hotwheels 22

Q: deleting "Backups" and stopping snapshots

about mac in mavericks is showing me that i have a 75 GB "Backup" on my computer which has basically caused me to have to move all my data off the laptop to my desktop machine.

 

i would like to get rid of this file and was told this would happen when i connect it physically to the Time Machine backup device (i have a time capsule). i was not able to get this to work.

 

1. does anyone know how to get rid of this file?

 

2. does anyone know if the terminal command listed at the bottom of this technical article is safe to use to stop these backups from being created?

 

i have a mid-2009 MBP running mavericks and i backup to a Time Capsule as well as to two external drives.

 

TIA

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Feb 15, 2014 1:56 PM

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Q: deleting "Backups" and stopping snapshots

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  • by Tony T1,Solvedanswer

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Feb 15, 2014 2:06 PM in response to hotwheels 22
    Level 6 (9,249 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 15, 2014 2:06 PM in response to hotwheels 22

    In Terminal:

         sudo tmutil disablelocal

     

    Turn off local Time Machine snapshots and trigger automatic cleanup of accumulated local snapshot data. Requires root privileges.

     

    (use sudo tmutil enablelocal to turn back on)

  • by hotwheels 22,

    hotwheels 22 hotwheels 22 Feb 15, 2014 2:23 PM in response to Tony T1
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 15, 2014 2:23 PM in response to Tony T1

    yowza.

     

    i just threw caution to the wind and tried it before reading this. now i am checking the about mac and viola zero KB in backups.

     

    thanks a ton tony.

     

    sure seems like a hairy bunch of business to have a feature that takes up more than 1/4 of my HD (and require me to move my data off my computer) and then to root around for info on it - only to have to execute a terminal command to get it to stop.

     

    then to somehow get lucky and have it delete the file.

     

    i mean, i feel like i am griping here but youch that was a hairy bunch of business...

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Feb 15, 2014 2:34 PM in response to hotwheels 22
    Level 6 (9,249 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 15, 2014 2:34 PM in response to hotwheels 22

    I used disablelocal as soon as I learned about it (I have only a 120G HD on my MacBook Air).  I backup  hourly to TM, so I have no need for it, but it is a usefull feature if I'm away from my TM drive for awhile (and then I just enablelocal)

     

    For more info, in Terminal: man tmutil

  • by hotwheels 22,

    hotwheels 22 hotwheels 22 Feb 15, 2014 2:41 PM in response to Tony T1
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 15, 2014 2:41 PM in response to Tony T1

    hi tony.

     

    i know i have a tech article here somewhere that i am going to read on snapshots but what is the function here? if i travel i can get into terminal and turn this feature on - assuming i have a lot of hard drive space or if i won't be gone for an extremely long time - and it will, well i guess it basically will store a Time Machine set of backups on my hard drive?

     

    i mean, the purpose is so that i can somehow access these backups when i plug back into my Time Capsule again or if i wanted to i could access these while traveling away from my Time Capsule?

     

    i mean, i travel with a HD backup of my computer and keep it in a separate bag and presumably this gives me incremental backups whereas using my HD to backup to only happens when i decide to do it manually...?

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Feb 15, 2014 2:56 PM in response to hotwheels 22
    Level 6 (9,249 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 15, 2014 2:56 PM in response to hotwheels 22

    Yes, that's how it works, if enabled, it stores a backup on your HD hourly (in Time Machine, you can see which is local, by the color.  See: http://pondini.org/TM/30.html)  (The original thinking by Apple was that when hooked back up to TM that the local snapshots would be sent to the TM drive (synchronized), but it was not implemented in the final release, so we have 2 backup, local snapshot and TM drive).  It's always best to use a second drive for backups, so the recommenced way would be to carry a usb drive with you and use that for a TM backup, but if that's not practical, then a least with local snapshots enabled when traveling, there is at least the ability to restore a file if accidentally erased.  And you can access the local snapshots even if you do not have your TM drive plugged in