Gil Pruitt 
, Jan 27, 2012; 04:47 p.m.
I have a 2011 27" iMac with an I5 processor running Snow Leopard. Last year I hooked up a Western Digital 1T external drive (for Mac) and turned on Time Machine Backup. It worked well for months but has recently started giving me the message ' time Machine could not complete the backup. Unable to get status of backup disk.' I have turned off Time Machine, unplugged and replugged the power to the WD drive, switched the USB port where the disk is plugged, unplugged and replugged the jack into the disk and turned Time Machine back on. What do you Mac guys think, bad external drive? bad connections? or bad software? This is my first Mac. I have a lot of pictures on it that I'd hate to lose. Gil.
Walt Flanagan , Jan 27, 2012; 05:12 p.m.
Can you browse the backup disk using the Finder file manager?
Gil Pruitt , Jan 27, 2012; 05:31 p.m.
Yes, in broad terms it appears most everything is there on the backup using the finder utility. Coming from the PC world I still have my photos, word docs etc organized in separate folders. I resist being organized by some program so I have so far resisted iPhoto, Aperture, Lightroom or even PS Elements 9 as organizers. Should i replace my backup WD drive?
Brian Hall , Jan 27, 2012; 05:41 p.m.
I had this same thing happen (though a different drive and computer) and a new USB cable fixed it.. strange but might be worth a try,
Gil Pruitt , Jan 27, 2012; 08:47 p.m.
I'll have to try to get another USB cable although I can see the files on the external drive. If that doesn't work then it leaves the drive and the Time Machine software.
Scott Ferris 
, Jan 27, 2012; 09:01 p.m.
Lightroom will not touch your image files, or move them ( unless you specifically ask it to), it will reference them only.
Aperture gives you the option of either referencing your files OR importing them into a custom folder structure.
iPhoto can only import into custom folders.
Should you ever want to "find" your photos inside a program created folder structure just right click ( two finger click) on
the App, select 'open package contents' and you will see the proprietary folder structure that has been created, both
iPhoto and Aperture import by date, two number year, then, two number month, then two number date. So this folder
would contain the original imports that were taken on Christmas Day 2011. images/originals/11/12/25
For casual users this kind of import works fine. For those that don't want it, Aperture gives you the opt out and Lightroom
jwill just look at them wherever you put them.
Scott Ferris , Jan 27, 2012; 09:06 p.m.
Why would you have images on it you would hate to lose?
Time Machine is not a thing to use as additional storage, any file you care about should be on your main computer and as
a minimum on your Time Machine as well.
Andrew Gilchrist 
, Jan 27, 2012; 10:00 p.m.
"iPhoto can only import into custom folders."
I believe you can leave files in place by un-checking iPhoto => Preferences => Advanced => Copy items to the iPhoto Library.
I think Gil meant that he'd hate to lose the pictures on the Mac, that's why he wants to get the backup working correctly.
There are a lot of hits when googling "Unable to get status of backup disk". Looks like one solution might be to re-select the backup disk via "Time Machine Preferences -> Change disk". Some problems can also be caused by permissions problems on the TM volume.
John Markanich , Jan 28, 2012; 01:44 p.m.
Just a thought, but make sure your 'computer sleep' >Energy Saver>System Preferences isn't set to just a few minutes. That may be why you're getting locked out. Mine is set at 15 minutes.
Xavier Farre , Jan 29, 2012; 01:56 a.m.
Something similar happened to me too.try to Go to the time machine settings and assign again your wd to time machine.
