drive 2 as a back-up disk?

Power Mac G5, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Oct 26, 2007 11:08 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Martin Dolphin

Level 2

250 points

Oct 27, 2007 12:15 AM in response to MarsW

I think the drives have to be formatted as 'Mac OS Extended' but not sure - have a look in Disk Utility to see what your drive is formatted as.

My drives are formatted as that and work fine.

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Answer 2

MarsW Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 27, 2007 9:52 AM in response to Martin Dolphin

Thank you Martin, for your reply. What you said started me thinking about some things to try, which I did and my external is working fine now with TM.

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Answer 3

Oct 27, 2007 10:03 AM in response to MarsW

Hi,
Would you please list some steps you took. There are many of us that have not had success by creating a .com.apple.timemachine.supported file on the root of the external drive or reformatting as HFS+. If you have used other methods than these it would be useful to hear them

-Allan

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Answer 4

MarsW Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 27, 2007 10:15 AM in response to Allan Morrison

I am not experienced enough to discuss root issues, but to make my external HD work I went into Disk Utility, clicked on my external HD, chose Erase, which brought up a drop down menu having to do with formatting. I chose "Mac OS (case-sensitive, journaled)" and then continued with the erasing. When it was finished, I went back to TM and my external HD was listed in the little menu. I am wondering now how to choose when I want to back up. By the way, it takes a really long time for the backup to complete.

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