HT201250: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
Learn about Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
-
All replies
-
Helpful answers
-
Dec 18, 2015 10:11 AM in response to diboonenby Bob Timmons,I suggest that you first get back ups going again on the Time Capsule, then we can discuss adding the USB drive as a second back up source.
For now, please power off and disconnect the USB drive from the Time Capsule.
On your Mac......open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock), then open Time Machine
Make sure that Time Machine is ON
Click Add or Remove Disks
Under Backup Disks, make sure that the Time Capsule disk (named "Data", unless you have changed the name) appears
If it does not, then click on Data under Available Disks
Then, click Use Disk
Close the window and now click on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the screen
Click Backup Now, and that should get backups going on the Time Capsule again
Post back when you have confirmed that this is the case
-
Dec 18, 2015 11:23 AM in response to Bob Timmonsby diboonen,Hello Bob,
Thanks for your help! I have followed your advise and turned off the external disk.
After that I followed the steps above. Unfortunately the back up didn't work. I receive this command The backup disk image “/Volumes/AirPort Disk-1/MyComputer.sparsebundle” is already in useThis is the same command I have received since I put on the external hard disk.
Hopefully this command will explain something
Regard,
Diana
-
Dec 18, 2015 11:32 AM in response to diboonenby Bob Timmons,Power off the Time Capsule by pulling the power cord from the back of the Time Capsule
Count to ten
Plug the power cord back into the back of the Time Capsule
Wait a few minutes, then try another backup
-
Dec 18, 2015 1:30 PM in response to Bob Timmonsby diboonen,time capsule is making a back up now. It seems to be a big one.
I will be back to you tomorrow morning (AMS time) after finishing the back up.
regard
Diana
-
Dec 18, 2015 1:50 PM in response to diboonenby Bob Timmons,If the backup to the Time Capsule completes correctly, now you are ready to set up Time Machine backups to the external drive that is connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule.
Start again as we did above by opening System Preferences and then opening Time Machine
Click Select Disk
Select the name of the external drive from the list of Available Disks
Click Use Disk
When you are asked if you want to replace the Time Capsule (Data) with the external disk, choose the option to Use Both Disks
Now Time Machine will automatically alternate backups between the Time Capsule and the external drive, so you will have backups on both the Time Capsule and the external drive
-
Dec 19, 2015 1:32 AM in response to Bob Timmonsby diboonen,Hello Bob,
I have followed your steps. It was easy to do till the last step 'When you are asked if you want to replace the Time Capsule (data) with the external disk, choose the option to Use Both Disks'. I never get this question.
After Clicking Use Disk TC ask me to make connection. No more options to choose. After making connection Time Capsule starts to preparing the back up on the External Hard Disk.
Do I miss something?
-
Dec 19, 2015 6:17 AM in response to diboonenby Bob Timmons,If you have the Time Capsule now backing up,and you add the external drive to also back up, then you should see a message that looks like this example:
In the example above, my Time Capsule disk is named "Backups" and I am adding another external drive called "500GB Drive", so that Time Machine will take turns backing up to the Time Capsule and then the other drive.
Please try the following:
Power off the Time Capsule and the external drive
Wait a minute
Power up the Time Capsule for a minute, then power up the external drive and try the setup again.
-
Dec 19, 2015 8:19 AM in response to Bob Timmonsby diboonen,I have followed the steps but unfortunately this message does't appear.
Manually I need to make a new connection to the external hard disk.
Still it's one drive for backup.
Do you have another suggestion?
-
Dec 19, 2015 8:24 AM in response to diboonenby diboonen,now I receive the following message: Elements (external hard disk) can not be used and will be removed.
-
Dec 19, 2015 8:34 AM in response to diboonenby Bob Timmons,The external drive that will be used for Time Machine backups must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled), which is also known as HFS+.
Do you know if your external drive meets this requirement?
Most hard drives that are sold at stores are for use on Windows and PCs. This type of drive cannot be used for Time Machine backups unless it is first formatted correctly for Mac.
-
Dec 19, 2015 8:40 AM in response to Bob Timmonsby diboonen,yes I did the Mac OS Extended ( Journaled) formatting
-
Dec 19, 2015 8:45 AM in response to diboonenby Bob Timmons,As a test......what happens if you connect the external hard drive directly to your Mac.....not to the Time Capsule.....and try to set up Time Machine backups that way?
If the backup does begin......you can cancel and stop the backup unless you want to go ahead and back up your Mac to have another copy of your Mac.
-
-
Dec 19, 2015 9:01 AM in response to diboonenby Bob Timmons,Then, there are several possibilities:
1) The USB port on the Time Capsule is not working correctly
2) Your external drive might be a USB 3.0.....and the USB port on the Time Capsule is USB 2.0. USB 2.0 is supposed to be compatible with USB 3.0, but I have found that this is not true on my network, and a number of other users have compatibility issues with this as well.
3) The USB 2.0 port on the Time Capsule is underpowered, so it is often necessary to use a powered USB hub with the Time Capsule.....even if the hard drive has its own power supply.
I do not know what the exact answer to your problem might be, but it is probably one of the possibilities listed above, or a combination of the possibilities above.
