Hi.
I have erased my backup drive USB SATA 500 GB three times now to run Time Machine as I keep getting the error "insufficient space." I have excluded my 2T SSD in options and the contents on my internal hard drive are only 155 GB. Is it because it's a USB SATA and my M! Mac Mini won't boot on a USB 1 drive? It used to to back up.
Thanks!
Mac mini (M1, 2020)
What exactly is the message? If it says it can't make a snapshot, it has to do with the source drive, not the backup drive.
Are you backing up an VMs or Outlook profile database?
Both will require a full backup of the entire object even if there is only a minute change inside the block of data.
Thanks! I think I got it now. I think I mistakenly had my external 2T SSD as included. I turned it off, but I didn't reassign the backup disk correctly. I have it on manual backup now. I'll write back if I still have trouble. It's all a little different with Ventura!
I spoke too soon. The problem did not go away. The message is:
"Time Machine was only able to complete 31% of the backup because there is
insufficient space on the backup disk."
Even though it's set to manual in System Settings-->Time Machine-->Options it stiill made an initial backup (snapshot) and then ten more until it was full.
Add on: Examining the disk contents in Finder, there is nothing there. In the top left corner is the message: No completed backup. But in Disk Utility it shows 160.8 GB in use on the APFS volume.
Empty USB External Disk gets "insufficient space" Error when Attempting to run Time Machine
