Check Progress of Backup

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Level 1

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Check Progress of Backup

I just hooked a backup drive (hard disk) up to my MacBook Air in order to back up my laptop. As soon as I did that, a light started blinking on the external hard disk. But I didn't get any prompts on my screen. I have used this same external disk in the past to backup my laptop.

How can I tell if it is actually backing up my laptop? I've tried going into Time Machine, but the only thing it shows is the latest complete backup and the 'cancel' & 'restore' prompts.

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Feb 19, 2018 8:03 PM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,188 points

Feb 20, 2018 1:02 AM in response to trailsnet

The light started blinking on that external disk because Spotlight saw it and was indexing it. You won't get any prompts onscreen about Spotlight indexing your drive. Also, if this was a previously used, dedicated Time Machine drive for this Mac, then a Time Machine backup would not issue any prompts on screen either.

Your clue that a backup is in progress is the shape of the Time Machine icon in the menu bar (if you checked that box in the System Preferences Time Machine panel). Also, if this menu bar icon is present, you click on it to see a last backup time, and if a backup is occurring, its progress status will appear in the drop down menu.

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Answer 2

trailsnet Author

Level 1

24 points

Feb 20, 2018 11:23 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks again VikingOSX.

Problem solved... I'm pretty sure. I didn't even realize there was a Time Machine icon in the top menu on my computer. When I clicked on that, it gave me the option to Backup Now. Once I selected that, it had the job finished in a little over a minute. The only thing that worries me is that it only backed up 132 mb of stuff when I have over 150 GB of 'stuff.' I'm assuming that's because it only backed up the new stuff since my last backup.

I appreciate your help. You pointed me in the right direction.

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Answer 3

trailsnet Author

Level 1

24 points

Feb 20, 2018 7:41 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks for getting back to me VikingOSX. I have included a screenshot of the System Preferences Time Machine window. According to that window, the last successful backup I performed on this MacBook Air was in August of 2016.

I still haven't figured out what I need to do to initiate a backup onto the "My Passport for Mac" backup drive.

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Answer 4

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,188 points

Feb 20, 2018 11:15 AM in response to trailsnet

Temporarily, uncheck the Back Up Automatically. From the Dock, click Launchpad : Other : Disk Utility. Select the mounted My Passport for Mac drive, and run First Aid on it. Then select the drive above it with the red "i", and run First Aid on it too. If you get the green bill of health, then quit Disk Utility. The Time Machine drive must be formatted Mac HFS+ extended with a GUID partition scheme.

With the drive still mounted, revisit the Time Machine preferences panel. Click on the Select Disk... button, and then specifically tell Time Machine to use the My Passport for Mac drive. Finally, recheck the Back up Automatically. In the menu bar, click the Time Machine icon, and from the drop down menu, select Backup Now.

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Check Progress of Backup

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