Time machine messages

DaveS

Well-Known Member
I use a large thumb drive (256 Gb) for my time machine backup and I'm constantly getting messages that tell me to eject it before disconnecting, etc. I haven't disconnected or turned anything off. Three more have arrived while typing this post--so far. There are 6 on the screen now. The icon is still on the desktop. Can anything be done about this?
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
At a guess, it was at one point disconnected without first being ejected (just pulled out of the machine), and now the directory is corrupted.

I’d suggest erasing the thumb drive, reformatting, and then setting it again as a Time Machine drive. You will lose your old backups if you do this, however.
 

DaveS

Well-Known Member
When I tried to erase, it baulked, so I ran Disk First Aid and that seems to have solved the issue.
Thanks.
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
I'm glad Disk First Aid was able to resolve the issue, but now I wonder how old is that external drive -- is there a chance it is starting to fail?

Not vitally important even if it is, since it is a backup drive ... but that sort of error can suggest that either it's been ejected incorrectly at some point, or that its getting on in age.

If you see that sort of error (and fix) come up again, might be time to replace the drive -- or check to make sure it is being ejected before being unplugged (normal sleep/shutdowns should not cause that issue).
 

DaveS

Well-Known Member
It's not very old. I think this one is about 6 months old. It's a 256 Gb DataTraveller thumb drive. In addition, the last time I had it run, It got hung up and I had to opt out. It's also been very slow to eject. I always wait until TM is finished before attempting to eject, but I"m still told something is using it--don't remember the wording exactly. Generally, I need to force eject. I think I"m going to just use CCC. It's a lot easier to control, and since I'm moving the laptop around a lot, I don't leave a TM drive plugged in all the time.
 

DaveS

Well-Known Member
It looks like you were right about the drive. It now will not mount at all. I got two of those at the same time and the other I've used for a non-bootable CCC backup. But perhaps another would be good insurance.
 
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