ERROR 18 : "The backup volume could not be found."

My time machine has been relatively smooth sailing...until today. After accidentally cutting power to backup drive, I power it back up, shows on desktop, shows in Time Machine...but every backup attempt fails with "The backup volume could not be found. error: 18".

I'm confused because it's found the volume in it's source panel. Any help greatly appreciated.

The following are relevant notes from CONSOLE:

1/16/08 5:13:10 PM fseventsd[44] event logs in /Volumes/BACKUP 1/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (16998 0 17446)
1/16/08 5:13:10 PM fseventsd[44] log dir: /Volumes/BACKUP 1/.fseventsd getting new uuid: 09DD4896-F974-43F3-ACE4-3E622ED85B0D
1/16/08 5:13:10 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[5943] Backup requested due to disk attach
1/16/08 5:13:10 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[5943] Starting standard backup
1/16/08 5:13:11 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[5943] Volume at path /Volumes/BACKUP 1 does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer.
1/16/08 5:13:11 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[5943] Backup failed with error: 18
1/16/08 5:13:50 PM System Preferences[5772] Failed to create remote cookie file at path: /Volumes/BACKUP 1/.001b6399417e
1/16/08 5:15:53 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[6134] Backup requested by user
1/16/08 5:15:53 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[6134] Starting standard backup
1/16/08 5:15:53 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[6134] Volume at path /Volumes/BACKUP 1 does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer.
1/16/08 5:15:53 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[6134] Backup failed with error: 18

MacBook Pro 2.2/ 4 gb ram, Mac OS X (10.5.1), 1 TB Lacie backup drive for Time Machine

Posted on Jan 16, 2008 5:28 PM

May 21, 2008 3:17 PM in response to JLG89

That seems a complicated brute-force solution, unless I'm missing something.

This happened to me today. I believe that the volume that can't be found isn't the volume of the disk you select in TM prefs (everyone reports that volume is right on the desktop), it's the volume of the +disk image that TM creates+, then mounts every hour. Perhaps you've noticed a disk icon called "Backup of Whatever" that appears when TM is active. That's what it was trying to mount. I tried to mount it manually and it failed. It didn't occur to me to try repairing it with Disk Utility, but other posts imply that might work.

The solution at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1480141 seems to want to erase your total backup disk. That may not be necessary. I just threw out the "sparsebundle" package, then deselected and reselected my backup disk in TM prefs. TM thought it was starting all over (which it would if you erased the disk, anyway), and is now about 12% through a new initial backup. That turned out to be a much simpler process than described in the 1480141 post.

Granted, a solution that fixed the sparsebundle, rather than throwing it out, would be preferable. It would be a drag if you actually needed something from a damaged image.