MacBook Pro stopped backing up to Toshiba external HDD

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Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro stopped backing up to Toshiba external HDD

Help, my MacBook Pro has stopped backing up to my Toshiba external hard drive, having been working perfectly well up until 3 weeks ago.

When I attach the drive's USB cable to my Mac the blue light comes on on the HDD and the orange TOSHIBA EXT icon appears on my desktop. I can double-click on the icon and open all the folders and files in my previous backups. But when I try to run a new backup, the drop-down list sticks on "preparing backup" and stays there.

My equipment: MacBook Pro 13 inch, mid-2012. Processor 2.5Ghz Intel Core i5. 4GB memory. Running: OS X El Capitan version 10.11.6 (note: this problem did NOT coincide with upgrading to El Capitan, as seems to have happened to others).

Toshiba Canvio Basics external HDD, 500 GB (approximately 225 GB as yet unused), USB 3.0 connection.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), iOS 10

Posted on Sep 14, 2016 1:05 PM

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Answer 1

sterling r

Community Specialist

Sep 15, 2016 10:46 AM in response to Gilleasbuig

Hello Gilleasbuig,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

I see that you are having issues with backing up your HD. You don't mention what process or application you are using to do the backup. But seeing as you are running El Capitan, I will assume you are using Time Machine and refer you to the following article for troubleshooting steps: If you can‘t back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine

If you are using some other method for backing up, please let us know and we will go from there to see what we can do to help.

Best regards.

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Answer 2

Gilleasbuig Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 15, 2016 11:58 AM in response to Gilleasbuig

Hi sterling r,

Yes I use time machine.

I went to the article you recommended, and used system information to find that my external HD is formatted as Case-Sensitive Journaled HFS+ (whatever that means!).

GUID partition map - yes.

I then tried to verify my external HD using disk utility. When I clicked on Toshiba External USB 3.0 Media (External physical disk), it showed a solid blue fill-bar. I clicked on first aid and soon got a message saying "First aid process complete". Nothing had changed.

I then clicked on TOSHIBA EXT (External physical volume) and got a yellow fill-bar taking up about one-third of the available room. When I tried clicking on first aid here, after a while I got a message saying "First aid process has failed".

I understand none of this, what does it all mean?

Should I just go out and buy a new external hard drive?

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