Time Machine

Sounds as if you've done all the right things - the disk is properly formatted and you can mount it and select it as your TM drive? I've no idea why it wouldn't be working. Is it a USB drive? I use Hitachi G-Drives on Firewire 800 and have no problems with my TM backups. Sometimes those USB 3.0 drives that promise - and should have - USB 2.0 'backward compatibility' seem to have a problem.

Try heading over to the Great Pondoni's site which has a whole range of FAQs about Time Machine - http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html. If you can't find an answer there I would try the drive using FW800 if it's available or purchasing a drive with FW800 capabilities. I've not had a problem out of my G-Drives (purchased from Amazon) but have read of several people having problems with USB drives for some reason. Why? I have no idea - Seagate makes good drives and the most problematic drives seem to be Western Digital.

Of course, it may not be your drive at all. I'm not there to see the problem and I'm only speculating...

Clinton

Hi thebunnys.

How did you format the external hard drive to Mac OS extended (Journaled)

Did you do it through the erase tab or the parition tab of disk utility?

Also, have you tried verifiying your internal hard drive using disk utility?

At this point, it can either be how the external hard drive was formatted or some file/folder on the internal hard drive is stopping the backup.

Hope to hear from you.

Since it was done to using the partion tab, switch to the erase tab and select the external hard drive's parition for the Time machine backup. For the security option, select zero out. That would be the second marker from the left.

Before you do that, have you done the verify disk option for your internal hard drive (Macintosh HD)?

It could do the trick. At this point, I advise to refrain from trying to continue the backup again. If the repair wasn't successful, then it would be good to re-format the external hard drive then start over. Please let me know if there are any error messages.

If this is your first backup then a reformat is fine. Reformat the external hard drive for your Time Machine backup then start over. Good Luck!

Just go ahead and use Disk Utility to format the drive as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" - if it's a new drive, there's really no need to zero out the drive; just click on the "Erase" button. Then try setting up the drive as your Time Machine backup again and try backing up your internal drive.

Is that what you're trying to do?

Clinton

1) Go to disk utility and click the partition of the external hard drive. That's the one that's indented right below th ename of the external hard drive.

2) go to the erase tab then on the lower left side of the window, click security options.

3) Since the operating system is 10.7, the options would be presented as a line with 4 divisions with fastest on the leftmost part. Adjust the marker so that it is on the 2nd "division" of the bar. It would decribe the option as writing a "single pass of zeros"

Clinton, I advised the zero out since the existing Time Machine backup on the external drive may be corrupted. I believe that it is thebunnys' initial backup so it wouldn't hurt to zero out the external drive just to be safe.

🙂

Is there an error message? Does is say "preparing" or "backing up"

Also, have you verified the internal hard drive (Macintosh HD) using disk utility?

Still thinking of other things. 🙂