I just migrated my system from an old MacBook Air to a new one by using my Time Machine external flash drive. After a couple of hours of chugging, the backup stopped with the message that the disk wasn't big enough. Is there a way to remove all the previous backups and start fresh. I think that would result in there being enough room.
MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.15
Sorry, I didn't explain my situation clearly. I have only one backup drive (a big Samsung flash drive), which was plenty big enough for my old MacBook Air. I connected it to the new MacBook Air and successfully migrated my data. Then I did some updates and deleted some old, unusable apps, and then I started a new backup to the same drive. Time machine started off as usual but was obviously backing up all of the changes, which includes the new OS and other new apps that came with the new Air. After a few hours, it aborted with the message that the drive was too small. So here is my real question:
Is it possible to have Time Machine overwrite the old set of backups and save only what's on the new system? Or will I need to reformat the backup drive, erasing the data, so Time Machine will treat it like a new drive? If the latter, can I use the Disk Utility to reformat the remote drive?
Thanks.
I'll doublecheck, but I'm pretty sure it's all there and working now. When I'm sure, I'll erase the backup drive and start fresh. Thanks for clearing this up.
Do you have everything you need on your new MBA? If so then just erase the TM drive and start over with a fresh backup.
First Time Machine backup on new computer fails due to lack of space on remote drive
