Lost Time Machine

[lguy203]

I recently crashed my iMac and have restoring it through Carbonite and Time Machine. Recently I recovered a file from Time Machine and since then the TM icon is missing, thus I have no TM. I've used Finder Find and Spotlight and have manually gone through everything I can think of including System Preferences. I rebooted many times with the external HD plugged in and unplugged to see the the iMac will find it. Here's the curious thing. When I run Disk Utility the TM Hard Drive will either flash or show up in the list so I know it's on here somewhere. I pray someone can help me. When I go to TM in System Preferences it want me to pick a drive but all that shows there is my main HD.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

When I run Disk Utility the TM Hard Drive will either flash or show up in the list so I know it's on here somewhere.

As the TM disk shows up in disk utility on the left possibly try this first select the TM drive, now select the First Aid tab, and then click Repair Disk.

 

[lguy203]

Thank you. I tried running a repair and it said "Invalid Leaf Record Count and Invalid Sibling Link" Then I got that it can't be repaired and to back up files, reformat and restore. I went ahead and erased the disk but I don't know what to do next. How to reformat and it will restore itself over time because it's an external HD I'm using as Time Machine.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,
Disk Utility repair is good, but but can not deal with repair leaf nodes. Depending on the severity, some of your files may be corrupt and it's very possible that important files on the drive are completely unrecoverable. And Invalid Sibling Link really does suggest that the file system is bad.

I went ahead and erased the disk

I would have suggest Disk Warrior to do the needed repairs. You need to format the disk to Mac OS extended (journaled)

 

[lguy203]

Unfortunately, I do not have Disk Warrior and my Disk Utility does not have a reformat or at least not that I can find. Can someone instruct me as to how to reformat my external drive?

 

[oldscribe]

how to reformat my external drive?

Launch Disk Utility and select your External HD, now click on the Erase tab, then from the drop down menu select Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The Partition tab is right next door if you want more than one volumn.

 

[lguy203]

Now I get a pop up that says the disk is not readable after i select initialize. Do you think I need to discard the HD and buy a new one??

 

[oldscribe]

disk is not readable after i select initialize. Do you think I need to discard the HD and buy a new one??

If you tried my last post and got that message, then yes it defiantly sounds like the drive has died. You should see something like my screen shot re drive information.

 

[lguy203]

Thank you, oldscribe, You have more help than you know

 

[oldscribe]

You are welcome, external drives are not expensive so easy to replace. And if you buy from an Apple store they are already to go IE formatted to Mac OS extended journaled. I just bought a small 500GB G-Drive.