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

Question

Level 1

0 points

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

Reply

Answer 1

Peggy Lynn

Level 4

2,484 points

Jan 16, 2008 6:28 PM in response to shabrino

Welcome to Discussions.

Launch Disk Utility (in Applications > Utilities) and Repair your Time Machine disk. Repeat the repair process until no errors are reported. You should do this any time a disk is disconnected without being ejected or after any power outage.

If Time Machine still won't run go to System Preferences > Time Machine > Change Disk. Select None and reselect the Time Machine drive.

If that doesn't work shut down and reset the PRAM.
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Reply

Answer 2

shabrino Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 16, 2008 7:55 PM in response to Peggy Lynn

Thank you for all that. I ran Disk Utility. No problems. Changed target to "None", reselected. Reset PRAM. Still same error message.

Is there a preference file somewhere?

Reply

Answer 3

Peggy Lynn

Level 4

2,484 points

Jan 16, 2008 8:20 PM in response to shabrino

+Is there a preference file somewhere?+
YourHardDrive/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

You also might want to try deleting the InProgress file in Backups.backupdb/YourHardDrive.

If that doesn't work select None for the disk in Time Machine preferences. Restart. Reselect the disk and restart.

Reply

Answer 4

shabrino Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 16, 2008 11:36 PM in response to Peggy Lynn

Tried all of the above. Still no go.

What's baffling is the drive appears on desktop. I can open it (though am not able to repair permissions because somehow it forced a "Read Only" permission with the little LOCK on the icon. I haven't a clue how to fix that...)

If you have any other thoughts, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Reply

Answer 5

shabrino Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 17, 2008 11:10 AM in response to shabrino

I ran a couple things on Terminal for more info. The drive in question is BACKUP.

Last login: Thu Jan 17 10:43:46 on console
You have new mail.
lwp:~ lwp$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID partitionscheme *149.1 Gi disk0
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS lwp2 148.7 Gi disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple partitionscheme *931.5 Gi disk1
1: Apple partitionmap 31.5 Ki disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS BACKUP 931.4 Gi disk1s3
lwp:~ lwp$ ls -l /Volumes
total 8
drwxr-xr-x+ 3 lwp admin 102 Dec 16 23:02 BACKUP
drwxr-xr-x@ 19 lwp admin 714 Dec 25 22:16 BACKUP 1
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 Jan 16 23:48 lwp2 -> /

Reply

Answer 6

Peggy Lynn

Level 4

2,484 points

Jan 17, 2008 12:43 PM in response to shabrino

Try shutting down and disconnecting everything from your Mac except the keyboard, mouse and Time Machine drive. If that doesn't work ask about permissions on your drive in the Using Mac OS X Leopard forum. This is what the permissions look like on my Time Machine volume.

drwxrwxr-x 12 peggymain peggymain 476 Nov 18 19:28 TimeMachine

Reply

Answer 7

shabrino Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 17, 2008 5:17 PM in response to Peggy Lynn

Thank you for the help.
I tried shutting down, disconnecting. Still nothing.

I believe it is all related to my Time Machine volume suddenly has a little padlock at corner, and when I get info, all is greyed out and the permissions are set to "System" then "Custom" and I'm unable to change anything. When I attempt to use Disk Utility to repair permissions, the volume is greyed out.

It's so strange because it had been working just fine with 10.5.1.

Reply

Answer 8

Peggy Lynn

Level 4

2,484 points

Jan 17, 2008 5:40 PM in response to shabrino

Restarting has fixed nearly all of the read-only issues but power cut-offs can do very strange things to disks. My guess is that you will have to use Terminal to make the changes you need to get things working again. People who know how to safely use Terminal to change permissions are more likely to see a new post in the the Using Mac OS X Leopard forum.

Reply

Answer 9

shabrino Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 17, 2008 5:47 PM in response to Peggy Lynn

I tried the "INFO" button in Disk Utility and got the following (note permissions):

Name : BACKUP
Type : Volume

Disk Identifier : disk1s3
Mount Point : /Volumes/BACKUP 1
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : FireWire
Device Tree : /PCI0/PCIB@1E/FRWR@3/node@d04b7a1902c345/sbp-2@c000/@0:3
Writable : Yes
Universal Unique Identifier : 88A2942E-7431-3CA4-9600-91B7B06C88BD
Capacity : 931.4 GB (1,000,081,408,000 Bytes)
Free Space : 720.2 GB (773,297,737,728 Bytes)
Used : 211.2 GB (226,783,670,272 Bytes)
Number of Files : 972,778
Number of Folders : 224,223
Owners Enabled : Yes
Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
Can Repair Permissions : No
Can Be Verified : Yes
Can Be Repaired : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : Yes
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 3

I will post in that forum. thank you!

Reply

Answer 10

awitt

Level 1

0 points

Jan 21, 2008 4:43 PM in response to shabrino

not sure if you ever solved your problem but you should check out
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306654

basically, go into time machine preferences, click change disk and reselect the disk again. it worked for me.

Reply

Answer 11

Feb 11, 2008 10:33 PM in response to awitt

I had a half failed backup from before, i corrected the problem by using terminal to delete the following two files.

.0011248589be
. hillbilly1980-laptopg40011248589be.sparsebundle

Once these were removed the de-select reselect worked.

1. Open terminal
2. cd /Volumes/TimeDrive
4. ls -al
5. locate sparsebundle and sister time machine marker
6. rm .0011248589be . hillbilly1980-laptopg40011248589be.sparsebundle
7. Deselect and reselect the drive in time machine.

Reply

Answer 12

Feb 18, 2008 11:53 PM in response to shabrino

Hi I can't make time machine work each time it is going to make a backup it says volume could not be found what can i do? Help

Reply

Answer 13

Mar 18, 2008 10:22 AM in response to shabrino

I have this same issue. Were you ever able to find a fix? This is on a new Air.

Reply

Answer 14

JLG89

Level 1

104 points

Apr 26, 2008 8:33 PM in response to shabrino

We may have found a solution. Check this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1480141

Reply

Answer 15

eyalg

Level 1

8 points

May 21, 2008 4:02 AM in response to JLG89

FYI !!!

To all of you who removed the entire Preferences Folder...

There is an important file that the system doesn't - re-create by itself which is really weird, but is a fact... the file is- com.apple.ByteRangeLocking.plist and is related to Personal File Sharing...

Make sure you put this file back into the new Preferences Folder the system creates...

Without this file, any attempts to connect to your computer (the one missing the file) will
result in a freeze and a crash of the AFP...

Spent hours on this in the past, till I figured it out...

Reply