How To Reformat Backup Disk For Time Machine Macos Sierra

'Mac OS X can’t repair the disk “Time Machine. You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can’t save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can.' Also 'Disc erase failed. Disk Erase failed with the error: Couldn’t unmount disk.' Thanks for your patience.
Jun 19, 2018 Either way you should eventually boot into Recovery Mode. On the utilities screen, select the “Restore From Time Machine Backup” option. On the Restore From Time Machine page, hit the “Continue” button. Step Two: Choose Hard Drive. Next, you’ll be asked which Time Machine drive you’d like to recover from.

Time Machine system requirements

Before using Time Machine, you need an external storage solution, sold separately:

External hard drive connected to a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt port on your Mac
Time Capsule or macOS Server on your network
External hard drive connected to the USB port of an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac) on your network
If your backup drive isn't connected using one of these methods, Time Machine might not work. Check with the device manufacturer for compatibility and connection information.

Jul 02, 2020 If you need to erase your disk before installing High Sierra or later for the first time on that disk, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). During installation, the macOS installer decides whether to automatically convert to APFS—without erasing your files. Are you preparing a Time Machine backup disk or bootable installer? Jun 29, 2017 This video will show you how to format your internal or external HDD, SSD, or flash drive to APFS (Apple File System) in macOS High Sierra 10.13 using Disk U. Dec 10, 2017 Open System Preferences - Time Machine. Select the disk and click “Use Disk”. Your Hub Mac will now use the disk as a Time Machine backup volume. Step 3: Set the drive as a shared Time Machine drive on the Hub Mac. This step uses the new feature on macOS High Sierra. Create a folder called “Shared Time Machine” on the drive.

If your setup meets these requirements, but you still can't use Time Machine, check these things:

Check your Mac

Make sure that your Mac software is up to date.
Restart your Mac and see if the issue continues.

Check your AirPort base station

If you're using an AirPort Time Capsule or a drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station, make sure that your AirPort firmware is up to date.
Restart your base station and see if the issue continues. To restart, unplug the base station from AC power for 5 seconds, then plug it back in.

Check your network connection

If you back up to a server, AirPort Time Capsule, or drive connected to your AirPort Extreme Base Station, make sure that your Mac is connected to the same network as your backup drive. You can select your wireless network from the Wi-Fi status menu.

Check your backup

If you back up to a server, AirPort Time Capsule, or drive connected to your AirPort Extreme Base Station, make sure that your current Time Machine backup doesn't have any issues that could prevent further backups: How much space required for macos high sierra.

While holding down the Option key on your keyboard, click the Time Machine menu in the menu bar, then choose Verify Backups.
If Time Machine finds an issue with your backup, it displays a message with details. Follow the onscreen instructions.

Check your drives

If you're using a drive connected to a port on your Mac or AirPort Extreme Base Station, make sure that the drive is turned on.
If you're using a USB hub or a similar device, try connecting the drive directly to your Mac or base station.
If you're backing up to an external third-party drive, check with the drive manufacturer to make sure the drive's firmware is up to date.
If you're backing up to an external drive, check the formatting of the drive. Time Machine requires that an external drive be formatted like a Mac startup disk: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Table (GPT). If you select a differently formatted drive for use with Time Machine, your Mac automatically prompts you to erase it for Time Machine.
Reformatting a disk erases all data stored on the disk, so you might want to move important files to another disk first.

If your drive is already formatted correctly, turn off Time Machine, then check it for problems:

To check the drive of an AirPort Time Capsule, follow the steps to verify an AirPort Time Capsule drive.
To check an external drive connected to your Mac, open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. Then use the First Aid feature in Disk Utility to verify your disk. Do this for your startup disk as well.

You can turn Time Machine back on after your drives are verified or repaired successfully.

Learn more

To use Time Machine to make a backup of your Mac, you need any of these types of storage devices:

External drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac) or AirPort Time Capsule

After setting up the storage device, you can use Time Machine to make a backup of your Mac. And after making your backup, you can use Time Machine to restore files from your backup.

How To Reformat Backup Disk For Time Machine

External drive connected to your Mac

How To Reformat Backup Disk For Time Machine Macos Sierra Mac

Time Machine can back up to an external drive connected to a USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire port on your Mac.

External drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac) or AirPort Time Capsule

Time Machine can back up to an external USB drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac model) or AirPort Time Capsule.

How to reformat backup disk for time machine macos sierra 10

Make sure that the USB drive is formatted for Time Machine.
Connect the drive to a USB port on your AirPort base station, then turn it on.
Open AirPort Utility, then select your base station and click Edit to view its settings.
Click the Disks tab in the settings window.
Select your backup disk from the list of partitions, then select ”Enable file sharing”:
If more than one user on your network will back up to this disk with Time Machine, you can use the Secure Shared Disks pop-up menu to make sure that they can view only their own backups, not yours. Choose ”With accounts” from the menu, then click the Add (+) button to add users.
Click Update to restart your base station and apply the settings.

AirPort Time Capsule

Time Machine can back up to the built-in hard disk of an AirPort Time Capsule on your network.

Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination

To use another Mac on your network as a Time Machine backup destination, complete these steps on the other Mac:

Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Sharing.
From the list of services on the left, select File Sharing.
From the list of Shared Folders on the right, Control-click the folder that you want to use for Time Machine backups.
From the shortcut menu that opens, choose Advanced Options.
From the Advanced Options dialog, select ”Share as a Time Machine backup destination.”

When setting up Time Machine on your other Mac computers, you should now be able to select the shared folder as a backup disk.

Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB

Many third-party NAS devices support Time Machine over SMB. For details, check the documentation for your NAS device.

How to format a disk for Time Machine

Time Machine supports all Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formats and Xsan formats. If the disk isn't using the correct format, Time Machine automatically prompts you to erase it when you connect it to your Mac:

If you need to erase the disk manually, use the Disk Utility app to erase using the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

Time Machine can't back up to an iOS device or disk formatted for Windows. And if your disk uses the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition scheme, some of its partitions might not be available for use with Time Machine.