Time Machine

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Level 1

6 points

Time Machine

Hello, I have just bought and reformatted for Mac a Seagate 2Tb Basic external hard disk, and have selected it to be used for TimeMachine back-ups. The message I receive continually is that "Time Machine couldn't back up to 'Seagate Basic.'" "Time Machine could not create a local snapshot to back up from because there was insufficient free space on the source volume(s). " Can someone please let me know in simple terms what this means and how I might overcome this problem? I am dangerously low on disk space and that is why I have moved to back up with Time Machine. At this moment with several programs running I have less than 1 GB of space left. Is that what is preventing Time Machine back-ups? Grateful for any help.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Oct 10, 2020 6:36 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

113,428 points

Oct 11, 2020 7:22 AM in response to leagentilecn

The Startup Drive is the drive that contains the OS that you are booting from.

You find files to remove in your Home folder (Desktop, Documents, Movies, Pictures, Downloads, or wherever you store your files).

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

113,428 points

Oct 10, 2020 8:00 PM in response to leagentilecn

but now how do I move those files from the start-up drive and back them up?

You drag them to an external drive then delete them from your Mac.

Then, when you back up your Mac, back up the external drive, too.

Time Machine will back up connected external drives along with the startup drive. You may need to make sure it isn’t in the excluded list in Time Machine System Prefs.

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Answer 3

leagentilecn Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 11, 2020 5:45 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thanx very much, Barney, for your helpful answers. They lead to more questions, though. I'm sorry about that. Which files should I remove from the start-up disc and where do I find them? I have found the "startup disc" in system preferences, but it is the whole Machintosh HD macOS, 10.14.6. When I unlock to make changes I still cannot access it to drag it anywhere. There's an option to re-start the computer in target disk mode. If the start-up files are taken off and by chance the computer shuts down for whatever reason, will I be able to re-start it? This sounds more complicated and risky than a simple procedure done by a careful amateur. Shall I try to resolve this myself, call Apple support or go to the Apple Store? Thanx again.

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