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There are no disks to back up. This can happen if all available disks are in the “Do not back up” list. Click Options to edit the list.

Time machine give me an error when trying to backup to time capsule "No discs are available to back up." When I click details this is what I get. "There are no disks to back up. This can happen if all available disks are in the “Do not back up” list. Click Options to edit the list." Of course I follow the recommendation in the error messaage and check the options and nothing is listed in the "Do not backup" list. This started to happen after I upgraded to Mavericks. I have another laptop running Mountain Lion and a second Laptop running Mavericks that aren't having this issue. The only computer getting this error is the mac mini. All the other computers are backing up just fine to the same time capsule using time machine. I've tried everything I can think of to fix the issue. This includes formatting the drive and reseting the SRM and PRAM. Still getting the error. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 14, 2013 8:55 PM

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Posted on Nov 14, 2013 11:39 PM

This simple procedure will clear your Time Machine settings, including exclusions. The backups won't be affected. If you have a long exclusion list that can't be recreated easily, you may prefer a more complicated procedure that preserves the exclusion list. In that case, ask for instructions. Otherwise, do as follows.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist


Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal

from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a file selected. Copy the file to the Desktop. Then move it (the original, not the copy) to the Trash. You'll be prompted for your administrator password. Reboot and recreate your settings in the Time Machine preference pane. It will show that you have no backups. Don't worry; your backups haven't been touched. Run a backup to test. The backup may take much longer than usual. If TM now performs as expected, delete the file you copied to the Desktop.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combinationcommand-C. In the Finder, select

Go Go to Folder...

from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

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Question marked as Best reply

Nov 14, 2013 11:39 PM in response to nickhargraves

This simple procedure will clear your Time Machine settings, including exclusions. The backups won't be affected. If you have a long exclusion list that can't be recreated easily, you may prefer a more complicated procedure that preserves the exclusion list. In that case, ask for instructions. Otherwise, do as follows.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist


Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal

from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a file selected. Copy the file to the Desktop. Then move it (the original, not the copy) to the Trash. You'll be prompted for your administrator password. Reboot and recreate your settings in the Time Machine preference pane. It will show that you have no backups. Don't worry; your backups haven't been touched. Run a backup to test. The backup may take much longer than usual. If TM now performs as expected, delete the file you copied to the Desktop.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combinationcommand-C. In the Finder, select

Go Go to Folder...

from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Nov 15, 2013 7:20 AM in response to nickhargraves

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

{ diskutil list; echo; diskutil cs list; echo; ls -@Oaen /Vo*; } | open -ef

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.


Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:


☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)


☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.


☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.


Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.


Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.


A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.


If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

Nov 17, 2013 3:56 PM in response to Linc Davis

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 121.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 999.3 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s3



CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 79662F1A-5DE5-43AE-AE60-F045669630A3

=========================================================

Name: Macintosh HD

Status: Online

Size: 1120333979648 B (1.1 TB)

Free Space: 0 B (0 B)

|

+-< Physical Volume CC1D4351-3AA8-4BA4-851A-B537868B3880

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 120988852224 B (121.0 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 06FD6567-1D1F-4031-848A-5AB991A4B665

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 999345127424 B (999.3 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 919AD35D-8073-49FB-940C-E82700975233

----------------------------------------------------------

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

|

+-> Logical Volume 53482022-7618-4E1E-9685-ED006925B1EE

---------------------------------------------------

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1115853029376 B (1.1 TB)

Conversion Progress: -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: Macintosh HD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS



total 0

drwxrwxrwt@ 2 0 80 hidden 68 Nov 17 15:26 .

com.apple.FinderInfo 32

0: ABCDEFAB-CDEF-ABCD-EFAB-CDEF0000000C deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit

drwxr-xr-x@ 37 0 0 - 1326 Oct 22 22:11 ..

com.apple.quarantine 57

Nov 17, 2013 6:35 PM in response to nickhargraves

You're missing a symbolic link to the startup volume in the Volumes folder. Somehow the quarantine attribute was set on the root directory.


If you have more than one user account, please log in as an administrator. Then enter the following command in the same way as before:

sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /

You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. Confirm. You don't need to post the warning.


If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Log in as one and start over.


Reboot and test.

Nov 17, 2013 7:00 PM in response to Linc Davis

I did as reecommend and still got the same error. Here is a new copy of the text file as you recommend before as well:


/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 121.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 999.3 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s3



CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 79662F1A-5DE5-43AE-AE60-F045669630A3

=========================================================

Name: Macintosh HD

Status: Online

Size: 1120333979648 B (1.1 TB)

Free Space: 0 B (0 B)

|

+-< Physical Volume CC1D4351-3AA8-4BA4-851A-B537868B3880

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 120988852224 B (121.0 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 06FD6567-1D1F-4031-848A-5AB991A4B665

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 999345127424 B (999.3 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 919AD35D-8073-49FB-940C-E82700975233

----------------------------------------------------------

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

|

+-> Logical Volume 53482022-7618-4E1E-9685-ED006925B1EE

---------------------------------------------------

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1115853029376 B (1.1 TB)

Conversion Progress: -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: Macintosh HD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS



total 0

drwxrwxrwt@ 2 0 80 hidden 68 Nov 17 18:56 .

com.apple.FinderInfo 32

0: ABCDEFAB-CDEF-ABCD-EFAB-CDEF0000000C deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit

drwxr-xr-x 37 0 0 - 1326 Oct 22 22:11 ..

Nov 18, 2013 11:57 AM in response to nickhargraves

Reinstalling won't delete anything (except Java and Xcode, if installed), but you still need a current backup in case something goes wrong.

There are several ways to back up a Mac that is not fully functional. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.

1. Boot from the Recovery partition or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”

2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.

3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.

Nov 21, 2013 12:45 PM in response to Linc Davis

O. So I tried following the troubleshooting section of the link you posted however there are no errors on the drive so the option to fix isn't there. I did a repair disk to see fit hat would do anything and it didn't. So trying to re-install the OS when I use the command r method at startup I don't get a drop down list of drives to install Mavericks on. When I got eh command option R route it try's installing mountain lion and says I can't install it to the HD because a newer version of OS X is already installed. This is where I'm now stuck.

There are no disks to back up. This can happen if all available disks are in the “Do not back up” list. Click Options to edit the list.

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