Time Machine not backing up fully

[Tomple]

i have a WD my passport 500 gig and it has firewire 800 400 and usb 2.0
i hook it up firewire 800 to my imac and the i chose backup. it will start fine then get to like 17 or 0 gigs or anything around there and then nothing happens. i let it run for a few days and still nothing. anyone know whats wrong?

- Atlas

 

[BobZune]

If you want to start over, partition the drive for GUID partition table, and HFS+ partition format (a single partition is good, unless you have a good reason to have multiple partitions). [The drive may have come with MBR partition table and FAT32 format - those are generally the default when you buy a USB disk drive].

See http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html for a background (the last picture shows the partition table options).

 

[JediMeister]

+1 for BobZune. Here is the nitty-gritty for why you may have to format the external drive and start backing up from scratch.

 

[Tomple]

Thanks

thanks a lot guys
ill give that a try

EDIT

Thanks a lot it worked beutifly (i think)

im going away but i will tell u if it works in a few days

 

[Tomple]

nope

it didnt work
it said unable to backup drive or sumthing.

think i should just get a new one?

 

[JediMeister]

Any chance you can duplicate the issue and post back with the exact error message? May allow us to isolate it a bit further.

Trying with another drive is a valid step but let's see if we can't save you some money

 

[Tomple]

Any chance you can duplicate the issue and post back with the exact error message? May allow us to isolate it a bit further.

Trying with another drive is a valid step but let's see if we can't save you some money

im trying it again so hopefully it will come up again

thanks again

you guys are brilliant

 

[MacDawg]

Ok, here is my suggestion...

1. Boot from your Leopard install disk

2. Open Disk Utility and completely reformat your external drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

3. Use Repair Disk on your internal HD on the iMac

4. Set up Time Machine

For Time Machine not to work, there is likely something wrong with one of the HDD. Either it is unable to read the internal drive correctly (repair disk) or it is unable to write to the external correctly (reformat drive)

You may want to also Repair Permissions while you are at it

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[Tomple]

Ok, here is my suggestion...

1. Boot from your Leopard install disk

2. Open Disk Utility and completely reformat your external drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

3. Use Repair Disk on your internal HD on the iMac

4. Set up Time Machine

For Time Machine not to work, there is likely something wrong with one of the HDD. Either it is unable to read the internal drive correctly (repair disk) or it is unable to write to the external correctly (reformat drive)

You may want to also Repair Permissions while you are at it

Woof, Woof - Dawg

alright thanks
ill give it a try

 

[Tomple]

it just ends up saying unable to back up selected volume

 

[iAlexG]

It does sound like a problem with the external drive