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User profile for user: danielfromkc
danielfromkc Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Time machine unable to complete back up "an error occurred while creating a backup folder."

Hi I just up graded to El Captain and since that I have been having trouble with my backup hard drive and Time Machine. After installing El Captain I got an error message that stated " Back up Failed. Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the back up folder. Run Disk Utility to repair your back up disk". When I did that I got error " Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required. Unable to unmount volume for repair. Operation failed". I can see the Hard drive name in the finder side bar but it doesn't have the usual eject icon so I right click on it and select "Force Eject". Disconnect the USB and reconnect USB so HardDrive reappears in Finder side bar. Run Disk Utility First Aid again same message. I try to partition the drive in Disk Utility but the "Apply" button is grayed out until I change the named of the disk in the "Partition" Text Field reselect "OX Extended Extended (Journaled)" in "Format" dropdown. I then click apply and get error message that it "cannot unmount disk". "Mount" button at top of Disk Utility Window seems to do nothing. I then tried to "Erase" disk and got Error message "Umounting Disk POSIX reports: operation couldn't be completed. Input/output error. Operation Failed." So I once again right-clicked "Force Eject", Disconnected and reconnected USB, selected hard drive in "Finder" sidebar ran "Set_Up.dmg" that was located on the hard drive. Which seemed to amount to registering drive on Seagates Website. Reselected Drive in Time Machine Preferences selected "Back Up Now" from Time Machine in Menu Bar got progress bar "Preparing To Back Up..." in Time Machine Preferences for about half an hour... Got back to the start of the loop. Error Message states "Back Up Failed. Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the back up folder. Run Disk Utility to repair your back up disk".

Posted on May 11, 2016 11:01 AM

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6 replies
User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

May 12, 2016 7:52 AM in response to danielfromkc

Please take each of the following steps that you haven't already tried until the problem is resolved.

1. Disconnect and reconnect the drive.

2. From the menu bar, select

▹ System Preferences ▹ Energy Saver ▹ Power Adapter

and uncheck the box marked

Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible

if it's checked.

Some external drives ignore the Energy Saver setting and spin down anyway. In that case, the drive should be replaced with a different kind, unless the manufacturer's website has a firmware update to correct the problem.

3. If the drive is connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port on the computer. If it's already connected to a built-in port, and there is another such port, use that.

4. If the drive has more than one bridge (e.g., FireWire and USB), try another one.

5. Check the drive vendor's website for a firmware update.

6. Contact the vendor to see whether there's a firmware setting you can change.

7. If you installed vendor software for the drive, uninstall it.

8. If none of the above steps resolves the issue, the drive may be faulty. Try another one. You may be able to salvage the mechanism of an external drive by installing it in another enclosure.

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User profile for user: leroydouglas
leroydouglas
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
183,954 points

May 11, 2016 1:08 PM in response to danielfromkc

OS X: Saving energy with Sleep - Apple Support

Note: Solid-state drives (SSD) do not use a motorized mechanism to read or write data. For Mac computers that only include a built-in solid-state drive, this setting does not affect the built-in drive. It only applies to externally connected, mechanical drives.



See if there's a firmware update for the external drive.

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User profile for user: danielfromkc
danielfromkc Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

May 12, 2016 7:27 AM in response to leroydouglas

Followed the steps to reset Time Machine ( A4 i think it was) it did not work. And I don't know if it was this or the other suggestion ( the spin-down issue where Time Machine can't back up because it thinks the disk is asleep) but now in the Disk Utility dialog window side bar where the name of the disk is shown twice (one above the other) has conflicting information shoeing when the Info button is clicked. The Info window that pops up for the lower indented disk name says there is over 2TB of "Available space" while the Info window that pops up for the upper disk name says 0 "Available space". So now I guess Time Machine thinks the disk is full. I have tried to find information from the vender (Seagate) but what the website seems to provide I don't understand and is dated 2010 so I don't know if it would help and don't have time to do the massive amount of research to find out.

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Time machine unable to complete back up "an error occurred while creating a backup folder."

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