When I select MyBookWorld-backup, I get a spinning wheel and system preferences freezes?

tell us more about the mybook world drive, its type, how it is connected, etc.

There's nto enough info here to work on.

Is "mybookworld-backup" a network server, a physical drive connected to your machine? A p[artition? What is it? Until you know this, and we know this, its hard to begin solid troubleshooting.

My advice is to start over, and to find a new outlet.

Grant

OK, that's a good start, except i have one of those too, It does NOT connect directly to your machine; it only has a RJ-45 ethernet jack (for SMB communications) and a USB for epansion. The connection is through your network. (ergo NAS)

In any event - how do you access it? Do you browse your network and mount it?

What backup program are you using?

How did you try to get to it via the finder?

Grant

This is helping. Yes, i am quite sure. A Network attached storage device connects via a network. Wifi is slower than physical ethernet, partly due to latency. And yes, the further from the router, the slower it is. normal. But both are via your network. One's wireles, one's wired. By direct, i mean via Firewire, USB or similar, with no routers or bridges in between. You do have it connected to a router, right?

Anyway, You show two devices, as i suspected. Mybook world, and a mybook world backup volume, That is a volume/partition on the mybook world, created by... beats the heck out of me? What software are you using?

To fix the authorization problem, i would restart everything (everything) first, often that fixes issues. That failing, it gets more complicated.

But first figure out what you have, how its configured. That's step #1

Grant

OK, so apparently you have the MBW connected via the software equivelent of a crossover cable- ethernet frames but no routing. Not sure what negative impact that has or doesn;t have. Certainly its not how the drive was intended to work - it would be far easier to just have a USB connection for that.

WD software in general has a very bad history. Note that some drives have been lost entirely due to incompatability with Mavericks - read the tips section here for mroe details, btu i would NOT use it.

I cant help you with WD software. But the first task is to access the drive and make sure you can communicate with it. I would go to the main drive to do that. From there you should be abke to remove the partition for the backup, and begin over with something less troublesome - such as Carbon Copy Cloner, Time MAchine ( i dont use it and did nt much like it) or , my preferred method, good old unix rsync.

In any event, your prpoblem is one of authorization. So first see if the drive is responding in general ( try to access it the normal way), then move to that particular volume.

Grant

I'm now confused. Are you using WD backup or time machine?

I'm lost.

Grant

One more suggestion before siging off. Regardless of what program you are using, ignore it for now. Try to gain access to the drive. Do this the normal way - Menubar --> go --> connect-to-server --> browse --> select Mybook world (not backup!), log in as an authorized user (you set it up, you ar ethe only one who knows what authorized users exist and what their passwords are).

Basics. Can you access that spinnign piece of metal? If yes, its a problem with the backup volume. If no, its related to th entire drive.

Isolate the problem.

Grant

Sounds correct. I have no knowledge of WD software, littl eof Time MAchine.

I can tell you that you could have:

1. a volume corruption

2. a corruption of the backup program's ( you still have not clarified which) preferences/configuration

I would not waste time with it. I would remove the volume and start over with a program I understood.

Good luck,

Grant

MBW-Backup *is* the volume on the drive, and it needs to be removed. Likely performed via the setup screen in the MBW. Go to its IP address to enter setup. Ihad to fight with it a bit when i removed a TM backup from mine, eons ago.

G