External Hard Drive Resetting Mac

[p.carter]

Hey,

So, a few weeks ago I was using Time Machine to backup my mac. During the process it got stuck -- maybe it didn't, maybe it was just taking longer than usual. Anyway, I stopped it, tried to delete the backup and do it again. As I moved the backup to the trash, it reset my mac. I waited for it to come back on; desktop loaded and then reset itself again. It kept doing this and every time I pugged in the external hard drive.


I've since realised that there's was obviously an error with the backup on Time Machine. What I've tried??

I've tried to repair the hard drive using disk utility when the mac starts up, but I don't have time to load disk utility because then my mac restarts. Also tried doing it from recovery mode (it loads recovery mode and as soon as I plug hard drive back in - restarts!). Worth mentioning, also tried to repair the disk in windows, no luck either.

Any advice about this issue would be really appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Partron22]

Have you told Time Machine not to back up to the damaged drive anymore?
System Prefs->Time Machine. Deselect the disk and/or turn Time Machine off.
Time Machine may be checking out the damaged disk early in the boot process, and causing your trouble.

 

[simonsi]

I stopped it, tried to delete the backup and do it again. As I moved the backup to the trash

Absolutely no need to do that in any case. If you want to stop a TM backup just eject the drive TM is backing up to. When you reconnect it TM will pick back up where it left off.

 

[CoastalOR]

It could be a damaged drive or a bad cable.

 

[simonsi]

Have you tried disabling Time Machine before plugging the drive in? Just turn it off in TM preferences.

 

[p.carter]

Hey Partron22 I tried that...no luck with that at all.

simonise - absolutely, it was a pretty stupid thing for me to do, I think it got stuck or something.

CoastalOR - tried a different cable and no luck with that either.

Also, worth mentioning, this hard drive had a partition on it so I could use it at work with Windows. When I tried to access that part of the hard drive it loaded up no problems ( on windows).