My time machine is not working and the message I get is that the backup disc is not available.  I am wondering if I need to buy a new airport with 2 TB so that the back up will have somewhere to go???
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If your computer can’t find your time machine drive, first make sure it’s plugged in. You may want to unplug then plug in again. If it’s a hard drive and not a time capsule, you should see it appear on your desktop. Go to system preferences and then time machine. Next choose disk. Your drive should show up even if it’s a time capsule drive unless you’re not on the same network as the time capsule but that’s very doubtful considering your home network and the distance to any other network. If you are using a time capsule drive and you are prompted for a password, try “public” if your normal pw doesn’t work. “public” is the default password for reset or factory default time capsules. Just fyi.

If you are using a stand alone drive, another trick you could try would be to open disk utility (search in spotlight for “disk utility”) and your stand alone backup drive should show in the left hand column. Select it then choose “mount” in the top bar to see if you can get the mac to bring it to life.

Or your current drive could just be dead. It happens all the time.

You need to be backing up!!!