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User profile for user: Radio Engineer
Radio Engineer Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Time Machine just killed two external HD

Hi All,


Time Machine (TM) just killed two external hard disk drives. I am running 10.8.3 on a MPB 2.3 GHz I7 with 16GB SDRAM and I have had problems with TM not recognizing the external hard disks. I purchased a new 2TB firewire HD and started TM and about 2 hours into the backup TM error out with an error and the disk no longer is recognized and can't be initialized using the disk utility as it says there are zero bytes available.


I reconnected my MBP to the original MT HD and it proceeded to do the same thing and the HD is no longer recognized and can't be initialized...


Anyone else seen this or have a clue how to fix it?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), 16GB SDRAM

Posted on May 13, 2013 7:12 PM

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6 replies
User profile for user: Topher Kessler
Topher Kessler
User level: Level 6
9,905 points

May 13, 2013 10:10 PM in response to Radio Engineer

Open Disk Utility and select the disk device (not the volume name). Then click the Partition tab that appears, and use the drop-down menu to create "1 Partition." Then click the Options button and ensure "GUID" is used, and then select the Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) format and apply the changes.


When finished, set up Time Machine again and see if the problem persists. If so, then the issue is likely with the drive.


If it does happen again, are you able to select the drive in Disk Utility and perform a verification on it? If so, then are you able to see any errors? Do this by selecting the drive itself, as well as any volumes on it.

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Time Machine just killed two external HD

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