NetGear ReadyNAS — Troubleshooting TimeMachine

“Backup Disk Is Not Available”

If the Mac can configure a ReadyNAS as a TimeMachine backup destination, but reports “Backup Disk Is Not Available” when it attempts to create a backup:

1. Open the ReadyNAS FrontView console via https://<IP>/admin/.

2. Browse to Services → Standard File Protocols.

3. Under AFP, ensure Advertise AFP service over Bonjour is enabled.

4. Click Apply.

If that doesn't help, it may be necessary to run a volume scan:

1. Open the FrontView console via https://<IP>/admin/.

2. Browse to Backup → Time Machine.

3. Untick Enable Time Machine Support.

4. Click Apply.

5. Browse to System → Shutdown.

6. Choose Shutdown And Reboot Device, tick Perform volume scan on next boot and click Apply.

7. When the unit has finished rebooting, re-enable Time Machine support, and ensure AFP/Bonjour is enabled as above.

Manually Removing TimeMachine Backup

If a TimeMachine backup is damaged, or is no longer needed, there is no simple method to remove the files and recover the space.

To access the TimeMachine backup files from a Windows system:

1. Open a command prompt.

2. Type:

   net use * \\<ReadyNAS Name>\c\.timemachine /user:admin <admin password> /p:n

   In this case the Admin password is the password used to access the ReadyNAS via the web interface. It is also possible to use the unit's IP address instead of the NetBIOS name.

You can now browse to the drive mapped (most likely Z:) and delete the files associated with the machine's backup — ie. a folder called something like John's Macbook Air.sparesbundle. (There will be a large number of files and deleting them will take some time.)