Time Machine Error, backup disk image could not be accessed.

Not sure if this is where i should post this, but I have always got the most responses in the Switcher Hangout, and I am still new at things so I thought here would be best.

I formatted my Seagate Freeagent External 1Tb drive to Mac OS something (journaled) yesterday evening and everything that was on it is from my Dell Laptop is now gone, and it said there were approximately 996gb of 999 available.

Then I plugged it into my airport base station. Started my Time Machine found the Airport Extreme under the Shared tab, found the 'Untitled' drive and selected it as the drive to use for TM.

Started the original wireless back up last night about midnight and it finished the following day around noon. I have 200.06gb used on my Mac HD, according to Finder.

After the original back up via TM was done the next one was due at 2pm ish today this error popped up.

"Time Machine Error
The backup disk image “/Volumes/Untitled-1/Taylor’s iMac.sparsebundle” could not be accessed (error -1).

Latest successful backup: 4/2/11 at 1:34 PM"

I have screen shots uploaded to assist the gurus of the forums.

Now as I access the external drive via finder all that is on it is 2 sparsebundles. One is
Name-Taylor’s iMac 1.sparsebundle
Kind-Sparse Disk Image Bundle
Size-181.4GB on disk it says,
Other is
Name-Taylor’s iMac.sparsebundle
Kind-Sparse Disk Image Bundle
Size-126.47GB on disk.

I should mention that I clicked 'Open TM Preferences', 'Enter TM Now', or possibly something else (not sure what) during the original back up. It stopped and asked me to start again and i said yes. I did not think it was a problem at the time becasue the #of GB that had been backed-up were not factored in the restart.
Meaning- it did about 25GB before I stopped/started it. Upon starting again it only said it was doing approx 175 rather than the 200 on my MacHD mentioned above.

I checked for updates under the 'About this Mac' and dl'ed 2 related to garage band. Also, the firmware related to the Airport BS was updated when I setup my WIFI Network. I do have a password on the Seagate drive, but I know it is being put in correctly and has never told me that it was incorrect.

I know i can plug straight into the iMac and back up, but if I have the ability to backup wirelessly why the **** not, right?

So, why won't it do the first back up after the original?
The only thing I can think to do is to reformat and start all over, and make sure not to touch anything related to TM during the backup.

Moved to correct forum.

1. Make sure the Seagate is not password protected. No need for that unless you've got some "spooky" stuff on the drive.

2. Erase the Seagate, restart TM and start over. Let's see what happens.

OK well i looked for a password on the external Seagate, couldn't find one.
Show me how and i will attempt that again.
I formatted the Seagate to make sure it was all usable.
SO I set up my router (Airport Base Station) again.
Found the drive in the TM options and ran the back up, took like 5 or 6 hours, 201GB. Didn't mess with TM at all, and then the hourly backup comes up, and it says
'the location has changed' or 'the drive is not recognized. Use disk anyway?
---I'll check in an hour to see what exactly because it does that every time after the original.---
I hit yes, and then it starts to back-up THE ENTIRE THING again.

When i search under 'Shared' stuff in the finder for 'Tedd's External' [the name of the Seagate] it finds it fine. Then when i click the folder with the name 'Tedd's External' all i see are sparsebundle files again, and none of the items on my HD. No idea what those are.

Please help.
What have I done wrong?

The only thing I can think of is that it's looking for authentication and stops without making the backup. That's why I said before to make sure the Seagate is not password protected. Remember this from your first post?

I do have a password on the Seagate drive, but I know it is being put in correctly and has never told me that it was incorrect.

Click to expand...

You've got everything else setup correctly as far as I can tell.

Well do you have any idea how to find/delete password?

It's your Seagate drive, surely you received some instructions for setting it up? Drives that are designed for security come with specific instructions on how to remove or set in a password.

I never set up a password for it on my dell laptop when i got it like 2 years ago.
Then i hook it up to my this imac and I somehow put one on it. I've looked in the disk utility when it was plugged in via airport or hard wired and never found anything, and cont. click never gives me anything other than info, and finder has nothing regarding passwords of-course.
The only place i can think of a password ever being installed is the Airport extreme set up, which i redid. And the only passwords that i put in are the ones that it forced me to make (to access the routers settings and the wifi network).

Idk what 'mount drive' means but i saw it as an option in disk utility when the Seagate was hardwired, but not when it is plugged into the airport. Would that do anything productive?

A drive is mounted when it appears on your desktop and is ready to be accessed. Since you have it attached via the AE, it should mount automatically. You should be able to see the drive in your Airport system preferences.

What I don't understand is why it will complete the first backup but refuse to backup any further. BTW, there are plenty of articles on the web about using the AE and USB wireless backup with an external hard drive. Without us knowing exactly how you have the system hooked up, it's very difficult to determine exactly what's happening or not happening.

As a general Time Machine trouble shooting guide, have a look at this
Home

Looking at the name of the sparsebundle.... I myself had to change the name because of the " 's " in my name and I see you have that as well.
(Taylor’s iMac 1.sparsebundle )

When I removed the " 's " from my name, TM ran smoothly.

No guarantee that it will solve your issue, but it is worth a try.

Cheers ... McBie

My computer suddenly could not connect to my Time Machine. I could see a Time Machine disk image mounted but it was white, not the usual green Time Machine image with an arrow going anti clockwise. I tried going to LIBRARY, then PREFERENCES and deleting the apple.timemachine.plist but it did not help.

My Time Machine was connected to a Western Digital hard disk as an additional backup. This was affecting the Time Machine - not sure why as it was working normally before (even after the LION OS upgrade).

The way to fix it for me was to disconnect the Western Digital disk. Then turn Time Machine to "Off" (not the physical machine itself but via the System Preferences). Then go to Mackintosh HD then open LIBRARY and then LAUNCHDAEMONS. Look for any .plists related to Western Digital (usually has "WD" in the file name). I found 2 files and put them in the trash. Turned Time Machine on and it started to backup normally again.

If you find that each time the hourly backups involve a huge backup this may be due to the fact that you are including in your backup ENTOURAGE (which is considered one huge file so that even a single email would involve backing up the entire database for ENTOURAGE.) The way to solve this problem is to back up your MICROSOFT USER DATABASE separately. You can find this in USER then DOCUMENTS then MICROSOFT DATA BASE. I simply excluded the entire DOCUMENTS folder and back this up weekly in a separate disk. Alternatively migrate your emails to MAIL. So long as ENTOURAGE is not open no mails will be downloaded there.

Hope this helps. Cheers.