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    Time Machine and USB HDD troubleshooting - please advise

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by lanwarrior, Nov 8, 2008.

  1. lanwarrior

    lanwarrior Notebook Evangelist

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    Hi all,

    I have an external USB 2.0 drive that I used to connect directly to my MBP for Time Machine purposes. Recently, I acquired an Airport Extreme N (AE), which have the USB port on the back. The name of the drive is TIMEMACHINE. I have firmware 7.2.

    I connected the USB 2.0 drive to the AE, setup the Disk Sharing with password and from Finder I can see that drive. I can even see all the Time Machine backup folders.

    I went to Time Machine Preferences and made sure backup is going to that drive named TIMEMACHINE. I click on BackUp now and... it FAILED!

    I tried multiple times with the same result. Finally, I unplugged the USB drive and connect it directly to my MBP, run Time Machine and it WORKED!

    So anyone know what exactly is wrong with my setup above? Keep in my mind that I can see TIMEMACHINE from Finder when the drive is connected to the AE.
     
    lanwarrior, Nov 8, 2008
    #1
  2. Budding

    Budding Notebook Virtuoso

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    Have you added your USB drive into the Do Not Backup list under Time Machine preferences?
     
    Budding, Nov 8, 2008
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  3. lanwarrior

    lanwarrior Notebook Evangelist

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    By default, the Time Machine drive (THE USB drive) is not back up. It was added automatically by Time Machine app.
     
    lanwarrior, Nov 13, 2008
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  4. lanwarrior

    lanwarrior Notebook Evangelist

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    So I found out the answer: in order to use a USB HDD for Time Machine on an Airport Extreme, the HDD MUST BE NEW and contains no previous Time Machine data.

    In my case, the USB HDD was previously connected locally to the MacBook Pro. That made the backup fail. But if I connect a brand new, empty USB HDD to the Airport Extreme, Time Machine is happy.
     
    lanwarrior, Nov 16, 2008
    #4