Mounted external disk, Time machine can't 'see' it.

Question

Level 1

14 points

Mounted external disk, Time machine can't 'see' it.

I am trying to back up on time machine to my external ssd hard drive.

I get a message, 'Back up disk not available, Try backing up again when the external HD is available.'

I've run first aid. It is a USB A.

My main internal HD is partitioned. I don't know if that could be an issue. I only want to copy 1 partition, the main HD. The external HD is not partitioned.

I tried 'Restore' with my main drive, unmounted, remounted and rebooted the machine and that failed as well.

Thank you

Mac Studio

Posted on Jun 4, 2023 10:02 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Bob Timmons

Community+ 2024

Level 10

168,650 points

Jun 4, 2023 12:14 PM in response to Oreocracker

See if what has worked for me might work for you.

Format the backup drive in Mac OS Extended (Journaled), aka HFS+

Restart the Mac and check to see if you can select the drive as a backup destination in Time Machine Settings

If yes, go ahead and start a backup. If an error occurs, try again

If Time Machine can "see" the drive, it will automatically......(and probably without telling you).....format the backup drive as APFS (Case Sensitive) before the backup begins, then the backup will run.

Now, if Time Machine cannot even select the drive as a backup destination, then more work is going to be needed.

Reply

Answer 2

Oreocracker Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 4, 2023 11:49 AM in response to Old Toad

I also tried super duper, and that failed, too. The response from them looking at the log was, "Something's blocking the backup drive from unmounting. Using any antivirus, antimalware, "Clean my..." tool or the like?"

But I can unmount it manually every way possible. So not sure what the problem is.

Reply

Answer 3

Oreocracker Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 4, 2023 12:37 PM in response to Bob Timmons

TY, Time machine saw the drive, but the same error message came up, Backup Disk not Available. Try when available. And it's on the desktop as well. So not sure what to try next. Time machine said the disk cannot be found.

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 4, 2023 1:49 PM in response to Oreocracker

Nice work.....must have been a conflict buried somewhere in the settings. Strange.

If you formatted the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), wait for the backup to complete, then check the format again. I'll bet it's APFS (Case Sensitive) now.

Reply

Answer 5

Oreocracker Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 4, 2023 4:11 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Many thanks. Got another question you might be able to answer. Time machine keeps stopping. I have it on manual, but it stops and I have to constantly continue it. I'm using that USB A so it's got another 11 hours. I have to do it b/c the mac has a faulty port and they may give me a new one this week. Thoughts?

Reply

Answer 6

Jun 4, 2023 4:26 PM in response to Oreocracker

Something is wrong. Not sure what. Using USB A, you should be able to back up about 30-40 GB per hour. So, if you have 100 GB to back up it should take about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Nothing you can do at this point, since you do not want to stop the backup.

Reply