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Thunderbird 1

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 19, 2014
37
0
Poole, UK
Good evening all. I have a backup issue.

i have a message saying that my last backup using Time Machine was on 31st Jan 2015. I have tried to 'back up now' from the Time Machine icon at the top of the page but get the message 'Backup failed - the backup disk Seagate Backup Plus Drive is not available'.

The Seagate external drive is plugged in and whirring away as usual, the light is on but the Mac doesn't seem seem to be able to find it. Time machine is 'on' in preferences (although the on/off switch is just greyed out and I can't change from on to off and back again), I have turned both the computer and Seagate drive off and on again and the USB is connected to both ends.

I have tried moving the USB to different ports on the Mac and when I do the Seagate drive powers up so the cable must be working. The drive isn't showing in devices in Finder.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

Scott
 

cincygolfgrrl

macrumors 6502
Apr 2, 2012
346
227
Somewhere In Time
I'm no expert, but this sounds like your drive has failed. One way to check would be to "Enter Time Machine". If you can get into Time Machine, then see and access your backups your drive is probably OK and something else is the problem. If you're unable to access Time Machine, you probably need a new drive.

All hard drives fail eventually. I've has some die young; others last years and years. My Seagate is the champ. I'm on my third WD, but it could have gone the other way.
 

Bomb Bloke

macrumors regular
Feb 12, 2015
222
6
Tasmania (AU)
If you open the Disk Utility app while the drive is plugged in, does it show up there? If so, anything odd about it (eg a greyed out title)?
 

Thunderbird 1

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 19, 2014
37
0
Poole, UK
I opened disk utility and it didn't show up. I tried a stick in the same port which worked so port's OK. I plugged the Seagate back into the port and it came up on utility but coloured orange. I still couldn't get into Time Machine though.

I tried clicking on and 'repair disk' which cut out after a minute or so saying couldn't repair disk.

Time for a new back up drive do you think?
 

Bomb Bloke

macrumors regular
Feb 12, 2015
222
6
Tasmania (AU)
It's normal for the icon next to the drive name to appear orange - this simply indicates that it's a removable disk, as opposed to a drive built into the Mac.

If the actual name is written in red, that means the disk is failing.

The fact that Disk Utility can't repair the volume stored on the disk doesn't mean it's completely cactus - it may really just be that the data is corrupt, and the drive itself is still ok. You could use the Erase tab to set the drive up as new, removing all data but creating a fresh new volume that you should be able to stick a fresh backup on. You'd need to then need to use Time Machine's preferences panel to set that new volume as the target for storing your backups.

If, on the other hand, the drive contains data you need to keep (as opposed to old backups of stuff still on your Mac), don't format it - there are software tools out there which can likely recover at least some of it.
 
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