Cannot install Yosemite. Keeps telling me that both my internal and external
drives are backing up with TIme Machine. Any suggestions?
iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), iOS 8.0.2
Turn off Time Machine, disconnect your external HD, reboot and try again.
Is it actively backing up, or are you encountering a dialog stating that Yosemite cannot be installed because the disk is being used for Time Machine backups?
Read OS X: Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups
If for some reason you have a folder called Backups.backupdb at the root level of the hard disk on which you want to install Yosemite, move it to the Trash.
I'm sure you've got the answer I need but am not very experienced with getting into the "root files"
on my computer. Can you briefly give me a bit of direction. Sorry for my ignorance.
That's easy enough. Select Computer from the Finder's Go menu, and then double-click your boot volume, which looks like a "hard disk" icon and is usually named "Macintosh HD". You will see folders named "Applications", "Library", "System", "Users", and perhaps others. If a folder named Backups.backupdb is also among them, drag that one to the Trash. You may need to authenticate to make that change.
Success! Thanks so much for your help!
Cannot install Yosemite as it keeps telling me both my internal and external drives are time machine backups
