"Backup is too large for backup volume" error

Question

"Backup is too large for backup volume" error

When I try to backup my StartUp Drive (931.2 GB capacity, 348.2 GB Available, 583.0 GB Used) to my Backup Drive (931.2 Available) which is mounted in the adjacent bay I have begun to get an Error Message that says "This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 1379.1 GB but only 931.0 GB are available." Clearly something is amiss. It was backing up to this hard drive just fine.
Here is the log from the Backup Buddy Widget

Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/2 Backup/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: 4 Movies
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: 1 Start Up
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: 3 Media
Backup content size: 466.2 GB excluded items size: 0 bytes for volume 4 Movies
Backup content size: 583.0 GB excluded items size: 1.9 MB for volume 1 Start Up
Backup content size: 99.9 GB excluded items size: 0 bytes for volume 3 Media
Starting pre-backup thinning: 1.35 TB requested (including padding), 930.96 GB available
No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
Backup Failed: unable to free 1.35 TB needed space
Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.

Message was edited by: James Pittman1

MacPro Quad Core Intel Xeon, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jun 11, 2009 7:54 PM

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Answer 1

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 11, 2009 8:44 PM in response to James Pittman1

James Pittman1 wrote:
When I try to backup my StartUp Drive (931.2 GB capacity, 348.2 GB Available, 583.0 GB Used) to my Backup Drive (931.2 Available) which is mounted in the adjacent bay I have begun to get an Error Message that says "This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 1379.1 GB but only 931.0 GB are available." Clearly something is amiss. It was backing up to this hard drive just fine.

Backup content size: 466.2 GB excluded items size: 0 bytes for volume 4 Movies
Backup content size: 583.0 GB excluded items size: 1.9 MB for volume 1 Start Up
Backup content size: 99.9 GB excluded items size: 0 bytes for volume 3 Media
Starting pre-backup thinning: 1.35 TB requested (including padding), 930.96 GB available
No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.

TM is obviously trying to do a full backup. That's why there isn't room on your TM drive.

This can happen for a number of reasons. The most common are: certain hardware repairs; doing a full restore; going several days and/or an extremely large amount of changes.

What has happened on your Mac since the last successful backup?

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Answer 2

Jun 12, 2009 6:49 AM in response to Pondini

I installed a new hard drive ( replaced a 250 GB with a 1 T drive), I deleted a sparse image from another drive (neither of these drives were included with the backup from TM) and I renamed the TM drive from "Backup" to "2 Backup" after I erased it. I then attempted the full back up from the "Startup" drive to the newly erased "2 Backup" drive and got the error message. All drives are internal.

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Answer 3

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 12, 2009 8:02 AM in response to James Pittman1

James Pittman1 wrote:
I installed a new hard drive ( replaced a 250 GB with a 1 T drive), I deleted a sparse image from another drive (neither of these drives were included with the backup from TM) and I renamed the TM drive from "Backup" to "2 Backup" after I erased it. I then attempted the full back up from the "Startup" drive to the newly erased "2 Backup" drive and got the error message. All drives are internal.

According to the messages you posted earlier, you're trying to back-up three drives:

Backup content size: 466.2 GB excluded items size: 0 bytes for volume 4 Movies
Backup content size: 583.0 GB excluded items size: 1.9 MB for volume 1 Start Up
Backup content size: 99.9 GB excluded items size: 0 bytes for volume 3 Media

That's a total of 1149.1 GB. TM then adds about 20% for workspace it will need (the "padding" in the next message):

Starting pre-backup thinning: 1.35 TB requested (including padding), 930.96 GB available

You need a bigger TM drive, or to back-up one or more of the other drives some other way, and exclude them from TM.

A 1 TB drive is just barely large enough to back-up your +Start Up+ drive, as TM really should have 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up.

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