2nd MBP cannot backup to Airport TC. How to erase TC drive? (But do I really have to?)

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2nd MBP cannot backup to Airport TC. How to erase TC drive? (But do I really have to?)

PART 1:

I have one MBP successfully backing up to the WiFi's 3TB Time Capsule. Currently there is a lot of space on the TC drive: 2.5TB. I set a 2nd MBP's Time Machine to also backup to the TC. When it started to prepare to backup, all looked well:

But the status changed quickly to this:

And I got this error message:

If I have to erase/reformat the TC drive, how do I do that? But do I really have to?

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Jun 6, 2020 6:55 PM

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Answer 1

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Barney-15E

Level 10

112,752 points

Jun 7, 2020 3:04 PM in response to Fastdude

This is very old, but it may help reset Time Machine.

http://oldtoad.net/pondini.org/TM/A4.html

You may have to be creative interpreting some of the instructions, like where it says to turn it Off, disable "Backup Automatically."

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

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112,752 points

Jun 7, 2020 8:20 AM in response to Fastdude

BUT erasing the TC drive meant the backup data for the FIRST MBP was gone. (Could I have copied that data to the USB drive? How?)

Time Machine isn't archival, so erasing and starting over is usually not a big deal. Time Machine can only ever be guaranteed to be an exact duplicate of your drive as it existed at the state of the last backup. If you delete items from your Mac, the Time Machine backup will eventually delete them, too. So, if you are expecting to be able to recover a file you deleted a year ago, you may be out of luck. If you make changes to versions of documents constantly, then you would lose that history from your Backup, but it might still exist on the startup drive if the app supports Versions. Being able to recovery recently deleted items and restore versions of documents is what you lose.

Transfer Time Machine backups from one backup disk to another - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Fastdude Author

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103 points

Jun 7, 2020 2:56 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for the above, but the backup files were erased. I am now trying to start a new backup for first MBP on the new USB external drive plugged into the TC. But the TM settings on the Mac still "think" the backup files exist. I do not see how to get rid of the old setting for the now-gone backupon the TC drive, and start a new backup on the external drive. This is the error message:

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Answer 4

Fastdude Author

Level 1

103 points

Jun 7, 2020 12:37 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for the above link. The whole TM set-up is certainly not intuitive,

I verified the TC drive (restarted base station) and tried to get the 2nd MBP to backup: no luck, with the same error message (above). That left me no choice but to erase the TC drive, but TM still won't backup the 2nd MBP to the TC Drive. So, I connected a new 4TB SSD drive off of the TC's USB port, and the 2nd MBP is, as I write, backing up to it.

BUT erasing the TC drive meant the backup data for the FIRST MBP was gone. (Could I have copied that data to the USB drive? How?) I attempted to start a new backup for the 1st MBP to the TC drive, but TM said it could not find the previous backup files, and would not continue. On my second attempt TM said there was a problem with the TC drive.

Seems certain the TC drive has problems. Tomorrow I will attempt to also backup the 1st MBP to the USB 4TB SSD drive. It is plenty big for the two MBPs. I am guessing the throughput to the USB drive won't be affected by the bad internal drive.

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,752 points

Jun 6, 2020 7:55 PM in response to Fastdude

It suggests you repair it first. Erasing might be required if you can't repair it.

Verify, repair, or erase an AirPort Time Capsule drive - Apple Support

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2nd MBP cannot backup to Airport TC. How to erase TC drive? (But do I really have to?)

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