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I have a new iMac and an old one. The new one has successfully restored from the old one, but the old TM backups do not appear in /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb.
Which means that 90% of TM is eaten up by those backups. Is there a way to completely wipe TM and start over?
iMac 27", macOS 10.14
Disk Utility is not used to erase a network drive like a Time Capsule.
Open AirPort Utility on your Mac (Finder > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility)
Click on the picture of the Time Capsule
Click Edit in the smaller window that appears
Click the Disks tab at the top of the window
Click Erase Disk
Select the Quick Erase option
Click Erase
The process will take a few minutes
When the process is done, start a new backup of your Mac
Disk Utility is not used to erase a network drive like a Time Capsule.
Open AirPort Utility on your Mac (Finder > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility)
Click on the picture of the Time Capsule
Click Edit in the smaller window that appears
Click the Disks tab at the top of the window
Click Erase Disk
Select the Quick Erase option
Click Erase
The process will take a few minutes
When the process is done, start a new backup of your Mac
Disk Utility doesn't list my TM.
Yes. Launch Disk Utility and choose your Time Machine volume, then Erase. After that, go to System Preferences > Time Machine and be sure your TM is chosen as your backup drive. Click on backup now.
It appears your TM disk may be also. If it won't mount you can try this:
Launch/Utilities/Terminal and copy & paste this command at the prompt:
diskutil list
Press return.
If it sees the disk, note the number of the disk (far left column) you want to mount.
Then, copy & paste this command:
mount /dev/(number of disk)
Put in the number no parenthesis.
Press Return.
Also might try
mount force /dev/(number of disk)
Oh, right, mount the disks. Should I do that as me or sudo those commands?
Btw, I'm a unix user, so other command line directions are OK by me.
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TM backups are on an Airport. Airport Extreme? Whatever the wifi + time capsule thing is. :) Sorry, I keep thinking of "Time Machine" as the backup-and-wifi thing, so I should've said earlier.
Outstanding, that worked. FYI to future readers: you'll then get prompted "the name of the disk has changed - use this disk?". Hit accept, and then a new backup should automatically kickoff.
Thanks for the help, Bob!
Nice work! The message is a bit misleading because the name of the disk has not really changed.......(unless you changed it).......but it does alert you that you are selecting the backup disk again to confirm.
The default name of the disk is "Data", but you can change the name if you want using AirPort Utility.
Does it appear in Disk Utility when connected to your old Mac? If it does then perform the erase from there and then connect it to your new Mac.
Sorry, should've said: old Mac is dead.
Are the old Time Machine backups on a USB or similar hard drive that was connected directly to your Mac?......or......are the old Time Machine backups on a Time Capsule or other network drive?
No the commands aren't sudo. But wait for Bob, he may have other directions for you if it is a Time Capsule.
Cool, I'll give that a shot when I get home tonight and will let you know. Thank you!
Time machine: complete wipe and start over?
