Creating backups of computer data is nothing new. Each year new techniques and software emerge making it easier for non-geeks to implement backup techniques and automate them. Most businesses and many households use a backup strategy that involves backing up to another computer on the network or even online. I’ll call the computer that needs data backed up the “client” and the computer that is storing the data as a backup the “server” or “remote volume.”

Sometimes the automated connection between the client and server fails. In Mac OS X, I’ve found two different causes for this and below are the fixes for each. I’ve seen reports of these issues occuring with Apple’s Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper, Deja Vu and other backup utilties. These issues can also occur with Apple’s Time Capsule.

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