Backuping .Sparsebundle on another HDD with minimal Disk space

Hi, and welcome to the forums.

Yes, Time Machine backups are larger than the amount of data currently on your system; since TM keeps copies of things you've changed or deleted.

I'm not sure why you want to keep the old backups; you can continue backing-up to the same set of backups, but note that the first one will be a full backup of everything you reinstalled. Time Machine may have to delete a lot of old backups to make room, of course, and both that and the new backup will take a long time (so connect via Ethernet if at all possible -- it will still take a long time, but WIFI will be 2-3 times slower).

But if you want to keep, say, the most recent version of your entire system, you can restore it to an alternate location. To restore the whole system, see #14 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). Just select the alternate location in step (g).

But you probably don't need the old version of OSX. To restore just your home folder to an alternate location, see #15 and #16 in the FAQ.

For either of those, also connect via Ethernet.

Now I'm confused as to exactly what you did, and what the problem is.

Your first post seems to say that you installed a new internal HD into your Mac, installed OSX and all your apps on it.

But the second one says you moved your "HDD" to a different Mac. I assume that means you moved the internal HD from one Mac to another? And erased it, then installed OSX and your apps?

If so, the internal HD in the new Mac is not recognized as being the HD of the old one. They're treated as two completely different Macs.

If the problem is that you can't restore the backups of the old Mac to new one, that's probably because the user account you set up on the new one isn't recognized as being the same user on your backups. One user, even an Admin user, doesn't have access to a different user's data.

To set up a new Mac from an old one, or it's backups, see: #19 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). That will transfer the user accounts, and apps, intact.

Yes, you can delete individual backups, per #12 in the FAQ. That may take a long time, so connect via Ethernet cable if possible -- it will still take a long time, but WIFI will be 2-3 times longer.

But your best bet is probably to start over, and do the setup of your new Mac via +Setup Assistant+ or +Migration Assistant,+ per #19 of the FAQ, so the accounts on the new one will be recognized as the same as on the old one.

oseres wrote:
ok let me explain exactly :

MacBook Pro : HDD1 (Hitachi 200 Go)-> HDD2 (Seatgate momentus XT 500Go ;-))

Does that mean you took HD1 out of the Pro and installed HD2?

Mac Mini : HDD3 (WD 120Go)->HDD1 (to be formatted)

And took HD3 out of the Mini and installed HD1?

Time Capsule : HDD4 (Hitachi 500Go) containing HDD1 backups= almost full

Purposes :
* keep a copy of HDD1 backups (always useful)

They're not exactly backups of HD1; they're backups of the Pro, containing HD1.

If you want to keep all the backups, you'll have to copy all of them somewhere else. If you want to keep the last backup, you can either restore some or all of it elsewhere, or delete most or all of the older backups, per #12 in the FAQ.

* get some free space on HDD4,

Deleting many of the backups will do that.

* be able to backup HDD2 on the same HDD4 disk (the TC one)

Again, don't look at it that way: that's backing-up the Pro, containing a different HD.

Don't know how to downsize HDD1 backups

It sounds like you need to delete many of the older backups of the Pro.

Since it has a different HD, the first backup of the Pro will be a full one. So it will have all the same data as the last backup of it with HD1. You cannot prevent that.

What's happening with HD3? And where are you going to back up the Mini?

oseres wrote:
Thanks
"Does that mean you took HD1 out of the Pro and installed HD2?"
yes BUT i installed a brain new MacOS X on this HD2

Doesn't matter -- it's a different disk.

Have you put your data on it, or is that what you're trying to do? If so, your best bet is to do a full system restore from the backups, per #14 in the FAQ.

I've tried to see my backups for a different Mac , per FAQ #17 (to delete old backups) but i cannot access the backup disk any more. Normal ?

What does that mean? You can't see the sparse bundle in the Finder (per the *red paragraph* in #17? Or the backups don't appear in this window?:
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Or you can see the backups, but can't view or restore from them?