Time Machine error 45

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Level 1

9 points

Time Machine error 45

I'm trying to set up Time Machine on a new macbook.
I have set it to backup to a network drive and it seems to be set up correctly.
However it always fails with error 45.
I cannot find this error anywhere in Help.
When I look at /var/log/system.log I can see that it mounts the network drive correctly, smb...desktop/DotMac.
Then it says it can't create /Volumes/DotMac...
What is the command to mount the network drive so that I can check /Volumes in Terminal?

Dell with Win 7 and Macbook with 10.6.2, Windows 7, and 10.6.2

Posted on Dec 15, 2009 12:53 PM

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Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Dec 15, 2009 1:01 PM in response to dougrham

network drive? do you mean a stand alone NAS ? TM backups to such drives are not supported. certainly not over smb. the only exception is a Time Capsule or a drive attached to an Airport extreme base station. anything else is not officially supported. some 3rd party NASes explicitly claim to support TM backups. in that case it does usually work. but officially none of 3rd party NASes are supported for TM backups. there are hacks to make it work but you use them at your own risk, without any guarantees or support.

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Answer 2

dougrham Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 15, 2009 1:34 PM in response to V.K.

Thanks.
I've found more info and have tried to run "Connect to server" with "smb://10.1.1.100".
I get a message that it can't connect. I can ping 10.1.1.100 successfully, and that WIndows PC has several shared folders.
Normally, I use guest connection with my windows PCs in house.
What is the next step in finding why I can't connect, but I could connect when I set up Time MAchine originally?
I realise now that this macbook may have a problem with the Windows PC by name as the 10.1.1.100 PC is named "Desktop". The other PCs are notebooks.

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Answer 3

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Dec 15, 2009 1:40 PM in response to dougrham

so this isn't even a NAS but a windows computer on the same network? that will definitely not work for Time Machine.
I don't know why you can't connect using smb via connect to server. you have to make sure that sharing is set up correctly on your windows machine. I can't help you with that as I don't do windows. but even if you do fix the connection you won't be able to do TM backups that way.

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Answer 4

dougrham Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 15, 2009 1:59 PM in response to V.K.

Why did Time Machine allow me to allocate that shared folder in the first place if it won't work with TM? Also, why does the log show that it mounts correctly, but won't create the file?
I don't think there is any problem with the WIndows PC. It has been in use for years and I can check the contents of every shared folder from my windows notebook.

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Answer 5

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Dec 15, 2009 2:22 PM in response to dougrham

dougham wrote:
Why did Time Machine allow me to allocate that shared folder in the first place if it won't work with TM?

I don't know. it should not have let you do this. but it is most certainly not supported.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
you won't make it work in your setup without using unsupported hacks.

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Answer 6

dougrham Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 15, 2009 3:17 PM in response to V.K.

OK. Thanks for that link. It looks like I can't use TM.

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