Time Machine Won't Complete Backup on Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive

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Level 1

8 points

Time Machine Won't Complete Backup on Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive

Time Machine will see the drive, and create the SparseBundle, but won't complete a backup. Any ideas on how to resolve? Again, this is an Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive (2TB) that supports Time Machine according to Iomega. Apple support claims that the drive is not supported by Time Machine and didn't provide any assistance.

Macbook Air 13 in. current gen., Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 14, 2010 1:42 PM

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Answer 1

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Dec 14, 2010 2:53 PM in response to HDJ49

Hi, and welcome to the forums.

As you've found, that's the downside to using a 3rd-party NAS with Time Machine. When there's a problem, each will tend to blame the other.

And just because a maker claims to support Time Machine, their hardware and OS may not.

You say TM "won't complete a backup." That's not much of a clue -- did it hang? Send a message? If a message, what?

If it fails, start with #C2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup, what you've done, and the results.

If it hangs, see #D2.

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Answer 2

HDJ49 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 14, 2010 5:12 PM in response to Pondini

Thanks. Yes, it gives the following error: The backup disk image "/Volumes/backups-1/computername.local_macadress.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error -1). Keeping in mind that "computername" and "mac address" show the actuals.

As mentioned, Time Machine sees the drive just fine, and actually creates the disk image with no problems. It simply won't complete the backup process. I've even mounted the volume via Finder to make sure that it can access the drive and subsequent "backups" folder, but no luck. The Iomega drive seems to be running some version of Samba if that helps. Given the other features of the Iomega drive (past this issue), I can't quite justify scrapping it for a Time Capsule at over triple the price for the same storage capacity, and especially not needing yet another router as well.

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Answer 3

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Dec 14, 2010 5:32 PM in response to HDJ49

harddrivej wrote:
Thanks. Yes, it gives the following error: The backup disk image "/Volumes/backups-1/computername.local_macadress.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error -1). Keeping in mind that "computername" and "mac address" show the actuals.

That's odd. Time Machine uses that name format on Leopard, not Snow Leopard, although it will recognize one it made under Leopard after upgrading to Snow Leopard. (On Snow Leopard, the MAC address is in a file in the sparse bundle, not part of the sparse bundle's name.)

Worse, in Iomega's setup instructions is this:

*2. Type +defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1+ to enable Unsupported Network Volumes for Time Machine.*

That means it is not an Apple-supported destination for Time Machine backups. It also means you probably won't be able to do a full system restore, either. See the pink box in #2 of [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

You may be able to get this to work, to a degree, but you'll have to use Iomega's instructions, and get any help from them.

There are some alternative ways to back up with Time Machine; see the rest of #2 in the FAQ.

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Answer 4

Frank01

Level 1

0 points

Dec 30, 2010 4:16 AM in response to HDJ49

I had an alike problem.
Was solved by manually creating (auto create didn't work) the Time Machine on the Iomega Storcentre, but here it comes:
the mac (physical) address to be used should be the mac address of the ethernet card of the Apple. Do not use the mac address of the wireless network to identify your Apple.
Hope this can help.

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Answer 5

Feb 25, 2011 7:14 AM in response to Frank01

I'm just trying to install an Iomega Network Drive as a Time Machine volume myself, having previously given up trying with a Lacie Network Space and having discounted Apple's Time Capsule on price.

Your advice might be useful to me, but I don't fully understand exactly what I need to do to follow it. Could you explain the steps required a little more in detail please?

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Answer 6

ajophoto

Level 1

0 points

Sep 5, 2011 8:39 AM in response to Paul Keeton1

I have just bought an Iomega Network drive so that we can all share it as a family back up drive. However, Time Machine cannot "see" the drive, I understand that this is to do with the way the drive is formatted etc.

This is in part annoying anf in part a releief. I currently have Time Machine backing up to a 2 disc Raid (1tb over 2 discs), but frankly I need the storage space back for my Image archive.

Tiume Machine is great, but the downnside is that it ends up storing so much irrelevant data that I should have deleted years ago. As a result I am going drop TM and use a simple incremental backup like iBackup whcih works fine with Iomega drive and reconises it instantly.

If I were to restore my MBp from the drive, I'd do this using the USB port.

So bye bye Tim Machine...

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