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Time Machine issue with Mountain Lion. Can you help?

I have an Iomega Mac Companion used as an external backup drive for my Imac running Mountain Lion. After launching Time Machine, I got an error message that said the backup couldn't' be completed because an error occurred while creating the backup folder. I rebooted and everything was fine for 24 hours. Since then, I get the same error message even after another reboot. In Time Machine preferences it says "oldest backup none" and "latest backup none."

Any suggestions?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 27, 2013 2:08 PM

25 replies

greinke Author

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Feb 4, 2013 11:10 AM in response to BDAqua

You've been incredibly helpful. I will trust your judgement on this one. Thank you again.

BDAqua

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Feb 4, 2013 1:02 PM in response to greinke

Great to hear GR, please post back when you've got & used it! 🙂

greinke Author

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Feb 6, 2013 4:48 PM in response to BDAqua

Well, the OWC Mercury Elite Pro arrived today. Installed it, and I get the same error messages as before. Used the disk utility to repair the new drive and it was OK. Same deal...."An error occurred while creating the backup folder."

Not happy.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,261 points

Feb 6, 2013 5:59 PM in response to greinke

Dang...

ootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.

If that doesn't help Reinstall the OS.

greinke Author

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Feb 7, 2013 5:58 AM in response to BDAqua

That didn't work. I've never reinstalled an OS before. Can it be done without losing data?

BDAqua

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239,261 points

Feb 7, 2013 8:54 AM in response to greinke

In theory, you should not loose any of your data.

greinke Author

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Feb 7, 2013 5:38 PM in response to BDAqua

OK - I called OWC tech support just to state my case. The recommendation was to reinstall OS X. Completed the installation, connected the drive and backed up using Time Machine. Appeared as everything was progressing normally....checked after about an hour and the same error message appeared. Error occurred while creating the backup folder. OWC said I could send the drive back to be checked, but honestly, I don't think it's the drive.

The hours I've spent trying to backup my drive has been frustrating to say the least. I'll call Apple support again to see what they say. Don't suggest I try a PC....that will NEVER happen!!

BDAqua

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239,261 points

Feb 7, 2013 10:53 PM in response to greinke

Have you tried some other backup App/Method than TM, like the CCC or other Backup apps on the OWC Disk came with?

Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Or SuperDuper...

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...

http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

The DEmo of Tri-Bckup won;t stop at errors & has very useful log reportng as to the cause... I'd try it. 🙂

greinke Author

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Feb 8, 2013 2:15 PM in response to BDAqua

Today I changed the connection from Firewire 800 to USB and......it has worked for the last 8 hours. Would it be worth my while to use both CCC and Time Machine to back up to the external drive? I don't use my Mac for work (retired) so immediate recovery is not essential - besides I have a MacBook Pro as well. Can the two function side by side?

BDAqua

Level 10

239,261 points

Feb 8, 2013 5:30 PM in response to greinke

Well, don't use both on the same Partition.

Time Machine issue with Mountain Lion. Can you help?