There appears to be several threads regarding deleteing Time Machine backups but I can't seem to get the correct answer to delete the entire backup folder (Backups.backupdb). I move the location of my backups files and they are working fine now so I want to delete the folder on the disk it used to backup to. How can I do that? I have everything backedup to the proper disk so I don't need this folder any longer. Thanks.
I have a question that I don't think I've seen answered on this thread or pondini.org. I hope someone can help.
* I'm using an external HD as my Time Machine Backup. It's partitioned with 480 GB reserved for the Mac side, and 20 for the PC side.
* I have a MacBook Pro 2012. OS Maverick (just upgraded).
* I want to do a FULL RESET of my Macbook as I feel it's running sluggishly. I was told by a tech at Apple Service center it's better to ERASE EVERYTHING and start over, since doing a TIME MACHINE restore could copy over errors / viruses, if I have any. I've done a RESET where all the files / apps are kept and that helped a little but still feel like the machine is running slow.
* Anyways, I want to use my external HD to back up certain files from my Mac, that I could then copy back over after I do a FULL RESET.
* I have about 20 GB of memory left (out of 480), so I've been erasing old TIME MACHINE backups.
Here's what I've been doing:
1) Connecting my external HD and entering Time Machine. Then I'll scroll to the 'oldest' back up, control right click - Delete backup.
2) Before deleting back up - my external HD will tell me I have about 50.69 GB of storage left.
3) If I check my external HD and GET INFO about the backup folder before I delete it, it says the back up is about 161.89 GB. Now I know this can't be true because I have several backups and if each one was about 161 GB, then that would exceed the total of 500 GB that I have available on my external HD.
4) If I use Time Machine and I right click on certain files (ie. My Documents) and use GET INFO, it'll tell me that the folder size is approximately 40 GBs.
5) However, here's the kicker - after I use Time Machine (Enter Time Machine -> Right Click -> Delete Backup) to delete a backup and I recheck my HD Storage, the change will only be about 2 GBs, meaning I go from 50.69 GB of storage to 53.11 GBs.
6) The folder for that date is now gone from my external HD. It's gone from Time Machine. But I only got back 2 GBs of storage... The math doesn't seem to work out? If I add up all my backups (18GB), and multiply by about 3GBs, the total is about 54GB. All my other folders / files take up less than 30 GBs of storage. What's using my other 400+ GBs of storage?
(By the way, the delete of one back up took about 25 mins to delete - does that sound right or is that a 'long' time?)
Here are screenshots of the process that might make this post clearer:
If anyone has any insight, I'd appreciate it. Also, if it's the case that some of the back ups are 'bigger' (take up more storage on my external HD), is it possible to know which back up I should delete to get back the most of my storage space?
The way TM works is different from the way you understand it to work. You can't think logically with TM. The first time you do a backup it creates a full backup of your data and everything after is only files that have changed from the last. If you add two documents but delete three videos your current backup will only show the new videos. I suggest you get another HD and start over. Then only grabbing the files you need from the first TM drive when you need them. That way if you do have corrupt data your more likely to know where it came from.
I know this an older thread, but if you are goin to use ONE hard drive for both backups and other content, you should really partition it. you should have a disk dedicated to Time Machine only. To avoid buying more hard drives, I simply created 2 partions on one 1TB drive and dedicate one of this partitions to Time Machine.
That's not very useful when apple are so arrogant about how everything works so well together but finder and time machine cannot work properly together?
Delete Time Machine Backups
