Answers...

to commonly asked questions.

Lost Financial data...did she backup?

this is the error I rec'd:

Time Machine could not complete the backup.
FIles cannot be copied onto the backup disk because it appears to be Read Only.
You may need to repair or reformat the disk using Disk Utility.  If the disk can't be repaired, you must use a different dicks for backups.  


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I can't quite recall where the hard drive was used first.  This can occur if the drive has been connected to a windows machine and permissions were changed.  We should be able to solve the issue.  Hopefully the drive is healthy and this is only a software issue.  If you can afford to loose the data on the drive then the best and first option would be to erase the drive using disk utility then reformat it as a Mac OS extended Journaled drive.  Time Machine will need this format to function correctly.  Reformatting the drive will also clean the permissions of the drive and start you back at the beginning.  

If erasing the drive is not an option then there are alternatives.  First, get info on the drive by control + click or right clicking the hard drive icon.  Now, you may be able to select to ignore ownership and permissions on the drive.  It's a little geeky.  I apologize for not recalling exactly your skill level as this is not the easiest thing to ask someone to do.  Also, be sure that the drive is not locked by assuring the "lock" check box is unchecked.  However, if the drive is already formatted for time machine, then these options should not be available anyway and we have to go to the next step.  

The next thing to try would be to go into the backups.backupdb folder on the hard drive and remove the "inprogress" backup file.  That may give you a fresh start at time machine trying to backup.  

Oh but wait, it's all coming back to me now...you are using the Western Digital MyBook.  I recall you have two of them if I'm not mistaken.  Case closed.  Don't trust that drive.  Take the warning's advice and try another drive.  

Now there is always the possibility that some data on the computer is corrupt and time machine is having a difficult time backing up the data but those occurrences are usually few and far between.  Replace the MyBook drive.  
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