external hard drives.

I have a 500 GB toshiba external hard drive that I want to use with time machine. However when I attempt to use it, a window comes up saying "error created while creating back up directory" Any suggestions on what to do?

Was this drive formatted to be used with a Macintosh?

- Nick

external hard drive

Yes I did.

jeff5696 said:

Yes I did.

Click to expand...

Try reformatting it again. Click here. Or try format it to NTFS then let time machine reformat it for itself (sounds silly but I tried I once and was effective).

-Lanz

hi lanz,
i have the same problem - can you please explain how time machine will reformat it itself? thanks tons

TheMacMania said:

hi lanz,
i have the same problem - can you please explain how time machine will reformat it itself? thanks tons

Click to expand...

Just open time machine preferences. Plug in your hard drive. Click select disk on TM preferences. It is better if the Hard drive is formatted as NTFS so TM will detect it as not compatible for back-up use, then it will ask you if you want to format it so TM can use it as Back-up disk. Allow TM to format it then.

-Lanz

thanks a lot lanz! before i saw your post i pressed the reset button on my time capsule. so i will delete it all and then finally - hopefully - get it working again

Time Capsule = hardware router and backup drive. A physical device sold by Apple.

Time Machine = software for doing incremental backups and file retrieval. Included on Macs and OS X discs.

Time Capsule ≠ Time Machine.