How can I change Time Machine Preferences so that computer will recognize my back up disk?

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Level 1

16 points

How can I change Time Machine Preferences so that computer will recognize my back up disk?

I have a MacBook Air. I have a Seagate Back up disk which has worked well once. It is now 150 days since back up and I want to perform another back up. When I connect Seagate back up disk to computer, I get a message saying that the back up disk cannot be read. A previous participant told me to change preferences in Time Machine so that the Seagate back up disk is added to list. How do I do that? I cannot find a route to set preferences for Time Machine. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Aug 8, 2016 8:25 PM

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Answer 1

sberman

Level 10

273,996 points

Aug 8, 2016 10:08 PM in response to SaskatoonGuy

Go to System Preferences > Time Machine > Select Disks

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Answer 2

SaskatoonGuy Author

Level 1

16 points

Aug 9, 2016 8:05 PM in response to sberman

Hello sberman. Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it but it did not really help. I can click on System Preferences (from the Dock) and then I can choose Time Machine from the icons. But when I click on "Select Disks" (it's actually "Select Backup Disk, I am led to a window which has only one option, namely: "Other Airport Time Capsule." I don't have my Seagate external hard drive as one of the available options. How do I add the Seagate External Hard drive to the list of available disks? Any help you can provide (or that another member of the community can provide) is greatly appreciated.

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Answer 3

Aug 10, 2016 11:25 AM in response to SaskatoonGuy

Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support

Have a nice day.

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