Last Updated on April 19, 2024 by Freddy Reyes
The following are some simple instructions to set up a new backup volume from scratch and have Apple Time Machine recognize it:
♦ Find your machine name (machine_name) and run the following command in Terminal (in this example we’re creating a 250GB partition):
hdiutil create -size 250G -fs HFS+J -volname ‘My Backups’ -type SPARSEBUNDLE machine_name.sparsebundle
♦ The output should be something like machine_name.sparsebundle under your user’s home directory.
♦ You will need to find your hardware UUID in the System Profiler.
♦ Create a file (using your text editor) and name it TimeMachine.MachineID.plist and add your machine’s UUID to it.
Here is an example of the file content:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>com.apple.backupd.HostUUID</key>
<string>YOURUUIDHERE</string>
</dict>
</plist>
♦ Save the file and copy it to the machine_name.sparsebundle package.
cp com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist machine_name.sparsebundle/
♦ Copy machine_name.sparsebundle to the root directory of your backup disk.
♦ Start Time Machine disk configuration. Your new disk should appear there and TM should be able to use as a backup up disk.
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