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Level 1

45 points

Time machine backup disk full, won't backup

My backup disk recently filled up. Now I get a message saying:

"Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to "Backup disk." The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."

When I then manually click on "Back up now", it runs fine. But then an hour later the same thing happens.

I thought that with a full backup disk, Time machine is supposed to automatically make space by dumping the oldest backup... Right????

My backup disk is 2TB, it is backing up a 750GB internal disk plus an external disk with about 250GB on it.

Thanks!

Dan

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 20, 2012 10:42 PM

18 replies

Nov 5, 2012 6:13 AM in response to Linc Davis

So, i'm now on my 2nd external HD, where Time Machine won't delete the old files. So every few days i need to go in and trash and empty trash the old backups. Time machine used to be easy, but with the newly instlaled Snow Leopard, it seems to have forgotten how to delete old files. I don't follow what was said on how to fix this, but is there a less buggy version of Time Machine available?

And aftermarket options that work better than the current Time Machine?

Thanks.

Aug 22, 2013 8:26 PM in response to Linc Davis

The entire point of a backup is not to exclude files. I thought Time Machine was smart enough to delete old backups to free up space. There is plenty of room on the backup drive to keep multiple copies of my Linux and Windows vms. Windows is so flaky it is vital to have it backed up.

The only solution that seems to work is to use disk utility to reformat the backup drive and let time machine start over fresh until it fails again.

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Aug 22, 2013 10:32 PM in response to Darrell Reich

Darrell Reich wrote:

The entire point of a backup is not to exclude files. I thought Time Machine was smart enough to delete old backups to free up space. There is plenty of room on the backup drive to keep multiple copies of my Linux and Windows vms. Windows is so flaky it is vital to have it backed up.

The only solution that seems to work is to use disk utility to reformat the backup drive and let time machine start over fresh until it fails again.

The problem is, the VM files are usually huge, but treated as a single file by OSX and Time Machine. So when you make the smallest change inside one, the whole thing must be backed-up again. That takes up lots and lots of disk space very quickly.

One workaround is to simply use a huge backup drive. The hourly incremental backups will be deleted after 24 hours, leaving only one per day, so the total size of your backups won't grow as much after 24 hours.

Probably better is to exclude those files from Time Machine, and back them up separately, either to another drive or a separate partition on the TM drive. You can use a "cloning" app for that, and schedule the backups as you like. See the green box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for some suggestions.

Time machine backup disk full, won't backup